Topics

How the Academy Awards long lasting relationship with queer movies has created of Hollywood a gay empire.

The Universe created by Ransom Riggs in the series of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is one built on the manipulation of time where the secret residents of the world, peculiars, live in time loops where they live the same day over and over again in a particular spot. Peculiars are aware of this and and may go about the day however they'd like and the future beyond that fixed point would never be changed and the day is always reset so that each morning is the same. How might this contradict or relate to the belief that time is either linear or circular? Are these loops directly related to time or are they more like a parallel universe? Is the universe in this series a parallel universe in itself?

It's a recurring trend in games that clearly touch upon very important issues such as racism, religious discrimination, etc. for them to obfuscate their commentary by having humans in general being racist towards an invented race or group, such as in Dragon Age: Origins where humans are racist towards elves. It creates a situation where the writers want to say "Look! Here's racism! Isn't it terrible?", without actually tackling the issue in a helpful or interesting way. Given that games are an interactive medium, where the player has choice, has agency, there is a lot of opportunity for engaging the player in the issue in a way that non-interactive media cannot.

As an example, in Fallout: New Vegas, the player can choose the gender of their character. There is a particularly sexist faction in the game called Caesar's Legion, and if you chose to play as a female character, they react negatively towards you. Even a minor part of their camp is restricted from you on the basis of your gender. I personally found this to be a very powerful way to make a statement about sexism, but things like this are all but unheard of in games. Why is this? How can it be avoided? How do we talk about these issues using the strengths of the medium?

As the average age of viewing goes up for films like Zootopia, Big Hero 6, Inside Out, one has to notice a pattern – the target audience is much broader than it once was, now branching out to the parents of the children as well as the children themselves. Is this due to the accurate representation of difficult themes, or simply the bright colours and chance to escape into childhood again.

Talk about the recent yearly trend of films addressing the history of racism in America, including 12 Years a Slave (2013), Selma (2014), Straight Outta Compton (2015) and the upcoming The Birth of a Nation (2016). Examine these films in the context of the recent resurgence of racial tension in America, as well as the reaction of calling them "anti-white" that some people have had.

I am an avid Elder Scrolls fan and a history student. Recently I noticed some similarities between the fictional gods in the story line and the depictions of ancient gods in historical texts. For example, Molag Bal in TES is based on the horned god of the ancient Canaanite people. The same god the Hebrews worshiped underneath Mt Sinai with the golden calf, and the same god Moses destroys when he descends the mountain. So when players kill Molag Bal in the video game, they are fighting the same battle Moses fought in the Old Testament! How cool is that?

I'm willing to bet little nuggets of historical information have been hidden in countless RPGs and I think it would be a really cool topic for an article.

There has been a lot of debate over the newest installment in the Harry Potter series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, particularly from the Native American community. This is shocking to a lot of people, mainly the hardcore Harry Potter fandom who eagerly await the movie. Most fans are unsure whether this dissent from the Native American community is valid. A well-written article should address both sides of the argument and clearly lay out the issue.

Rowling recently released the house mascots of her new American Wizarding school. These mascots are based off of mythological animals in Native American culture. They are: The Horned Serpent, The Thunderbird, The Wampus and the Pukwudgie. These 'fantastic beasts' are steeped in traditional Native oral histories and I think it could be fun to delve into their stories and examine what they mean to Native culture.

With the recent wave of Bollywood actors being integrated in Hollywood productions within the last few years, I'm wondering if this poses any risks or if this is a sign of progress in what people say is an overtly white-male establishment. With big actors like Amitabh Bachchan making an appearing in Baz Luhrmann's remake of The Great Gatsby and Priyanka Chopra making headlines with not only landing a leading role in the American TV show Quantico but also winning the People's Choice Award for said role as well as appearing in the upcoming movie Bay Watch and Deepika Padukone who is said to appear alongside Vin Diesel in xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. Does this intertwining of two different movie industries pose any sort of threat? or is this the beginning of inclusivity of POCs within the mostly white film industry?

Chart and analyze some great examples of the use of cannabis as a narrative device and/or sensory (i.e. hearing, seeing, smelling, feeling, etc.) symbol on the big screen.

The article could explore the increasingly casual use of cannabis by characters in movies (i.e. the eroding of the cannabis taboo), or how cannabis is portrayed in dramas vs. comedies, etc.

This article should not be answering moral questions about the use of cannabis in film, but should use the perceived immorality of cannabis use over time as a consideration during analysis.

An analysis on how the animated Batman (developed by Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett and Paul Dini; portrayed by Kevin Conroy) succeeds at being the most…"Batman-iest"…? What traits make him the most acclaimed and beloved version of the caped crusaders? The psychology, design and his accomplishments would all be investigated, analyzed and compared to discover how this interpretation of the character really stacks up.

Discuss the use of adverbs in writing. Stephen King said to use adverbs as $100 bills and most writing adages say to exclude them in most cases. When might you want to use adverbs? Are all adverbs badverbs?

Consider how popular T.V shows and films (such as Star Trek, Avatar and "The Wheel of Time" novels – to name a few) critique and engage discourses on politics, socioeconomics, gender and war. Analyze the potential for these genres to disrupt and subvert current ideologies by engaging in counter-cultural discourse. For instance, how does Star Trek's prime directive critique modern imperialism? How does fantasy and sci-fi genres provide an opportunity to propose counter-cultural thoughts on so called "hot topics?"

Explore how film festivals and the documentary film genre have reacted to the age of Netflix and YouTube. Explain the popularity of film-festivals, their appeal, and the future for the viewing format.

Ubisoft has it's own gaming platform for computer gaming called UPlay. In order to play Ubisoft's games this software is required. Take a look at what Ubisoft is trying to do with this and whether or not it's doing well. Compare it to other software like steam. Is Ubisoft on to something or is it just a pain for players?

Examine the current state of professional writing, journalistic and/or fiction, in the digital age, and the comforts as well as the difficulties that aspiring writers may have making a living off their work. For journalism, you can talk about how modern outlets rely increasingly on easily replaceable writers repeating the news instead of defined personalities and opinions, as well as the reliance on sponsored content for income resulting in a rift between the editors and writers. For fiction, you could talk about how digital and self-publishing has made it more difficult for large publishing houses to bring on new writers and compensate them properly, while at the same time self-publishing for a living carries it's own risks of being unable to easily reach a larger audience.

Blogging can be seen as today's vernacular. But how is it changing the way we write and story tell? How does blogging compare to "proper" writing in the sense of how people understand language today? This piece would require a commentary on whether someone thinks blogging is beneficial or not for storytelling and learning through writing.

There was a massive overhaul to League of Legends' "Rift" after Riot's mid-season patch. Every new patch usually comes with some controversy but this one takes the cake. Players are complaining about "RNG" being added to the game with new random elemental spawning dragons. People feel that changes to the Rift Herald which now gives a twenty minute long buff (which in some cases is essentially the entire game) to one player that cannot be lost during death is unfair. And of course, there's the running saying that any newly released champion is overpowered (which marketing-wise is probably intentional, it gives people incentive to buy the character right away since it will be nerfed later).

Many players have access to the PBE and some youtubers make a living off of releasing the newest PBE content before it hits the game. With so much potential feedback it leaves me wondering how some obviously un-liked and controversial updates come to fruition. Though it need not focus on Riot I think it would be great to see an article focusing on the process of decision making that happens behind the scenes. What is the company structure? I'm sure gamers would like to know how much of their input goes into certain gaming companies' decisions. Perhaps it could even serve to relieve some tension from between the two parties. Are more direct and preemptive quality feedback strategies necessary for any variety of gaming companies; are PBEs enough?

Discuss how binge-watching (or show runners' anticipation that that is how their product will be consumed) impacts the quality of writing in television shows. This can be positive or negative. For example (SPOILER ALERT for The Walking Dead) the controversy surrounding the Season 6 finale of The Walking Dead was explained away by some as the show runners anticipating that future viewers who binge watched the series will have the Season 7 premier (and thus the cliffhanger's resolution) right at their fingertips, thereby making the finale much less objectionable.

Manga length varies depending on the series, but some of the most popular manga series of all time are extremely long, but some say the quality does not remain consistent throughout.

My curiosity is how manga length can improve or detract from the strength of the overall narrative ( e.g. comparing one piece with naruto) and whether some types of narratives are better suited to a longer run.

Romanticism was an 18th century movement that espoused imagination over rationality and the individual over the masses, but it also an existential state (i.e. a way of being) that some people continue to live in. In this way, it exists both in time and outside of time. As we plunge further and further into the grips of technology, and become ever more distant from nature and the reality of aloneness, are we losing the romantic sensibility? Are we too distracted to feel the sublime and the beautiful?