HERE BE? DRAGONS? A MICROETHNOGRAPHY OF SINGLEPLAYER CHARACTER CREATION IN THE DRAGON AGE GAMES

Abstract

In many video games, character creation is foundational to player experience; by configuring their character’s appearance, abilities, and background, the player sets the conditions through which their subsequent gameplay will take place. Despite this significance, there is only a small body of multiplayer-based research that involves direct observation of the character creation process. Through a microethnographic study of eight participants’ character creation and gameplay experiences in the Dragon Age series (BioWare, 2009–2024), I investigate how character creation unfolds in the underexplored context of singleplayer gameplay. Specifically, I ask how players and character creation interfaces (CCIs) interact to produce player characters (PCs)? And how do these custom PCs affect the ways players engage with and respond to singleplayer gameplay? Thematic analysis of the data revealed the significance of perception and social-material contexts in the character creation process as well as tendencies to use custom PCs as instruments of digital embodiment or sociodramatic expression.