Sushi Day

I am not a fish person. I'll eat fish sticks. I'll eat fish and chips. And that's about it. Sometimes shrimp. So this... this was a tough milestone incentive to promise. But this is me keeping that promise! This is the story of how I finally ate sushi for the first time.

Final Numbers for 2019

It's the end of another year, so I thought I'd make this an annual thing by sharing the numbers as we count down to midnight!

It's been another great year, and I'm looking forward to seeing how things progress into the new year! Here are the numbers for the last 365 days:

• snarkqueen went on YouTube to eat The World's Hottest Chocolate
• Vat19 shared that YouTube video, netting me nearly 1,000 views
• snarkqueen raised $1,260 for Children's National in D.C.
• That's $235 more than last year
• Gamer Reverie had 36 blog entries this year, including this one
• snarkqueen gave away 20+ games
• The Gamer Reverie blog found its way onto Patreon and Reddit
• As of December 18th, Extra Life as a whole had raised $14 million for the year!

Those are some great numbers! Despite those numbers, I have plans to reshape my gaming blog to better reflect why I write about games. Extra Life is why I started it, but it isn't the only reason why I continue to fill it with content. I hope to make Gamer Reverie into its own identity in the coming year, with its own voice and defined objectives. And reader rewards. Don't let me forget about those, would you?

Thank you to the donors, friends, supporters, fans, communities, families and random gamers who (un)knowingly helped make 2019 another great year. I wish you all the best in the coming year, and I hope you'll continue this journey with me as Gamer Reverie transitions into something new for the coming decade.

Screenshot Details: Aarawynn (Arkenstone) of Legacy of Narsilion, toasting gleefully alongside the Thirsty Patron and her Present-Bearing Pet Pony in Winterhome, Frostbluff. Lord of the Rings Online.

The Marathon Day Recap: 2019 Edition

For my 7th year of Extra Life, I played 18 games across 4 platforms over the course of 25 hours and raised $450 to surpass my goal of $1,000. This is how it happened!

Saturday, November 2, 2019
7:30 AM

My alarm goes off at my usual wake-up time for the marathon, and I promptly go feed myself some breakfast Hot Pockets and a cup of vanilla cappuccino (not the best when you struggle with your A1C, but at least not as bad as the Vanilla Doubleshots of previous years!). I anticipate Discord being a little quiet this year, and decide to focus more on Twitter. For that reason, there's a noted lack of commentary in this recap -- no apologies, because it was still a great experience!

8:00 AM

Stacking

Expectations: It's a Double Fine game, so there's going to be plenty of cheeky humor, and it's done with cute nesting dolls to solve puzzles. Should be pretty good, amirite?

Reality: Pretty much what I expected. This is a very tongue-in-cheek puzzle game where you play as the tiniest of nesting dolls and are tasked with using layers of bigger dolls to solve puzzles or access places you normally couldn't. There are achievements for discovering all the hidden stuff and finishing collections of dolls, so this is a game to keep you busy for a while. I certainly had no problem playing for a full hour to start off the marathon!

9:00 AM

Northmark: Hour of the Wolf

Expectations: No expectations, really. This game came to me through a Humble Bundle, I think. In any case, it's a deck-building game with a story.

Reality: This was both better and worse than I expected. I was enjoying the story as I progressed across the map, but I was frustrated with my card limitations. I kept failing to defeat the Necromancer and it took a while to figure out why. I'd missed one small step and was murderized for it. Even so, this is a nice little deck-building game and there are some nice options for how you build it and utilize your cards. Worth investing in.

11:00 AM

Guacamelee! One-Two Punch (Nintendo Switch)

Expectations: I played the first Guacamelee title for the 2014 Extra Life marathon and surprised myself at being fairly good at it. It was silly and fun and I found the story quite compelling.

Reality: I had to buy the double set for the Switch so I could play with my husband. We were going to play the 2nd game since I had already played the 1st before, but it turned out to be easier to get a second player going by playing the first game. It's just as silly and crazy as I remembered, and I had twice as much fun playing it with my husband. It's definitely well-suited to being played on console. No screenshots to share because this was played on the Switch. (We were too busy having fun to take pictures anyway!)

12:00 PM

I Am Bread

Expectations: I expected the difficulty to be somewhere between Probably Archery and Goat Simulator, and just as silly as both.

Reality: Not disappointed. I should have spent more time practicing how to move in the tutorial, however. It was HARD making it across the kitchen to become toast! I don't see myself finishing the game, but it was good for passing time. I think I'd still rather be a goat.

1:00 PM

Trials of Harmony ~ Experimental Visual Novel

Expectations: This was a random find when I went looking for a 2019 released game to add to the marathon schedule. It sounded unique enough to spend a little money on. I'm not usually big on visual novels, but when it's presented in a unique way -- only from a cell phone -- and adds a lot of mystery to figure out, then you've got something I want to experience.

Reality: I was interrupted several times while playing this, but it was an incredible experience. If you enjoy mystery, and reading text, then you'll like this game. There are visual elements that help you identify who's talking and moods, and I fully intend to finish at some point and find out what was really going on! I should add that playing with a headset is a must, also.

3:00 PM

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call (Nintendo 3DS)

Expectations: I've played this game many times before. This game was selected from my pile of 3DS titles by my mother-in-law. It's a rhythm game. It's Final Fantasy. It's good.

Reality: I tried some harder difficulties than I previously had, to make it more of a challenge. Boy, was that a mistake! I guess I probably should've warmed up and refreshed my memory first. But playing this game on my 3DS made it easy to sip on my GFuel (not a sponsor -- but wish they were!). No screenshots for this game, because 3DS. The last song I played through was really tough!

4:00 PM

Starchaser: Priestess of the Night Sky

Expectations: Cutesy, anime-styled puzzle solving without the limitations of gravity or physics.

Reality: Plain puzzle solving which boiled down more to platform skill rather than actually solving puzzles. Launcher was buggy. Not a friendly experience for English-speaking users. I was disappointed, and glad I only spent a dollar or two on the game during a sale. No screenshots because I was that upset about the game being a dud.

5:00 PM

Code Vein (PlayStation 4)

Expectations: I had played the demo, watched my husband play the demo, and watched him play through the beginning of the rest of the game also. I knew I was going to have to play smart because enemies could easily overwhelm.

Reality: I had a better time playing this time around vs. the demo because I'd already played it before. I had a better idea of what to expect and how to best play out certain parts. I also spent a good chunk of time making the perfect avatar in the character creation. That is, after all, half of the appeal here. Make your ideal anime character who also happens to be a badass. Still don't really follow the game's story, though. It's a little... weird. Basically, humans are endangered species. Most people are revenants (i.e. vampires) who need blood, but most of them are trapped in this weird barrier, in the ruins of a city. The only thing that sustains them are these "blood beads" that grow from weird glowy trees, but the trees are drying up. And also every time a revenant "dies," they come back having forgotten more about who they used to be until there's nothing left. Sounds great, right? There's also this miasma that can't be breathed in, or the revenants become lost and turn into monsters that can't be saved -- just slaughtered. That's where the badassery comes in. Anyway, I may or may not return to it at some point!

At this point, I had raised my goal of $1,000! With plenty of marathon time left, it was really just a matter of aiming for the $1,200 stretch goal...

7:00 PM

Moonlighter

Expectations: Some kind of weird cross between Binding of Isaac and A Wizard's Lizard. (I don't have much experience with procedural stuff.)

Reality: Expectations met, and then there was a bit of playing The Price is Right when managing the shop during the day. Basically, you're young and dumb and determined to go into the ruins to get treasures to sell to sustain your shop. It's pretty, it's fast-paced, and you definitely have to have some planning and tactics to gather the right things and sell the right stuff for the right prices to make a profit and progress.

8:00 PM

Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Nintendo Switch)

Expectations: I'd only seen my husband play a smattering of this game, but I knew people really liked the Fire Emblem games. This was his choice for me to play during the marathon.

Reality: Wow! While I didn't like the lack of customization, I liked the story overall. I didn't play far enough to understand why my seemingly inexperienced character would be hired to be a teacher for others their age and slightly younger, but... whatever! I played far enough to have selected the Blue Lions student house to be head of, and was just starting to learn the personalities and strengths of the individuals in it. Dimitri seemed to be the strongest option of the 3 house leaders, though I was (as my husband expected) amused by the quips from Golden Deer's leader, Claude. (Where was this Golden Deer group back when I was doing the Team Mascots, anyway?!) I'll definitely be playing more when given the opportunity. No screenshots, because Switch.

9:00 PM

Little Nightmares

Expectations: A creepy game where you are a child that has to avoid scary monsters that want to eat you, and lots of uncertain darkness.

Reality: An intensely creepy game with a lot more darkness than I anticipated. I only managed 20 minutes of gameplay because my little kid avatar had to sneak through a room where I could see a chair and feet dangling (someone hung themselves). I can handle pretty intense things, but that wasn't something I really wanted to wreak havoc with my imagination just before getting into the long night stretch of the marathon.

After only 20 minutes of this game, I moved on to the next with the expectation that I would just play later games for longer to make up for the time.

9:30 PM

The Last Tinker: City of Colors

Expectations: Colorful, action adventure puzzle game. Something something colors being divisive. I dunno. Looked like fun, so I bought it. I scheduled it after the dark little horror game because I expected to need a pick-me-up -- thanks, Past Self! You were right!

Reality: I actually didn't get to start on this one until nearly 10 PM because I had trouble configuring a controller to work with it -- and it's NECESSARY to play the game. As for the game itself, it's another one of those where you don't hear real dialogue, just gobbledy-gook in different pitches that are supposed to represent the different characters -- so get ready to read. Despite that, and despite the controller frustration, this was a really fun game to play. The graphics are vibrant and their stylization is unique. Oh, and that big race you struggle to get to? The antagonist is going to cheat and you're going to lose no matter what you do, so don't sweat it. Oh, and that might have just made things worse between the different color-obsessed city districts. Have fun with that.

12:00 AM

Darksiders III (PlayStation 4)

Expectations: I had fairly low expectations of this title even though I'm a fan of the Darksiders series. I hadn't heard very good reviews, but... of course I was gonna play it. My husband is awesome and knows me very well -- he nabbed this game when it was available through PlayStation Plus, knowing I would want it. Yay for husbands!

Reality: I enjoyed the game more than I expected to. It felt easier to play, somehow, but that may have only been because I played the first two games on PC and for this one I had a controller in my hand. But the story was also rather compelling, too, and I didn't anticipate that. It picks up after the first two horsemen have made a mess and been blamed. But it seems that the third doesn't really care about the other two -- or does she? It's hard to tell, because the Council has sent a nanny along with the third to make sure things go the way they want. My only complaint would be that I got lost trying to figure out where I had to go once I arrived in the big tree. I'll need to reference a map to find my way again and keep playing! No screenshots because it was super late and I'm not sure I want to dive back into the game right now just to show you where I got lost... *fumbles for a compass*

1:00 AM

Lichdom: Battlemage

Expectations: Launch magic at everything with reckless abandon!

Reality: Couldn't play it. Game froze and crashed before the end of the opening cut-scene, multiple times. Such a shame, because I really wanted to go crazy with this one. This definitely brought me down from the happy high I had from playing Darksiders.

I filled the time with playing Faerie Solitaire and gave my eyes a well-deserved rest for an hour.

2:00 AM (the second time)

7 Mages

Expectations: Dungeon crawler goodness with a focus on mages.

Reality: A very bland dungeon crawler that slows your progress with puzzles more than enemies. I was pretty bored with this one -- another title I'm glad didn't cost me very much. I didn't span a full hour with it and admittedly gave myself a stretch-and-bathroom break.

3:00 AM

The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 3DS)

Expectations: Get to lay dow-- I mean, get to listen to a fairy yell at me to not be lazy because I have to go save Hyrule! (But also strategically placed in the schedule so I could lay down to prevent back and leg pain. Play smarter, not harder!)

Reality: Those fairies sure are annoying. Part of me always wants to enjoy Zelda games. Part of me always gets frustrated that there's actually only one viable path to progress, but you're going to struggle to find it. Like, if you're going to force one particular path, at least make it obvious. I need to try Breath of the Wild. I think I would like it better. One day, though... one day I may finally have developed the patience to progress far enough into a Zelda game to want to keep playing it to completion. The Extra Life marathon was not the time for that. But hey, my legs and back were happy! No screenshots, because 3DS.

4:00 AM

From Dust

Expectations: Black & White, but with better graphics and prettier land.

Reality: Black & White, but with better graphics, prettier land, and WAY HARDER OBJECTIVES. Oh. Em. Gee. I had an easier time teaching my dumb tiger not to eat my people in Black & White than I did preventing the ocean from wiping out my little village of followers. The controls felt like the Second Life landscaping but with even LESS control. I don't know how that's even possible, but From Dust nails the experience perfectly. I won't tell you how many times my villagers died from the tidal wave crashing in on them, but after 21 hours of playing games I think I earned a pass. Or a participation trophy. Something.

5:00 AM

The Lord of the Rings Online

Because this is the game that led me to Extra Life, I always end my marathon with it. I stopped around 6:00 AM because I had met my fundraising goal and I was feeling very tired. Having health issues means it's important to know when to give in, so I did. I grabbed a few hours of much-needed rest before getting up, taking a shower, and going to a concert to see David Crowder and Mercy Me. I napped in the car both ways, and then I slept like a rock and rested up on Monday.

Due to DDOS attacks on the Extra Life website's host, there were problems with people making donations during the marathon. The only reason I was able to receive any for most of the day was because I had set up a Facebook Fundraiser in advance. Even now, the total listed on my Extra Life page is incorrect because of donations being counted multiple times. I have made sure all of my donors were charged appropriately, however, and my official total as of the writing of this blog is $1,260 (and not $1,460).

Feel free to click here to read my Twitter Collection for the 2019 Marathon -- I had some great retweets and comments from some of the game developers, Extra Life, and Children's Miracle Network!

Thank you to everyone for your support and donations this year! You may have noticed that I started posting some regular, scheduled content in my blog -- and that is something I will continue in 2020. I have big plans for Gamer Reverie, and I hope you'll come along for the journey.

2019 Milestone: Don't Stop Beliebing for $200

For reaching the $200 milestone in Extra Life in 2019, I had to use an embarrassing display name in the game Town of Salem... for 2 weeks.

But I didn't just use the name for 2 weeks. I've had the display name for months at this point. I have played the equivalent of 2 weeks' worth of games, so I felt I had adequately met the requirements for this milestone.

If you haven't read what I wrote about Town of Salem after playing it during the 2018 Marathon, the game pits people against one another as Townfolk, Mafia, Serial Killers, and other more supernatural beings. At the start of a game, you can type in what you want your display name to be for the game. I kept my preset to: NmbrOneBelieber. This was chosen by my husband. He knows I want nothing to do with Bieber! Surprisingly, this didn't garner much attention from other players. It's actually very tame in comparison to what other people use (and I still have no idea how they get away with those names!). And yes, I play as Santa with a pet reindeer.

So, checking this one off the list because I have a lot of Milestones to finish!

Soul Calibur VI: Pompilidara The Spirit Wasp

A blog entry about how much of a Soul Calibur fangirl I am. I'm willing to bet you didn't see this coming.

That's right, folks. I enjoy a fighting game. I'm not very good at fighting games, but since when has my lack of skill in a game kept me from playing? If you've been following me long enough, you'll remember I used to promote myself as a terrible gamer playing games to help sick kids. I upgraded to a casual gamer after a while because, well... at some point you're going to stop being terrible if you keep playing games!

Now, about Soul Calibur...

My love of the series began with Soul Calibur III on the PS2. I played the campaign, and I practiced with all of the characters. I enjoyed one-shot games where I asked a friend to play me in a few matches. I also enjoyed struggling my way through all of the character stories. I'll be quite honest here: the story is never very deep, it's a fighting game. You either appreciate it for what it is or you move on to a Final Fantasy title or something with a bit more meat to it.

I never had a favorite character to play as, but spent a long time battling away in Tales of Souls to unlock Olcadan (the guy with the owl head). Naturally when they announced Soul Calibur VI and people began making custom characters... I wanted it badly. My husband is good to me and feeds my gaming habits, and the character creator mode was the first thing I dove into.

My first creation was... not very good. We won't discuss it. It never happened. There's no evidence to prove I did anything.

My more recent creation was a better version and I spent far more time on each element of the build. In addition to that, the game had gotten the Witcher update so that the Geralt build was available... and this was the ideal fighting style for my custom character.

To try and explain Pompilidara, aka The Spirit Wasp, to anyone who never knew her when I actively roleplayed... would be impossible. Some of the basic elements to her include having wings, having a mystical sort of power, wielding two swords, fire-red hair, purple eyes, tons of sass, and the obvious mettle to be both a pirate captain and a mercenary.

The wardrobe/cosmetic appearance of my custom character is based largely off of Talim's outfit, made a bit more modest. I only tweaked display appearances of Geralt's fighting style -- the colors of the magic effects, which two of his swords are used, etc. Overall, I was very pleased with the result. I've spent a lot of time playing this custom character in Arcade mode, but I will never claim to be anything but shoddy in a fighting game!

So, here's a clip I made earlier tonight in said Arcade mode, which pitted my build against Ivy. Please let me know what you think! If you enjoy it, consider making a donation on my Extra Life page -- the 24-hour marathon is less than 2 weeks away!

(Newsletter subscribers click here to view embedded video.)

A Very Special Message from a VIP

Did you think I was done being thankful for your support this year? Think again!

Back in August, the fine people at Children's National in D.C. issued a challenge to the Extra Lifers like myself who are playing games to raise money for the kids they treat. The challenge was to recruit 3 people or raise $100 by August 30th. I'm pleased to say that I was able to complete both challenges, and I couldn't have done it without you! You guys hit it so far out of the park that I ended up raising $286 in a span of 24 hours!

So here's a special thank you message from Brooke, a Miracle Kid at Children's National!

This Year's Marathon Schedule Unveiled!

The final schedule is here for your perusal! I still won't be streaming this year, but I have a diverse selection of games I have not played... more or less.

You would think that making the marathon schedule would get easier each year, but since my game library grows each year it actually becomes harder. There are even more titles I've never played before, and still many that I want to keep "for myself" -- that is, I want to play them strictly for my own enjoyment and not with a blog entry in mind. That isn't to say I don't enjoy the games I play for the marathon or for blogging. A prime example is Town of Salem from last year's marathon -- I still play it on a regular basis and have even gotten my husband into playing it with me.

This year, I took my time and combed through my Steam and GOG libraries, writing down any titles I hadn't played which also hadn't come from $1.00 bundle deals until I had double the number I needed. I also asked my immediate family to help me select console games to throw into the mix this year from our PS4, Switch, and 3DS collections. There are six titles from those libraries, giving me a full third of my list's time away from the PC. I did this so I could get more movement during the marathon and help my eyes. I'm not as young and spry as I once was, and health issues mean I have to plan ahead and be smart to make sure I don't harm myself while trying to participate. I do this because it's fun and it's #ForTheKids -- doing irreparable harm to myself would be very counterproductive!

I set up an elimination chart for myself based on a combination of Metacritic scores and release dates: games with no score were arranged by release date on the opposite end of the spectrum. I then went through the list of 1vs1 and chose one title over the other based on what I felt would give me enjoyment as well as be a title worth writing about after the marathon. Sometimes it came down to simply liking a release trailer better, and I'm not ashamed to admit that.

Games That Didn't Make the Cut

Nuclear Throne, Viking: Battle for Asgard, Gravity Badgers, Ballpoint Universe, The Nightmare Cooperative, Kingdom: Classic, Morphopolis, Elven Legacy, Learn Japanese to Survive! Hiragana Battle, Hydrophobia: Prophecy, Eselmir and the five magical gifts, and There Came An Echo.

The Marathon Games by Platform

PlayStation 4

• Code Vein
• Darksiders 3

Nintendo Switch

• Guacamelee! One-Two Punch
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Nintendo 3DS

• Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call
• Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

PC

• Stacking
• Northmark: Hour of the Wolf
• I Am Bread
• Trials of Harmony
• Starchaser: Priestess of the Night Sky
• Moonlighter
• Little Nightmares
• The Last Tinker: City of Colors
• Lichdom: Battlemage
• 7 Mages
• From Dust
• Lord of the Rings Online

But I know what you really want. You want to see the schedule in its final layout.

So here it is! Click the image to view it in all its glory.

Think something from the reject list should have made the cut? 

Let me know in the comments!

LOTRO: Minas Morgul Expansion Prices Explored

I broke down the cost and value of the Mordor expansion when it became available to pre-purchase, so I am following suit with the upcoming Minas Morgul expansion.

I'll have to open with this caveat: I'm not a math whiz. It's entirely possible I messed up in my calculations somewhere. If you think I have, PLEASE don't hesitate to comment and call me on it! I want this breakdown to help people make sound spending decisions so they can enjoy playing LOTRO without stressing about overspending or feeling regret later by not getting it if they really can.

With that out of the way, I'll satisfy those who are impatient first:

Ultimate Fan Bundle

$233.98 USD value if everything was bought individually
est. 26,925 points
+44% value for cost 

Collector's Edition

$163.24 USD value if everything was bought individually
est. 18,785 points
+51% value for cost
**This is the best deal of the 3 packs if you don't care about collecting all of the cosmetics.** 

Standard Edition

$50.75 USD value if everything was bought individually
est. 5,840 points
+21% value for cost

Explanation

I made the full list of items and then either wrote down their current point value from the LOTRO Store, or used the point value of the closest equivalent that is currently available. If there was nothing like it available, I'll explain the logic behind my price estimate below.

The first value listed (above) is arrived at by tallying the individual costs in USD -- what you would arrive at if you tried to buy everything in the pack separately (using best exchange rate of points to dollars). The second value is the estimated points needed to purchase the items.

One big difference this time was that they didn't include any VIP time in the deal. Despite that, they seem to have learned from a complaint about last time: they offered a lot of items you could already purchase in the store and people fussed as a result. This time, the majority of the items are unique to the bundles, with a few exceptions.

The Breakdown

• The base edition of the expansion will be available in March 2020 for 2495 points.
• The Stout-axe Dwarf Race will be available in March 2020 for 1000 points.
• A character slot goes for 595 points in the store.
• Following the cost pattern of existing level boosts (5995 points for level 95; 6995 points for level 105), I am underestimating the 120 boost to cost 7995 points.
• Cosmetic armor pieces in the store sell for 295 points apiece, and there are 6 pieces per set, making a total of 1770 for one set, and 3540 for two sets.
• Cosmetic cloaks sell for 295 points apiece, costing 590 points for two.
• The newer pets sell for 595 points each, or 1190 points for two.
• Premium mounts which come with war-steed cosmetics, as we're told the expansion mounts do, cost 1995 points each, or 3990 points for both.
• Cosmetic Weapon Auras are a new thing, so I added an additional cosmetic item cost of 295 points.
• The highest available wearable accelerator in the store, Shield of the Hammerhand, sells for 995 so I rounded up to account for the level increase and estimated 1395 points.
• The housing teleport item is a repeat item but not found in the store, so I went ahead and undervalued it by using the price of a Return skill at 295 points. (A more likely store price is probably 695 points, but there's no telling here.)
• The highest tier of purchaseable relics sell for 550 points each, so 3 would be 1650 points. The Minas Morgul-tier relics are probably worth more.
• The Expedition Supplies break down into items that can be purchased and items that can be bartered for:
       a.) 5000 Virtue XP: Since you can get 2k virtue xp from most deeds, I estimated that a single Skill & Slayer Deed Boost would net the 5k, so for this item I am underestimating it for 150 points.
       b.) 100% XP scrolls x5 sells in the store for 750 points.
       c.) Scrolls of Empowerment can be traded at their cheapest for marks (3920 marks for 20, and 1960 marks for 10), so this is NOT factored into the cost of any pack.
       d.) Reputation Supply Boost x5 sells in the store for 1000 points.

And there you have it. I hope this helps you decide which pack to purchase if you really gotta have the stuff and the shinies right away. If you aren't that sort of player, I hope this helps you feel better about waiting until March to spend points on the expansion and/or new race. Either way, this took me a couple days to sit down and figure out -- if you appreciate it, leave me a comment and consider making a donation on my Extra Life page linked below!