February Feature Entry: Doki Doki Literature Club

I think the most accurate explanation of this game was the title of a ZAM article: it's the Cabin in the Woods of dating sims. This is not going to be a happy-go-lucky blog entry, because this game was not happy-go-lucky.

But first, let me get this out of the way:

If there is even the slightest chance you are interested in playing a visual novel/dating simulator that both excels at being its genre and also picks it apart and makes itself into a psychological horror game... then I sincerely urge you to STOP READING. Having played the game after carefully avoiding spoilers, it is well worth your while to give it a shot. The game is free on the Steam store.

BUT ALSO: If you are prone to depression, very sensitive, or easily disturbed... do NOT play this game. You don't need the kind of emotional mindset this game hedges you into. You might not even want to read the rest of this blog entry. Bad things happen. The language and violence is very adult.

That's all the warning you get -- moving on!

I went into playing this game with the scant knowledge that it would become dark and turn into a game unlike its packaging denotes. And for the first hour (for others it was only 30 minutes) it really felt like just another dating simulator game with anime girls and their varying archetypes. Your best friend next door, Sayori, convinces you (the male protagonist) to stop by the Literature Club because she may have promised the others she was bringing someone with her. Feeling guilted, and apparently being a decent-ish person, you agree. With tongue-in-cheek commentary about selling your soul for a cupcake you've been promised at the club, you meet the rest of the girls.

Natsuki, Monika, and Yuri are all very different from each other, and the game makes you hyper-aware of what their archetypes are by how they interact and how they respond to you. You're just along for the ride in this first encounter. Eventually, Monika makes the decision that everyone will write a poem and share it with the rest of the club the next day. (The good news is that you don't actually have to write a poem.)

When you sit down to write your poem, what you're given is a word bank. You click on a word -- and over on the left side of the screen a chibi version of one of the girls will jump, indicating you chose a word that meshes with that girl. Choose enough words for any particular girl and you'll set yourself up for a unique encounter with them the following day. In the interest of playing through the game quickly, I tried to choose words that would span the full range of the girls so I wouldn't have a favorite.

Even though I have zero interest in dating sim games, the dialogue between my protagonist and the girls was captivating. The developers really loaded each girl with a generous helping of unique personality, so as you learn secrets about them it really pulls you into their world. So when one of them commits suicide, it's something you kind of saw coming but didn't expect -- especially not in the intense way the game throws it at you. Your protagonist has a logical response -- he's devastated and inconsolable. You think this is when the game ends, because 'End' pops up on the screen. But if you wait, you are suddenly back at the main menu. The girl who committed suicide is replaced with one of the other girls in the menu art. You start a new game.

The deceased girl has been written out of the script this time, with the game appearing to be pixelated or glitching out where she would have been. This is when everything starts to dive right into darkness. The emotions of the remaining girls go from 1 on the Richter scale to a full-blown 9. The nice dialogue becomes punctuated with cussing and complaints as you play through the seemingly exact same scenario as before. Depending on how you were interacting with the girls, you end up with another dark death -- violent and gory. 

Lo and behold, the one girl you weren't given the opportunity to truly interact with is the one who made things go wrong. Monika, the Club President, is apparently aware that she is a character in a game, and it was driving her mad to see the others get to have time with you. So she drives one to suicide, then tweaks the character files of the other two until they are corrupted and she is forced to delete them. Then... then there is only Monika. ONLY MONIKA.

I know I said this entry was full of spoilers, but I won't spoil the ending of the game for you. I can't bring myself to do it! I will tell you that it involves manipulating the files in your Steam folder. (I hope you know how to do that. But if not, it's okay -- the game really breaks that fourth wall soundly and helps you out.) My only advice is this: The game isn't over until you get scrolling end credits.

There's even merchandise available at the Team Salvato Store if you enjoyed this game as much as I did. Let me know in the comments if you have played it or have questions before you take the plunge! And as always, please help me be a hero for kids if you enjoyed reading!

A Delay: Fools Rush In Where Angels Fear to Tread

Due to unplanned life events in the last week or so, my Feature entry has been delayed. I finished the full play-through of the game this afternoon and could--quite convincingly--write my blog entry with the remaining time I have today.

     If you had played the game I just did, however, you would know 

     that my mind needs time to process what I have experienced. 

Come back in a day or two for the Feature entry if you want to understand, or simply go play Doki Doki Literature Club for yourself. DO NOT Google it or look up videos. DO NOT tarnish this absolute gem by spoiling the story before you play it!

February Feature Forecast

Wait just a moment. Don't roll your eyes! Yeah, it looks like a cutesy, date-all-the-anime-girls visual novel. It's that, but it's also a psychological horror game. People who hate visual novels and manga have positively reviewed this game on Steam. You can't complain -- this was a poll result, after all!

Check back on the 18th for this month's feature entry, or sign up to have it delivered to your e-mail when it's posted!

Humble Partner: Helping Extra Life & Free Games

Yes, this is a promotional blog entry, BUT it's because proceeds support my Extra Life efforts. This is some neat stuff, so I hope you'll still give it a read. (Essentially: Help Extra Life by making purchases with my Humble Partner link, and there are some free games available right now.)

SUPER IMPORTANT INFORMATION: The images in this entry link to the Humble Monthly and the Humble Trove, respectively. My Humble Partner link in the sidebar lets you shop the Humble store and support my Extra Life efforts. The top of the Humble website should thank you for supporting snarkqueen. If not, please come back here and re-click the link. If your browser deletes cookies when it closes, you won't support anything!

If you've never heard of Humble Monthly, let me tell you about this amazing subscription I've had for 2 years now. On the last Friday of the month, Humble charges you $12 (or you can pay less by subscribing for more months at a time!). On the first Friday of the month, that month's Monthly Bundle unlocks -- it's usually 6-10 games, sometimes with DLC, artwork, or music, and it's all yours for just $12. The best part is you can gift the games to others if you already own them.

I've acquired a lot of new, expensive games this way alongside indie gems I never would have known existed. And if you're impatient, you can opt to pay early to get the 1-2 games they offer for early unlock for the following month. You also have access to the Humble Trove games while you're subscribed -- a collection of DRM-free games you can play whenever you want to.

Some of the games I've acquired through the Monthly are:

• ARK: Survival Evolved
• I Am Bread
• South Park: The Stick of Truth
• This War of Mine
• Mad Max
• Dungeon of the Endless
• The Forest
• Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
• Rocket League
• Kentucky Route Zero
• The Banner Saga
• Grim Dawn
• Styx: Master of Shadows
• Stardew Valley
• Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
• Warhammer: Vermintide
• Project CARS
• XCOM 2
• Hollow Knight
• Black Mesa
• Layers of Fear
• Undertale
• Plague Inc: Evolved
• Hyper Light Drifter
• Dark Souls II
• Armello
• War for the Overworld
• Pillars of Eternity
• Killing Floor 2
• Stories Untold
• The Banner Saga 2
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy
• Scanner Sombre
• The Long Dark
• Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition
• ...and many, many others!

That's a pretty sweet deal, isn't it? It's even better for us Humble Partners. If you use my Partner link to subscribe to the Monthly deal, that puts $10 towards me -- and I, in turn, put that towards Extra Life. Between now and February 2nd, there's a bonus deal, too: 10 subscribers will get me a $20 bonus for Extra Life; 50 subscribers will get me a $200 bonus for Extra Life; and over 100 subscribers will get me a $500 bonus for Extra Life. Personally, I'm aiming for 10 subscribers in the next 10 days, if I can. That would result in $120! It'd be nice to kick off the year positively for Extra Life!

Right now, even if you don't have the Humble Monthly subscription, there are FREE GAMES in the Humble Trove -- free for EVERYONE until February 2nd. Go check them out and see what else is in the Trove! They recently added Torchlight and Torchlight II.

January Feature Entry: Antichamber

So, between the bad weather, my bronchitis, and other obligations which will consume my time for the next few days... I'm forced to cheat on my entry about the game Antichamber. The good news is that I HAVE actually played it before, and the even better news is that I have an archived Twitch stream of it. The bad news is that the archived stream is just over 3 years old. At the time, I was in a different relationship, a different state, and I had a very mouthy pet bird in the background the whole time. If that doesn't bother you, please enjoy the video. I rewatched it myself and still agree with everything I said! The last half hour or so even shows me on my webcam. Antichamber is the perfect game for me to share for Brainteaser Month.

Please click this obvious link to go view my
archived Twitch stream about Antichamber!

I will have a lot more time to prepare for next month's Feature entry, so hopefully I won't have to resort to desperate measures like this in the future! Let me know in the comments here on the blog if you enjoy the video, though -- and what you think of the game! If you like the game, right now you can go purchase it for 50% off in the Humble Store -- using my link will also support my Extra Life efforts! Any percent that you send my way during the payment process will be sent to my Extra Life fundraising, no profit to me. Help me be a hero!

Recruiting for 2018!

In case you haven't figured it out, I'm recruiting for my Extra Life team. Want to join?

January Feature Forecast

Check back on the 18th for the month's feature entry, or sign up to have it delivered to your e-mail when it's posted!

New Year, New Plan

I can hardly believe I've been doing this blogging thing for a year now. I've learned a lot, so I'm going to do things a little differently in 2018.

🔸🔹 Mark Your Calendars 🔹🔸

Since it is 2018, I plan to make a lengthy, well-written blog entry on the 18th of each month. Each of these entries will have a theme. If you'd like to help determine those themes, there's a very short poll you can take HERE (you just pick your preference out of different sets of items, it's super simple). I will keep the poll up all year, and it's available on the sidebar on the right (the big question mark box). January and December are not included in the poll. January 18th is fast approaching, so I decided to choose that theme on my own, and in December I want to focus on the annual MMO festivals, game sales, and recap the year.

🔸🔹 [+INT] Intelligence Modifiers Team 🔹🔸

Since it's a new year, it's also time to recruit a new team for Extra Life 2018. I have sent out an e-mail inviting past teammates to register for this year, as well as some gamer friends who have been supportive over the last 5 years of my fundraising efforts. If you'd like to join my team this year, send me an e-mail at GamerReverie@gmail.com and I'll send you the recruitment link to register! There's no pressure to raise money if you're on the team -- just raise awareness and be supportive of your teammates. The team also has a private Facebook group for discussing Extra Life, games, and anything entertaining that is game-related. Past years' teammates stay in the group, so the group will grow over time!

🔸🔹 Freebies For Followers 🔹🔸

I miss giving away free games like I used to, but I don't think SteamGifts is going to be the best way to do it anymore. I may still use it, but I'd like to be able to offer goodies to all of my gaming friends and fans (if they exist) even if they don't have Steam. If you want in on some freebies (games, gift cards, etc.), it would behoove you to visit the sidebar and enter your e-mail address to receive my blog entries in your inbox when they're posted. I will be posting smaller blips more frequently, and the freebies will be one of those things I post about -- and they will be first come, first serve!

🔸🔹 The Humble Partner Called snarkqueen 🔹🔸

That's right, I have a fancy new thing to share with you! If you aren't familiar with the Humble Bundle website, you ought to check it out. They have featured bundles of games, books, comics, software and more in which you pay what you want (obviously you'll pay more to get ALL of the pretty loot available), and part of what you pay goes to charity. You can even decide which charity! That's pretty awesome to start with, but they also have a beta program called Humble Partners which yours truly has signed up for. Partners promote Humble games, bundles, etc. using their own unique link, and a portion of any purchases made during that visit will go to the Partner and their chosen charity. My chosen charity is Extra Life, and any portion that makes its way to me I will be applying directly to my Extra Life donation page. That's right -- snarkqueen is non-profit!

If you are a regular shopper of Humble, or have been considering subscribing to the Humble Monthly bundle (which is a fantastic way to get a lot of games for $12/month), or plan to buy from them in the future, please consider clicking my Partner logo below and saving the link in your favorites. There will be a banner across the top of the page that says you're supporting snarkqueen. You can find this link on the sidebar if you ever need to reference it again.

🔸🔹 The Peanut Gallery 🔹🔸

Please comment and let me know you're there! Pretty, pretty please with sugar on top. I want you to comment on my blog entries this year. Tell me what you think of my entries, or talk about whatever my entries made you think of. Argue with me! Correct my mistakes (without being petty) and help me make this a better blog. Share entries with friends. Follow it. Sign up for e-mails. Join the Facebook group for the blog (here's a link, also to be added to the sidebar soon). I'll do everything I can to promote my blog and raise awareness for Extra Life (except pay Facebook to promote my blog page -- that's just ridiculous). Help me do this #ForTheKids!

We'll Take a Cup of Kindness Yet, For Auld Lang Syne

Somehow, it's been nearly a year since I began this crazy idea to blog about my gaming for Extra Life. I wasn't consistent, and I often had to put my daily real-time needs first (often, that involved passing out for an early bedtime or spending time with my husband). My blog content hasn't been terribly thought-provoking, either -- but I didn't promise it would be. That banner at the top of the page? Yep. I'm still just a terrible gamer playing games to help sick kids. Nothing more, nothing less.

My original fundraising goal for 2017 was $1,000, but I felt discouraged by a lack of donations in the first half of the year and set it back to a modest $500. This meant that I reached my goal, but it's left me feeling rather like a sellout. In 2018, I'm going to set my goal at $1,000 again and I'm going to keep it there. I still won't be able to do any streaming, but I think I'm okay with that.

Before I left Florida, I almost felt a work-like obligation to stream regularly. I was determined to provide a quality stream and I put a lot of my time into the presentation and planning which games I should play. While it was enjoyable, I also think that was bad for me. Y'see, if it isn't obvious to you handful of readers, I rather like my games. I think because they weren't readily accessible to me growing up that I've developed an unhealthy attachment to them in my adulthood. I've bent the habit to a good cause with Extra Life, but the sheer number of games at my disposal is just the other side of ridiculous.

That being said, I'm going to put forth the effort to make solid, well-written blog entries about my gaming in the coming year -- not just to promote Extra Life, but to keep my writing skills sharpened. I'll need help from those of you who read my blog, too. I need you awesome people to start leaving comments. Start up conversations about what I've said, or something you're reminded of by reading the entries. I moderate the comments to keep trolls away, but it doesn't mean I don't want you to say what you want. So this coming year, please let me know what you think about this blog and its entries!

Officially, thank you to all of the kind and generous people who donated on my Extra Life page this year. You helped me raise $533 for the kids at Children's National. I hope you'll help me again in 2018!

I suppose I should mention that I've rounded out my game collection with some more games thanks to Christmas and the Steam sale, so I should be able to offer a little more diversity in my blog entries. Should. We all know I have my favorites. (Don't think at me in that tone of voice -- I'm sure you have your favorites, too!) What do you think I should tackle this coming year? What did you hope to see this year that never came to pass? Let me know in the comments!

Have a safe and Happy New Year, everyone!

Milk & Cookies,
snarkqueen

Tis the Season for Winter Festivals

I'm behind already, but that doesn't mean my handful of faithful readers have to be! I only play a handful of MMOs (and not even all the ones I would like to -- it's hard to keep them all patched), but I decided I should share the dates, times and various details about the upcoming (or in-progress) winter festivals in the games I play.

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RIFT
Fae Yule
Starts: Thursday, December 7, 2017 at 3:30 PM PST (NA) and 3:30 PM UTC (EU)
Ends: Thursday, January 4, 2018 at 3:30 PM PST (NA) and 3:30 PM UTC (EU)

This one has been going for a week now, but you still have another 3 weeks to grind away for rewards. Admittedly not my favorite winter festival in a game, there's still plenty of fun to be had. I particularly enjoy sledding down a hill in Iron Pine Peak, hitting as many snowmen on the way as I can. The fact that you can just keep doing this one over and over is a definite perk. For the completionists among you, I have bad news: unless you grind every single day of the festival and get really lucky, you probably aren't going to get all the achievements done without spending some credits (and real money, by proxy). I'm hopeful I might finally earn the Snow Kirin mount this year, but it hinges on some acquiring of festival pets and then some.

This guide can help you if you're stuck or lost, and it's not missing much even though it's 2 years old (all the games recycle their festival content anyway and simply update the rewards).

Additionally, RIFT has a rather nice Festive Fae Yule Pack this year -- if you compare the cost of the items in the store to the $19.99 it costs, it's a fantastic deal. I recommend it to those of you who don't have the included souls unlocked yet. You won't find a better price for them! And the booster is nice if you're tired of the leveling grind. (Trion, a pox on you for ruining the way we used to get through that last stretch of levels before 65. It's now torture. You hear me?!)

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Guild Wars 2
Wintersday
Starts: Tuesday, December 12th
Ends: Tuesday, January 2nd

Yes, that's a picture of my Charr character, Seda Ashreaver -- and yes, she's wearing the wedding outfit. Deal with it.

I don't actually know anything about the GW2 winter festival, but I read something about... Toypocalypse? I dunno. It's a fun game in the first place, just a pain to keep patched with my limited data. I imagine if you visited some of the mainstream game info websites you'll find out more than what I can provide! Still, it's on my list because I enjoy the game -- and I miss it! It began yesterday, so there's plenty of time to get some goodies.

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Neverwinter
Winter Festival of Simril
Starts: Thursday, December 14 at 7:30 AM PT (PC) and 10 AM PT (Console)
Ends: Thursday, January 4 at 7:30 AM PT (PC) and 10AM PT (Console)

The main attraction for me is the Twilight Run (pictured). You go racing down an icy pathway, sliding around, and you have to beat other racers for bonuses along the way. The really fun part is that there's a window of time when the race is active (they rotate the active events so you are competing against other players) and you keep racing as long as the event is up so your score keeps going up. Top score gets the best loot. It's tough at first, but once you learn the tricks it's a lot of fun.

There's also ice fishing/fighting off undead, then an all-out assault area where you rack up points based on the enemies you take out, plus stargazing for fortunes, and a daily gift. There are also gifts you can spawn for your friends to gather up. I did the grind in this festival a few years ago and earned the adorable Fawn of Shiallia companion which is great for healing you when you're playing solo.

This is my second-favorite winter festival not just because of the loot and bonuses, but also because the area for it is beautiful. If nothing else, check out the atmosphere!

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The Lord of the Rings Online
Yuletide Festival
Starts: 10:00 AM Eastern on Thursday, December 14th
Ends: January 7th

Do you wanna build a snowman? (Ugh, I hate myself for even making that reference!)

Well, you can in LOTRO's Yule festival area. You can make several of them if you only first go and collect the items you need to decorate them with. There's also cleaning up messy tables, defeating icy grims, chopping wood trolls, snowball fights, playing an extra in the theater, eating contests, picking pockets, setting off fireworks, and uncovering the political plot in the wintery tourist town. There are also Yule quests to do back at the main starter cities for the original four races (elf, dwarf, hobbit, man).

Did I mention the XP is fantastic? And did you hear they mentioned having a Winter Elk Mount as one of the festival rewards? Incentive! This festival is my favorite because even though there's a grind, it isn't difficult and most of the tasks are still pretty fun!

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