A few days ago, I came across a recording on my phone dating back to July 14, 2016. Titled Hanging out in The Hanged Man in homage of Dragon Age 2's signature watering hole, I listened back to what was then a pilot episode for a podcast I wanted to do all about Dragon Age. As cringey as it was to hear myself talking passionately about the series – beginning with a recount of the very day I played Dragon Age Origins for the first time some years earlier – finding it the same week of Dragon Age The Veilguard's release felt somehow fated. My own reflections in 2016 still ring true to this day, and the mock podcast (that never did become a reality) inspired me to really take stock of how much BioWare's RPG series has meant to me over the years, and why the arrival of The Veilguard feels so significant.
I may not be the same person I was back then, but one thing remains the same: Dragon Age means as much now as it did then. For me, there's no other series quite like it. Since the day I first stepped into Thedas on my Xbox 360 in early 2010, it's been a constant presence in my life. It not only opened me up to the world of RPGs, it also helped me get through some of the toughest times, allowed me to better understand myself on a deeply personal level, and even partially inspired the direction of my career. It might sound dramatic to say it's shaped who I am, but there's a lot of truth to that.
