gaming | Blerdy Otome

Confessions of an Otome Gamer: It’s Okay NOT to Play the Latest Game

Published on January 20, 2022 by Blerdy8 Comments

It’s been a while since my last Confession and that’s because I didn’t have anything I needed to get off my chest. But, it’s a new year and with it comes the promise of new game releases and the inevitable pull we as gamers feel to keep up with the latest trending game. FOMO is real and no one wants to be out of the loop. But it’s hard keeping up with new releases and it’s exhausting trying to keep up with everything.

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Is This Otome? – Inclusivity in the Otome Games Fandom

Published on August 10, 2021January 3, 2022 by Blerdy5 Comments

So, apparently there has been some discourse in the otome games community—I mean, when is there not drama—concerning using the term “otome” for more inclusive titles. There have been some folks in the fandom who are upset that folks are using otome as a catch all term for any game that fits the otome mold, ie. a protagonist who romances pursuable characters. Some, use otome to encompass idol and card-raising mobile games, like A3!, and more recently Tears of Themis. While others feel that LGBT+ indie games to be otome.

This is not the first time this issue has cropped up over the years and it most definitely won’t be the last, but I think this new wave of discourse is just disheartening. Times have changed, games are becoming more inclusive and more people are seeing media that speaks to them and their truth, so it only makes since that the language we use should grow and change with the media. So, today I’m going to talk about what makes an otome an otome and where I stand on including LGBT+ games within that otome umbrella.

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Confessions of an Otome Gamer: Indie Otome are BETTER than Otome Games

Published on July 4, 2021April 5, 2023 by Blerdy8 Comments

I know, potentially polarizing opinion incoming–don’t @ me.

But, if you’ve been following me for awhile it shouldn’t be such a big shock that I prefer indie otome games over the more “traditional” Japanese otome games. I mean on a very basic level, indie otome games are much more accessible and available than Japanese otome games. Sure, we’ve been getting tons more otome games than we have in the past, but given the volume of otome games being released in Japan annually, what we get through localization is merely a drop in the bucket. Not to mention localization titles are selected and curated by companies that at the end of the day are protecting their bottom line. So the games that do make their way to the West are ones that are considered the most “financially viable” (read: safe).

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Confessions of an Otome Gamer: How I Got My Hakuoki Kyoto Winds Art Book

Published on January 8, 2021January 3, 2022 by Blerdy7 Comments

I started this series as a way to get personal with you all and share my thoughts about things happening in the otome community or share fun stories and anecdotes about being an otome fan. So, for the new year I wanted to share a story that is definitely one of the more interesting experiences I’ve had over the years.

For my first confession of 2021, I thought I’d tell you all the harrowing tale of how I got my copy of the Hakuoki Kyoto Winds art book–and trust me it’s something… Now, because this story involves another person I have omitted their name for anonymity and even though it was over 3 years ago, I checked in with them to make sure it was okay to share and they gave the go ahead. So trust I covered my bases on this one….

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Do You Have Any Game Recommendations?: A Short Guide on How to Ask for a Game Recommendation

Published on December 9, 2020February 7, 2021 by Blerdy1 Comment

I have been running this site for a little over five years and there is one question that has plagued my blogging experience: Do you have any game recommendations?

It’s not that I don’t want to give game recommendations. Hell, I give them all the time, to friends, family, complete strangers on the internet… I have lists dedicated to game recommendations! I can’t tell you how happy I get when someone doesn’t just play a game I recommend, but they fall in love with it. It’s one my single greatest joys as a reviewer.

‘Do you have any game recommendations?’ is an innocent enough question–on the surface. Y’all this is one hell of a loaded question. Imagine for a minute that this question appeared in your twitter DMs; no background info about the asker, no point of reference on games they’ve played… nothing. Just…

DO YOU HAVE ANY GAME RECOMMENDATIONS?

Do you give a general recommendation? What if you suggest something from a genre they don’t even like? What if the game you suggest has triggers for them? What if they’ve already played it? What if they can’t play the game because they don’t have access to the platform it’s on?

Even if you know the person asking the question, you still run the risk of making a “bad” recommendation and that’s a lot of pressure sometimes OR maybe that’s just me. So, instead of sending “Do you have any game recommendations?” or some variation, here’s how you SHOULD ask for recommendations.

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Visual Novels Are Long or Why I haven’t finished that review yet…

Published on July 29, 2020January 3, 2022 by Blerdy10 Comments

Blerdy Tribe, I’ve been rather inactive lately and for that I apologize, but real life got kinda hectic for a while there and I just didn’t have the time or the energy to read through 100k+ visual novels. I’m human. But, that brings me to something that I have been meaning to talk about on this blog for a very long time—visual novels are long af!

You’d think that’s a given, I mean they’re called visual novels for a reason. But, time and time again I underestimate just how much time I need to finish a visual novel (or an otome game for that matter). I know some folks who blaze through games in about 2 days and I am always in awe of their speedy playthroughs, but I just don’t operate like that—especially if I plan on writing a review. I take my time, dragging out my playthroughs for weeks (sometimes months) to ensure that I get the full scope of the characters and the story—or at least that’s what I want you all to believe.

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Confessions of an Otome Gamer: Otome Game Fans are REAL Gamers

Published on July 14, 2020January 3, 2022 by Blerdy15 Comments

So, when I wrote my anime gatekeeping essay, I was actually attempting to write about gatekeeping in the games community. But, I ended up running super long with the intro and rather than writing a ridiculously long post on gatekeeping, I decided to split the difference and write two separate posts. However, don’t get it twisted, gatekeeping in the gaming community is something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a VERY long time, I just wanted to be sure that when I finally penned this post, that I didn’t devolve into incoherent ranting. I try to keep things classy here.

So, for those of you that don’t know, “gatekeeping” is what happens when elitism, entitlement, and privilege are allowed to run unchecked, resulting in a select group of individuals taking it upon themselves to preserve the sanctity of a particular “thing” by regulating what is and isn’t acceptable. Like bouncers who keep unwanted individuals from entering an establishment, gatekeepers act as the buffer between true fans of a medium and the uninformed masses. Gatekeepers see themselves as true fans, working tirelessly to ensure that the sanctity of their media isn’t tarnished by those they deem unworthy. The problem is that these individuals take things to the extreme, devaluing anyone and anything that doesn’t align with their “vision” of what a true fan should be… and it is this behavior that creates a lot of unnecessary negativity.

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Confessions of an Otome Gamer – Using Guides and Walkthroughs

Published on May 16, 2020January 3, 2022 by Blerdy6 Comments

Hey, Hey Heroes, Travelers, and Wandering NPCs! I’ve been running this site for the past five years, and it just occurred to me that I don’t really talk at length about my gaming process. Sure, I drop a passing phrase or two every now and again in my reviews, but I have yet to really sit down write about what type of gamer I am, and because I’ve been stuck at home for the past two and a half months (aside from going stir crazy) I’ve had a bit more time for self reflection… So, I thought it would be fun to write out a few of my gaming related thoughts and confessions. That way you guys get to know me a little better and I get to get some things off my chest.

Of course there’s always the chance that no one really cares and I’m just screaming into the void like everyone else on the internet. But, all this social distancing has got me in a talkative mood for once…so, let’s just see where this goes. I don’t know how often I’ll post these, but I’ll shoot for 1-2 per month, however it’ll mostly be whenever I have anything specific that I want to talk about. For my first confession—sometimes I use guide and walkthroughs to finish games.

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Backlog Diaries: Admitting I Have a Problem…

Published on October 28, 2019January 3, 2022 by Blerdy13 Comments

I’ve kind of been dancing around this topic for awhile now, since like many gamers my backlog is a point of pride and shame. I’m not alone in this, just about every gamer I know has a backlog, that despite our best efforts never seems to get any smaller. In fact, backlogs tend to do the exact opposite.

I’d like to blame sales for my ridiculous backlog, I mean really it’s criminal to let a Steam Sale go by without buying anything and some publishers have taken to hosting release day sales in hopes of boosting their initial sales stats. The system is rigged to promote sales, I know this and yet, I can’t help myself… I am a willing participant yet another Capitalist scheme…

Steam Games (1) — Some of the games in my steam library

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Only Lonely Women Play Otome Games and Other Common Misconceptions

Published on October 12, 2016January 3, 2022 by Blerdy20 Comments

This post has been a long time coming, and I mean a LONG time coming… I had the idea for this post around the time that post about the infamous Vogue article, but it wasn’t until a month or two ago when I saw an especially troubling search term that I actually started writing this post.

Before I get into why this is so problematic, let me say that I am in no way shape or form the authority on otome games and the types of people that play them. I can only speak for myself and my experiences. However, despite that I can still say with some degree of certainty, that otome gamers get a bad rap sometimes. So I decided to write a post that addresses some of the misconceptions people have about otome gamers while still answering the above question.

*Disclaimer: The ideas presented in this post are my own, it’s fine if you disagree with me. All I ask is that you be respectful when commenting.

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