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Stardew Valley: A Landmark for LGBT+ Gaming Representation

The video assignment that inspired me to make this post!

Stardew Valley, on its surface, is a very simple game. You come across a deed to your grandfather’s farm, and decide to move out of the city and away from your crappy office job to start your life anew. You grow crops that change with the seasons, sell them for money, raise livestock, and live out your dream of relaxing in the rural country side. However, underneath this super simple premise lies a deep, rich, and complex story, with different intertwining threads that make up the collective personality and community of Stardew Valley.

It’s also a place where things like bigotry and horrible viewpoints contained in our real world just don’t exist – the most offensive thing that can happen in this game is an older grandpa telling you he doesn’t like how you loiter around the town, or if you accidentally gift your neighbor a piece of trash, and that’s about it. It’s a place where you can change your appearance at the drop of a hat, and express yourself however you please. Most importantly, it’s a place where you can fall in love with whoever you choose, no matter what gender you select at the start of the game. This game allows you to be unapologetically you, and it doesn’t care about who you are, what you identify as, or where you’re from.

As someone who is openly queer, representation is a huge battle the LGBT+ community fights for everyday. We strive to just be seen as normal people, not some tragic love interest that gets killed off for the sake of plot, or an oversaturated perception of outdated stereotypes. Whenever it’s made public that a new movie or TV show will have a queer character make an appearance, ignorant people see it as shoving a “homosexual agenda” in their faces, when in reality we’ve been force fed horrible heteronormative plot lines for much, much longer. In video games, it’s sadly not very different. Even in the world of farming games like Harvest Moon, one of the main inspirations for Stardew Valley, you could only marry male characters if you played as a female, and vice versa. You couldn’t even customize your character; you were just stuck with whatever cutesy model that was assigned to you.

This brings us back to Stardew Valley. Stardew Valley is a game that doesn’t “force” you into any particular camp when it comes to who you love. You organically build a relationship with all the different characters over your time living in their community. You learn about their likes and dislikes, their hobbies and interests, and even their goals and aspirations outside of this tiny rural town. You start to learn each character’s unique daily routine that changes with the seasons, and you can even do favors for them and bring them certain crops or other items they may need. Stardew Valley is simply a game about exploring at your leisure, taking the time to enjoy every second of everyday, and get to know everyone at your own pace.

This is exactly why Stardew Valley is a huge step in the right direction for queer representation: with the friendly environment and the fact you can take everything at your own pace, it’s easier to feel safe to express yourself how you want to be truly seen, and to love who you want to without fear of judgement. LGBT+ people’s lives are constantly put in danger simply by the act of being their true selves, with significantly higher rates of being bullied, discriminated against or abused, and along with that the rate of suicides in LGBT+ youth are up to three times higher than that of their straight peers. The world is not safe for LGBT+ people by any means, even with the fact we’ve made significant progress within the last 10-20 years.

This is why I love Stardew Valley so much. It can provide a safe environment for those who feel pressured to hide away their true selves from society and those they’re close to. It’s a get away from the horrible world queer people have to face on a day to day basis. It’s a place where they can be safe, and most importantly, it’s a place where they can love and be loved, unconditionally.

To be honest, I could go on for hours about the other types of amazing representation in this game, especially outside LGBT+ characters. There’s Kent, a war veteran father who you don’t meet until you’ve gone through your first year of farming, who struggles with PTSD and trying to adjust back to civilian life with a loving wife and two sons. There’s Shane, a struggling depressed alcoholic trying to get by in his day to day life, who loves to take care of rare blue chickens and his goddaughter, Jas. There’s Alex, the classic jock football player who dreams of playing in a professional league, and also lives with his grandparents since both of his own parents tragically passed away a few years before. There’s Haley, a know-it-all popular girl with a secret love for photography, and a deep love for her great grandmother, who she has a bracelet from that she keeps on her at all times. The character development in this game is outstanding, and this barely even scratches the surface of what incredible stories hide beneath this game’s easy-going surface.

So I guess, in summary, Stardew Valley isn’t just an important game for LGBT+ youth. It’s a game for people in all walks of life, with all types of issues, to come together and feel safe and happy, and feel valid with adequate and accurate representation.

And really, who could ask for more than that.

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blog review Uncategorized

DigiDive Dissertation: A Semester in Review!

So! The school year has finally come to an end, all be it a really weird and unexpected one, but an end none the less. Throughout the semester and having this blog to tend to and run, I think it’s appropriate to look back on the time I’ve spent curating content and what I could’ve done differently.

For one thing, I wish I had a more consistent upload schedule with my blog posts. I feel like it was really common for other people with their blogs to rush their assignments on the due date and publish them all at once (like I’m doing with this current assignment ironically), so it would’ve been nice to have some sort of scheduling with posts rather than throwing them up last minute. I most likely could’ve promoted my content way better through posting my content in the communities that care about this content, like if I had promoted my posts in specific subreddits or hashtags that corresponded to my post’s topics.

My best experience was definitely getting to write about something that I’m passionate about, especially in a blogging format! I love writing stories but have mainly kept my writing skills to strictly fiction, so stepping out of my comfort zone to write about real topics was a great exercise for my inner writer. It made me feel awesome to write about these unique experiences I have with gaming and gaming-related topics, and to be able to share that with the world through my blog! I can definitely implement these experiences in my future job, since I fully plan on becoming a copywriter or social media manager in the advertising world! Being able to write about real topics, do the necessary research, and make it compelling and easy to read is a skill I think everyone should have, but especially so for me in the line of work I plan to go into.

As far as actual statistics, it looks like my most popular week was from February 17th to February 23rd, with a total of 49 views and 22 visitors. It looks like my most popular post of the semester was my intro post with 47 views. Kind of odd considering it was my first post, but it was most likely because your intro post is a super important one to have! Especially since this one set the ideas for what people would expect of my blog. It’s just kind of a surprise that my intro post is my most popular, and it kind of makes me feel bad that I’ve veered away from strictly gaming news and more into personal essays around certain things in video games or in the gaming community.

Either way, I this blog was super fun to run, and I loved being able to have something to come back to as easy going and fun school work this semester. It also makes me happy this class adapted so well with the crazy Corona move to online classes, and was super easy to work with since my life got pretty crazy with quarantine. In the end, I can only hope everyone else enjoyed my work just as much as I did writing it.

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mega man Recommendation video game music Video Games

The Prowess of The Protomen!

A fantastic example of how combining popular video game culture and music is a creative powerhouse unlike any other.

The Protomen performing live in Austin on February 28th, 2020.

Video games have quickly become one of the most popular forms of creative storytelling within the past few decades. With so many ideas and stories to be put into a playable experience, along with a wide range of genres and depth, it’s no wonder how they’ve become a major source of inspiration and creativity for many people. From artists using popular characters as models for their drawings, to people creating their own original characters within those universes to write their own takes on a franchise. I’ve certainly used video games as an inspiration in my life, most recently for smaller pieces of writing I’ve been working on for the better half of quarantine. However, I’d like to argue that no one has meshed their own creative pursuits with a passionate love for video games more than the band known as The Protomen.

The Protomen are an incredible eight-person ensemble dedicated to telling the story of the Mega Man series, but with a super dark and gruesome twist. Through their self titled album, as well as its later-released prequel, Act II: The Father of Death, the story follows Doctor Thomas Light and his pursuit to free himself and the world of its corrupt overlord and his former colleague, Doctor Albert Wily. It also follows the story of Mega Man and the trials he faces in fighting for justice, as well as his wrestling with his own self-consciousness and where he truly stands in the fight for freedom as a robot himself. With a beautiful blend of 80’s-inspired synths, intense sound production, and amazing storytelling, they weave an intricate tapestry with powerful reoccurring themes such as love, loss, corruption, betrayal, revenge, and above all, hope.

The band came to be from a group of college friends in Middle Tennessee State University’s recording program in 2003. What had started as a simple track recording class project later became their first official song, Due Vendetta, which then became a smash hit upon official release. This resulted in the writing and completion of the rest of their first album throughout their senior year. They went on to continue from their Nashville HQ post-graduation, and along with members coming and going throughout the years, they’ve become a huge success, and a well known name in the Mega Man community. They were even at one point personally invited to perform at San Diego Comic-Con by CAPCOM, the company that created Mega Man way back in 1987. They’ve taken their grim fairy tale of robots and revolution across the United States, and even across the world, inspiring crowds with their amazing rock n’ roll attitudes.

Though the band comes from humble roots and has been around since I was basically a toddler, I only learned about them within the last year or so. As an avid storyteller myself, I was drawn into the band’s concept as a rock opera group, something I had never really heard of before. And while I’m certainly no expert in Mega Man lore, I’m still a massive nerd who can appreciate the hard work and fantastic storytelling they provide through their albums. I was thankful enough to get to see them perform live in Austin at the end of February, along with the band TWRP, right before the Corona virus pandemic really kicked off. At the time I didn’t know many of their songs, but as I watched them on stage and saw how much energy and life they put into their performance, it made me want to know their lyrics and their story.

A signed poster someone from the VIP section gave to me at the Austin concert I attended. The first eight figures are the members of The Protomen, followed by TWRP.

Thankfully with the time I’ve spent in quarantine, listening to their music has helped feed my creative engine that’s severely lacked fuel while being cooped up inside. It’s also brought me a lot of joy and energy to hear the lead singers Raul Panther and Gambler Kirkdouglass’s amazing voices scream about robot anarchy in my ears for hours on end (not to mention I recently hurt my neck while jamming out to the band’s amazing cover of Mr. Roboto off of their 80’s cover album).

While I would normally end a blog post like this by linking to the band’s socials (which I will still totally do here and here) or simply recommending their music, I would mainly like to draw attention to something they’re currently offering on their online merch store. While they were on tour with TWRP, their hometown of Nashville was hit by a huge tornado, one that destroyed lots of properties and homes, and even a former concert venue they had performed at earlier on tour. They were initially going to host a huge benefit concert once the tour ended, but of course the Corona virus pandemic made it virtually impossible to do so. So, to compensate, the Protomen have released a limited run shirt, one where all of the proceeds will go to Hands On Nashville, a charity dedicated to tornado and COVID-19 relief to help the local communities get back on their feet. I highly recommend to check it out and purchase one if you’re interested and are able to, since it’s a very good cause, and you also get a sick piece of merch out of it. I’ll link the merch here, as well as a direct link to donate to Hands On Nashville if you still want to help but might not have the means to spend that kind of money.

Together, we can only hope to show the people of Nashville that hope doesn’t ride alone.

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animal crossing Game Reporting Recommendation Video Games

The Most Crucial Game of 2020 Is Already Out…

And it’s certainly not what you think.

How our calendars look now thanks to Corona Virus.

I know people are probably sick and tired of hearing about COVID-19 (and that I already talked about it in one my previous posts), but we all can agree it has significantly changed our lives, for better or worse. Whether you see the glass as half empty or half full is up to you, but it’s nice to try and take a moment to appreciate the good showing in dark times like these. (I also promise that this does relate to video games, you just gotta stick with me here.)

For me, like most other college students, I got an almost insufferably huge gain in the amount of free time I had, and was trying to get back into old hobbies that had fallen at the wayside of my busy student life. One of those was listening to podcasts, so I went on Spotify and put on one while I was cooking lunch at some point during quarantine. I didn’t think it was going to be anything remarkable – it was a podcast called The Besties, a video game review podcast hosted by four people who are currently working or have worked in the video game journalism industry. I had happened to pick the episode about the newest Animal Crossing, since that’s been what’s consuming 99% of my new found free time, but what they talked about besides their typical jokes and critiques really blew me away.

For those who don’t know, Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out on March 20th, just two weeks after the first confirmed US case of COVID-19 was announced. This date had been set in stone for a year or two since Nintendo had set it back for additional development, and of course no one back then could have ever predicted a pandemic consuming the world in such a short period of time. Fans had been waiting for this game since the previous mainline release in 2014, but in the entire six years of waiting for this game, no wait was more agonizing than the week leading up to its release. Fans were begging on twitter for an early release, mainly in response to most towns, states, and even countries beginning their descent into social distancing and lock down measures. The game still came out on time on the 20th however, and that’s when everything changed astronomically.

According to Justin McElroy of the Besties podcast, he mentioned that from early numbers being shown, Animal Crossing is predicted to sell 2.5 million units in Japan alone (which has been seemingly confirmed by the 1.88 million that’s already been sold). The game has been bigger than any Switch release so far, beating the former holder of the title, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, who was at 1.23 million units sold. Not only that, but there had been nearly 400,000 Nintendo Switch consoles sold (again in Japan alone) in last week of post-release, also outselling their all-time best selling console, the Wii. Even without complete numbers from other countries, it is assured that this game will be a massive hit around the globe, but when you look past the numbers of sales and people playing the game, you really begin to see the magic Animal Crossing has captivated our current world with.

For those unfamiliar with the series, in this version of the game you own a private island that you can decorate to your liking. You also have cute animal villagers as your neighbors, as well as other helpful NPCs that can guide you through tasks or help you with changes you want to make. There’s also a small airport on every island, allowing players who have purchased Nintendo’s online service to connect to the internet and fly to visit other players islands on their friend lists. There’s even a keyboard pop up to type out messages, and little emotes you can learn from your local villagers to express yourself in game. People in their time of isolation are now thriving with this game, with friends, couples, and families being reunited over long distances and quarantines with this amazingly adorable platform – even I’ve made some long lost connections myself.

In one case, I have a friend named Ike who I’ve known essentially forever. We’ve known each other since we were about 14 or 15 years old, and we used to always play Animal Crossing: New Leaf together almost constantly. Ike sadly lives in New Jersey, while I live in Texas, and we’ve always connected for our love of the game and messing around in our respective little towns. Once we both got to college we didn’t really talk much, up until recently when New Horizons was, well, on the horizon. We talked for the first time in years, and now we talk even more regularly and play together on our islands, as if nothing had changed at all. While the game has certainly evolved and improved significantly, it’s also brought one of the people I hold near and dear to my heart back into my life again.

My friend Ike and I in Animal Crossing, 4 years apart.

Of course, you can just imagine, with this being one of the many reconnections I personally have made, just think about how many old reunions and even new friends this game has brought to the millions of active players stuck in their homes. And now, as Animal Crossing is fulfilling its fate to be a gigantic hit in the world’s most crucial time of need, Griffin McElroy (also of the Besties Podcast) seems to put it best; “I genuinely do think [Animal Crossing: New Horizons] is going to be a very sort of special game in the pantheon of all games ever made, just because of what it’s doing for us right now.”

So, go call your loved ones, text your friends, and try your best to reconnect with someone you may have lost touch with. You never know what amazing things could happen in a time like this.

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blog review Game Reporting Introduction Recommendation Video Games

Blog Review – DigiFish Game Reviews

For my first blog review assignment, I decided to go local with my blog of choice, so let’s dive into DigiFish Game Reviews!

Run by fellow Texas State student Cole Nguyen, DigiFish is a blog idea that caught my eye under the class #FDOM20 hashtag on twitter. DigiFish prides itself on being the best blog around for video games reviews, but they are certainly not your typical pieces of criticism. They solely focus on one simple concept: fishing mechanics in different types of game! From Stardew Valley to NieR: Automata (which I didn’t even know had a fishing mechanic), this blog analyzes the intricate fishing mechanics on a set of criteria set by Nguyen himself, and then is given an overall score out of 10. However, now it’s time for the reviewer to be the reviewed.

DigiFish’s overall aesthetic is adorably and rather appropriately fish-themed, and while there are not many blog posts at the moment to read, they’re still super engaging and wholesome as far as reviews go. They’ve already done one over one of my personal favorite games, Stardew Valley, and even gave it a pretty sizable score! I admire how much effort he seems to have put in with the graphics in his articles, and in the Stardew one in particular. There are small gifs showing the fishing process in the game from start to finish, and it’s very well put together. Now granted I’ve already played Stardew Valley for many, many hours, but I’m sure if someone hadn’t played this before and came across this article, the mechanics would still be easy to understand in Nguyen’s writing.

In his intro blog post, Nguyen explains his choice to make a blog solely about video game fishing mechanics:

“I decided to start a blog about these two things because I personally have not seen anything like this. These two hobbies seem vastly different and some people may say that any fishing mini-game is boring, but for some reason I love them!”

Cole Nguyen of DigiFish Game Reviews

Overall, the only criticism I would have of this blog is the lack of content! Although I do understand how this quarantine has thrown everyone (including myself) for an odd and horrifying loop as we all try to find normalcy in our current circumstances. However, I do know he has a copy of the latest Animal Crossing game, so I can only hope he does a review on its fishing mechanics soon.

For now you can keep up with his blog and himself on twitter @ColeDNguyen below, and keep an eye out for a possible blog review from him of yours truly. Feel free to send him game recommendations with fishing mechanics to review as well!

https://twitter.com/ColeDNguyen
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Recommendation streaming

The Power of Streaming, And Why We Need It More Than Ever

How streaming services like Twitch are bringing people together during the Corona Virus Pandemic.

Ross O’Donovan of Game Grumps and animation fame streaming on twitch. (I’m actually watching this as I write this article!)

So…here we are; three months into 2020 and the world already seems to be falling apart. The Corona virus, or COVID-19 (you can find more information here from the CDC), has been running rampant throughout the world, causing people to migrate indoors as a caution to not spread this already infectious virus. With businesses and restaurants shutting down, schools and college campuses migrating to online classes, and grocery store isles of toilet paper and sanitizers left empty, social distancing is now slowly but surely becoming the new norm – and with it comes the feelings of communal loneliness and absolute boredom.

But boredom is not the worst of the problems we face in this pandemic. Many people are being laid off from their jobs, though some are lucky enough to only be temporarily moved and work from the comfort of their own home. There are sadly some that are even forced to come into work, risking catching the virus to simply earn a living wage and support themselves and their families during this awful time.

However, not many people realize that there’s a new, unlikely hero in our midsts to conquer our boredom during quarantine, and possibly even help those who are financially struggling – streaming services! Though not the ones like Netflix or Disney+, but rather Twitch* (and other sites like it).

*as a note for this article, I am mostly focusing on Twitch, since it’s the platform I have the most experience with.

For those not familiar, Twitch is a streaming platform where people can, well, live stream any type of content on their computer for the world to see. It’s mainly a place for streaming video games, but you can really stream anything from arts and crafts, to digital art, or even just a plain old face cam to chat with an audience. Each stream shows how many viewers are watching, has a live chat where people can talk with each other as well as the streamer, and there’s also options to follow and/or subscribe to the person streaming, so you can get notifications of when they go live and show them your support.

Twitch, and other platforms like it, have now risen to the challenge of helping everyone get through quarantine without human interaction, at least on the physical level. With the wide variety of content streamed on the site daily, and the huge array of streamer personalities and celebrities, it’s no wonder why so many people are hopping on the hype train of watching, or even starting their own streaming channels.

For example, one of my favorite bands of all time is an 80’s themed modern techno band named Tupperware Remix Party, or TWRP for short. Their lead singer, under the pseudonym Doctor Sung to protect his identity, streams on a pretty regular basis on Twitch, and even more so now that everyone in the L.A. area where he lives is on strict lockdown. I managed to get super lucky while watching a stream of his, and asked for his permission to use screenshots or clips from the stream as an example of streaming bringing people together. Thankfully, he was more than happy to oblige!

To paraphrase; Sung said he’d noticed that it’s now much harder to get hands on even entry level streaming gear, and how most sellers are currently sold out since people are simply taking up streaming out of boredom or an increase in free time. He even called this phenomenon “the golden age of streaming.” (Here’s the full clip, as well as a link to his Twitch channel!)

Whether this truly turns out to be the “golden age” of streaming, or just a passing phase while the world is locked up in their rooms with nothing better to do, you can’t deny the positive impact streaming has had on its viewers, as well as the streamers themselves, during this harsh epidemic. Just a few days ago, Doctor Sung decided to mix things up and livestream a full work out session, free of charge, along with his typical video game shenanigans. Me, being the super fan I am, tagged along and worked out for the first time since my quarantine had started. It was so fun to connect with one of my favorite singers, along with other viewers in the live chat who either worked out along side me, or were just watching for the fun of it. There was a sense of community and love for his content and spunky personality, whether people were already fans of his other projects, or were just now joining to see a funny buff guy with what looks like a traffic cone on his head play video games.

Doctor Sung and his dog, Gooby, streaming live on Twitch.

But of course, Twitch isn’t just a place for gaffs and goofs – it’s also a great platform to support amazing creators you love, especially during a scary time where people are losing their sources of income at an alarming rate. You can send then a number of things on a Twitch stream to send them a message they can read besides the live chat, whether it’s donating Bits (Twitch’s in-house currency), or donating actual money.

Doctor Sung has been an advocate across all social media to uplift musicians, who were a surprisingly hit the worst in this pandemic. Concerts and tours are being cancelled, so many musicians like Sung have come to streaming to continue their craft and try to stream in some helpful revenue. With this, even with the same stream as I spoke of before, someone decided to randomly donate $50 to Sung out of the kindness of their heart. People were even wishing Sung well wishes in a previous stream, where he was worried he might’ve contract the virus while on a previous tour, thus locking himself in quarantine. The love that comes from these live chats is incredibly uplifting, and heartwarming to see in these scary times.

This also doesn’t even begin to mention how streaming is also an amazing platform to support incredible charity work – famous creators like Markiplier and Jacksepticeye have donated hundreds of thousands, probably even millions of dollars in total, to different charities of their personal/fans choosing through semi-regular charity live streams.

Overall, Twitch is an amazing platform to be on at this time in our seemingly darkest of days. No matter what kind of stream you watch, who’s streaming, or who else is watching, there’s always a fun, meaningful sense of community and togetherness, and that’s really what we all need in these scary, isolating times. I can only hope this inspires some people to take up watching streams on a more regular basis, or maybe even try streaming themselves! And who knows – check in on your favorite creators social media, and you might just be surprised at how many already have some sort of streaming platform somewhere on the internet.

As a final note, here is a list of some of my favorite streams to watch on Twitch that I didn’t get to mention in my article, and feel free to leave your own suggestions in the comments below! Happy streaming, and stay safe out there!

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animal crossing Game Reporting Gaming Tips Recommendation Video Games

The Animal Crossing Nintendo Direct: What You Need to Know!

  • We’ve been starved for so long, but it’s finally here!

At long long last, the great Nintendo gods have blessed us gamers with the best news ever: a brand new Nintendo Direct solely dedicated to Animal Crossing updates.

With the game’s launch creeping ever closer on March 20th, we’ve only seen glimpses of the game through tiny trailers, where desperate fans micro-analyze every frame for new information. (Don’t believe me? Here’s a reddit post from 4 months ago with people getting excited that the player characters were getting more detailed knees. No joke.) Now, with the Direct having taken place on February 20th, we finally got a closer look as to what the final product will look like, and with it comes a huge surplus of information to cover.

If you want to watch the whole direct, here’s a link to the official video on Nintendo’s youtube channel, but I’m here to highlight my top five new features mentioned, so let’s get into it!

Highlight #1: Choosing where you (and your villagers) place your home!

That’s right ladies and gents, we’re starting off super strong with being able to actually pick where your villagers live. This is an Animal Crossing first, and for any person who’s even remotely familiar with the series can understand the pain of an unwanted villager moving into a special spot of rare flowers, or in the way of a homemade path that you worked so tirelessly to place. This is already super revolutionary since it’s been such a long time complaint across the entire series. All you have to do is just talk to the villager, get them to hand you their tent, and set it up how and where you please! You can also move your own tent anywhere you like, wherever you like, even when you upgrade to a house! Don’t feel like living by the beach anymore? Did you get an annoying villager you don’t like and want to move them to the other side of the island so you never have to see them again? The possibilities are endless!

Highlight #2: Decorating your space just got a huge makeover!

In Animal Crossing games of old, classic players will know the struggle of having to constantly push around, put away, take out and twirl furniture manually to get it just right, whether it was for your own aesthetic purposes, or to get that premium score from the Happy Home Academy. Well, worry and fuss no more, because Animal Crossing New Horizons will be the newest main line game to receive the Happy Home Academy treatment. The HHA game was a fun spin-off that came with a whole new way to decorate and customize houses, and yes, New Leaf technically did get this as an update, but it looks so well polished in the clips shown for New Horizons that I can’t wait to become my own personal interior designer once more.

Highlight #3: Island Tours 2.0!

For those familiar with Animal Crossing New Leaf, this may sound familiar to you. In New Leaf you could pay Kapp’n a few thousand bells to go to a special island, where you could go alone or meet with people online, and catch special bugs and fish that aren’t readily available on the mainland. In New Horizons however, it certainly earns the title of 2.0. You pay with Nook Miles instead of just bells, and you go on a plane to a random island of the new dodo pilots Wilbur and Orville’s choosing (fun fact: while I was writing this I realized they named the dodo brothers after the two men who invented the airplane, and it’s absolutely adorable.). There you can explore the whole island to your hearts content, finding cool bugs and fish, buried treasure, and even other villagers that you can bring home to live on your island! And the best part: it’s never the same island twice, so it’s always a fun and fresh experience. It’s the best upgrade for a getaway from a getaway.

Highlight #4: You can change the ENTIRE STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY of your island.

Now of course, this was advertised as something further down the line gameplay wise in the Direct, so you’ll have to put in quite a few long nights to get this feature in game, but I can guarantee it’s totally worth it. Players can get a Builder’s Permit, allowing them access to tools to not only pave pathways like games of old (with a new spin of course), but also to change the layout of the island itself. You can place land and water wherever you see fit. Suddenly want to have a moat around your house? Done. Want to have a convenient river crossing, but don’t want to sink hard-earned bells into a building a bridge? Just throw down some dirt and you’re good to go! Want to make a romantic waterfall appear out of thin air? Absolutely! The world – or island I should say – is your creative oyster for you to explore and build upon – or destroy.

Highlight #5: Amiibo Support CONFIRMED!!

Now for someone who’s a causal fan or new to the Animal Crossing series, this may not seem like a big deal, but as someone who loves collecting things related to their interests and will take any and all excuses to sink more money into it, I am absolutely thrilled! The physical amiibo figures never got much love from the the game they were released with, the infamous Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival for the WiiU, but now they will hopefully take up their rightful place in the spotlight (and on my shelf for that matter). There’s also mention of the amiibo trading cards working with the game as well, but in a more familiar way. Similar to Animal Crossing New Leaf, players can build a campsite on their island, use the amiibo card according to what villager they want to appear, and then they can find them camping out and ask them to live on their island permanently! This along with the choice of where to place your fellow villagers is going to make this game a true place to live your Animal Crossing dreams.

And thus concludes my list of my top five new features mentioned in the new Nintendo Direct. What did you guys think? Did you watch the Direct already? What were your favorite and least favorite parts? Have you even decided on a name for you island yet?

Let me know in the comments below!

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Introduction Video Games

Welcome to your Video Game Journey!

Hello there! My name is Harper Kenny, I’m 20 years old, a junior at Texas State University, and of course, I love video games! This blog is a part of my Digital Media class (along with my other social media, which I’ll link here and here), and I’ll be managing and posting to it for the rest of the semester. I’m going to make this blog about the wonderful world that video games have to offer, since it’s always been a life-long interest of mine.

As a little ice-breaker, here are some cool gaming facts about me:

  • My favorite genre of video games are probably life sim games (like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing) or RPGs (aka role playing games, like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon or Earthbound)!
  • I proudly have over 200+ hours of gameplay in Stardew Valley.
  • I mainly play on Nintendo consoles, since I don’t have a TV or a console like an X-Box or Playstation (broke college kids, am I right?).
  • My guilty pleasure for gaming would be that I like to play the occasional dating sim, even if the concept is silly like Dream Daddy (where you date hot single dads) or Hatoful Boyfriend (where you…date birds), both of which are great sims with amazing stories, by the way.

I’ve been really passionate about video games ever since I watched my siblings play Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask on our family’s old Nintendo 64. I like to keep up with the latest gaming news and trends, even if I don’t even own the hardware or software to play on. I’ve also watched a good amount of super goofy video game related videos to know there’s so much creativity in the world of video game blogging and news coverage to be tapped into.

So, what kind of stuff will I post to this blog? Well…

  • I would love to have some fun Top 10 articles pertaining to games, such as the best Nintendo franchises, video game soundtracks, or even the cutest female video game characters!
  • Definitely some recommendations and heart felt reviews on how games have shaped me with the important lessons I’ve learned from them. Video games aren’t all just hot anime girls and blowing stuff up with big guns.
  • Indie game highlights!!! Indie games are just as important to me as big hit titles, and I would argue a good bunch that I’ve played in the past have a lot more heart and story behind most mainstream games. Plus, I’ve always had a soft spot for smaller creators in any field, and the video game world is no exception.
  • Tips and tricks with certain game modes or challenges, like Pokemon Nuzlockes or Master Mode in Legend of Zelda.
  • And many more!

I’m really excited to be starting this blog for my class, as it finally gives me an outlet to be my big nerdy self, be passionate about video games, and even help with my grades. As far as an audience, I’d hope that other video game lovers, mainly those around my age range, can come together on my blog and just show an appreciation for this fantastic industry and how it’s changed our lives. And as far as what can come from this, who knows? Maybe this could land me a job at companies like IGN or Polygon as a writer someday, but until then, I hope you enjoy the content to come!

Now let go forth, and let the adventure begin!

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