Why Tales of the Shire's Interior Decor Could Work in Many…

Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game comes with a robust interior decorating system. As a cozy game, customization will likely lie at the heart of much of Tales of the Shire, with much needed to build the player's home from an empty home into a hobbit hole filled with furniture and decorations. While customizing homes, particularly interior decorating, is an integral part of cozy games, homemaking mechanics have extended to other video game genres, particularly RPGs and ARPGs.

Features such as settlement building and the customization of said settlements have seen a lot of change in different genres, with robust customization options evolving as technology develops. The Lord of the Rings games, even beyond cozy games, would be particularly suitable for this level of player customization because of The Lord of the Rings' rich lore and variety of cultures, all with their own visual styles and aesthetics. Not giving players the option to take advantage of Middle-earth's beautiful cultures through building would be a waste.

Tales of the Shire’s Hobbits Should Bow to No One

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By Jared Stewart

Tales of the Shire's Interior Design Accommodates Bywater's Hobbits

The furniture and decor revealed so far for Tales of the Shire is appropriately aligned with hobbit designs that blend in seamlessly within a hobbit hole. Decor choices that have been revealed can be described as cottagecore, with an emphasis on simplicity and rustic designs. There is the option of cooking meals and adding them to the decor of the hobbit's home, giving the feeling of abundance.

While Tales of the Shire has such a robust interior decorating system because of its nature as a cozy game, the same mechanic could potentially be applied to other The Lord of the Rings games, even ones in other genres. Creating or customizing home bases, settlements, and outposts has become a popular mechanic in video games over the past decade, and can be seen in games such as Fallout 4, Starfield, and in the upcoming Assassin's Creed Shadows. These base and settlement customization options go beyond upgrading a home base by paying a steward, entering a loading screen, and seeing the results. Rather, the player has a crucial role in customization and the design of their home or settlement.

Going Beyond Tales of the Shire and Towards the Rest of Middle-earth

Implementing a system like this in future Lord of the Rings games would go a long way in worldbuilding and establishing lore in an organic way. The Lord of the Rings takes place in a universe with incredible depth, and has numerous unique cultures. Video game developers and designers can take advantage of this by implementing the unique and rich architecture and designs of each culture in The Lord of the Rings.

This system could be tweaked to accommodate any kind of settlement or home base, with unlocks for interior decor such as in Dragon Age: Inquisition, or the ability to create entire settlements based on the architecture of a specific culture in The Lord of the Rings. These designs are described in The Lord of the Rings original text and appendices, as well as material such as The Silmarillion. With multiple distinct visual styles based on different cultures, there is a lot of potential for creativity and roleplaying within this framework, with there even being distinct differences between different groups of Men, elves, and dwarves, such as Rohan and Gondor embodying very different visual styles.

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