Meet Krikket

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

In my online life, I go by Krikket, which is also the name of my main in World of Warcraft. I’m 47 years old, dog mom of 2, and married for just shy of 10 years.  I’ve been dealing with chronic illness since my early 30s, and have only recently started working again in the family business. I’ve been blogging over at Nerd Girl Thoughts since 2019; it’s my fourth or fifth blog, and the only one to last much more than a year.

How did you get into video games?

I’ve actually been playing video games for almost my entire life!  Some of my earliest gaming memories are of playing text-based games that came on cassette tapes, and working the copy protection spinny wheels for my uncle and watching him play the early Might & Magic games. 

I was lucky enough to not have realized that video games “weren’t for girls” until I was well and truly hooked, and there was no going back after that.

What is your criteria for a good/memorable video game?

To me, there are three kinds of really excellent video games.

The first is about story & characters.  You get invested, and you have to keep playing ‘til the credits roll to know how it all turns out in the end.

The second gives you an amazing, deep world and just lets you get lost in it. 

The third will have the perfect combination of mechanics to make it obsessively playable. 

They all give very different experiences, but if a game can give me any of these three things, it’ll stick in my mind long after I’ve stopped playing.  If it can give me all of them? I will sing its praises until the end of time.

How did you discover the Community Game-Along?

Honestly? I don’t really remember.  I’m assuming it was from following other game bloggers and streamers on Twitter.  I even went back into my archives hoping I’d find a mention of it when I decided to start participating, but I never talked about it before January of 2020, when I jumped right in and started gaming along!

I did skip the entirety of 2022, when I was doing a pretty big gaming & blogging project, and I’ve passed over the occasional month, but otherwise I always try to dig something out of my library that fits the theme.

Are there any games or game genres that you don't think you would have discovered without the Community Game-Along?

I probably never would have played Persona 4 Golden if it hadn’t been JRPG month - I have bounced off of so many JRPGs, I had pretty much despaired of finding something that would click with me.  Since then, I’ve found a few others I’ve enjoyed, but it was a tough genre for me to get into.

I don’t know that I ever would have played dating sims or visual novels if it hadn’t been for the Community Game Along, and I’ve found a few gems in both categories.  I’ve also gone outside my comfort zone quite a few times, but have sadly found that I’m still pretty rubbish at platformers, fighting games, racing games, and shoot ‘em ups. Can’t be good at everything, I guess!