My Favorite Games and Games I’m Playing Right Now
Grand Budapest Hotel
GBH is one of my favorite all time movies. It is just a unique, colorful, exciting and upbeat story. Too often films get lost in a sea of cold grey and blue steel, GBH is an explosion of color. The characters are all fully developed and even though the plot of the film develops incredibly fast is doesnt feel like youre getting whiplast or moving at warp speed.
Lord of the Rings Series
I couldn’t pick a favorite single entrance into the franchise so I had to pick them all (Extended Cuts of course). LotR was a massive influence on me and my love of the high fantasy world. Tolkien’s work has set the cultural stage for everything from Magic the Gathering to Dungeons and Dragons.
As a designer we borrow heavily from Tolkien’s work without even thinking about it. Designers rely on users pre-programmed knowledge about subjects, Tolkien’s work changed the mainstream depiction of elves from Santa’s workers to agile forest folk. You can learn a lot about worldbuilding and deep character arcs by studying his characters.
Rogue One
The introduction of Rogue One in the Starwars Cinematic universe is one of the best pieces of world building I have ever seen. Starwars already had a robust and fully fleshed out world and cannon, it did not need this film however the cinematic universe is much greater with it. Rogue One follows the plot to steam the plans to the DeathStar, something could easily be glossed over as a a plot device. What Rogue One does is throw a fresh layer of paint on the classic Starwars movies. The weight of the rebels mission and sacrifice is truly vitalized and the ending scene seamless lies this work of art into the original trilogy. It really explodes the level of urgency in StarWars : A New Hope.
Avatar the Last Airbender :
Legend of Korra Series
Avatar Korra was a ambitious and excellent expansion of an already very good story, Avatar the Last Airbender. The worldbuilding in Korra is fantastic, such incredibly thought was put into the industrialization of a world with elemental magic. One thing that always bothers me in worlds with magic is the total lack of industrialization (if you have access to a bottomless supply of energy/fire WHY NOT USE IT?!).
Korra herself is excellently written too, she has a difficult and conflicted story arc. I appreciate the amount of focus they play on the incredible stress and responsibility the title of Avatar places on literal children and how it effects them emotionally. Korra goes through some incredible struggles with a wide array of topics such as ableism and severe PTSD. These aren’t subjects usually covered in children’s shows and I can really appreciate the effort that went into properly portraying them.
Mandalorian
Mandalorian, was my ideal setting for a space sci-fi movie. I love a futuristic setting with some for of grit involved. The hyper clean aesthetic of most sci-fi movies removes a lot of the personality from the universe. The episodic nature of Mandalorian also made it very easy to consume and look forward to the next adventure. Sadly all good stories SHOULD come to an end, its better to end on your own note than being told to end. This is the way.
Community
Above I referenced Lord of the Rings as a favorite movie series because of how central it was to defining the cultural tropes designers utilize. Community exists on the entirely opposite side of the spectrum, where Community takes every trope and cranks it to max volume while keeping the highest level of quality and maintaining the Greendale shine.
Community actually has a episode for everyone, my favorite is the Law and Order episode. Dan Harmon, creator of Community, perfectly nails the cadence and tone of Law and Order SVU while keeping the show light hearted and goofy.