Packing provisions for your journey

 Today I have had my first experience and first true exposure to JRR Tolkien's work from listening to the first two chapters of The Hobbit. Unsurprisingly I found myself enchanted quite easily and I found my own spirit start to yearn for adventure much like Mr Baggin's did during the dwarf's song. However, while this is not the first time I have been enchanted by such a work, it is the first time I have started to seen some of the more nuanced reasons as to why it is so enchanting.

As an avid fan of video games and table top games alike I have always enjoyed finding myself lost in a world. Yet at the same time the same level of enchantment I find in a good story can be lacking in these games. While playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends I may be on some kind of adventure, yet many times I can find myself away from the actual world and not steeped into it. But yet I realize it is because a lot of the time the smaller moments of the journey or the world are skipped over. Rain and wind, sun and earth, water and fire, food and drink, warmth and chill, all of these elements tend to be minimal to the player in many games as too often we find ourselves drawn exclusively to battle or drama. And this can often leave the world without life.

While I am sure these elements are just some of the building blocks that I did not notice, they are foundational and should not be ignored or treated with any less respect. I find my own mind thinking of all the possible ways to try and add these back into the media I love or try to create, and it is all from the first two chapters of this 10 hour long book. I look forward to other 9 fondly.

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