On the way to work, my wife and I caught up on Serial. On our commute home, she mentioned that Zach Braff had tweeted about the podcast:

The @serial podcast is an amazing articulation of stellar storytelling. I also love regular cereal.

— Zach Braff (@zachbraff) December 4, 2014

I can’t look through my Twitter feed without seeing a mention of Serial. Everyone’s onboard. Everyone’s got a take. But the extent of sharing is “OMG! WTF! #serial” We are all on par with Laura’s confusion in episode 8.

Serial is great. Definitely not my favorite podcast, but it’s a spectacular display of fine editing and editorial guidance. But more importantly, Serial has brought back the water cooler conversation. Everything about Serial thus far is based on presumption. If you tried to explain what is happening, you’d leave behind mountains of critical detail. Because the questions hurdle by ad nauseam, there aren’t answers big enough to spoil the show. Think LOST, with hatches and polar bears and Dharma, but rooted in the nonfiction investigation of a 1999 homicide case with cell records and reenactments and Jay. This is pre-meditated in the sense that Sarah Keonig and the Serial crew know that answers won’t come easy. There are no spoilers. This is great storytelling and we are along for the ride.

This thought led me to other serialized media. Serialized TV is larger than ever, but the good stuff (Game of Thones) is adapted or released in bulk (House of Cards). I kid, I kid. Admittedly, I have not watched True Detective. But in all seriousness, TiVo culture and binging has struck deep fear in sharing too much about nightly TV. While this sounds like a backwards argument against on-demand podcasts, again, Serial doesn’t offer enough answers to divulge spoilers. Again, this is great storytelling.

This led me to thoughts on film. What was the last (semi-)pre-meditated, non-adapted, serialized film series released? Pirates of the Caribbean (2 & 3)? The Matrix (2 & 3)? Star Wars (5 & 6)? Nearly every (if not all) serialized film series released within the past few years has been adapted. Harry Potter. Hunger Games. Divergent. The answers to these series have been lying around in text years prior to the film’s release. The best we can hope for is that we haven’t read the book or the film is so far off from the source material that it feels like a unique experience.

We need more original, pre-meditated, serialized content. Someone write an original three part film trilogy with segments so good they can stand on their own as solid films. Someone conceptualize a three, four, or five season TV show from start to finish. Calculate the journey or take us along for the ride. Stop adapting. Stop playing by ear. If you do play by ear, root it in nonfiction. Make sure you can’t make stuff up.

I realize this is less a message to creators as it is to producers, with overhead and risk to take into consideration. But if you want to give us story, allow us to risk our time and money. Trust creators.

Tomorrow, my wife and I will listen to episode 10 of Serial and the most we’ll be able to share is “OMG! WTF! #serial”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO6t6H19CUk

Brave. Daring. Ambitious. Inspired. Inspiring. Beautiful.

Not twenty minutes before watching this video was I listening to Howard Shore’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey soundtrack, ruminating on what it must have felt like to be involved in such a massive, all-consuming project as The Lord of the Rings film franchise. I often fantasize about working as a builder or set designer on those projects, bringing Tolkien’s Middle-earth to life. Imagining the construction of Lumino City brings about the same thoughts and is far more compelling than the game itself, and boy what an amazing game it looks to be.

State of Play’s Lumino City will be available tomorrow, December 3rd, via Steam for Mac and PC. Official trailer below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l6aSfIyS1k

Andrew Webster, The Verge:

Whatever fate awaits the Wii U, Nintendo is doing just about everything it can to make sure the console has some amazing games. It may not have third-party support, but Nintendo’s own releases feel exciting in a way they haven’t for years. At a glance, Captain Toad seems like a throwaway game, a weird little spinoff starring a character no one really cares about. Yet it’s one of the best puzzle games of the year, and another one of a growing number of reasons to pick up a Wii U.

The Verge calls Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker “a hidden gem”; I called it “genius”. Needless to say, I cannot wait for December 5th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8a3yEWMYlA

Polygon video producer Griffin McElroy showcasing the new features of Super Smash Bros. Wii U to Polygon managing editor Justin McElroy on Polygon’s Overview, time stamp 14:06:

JM: Griffin… do you ever look at Smash Bros., when you’re me, and think, “I bet this is how all video games look to my nani?”

GM: Ya, I think so. Ya, probably. Are you saying that because it’s just like really crazy and hectic and inscrutable? Or because it’s like, “Ahh! You gotta use the Pac-Man to eat the Marios!”

JM: Like both, I guess. I think Smash Bros. is how all video games look to grandparents.

GM: Probably. Maybe.

It’s not just grandparents:

Watching the Super Smash Bros. Wii U 50-Fact Extravaganza. My brain stopped comprehending at no 9. What the hell happened to video games?

— Kyle Starr (@_kylestarr) November 16, 2014

I’ve put in a few hours and I’m still not sure I know what I’m doing.

The New York Times:

Anton Levy, head of General Atlantic’s Internet and technology team, said his firm — like other investors — had typically avoided content creators like Vox in favor of platforms with many capabilities like Facebook and Alibaba. Lately, he said, the firm has had a change of heart.

“We think we are at an inflection point,” he said. “For the next five years, you are going to have the next generation of media platforms emerge. There are parallels to cable in the ’80s. There is going to be a huge amount of value creation.”

The chief executive of Vox Media, Jim Bankoff, has made no secret of his ambition to build his company into a kind of Time Inc. of the 21st century; that is, a multipublication giant with reach into young, affluent homes across the country on topics as diverse as sports and real estate.

The moment I laid eyes on Polygon, I was taken aback by its noisy design, overblown articles, nondescript headlines…

And then it scrolled forever. And ads were limited or nicely designed. And its design reacted to my device in real-time. And the features featured unique layouts. And the video production was on another level. And the “nondescript” headlines were enticing. And the “overblown” articles were full of fantastic journalism and entertaining personality. And the “noisy” design was unlike anything I had ever seen.

I latched on to Polygon’s community and began posting lengthy, passion fueled comments. I realized that these were not comments, they were blog posts. I used those “comments” as the foundation for a new WordPress blog titled The State of Gaming, which I later renamed Zero Counts.

From Polygon to The Verge to Vox.com, Vox Media has changed the way I consume content. Every article includes something of interest. Every layout choice is surprising and exciting. Their dedication to personality, engineering, and design is second-to-none. Congratulations, Vox Media. I saw this coming from a coast away.

UPDATE: Polygon editor-in-chief Chris Grant has sent out the following tweet:

Nov was @Polygon’s best month yet, w/ 10.5m uniques. That’s 140% over last Nov, which had 2 new consoles! Thx so much for reading, everyone!

— chris grant (@chrisgrant) December 1, 2014

It’s so great to read about this success. Great job, Polygon Team.