What do you count as a masterpiece?(movie, tv, book ect.) Why?

The Legend of Zelda.

This series of video games, in my opinion and in the opinions of quite a few game designers, exemplifies what immersion means in a video game.

For many, Hyrule is a real place, while not in the physical world, that many feel that they have "been to" and have "spent time in". It's a commonly known gaming fact that Link is named as such because he is intentionally designed to be as effective a link from the real world into Hyrule as possible. Link does not speak, emote too dramatically, or impose his ideals such that the player can more easily impose their own voice, emotions, and ideals onto the blank slate that is Link.

The game's environment is designed to encourage exploration, which makes you feel more connected to the world than you might in other forms of media or games, and the stakes are very high and often failures means that this world you have grown to have real experience with will be destroyed.

Common tropes, I know, especially in games nowadays, but for a series that had all of these core elements implemented in 1985, it is a trailblazing creation whose contributions to the video game art form are difficult to overstate. The thread continues on through Souls games, exploration-focused Action RPGs, and there is an entire genre of Zelda-likes that has flowered in recent years as developers who grew up falling in love with the immersive Zelda formula have grown up into game developers.

I'm sure there are many others in this thread who feel similarly about this series, but when I saw this question this answer immediately came to mind and I really wanted to write it down to share.

/r/AskReddit Thread