I love movies. If you have a good movie, put it in my face, and I will eat it up—unless, of course, that good movie, or in this case, movies, are from the Lord of the Rings franchise. I know what you’re thinking, and I’m sorry, but I just don’t like them. All three movies spend so much time with characters like Aragorn and Legolas that I get bored. Sure, the battle at Helm’s Deep is one of the most spectacular things ever captured in film, but I’m not interested. I say cut all of it and focus on the heart of the story: the Hobbits. My guys, Sam and Frodo, walking across ancient England to throw an evil ring into a volcano is all the drama I need. When whoever owns the rights to The Lord of The Rings decides to remake the movies, I say cut all the fluff and focus on my boys. Sadly, though, we don’t live in a perfect world where perfect movies about best friends walking through the countryside are made. That said, we do live in a world where potentially perfect video games about cooking dinner for our hairy-footed friends get made.

That’s right! My long-winded tangent about three even longer-winded movies was to announce that we have a new trailer for Tales of The Shire. This upcoming life sim game is about being a Hobbit and doing what most Hobbits do: chilling. Tales of The Shire allows players to relax in Bywater, a quaint town where they can decorate their homes, go fishing (an instant game of the year contender), and cook delicious-looking meals. That isn’t all, though. According to the official website, players can ‘Prepare homemade meals to share with fellow Hobbits and foster relationships.’ We all know what that means… HOBBIT BANGING! 

Hobbit banging is, of course, just an assumption. To tell the truth, I don’t even know if Hobbits can do that. For all I know, in Jimmy Railroad Tolkien’s lore, the Hobbits do a little dance together and then lay eggs. Either way, Tales of The Shire looks like a fun time and is a game I fully plan on supporting, and not just because I love games where I get to farm and fish for hours on end without having to deal with that pesky idea of actually going outside. No, I want to give this game my full support because it backs an idea I’ve had for a long time. Stop making games into movies and TV shows. Instead, use what works best for the art forms to make even more incredible art.

While I’m admittedly not a fan of the Lord of The Rings movies, there’s no denying that the world created by JRR Tolkien is unbelievable, and being able to spend hours upon hours in his world sounds incredible. Even more incredible is the idea that while I’m in this legendary world, I’ll be creating my own stories. When bald-headed Chris The Hobbit runs into Tom Bombadil, and he teaches me how to make his world-famous Peach Cobbler, it’ll be way more memorable to me than if I was playing as Frodo and had to sword-fight spiders. 

I understand that games can cost a lot of money to make and that price tag only goes up when licensing is involved. Still, with games like Dune: Awakening and Dune: Spice Wars, we see examples of polar opposite games that take advantage of a beloved IP. My entire reasoning for loving games like these and now Tales of The Shire is the simple fact that there’s an endless supply of adventures gamers can go on, and what’s even better is that these can fit into any genre. Do you love Jurrasic Park and have always thought you could have run a better park? Great! Here’s Jurrasic World Evolution 2. What’s that? You’d rather experience a brand new story where you’re left stranded on the island of Isla Nublar the day after the events of the original Jurrasic Park film? Let me introduce you to my friend Jurrasic Park: Survival.

While I’m not over the moon with what I’ve seen so far from the recently released Fallout TV show, one thing that impressed me was how quickly the show made me want to go back into that world and have my own adventures. Sadly, though, the only options I have are replaying Fallout 4 AGAIN or giving Fallout 76 a chance, but what if there was something else? I know we live in a world where Bethesda seems to be interested in putting out only one game every 10 years, but there was a time when they gave us Fallout Shelter around the same time that they gave us Fallout 4. Why can’t we still live in that world? I fully understand that this isn’t how game development works, but Bethesda, please call Digital Sun and have them make Moonlighter but set in the Fallout universe. I don’t need a 200-hour experience to bring me joy. I just want to sell non-radiated water to adventurers passing through my town.

As I reach the end of my rant, I guess the point I’m trying to make is we need to support the art that speaks to us the most. If we’re going to live in a world where IP is King and that’s what sells, then I have to put my money where my mouth is and support games that take IP and try to do something unique with it. Voting with your wallet matters the most, and while I loved Jedi Survivor, if you told me that buying Tales of The Shire guaranteed me Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator, but this time it took place in Coruscant, I’d probably buy two copies.