Naja from Blerdy Otome is such an amazing person. Not only is she a Blerd with a Blog. She is also one of the core team members of OWLS. She is the person we speak to for OWLS business and when I want to ask advice on dating sim gifts for my friends. Now she is even providing me with content for my blog! In the form of telling you which 5 games have had the biggest impact on my life… For those who have been following me for a while .. I bet you can at least guess two of these.. or at least come close. How many can you guess?!
Since I spoke about all five of these in tag posts or regular posts before I decided to make a little game of it! How well do you know me?
For each correct guess you get a point! For each sort of guess… .(when you guess stuff like.. “oh.. that one game… with that weird plumber guy.. whats the name again?) you get a half point! Let me know how well you know me by sharing your score in the comments and receive praise from me!
Here’s what your scores shall mean:
0 Points: Clearly you need to Sign up to this blog to learn more!
1 Point: Congrats you have better memory than a Goldfish!
2 Points: So you actually read my stuff huh?! Sugoi!
3 Points: I am impressed you scored better than most of my IRL friends!
4 Points: I am touched, you actually care! Are we friends now?!
5 Points: You REALLY know me well and you read everything! I love you!
Half points are rounded up.. just be sure to add somewhat to the point sentence where it fits best.
The obvious one
Pokémon Blue & Gold & Everything Else
(Handheld Nintendo thingies)
The girl that started out as a Pokemon Blogger , choosing Pokemon as one of the games that is most influential in her live? No way right?! See if you did not guess I would pick this you clearly have not been reading anything of my content. However picking out a single game is a bit hard. Pokemon is not a single game that has defined me, it is an entire series. that influenced me. Each installment has taught me something new , each game has its own story for me. I told you the story of my first Pokemon game before. Of course my Pokemon love began at Pokemon Blue which was that first game.. but my favorite game .. and the one I went out of my way to get myself.. with my own money in my own time was Pokemon Gold.
Back when it came out there was a game store a couple of times over I’d frequent. It was helmed by a woman .. I think her name was called Patricia.. but I might be misremembering that. She had this little store and we used to talk about games. Even if I was just a kid , we had a similar taste in games. We were both very hyped for the second pokémon game… which was in a time before it was SUPER hyped with global releases. Back then the Gameboy colour was not region locked or at least we could play american games on our handhelds so Patricia.. or maybe her name was Saskia…. ordered American version and she kept one behind for me. So when I found out I could play this game earlier than anyone in the school it blew my mind!
Back then my motor skills had already started to decline noticeably so I did not really have anyone to brag off against as I was being bullied..but still! I spend all of my money on that game and I must have finished it at least 3 times per each starter. This was a game I worked to get, it was the game I earned and it was the game that held me up trough one of the darkest periods. Cyndaquil and Mareep were there for me! But still I do not think that singling out a game in this franchise is possible for me! I love it all.. it’s more than just a video game. It is an experience that for me always meant feeling less lonely.
The Other Obvious One:
Ducktales
(NES)
If you never heard me talk about Ducktales before I am pretty sure you have not read a lot of tag posts. I think I mention this game in nearly every single blog tag I do. When something about music is asked.. ducktales is there as well. As a kid I always moved wonkey and clutzy.. I got therapy for it but it never seemed to get that much better. My crude motor skills weren’t on par with that of a “normal” person. As such I ran more clumsily and could not hide as easily and sports never where any fun for me. As a result I missed out. Both my female friends as my guy friends kind of began to shun me because I wasn’t good at the games they played. To give me something to do that did not get me hurt or alienated my mom and dad tried to let me play some video games. The first games I got were Super Mario Bros 3 and Ducktales.
Ducktales was SUCH a good game and too this day is. Whenever I feel blue I put on that amazing soundtrack or play one of the two versions of that game. It’s just so good! I mostly play the amazon and the moon stage as those are my absolute favorites but I oftenly finish it as well. I think I completed the race to the number one dime so many times that had I actually gotten the dime.. I could pay for the game right now. Playing Ducktales was the first time I felt .. equal to friends who came over.. later even better. Gaming was fine motor skills which where fine for me I could do this like any other normal kid. While gaming I wasn’t any worse and that joy it gave me stuck with me .. and it made me a gamer, that is how I wanted to spend my time. In a way it’s one of the pillars who I am today and that is exactly why it fits here.
The One You Might Remember:
Donkey Kong Country
(SNES)
Donkey Kong Country was one of the first games I was proud on beating. It was a fairly hard game and back then one of the longest games I had played. There was just so much there. Not that much more than a mario game in actuality but there where so much more mechanics to learn to study, mini games to play, things to collect, secrets to discover. Compared to Super Mario World this game very hard. Even the last level of the first world wasn’t anything to be trifled with. The mine card stage in the second world .. had me stuck for almost a year until I managed to beat it (I never said I was good). However there was something so appealing to this game that I wanted to get further. No matter if I wiped in the jungle world, the temple world, the forest world, the ice world, the toxic world or the kremlin country! I game-over’ed sooo many times. I reloaded so many stages and honed my gaming skills with this game. It taught me lessons about perseverance and how to adapt and react more quicker. It made me a better gamer.
Beating Donkey Kong made me experience pride, an emotion I had never really experienced before. I could do something some of my classmates did not. Back then they were still talking to me. While I would not say they respected me for it.. they acknowledged I was good in something. A thing that wasn’t important to them sure..but still. It gave me a sense of Identity. The SNES gamer kid that can beat some pretty though games.. I beat the Lion King on SNES too! It was great to finally be something. This is the point in my life where I became a geek. It might sound very weird to get some self gratification out of something like that but before that I was just “that awkward kid” sure I had good grades but I didn’t do anything for that.. that was just there. I did not study harder as other kids.. in facts most of the time I coasted.. I never knew why other kids hate homework so much because it took no effort. So it did not feel like something I actively defined myself with.. so Donkey Kong and kicking thats game’s ass was the first thing I did.
The one the sharp ones could get:
A Hat in Time
( PC)
I have not been shy about my love for A Hat in Time, the 3d platforming sensational game by Gears for Breakfast. Why this one is important? It pulled me out of a burn out as gamer. It came out at a period I was at my poorest. I had no money to spend on games and what money I did spend on it felt wasted. Every game began to feel the same to me. There was this slog. You had to craft or level even in platformers. Grinding out gear to add playtime, and everything had to be a massive open world, with deep brooding characters.
During the Wii Era I fell of Nintendo like a brick, landing in the xBox 360 camp.. mostly due to it launching with the game Kameo. Even before trying my hand on some more serious games on PS2 and that xBox that was not the upcoming one. Aside from Pokémon I did not really allow myself to play cutezee games. Which was fine for a while. I had fun with Halo , Gears of War, Prince of Persia, the Arkham games and all that sort of stuff. Fallout, Skyrim, etc. Yet they got old to me. Around the time Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn came out.. I thought I was done being a gamer. Yet a little kid brought me back.
Hat Kid made me see that there still was a play for people like me. It just made me return to my old loves. The shooter stuff and the fighter stuff I played because it was popular.. it had elements in it that I liked like a nice story and colourful blips and characters but when they added more and more stuff to make it like the popular games it all lost it’s charm.
Hat Kid reminded me what I actually liked about gaming and brought me back to it. I switched back to platformers like A Hat in Time but also stuff like “The Messenger” , I got Mario Marker and in time even got gifted a switch because that was my style of gaming. I found the sort of games I liked and even if I try to go for those other genres . .like trying another shooter.. I rarely end up finishing those. Yet each Platformer or colourful adventure I touch gets finished. With it’s great Soundtrack, the charismatic Hat Kid herself the unique and super charming levels this game was something I absolutely needed.
The Odd one out:
Star Wars The Old Republic
(PC)
This spot almost went to Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VII the once that let me enjoy narrative games, that in a way started to make me love anime or at least it’s tropes. I emulated Chrono Trigger and rented FF7 for PC. Yet recently I’ve been steering away from that a bit again. I rather play 10 , 10 hour games than a 100 hour game to be honest. Yet there is once game that made me discover so much more about myself. Which fundamentally changed me. It is the game that made me discover Pinkie. It also made me discover sides about myself on fundamental levels though some more in hindsight as others.
It gave me a ton of my life’s missions, catchphrases, style and more. This MMO did this in no way through its own means though. I mean sure it’s a good game, and the story lines were nice.. but this game isn’t important to me because of its core gameplay it shaped me because I adored roleplaying it it. The character I made became a blueprint in ways to how I wanted to live my life. How I thought in some things… behind my “filter” of normalness and it shaped me into the person I am today.
Her name was Sy’ra Delina at the end of my roleplay she was about my age but she started out younger (time moved a bit faster in roleplay in the game unlike for example WoW).Daughter of the Alderaan Noble, Maximilian Delinda and his evil sith wife Ragnya. Sy’ra was unbeknownst to her father and herself .. bred by Ragnya to eventually be the host of her new body. After her mother murdered her father Sy’ra was shipped to Tatooine, where she was beaten every day and tortured to break her mind. She would be taken out into a cave and beaten bloody. At the end of the day she had to walk through the desert back to the house if she wanted to get dinner. (Her mother tried to feed her hatred believing it would make her stronger in the force) .
As soon as se left the caveSy’ra saw her blood fall in the white sands and mix into pinkish like crystals. A symbol to her that she would be safe for at least a few hours. No pain and she could get stuff like food.. that still at least made her a bit happy. And so Sy’ra would take this lesson and later become “ The Pink Sith” Sy’ra was inspired to be different. Like for me how bullying ended each day after the school bell and how the sound mellows me out still.
After a whole incident with her mother that made Sy’ra lose her mind for a bit.. and other people fixing it she discovered she had a niche to offer in the world of the Sith. The Power of Friendship. While she did offer genuine friendship Sy’ra would never really get into friendships with liabilities or people who made her weak.She carefully picked her allies using her positivity to gain powers well beyond her level. This usually involved other players as well. While many classic Sith players despised how different she was, every honest GM had to acknowledge what happened was fair. Through the power of friendship and positive thinking Sy’ra made a big impact on roleplay guilds the character was in. In the end she became so powerful not trough fighting but because of the bonds she had become untouchable. Those who wished to harm her would have to face an army of pissed of Darths and Lords.
Unfortunately the camp that hated me was much more personal friends with the GM. and they told me I could either choose to retire the character.. where people would think of her as a friend.. or I would have people begin to resent for no real rp reason but because the character had to much influence in the guild.. even if it was legit.. I had outplayed the other side so much that I had t leave or be reset.
So Sy’ra took her leave from the organisation she was part of , to raise her daughter and go rescue an old friend and with the bonds she had build she would live her happily ever after still. Sy’ra left on her own terms and with her own words. She would have friends for life which people seemed to agree on. Guildless roleplay really burned out for me fast unfortunately but I fondly think back at the character I wrote. Pink, happy, keen on giving everyone advice who needed it. I discovered it is okay to be different and I became more confident in being different. TOR came at a time where I was at my sickest. It was my way to socialise and to have bonds. Based on how Sy’ra gave advice.. people came to ask it to me in real life as well. People feel at ease with me to share deeper things and I loved that role. Not only Sy’ra mattered I mattered. I wasn’t just an invisible person….which really mimicked why I liked pink so much. So Sy’ra is me and I am Sy’ra, one with limitations and one without and the way I want to live my life now is right in the middle of those! Reaching beyond my limits, but little at a time. Slowly..like a drill… piercing the heavens…
So how many of these did you guess correctly? How many points did you score? What are the games that influenced your life? I will not tag anyone as I don’t know who of my readers are big gamers.. most of you focus on anime, so I will open this to anyone! If you REALLY want to be nominated consider yourself nominated if you earned at least 2 points in the game! That way you still earn it on your own accord! Remember I love you all.. I just love those who had a bigger score more now! Keep smiling and stay positive!
XO
Pinkie
Thanks again to Naja! So my dear readers please click the Blerdy Orange Crush to visit her blog!
Pinkie's Paradise 