The mechanic first appears in BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins, and has undergone an evolution from that version to what we see in the most recent Dragon Age: Inquisition – a version that I not only think is much better mechanically, but is much more relevant to the overall purpose (at least, in my interpretation) of the friendship-rivalry-romance mechanics in the DA series as a whole.

It’s under copyright, so I’m not going to provide you with a link, but I’ll explain the basic premise here. I’ve written elsewhere – and at great length – about the Friend-Rival mechanic in Dragon Age II (specifically, in a chapter entitled “Friends & Rivals: Loyalty, Ethics, and Leadership in Dragon Age II,” in Identity and Leadership in Virtual Communities: Establishing Credibility and Influence edited by Joe Essid & Dona Hickey for IGI Global in 2014).

I recently completed a re-play-through of all the Dragon Age games and their downloadable content (DLC), and it has me thinking in particular about the way in which BioWare has adapted one of their most well-known (and loved/hated) mechanics: the friendship-rivalry mechanic and its intersection with “romance” in the games.

Dragon age 2 romance aveline