I can’t believe a year has flown by since I started blogging for LadiesGamers.
Living in Japan, I was feeling a little lonely for gaming friends. I had close female friends in college with mutual hobbies, but now we were an ocean apart. We Skyped a few times a year but no longer played games together since none of us were online gamers.
So I wished I could meet face-to-face with a female friend with mutual interests like gaming, reading, and writing – and who also spoke English!
Hello, ladies! (and gentlemen too)
I stumbled across LadiesGamers while looking at online communities. The blog owner (Yvonne) seemed friendly, genuine, and (lol) a sane person. I was impressed that she had blogged so faithfully for years. I sent her a message on Facebook, and we got talking about our interest in blogging. Being the nice person she is, Yvonne asked if I’d like to get practice at blogging by writing a guest post for LadiesGamers.
That’s how it all started.
So I didn’t meet that “ideal” friend face-to-face, but I’ve managed to experience other things I hoped for. Like an outlet for talking about games and practice in blogging.
And more: I didn’t expect to have the privilege of reviewing new games on the market, not to mention pre-release. Yvonne has done an amazing job of contacting publishers for review codes. Because of this I was introduced to wonderful games I would not have played otherwise.
Reviewing indie games
More specifically, I was introduced to the world of indie games. Now, it’s not like I’ve never played an indie game in my life. But I had never stopped to think about what an indie game really is or means. I had never appreciated the hard work of small independent studios and the labor of love their creations are. A confession: my general view of indie games – a very uninformed one – was that they were hardly in the same league as AAA games.
I have come to revise my view, after realizing that I can enjoy and love indie games as much as big-name AAA titles. My respect for independent developers and interest in the challenges they face grew.
Likewise, I had more appreciation for reviewers. While I’ve been an avid reader of game reviews since my tweens, I never wrote one until recently. Another realization that hit me was that writing reviews on a private, personal blog for myself was different from writing for a wider audience of strangers.
It’s not easy to comprehensively evaluate different elements of a game while also being organized, clear, engaging, fair, etc. in the analysis. Have I described the game sufficiently to unfamiliar readers? Or perhaps, have I over-described the game and not included enough of my assessment? When reviewing, how can I offer criticism in a way that is actually useful to the reader and maybe even the developer?
So, reviewing for LadiesGamers has been both good writing practice and a nice mental challenge. Plus, it’s broadened my horizons of what’s out there in the gaming world! Thanks for opportunity, Yvonne. And thanks, fellow reviewers, for introducing cool new games to me 😊
