LadiesGamers.com is celebrating its 10-year anniversary on April 25th, 2024! A whole decade! As I mentioned in the Survey 10 Years of Gaming Fun that we published this week, I started a blog in 2014 to jot down my constant stream of thoughts about gaming. It wasn’t the first blog I had, mind you. I think the first ever one was from 2009, but this one has stuck. I had no idea, however, that it would lead to this. A site that has a clear niche, a dedicated team of volunteers and two older women at the helm who are passionate about taking care of ‘our baby’ as we jokingly call the site.
Top Game of the Past Decade
One of the questions in the Survey is to make a top 3 of the favourite games from the last 10 years. If you have been a regular reader to the site, you won’t be surprised at my number 1 choice….Animal Crossing! It is the game that got me into playing video games in the first place, and it’s been a constant for me ever since.
In the past decade, it was New Leaf first, that came out in November 2012. But by the time LadiesGamers started, I was doing what I always do, dive in from time to time to check up on my town and my villagers. I even had two towns going. The 3DS was region-locked, so I had one for my European 3DS and one for my American one.
In November 2016 we got an exciting update to New Leaf, one that we had looked forward to for a long time. It wasn’t the much wished-for Switch version, but we did get a lot of extra content. I wrote it all down in this article; It’s nice reading as a trip down memory lane!
In October 2017, we got our mobile version, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp. It was nice for a while, but not what we really wanted—one for the newly released Nintendo Switch!
The Star of the Decade: New Horizons
I know, I talk about Animal Crossing: New Horizons often. And I’m sure many of you have seen all there is to see in the game, and collected everything there is. But I didn’t, so diving back in from time to time is still very enjoyable.
With the game released at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of gamers had ample time to play it during lockdowns. It was a huge success, even with people who never played video games before. For me though, I had just started a new job, and my company had promptly made sure we had all the technical means to work from home. I spent long days working while many people were bored and silly with life at a standstill.
That also meant I really didn’t have enough time to design my island and enjoy all the new things to discover. I had to take it much more slowly. The good thing is that I still tackle new projects on parts of my island that haven’t had any work done from the start!
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise
Several updates to Animal Crossing New Horizons later, we also got DLC in the form of Happy Home Paradise in November 2021. A great game in its own right, but also a wonderful addition to New Horizons. It hugely multiplied the furniture and other items too huge for decorations. It also ultimately led to being able to design the rooms of the islanders who live with you in New Horizons.
No surprise, with me taking it slow in New Horizons, that I hadn’t reached that point in Happy Home Paradise yet either. Well, I can tell you that I did this week! All the facilities are done, and I’ve decorated 30 vacation homes. And you know what? Sure, you have to love decorating homes for clients of Lotties, but if you do, there’s even more gameplay in there. For example, you can still find a bottle with a recipe daily on Paradise Beach. When I walked in one day, Nat was teaching us about bugs at the school. After which, I could adorn vacation homes’ gardens with butterflies as well. Nice!
Of course, the Animal Crossing series has been my favourite of the past decade! Just trigger me, and I can talk about the games until the cows come home. Have you noticed? Sure you had; thanks for reading! And don’t forget to fill out your own survey!