The Walking Dead: No Man's Land - but women's!

I've been playing TWD: No Man's Land for a while now and still like it. One reason is the humungous amount of mindblastingly awesome women. Mostly because there's nothing special about them. They are as good as any other character, and they make up about half the randomized characters I get.

Sorry Daryl, my heart beats for you but in this game you're not number one.

In a world that is so white-cis-male-hetero-oriented as the world of video games, this is really refreshing. Of course, there are a whole bunch of kick-ass female characters in other videogames too, but usually they're there for a special purpose. The mass in the background tends to consist of men.

One of my first bruiser characters, the equivalent of tanks in this game, was a woman called Catherine. She had black dreads, pilot shades and body armor. Not gonna lie, I was dumbstruck with awe when she entered my team. She served me well until the quests started requiring a minimum of level 6 characters, and she was fully trained at level 5. I had to retire her. Catherine, you always have a place in my heart.

Tough luck, lock, Catherine's tougher.

Of course, out of the characters I recruit, there's a majority of white people. Or... I think most of them are. Sometimes it's hard to determine the color of their skin. Maybe it's me interpreting them as white because that's the perspective I have? Anyway, my point is that even if this game is good gender-wise, it could probably improve color-wise. Then again, what game couldn't...?

By now, I must admit that when I recruit new characters, I usually go by their looks. Do I find them attractive? No? Reject. Do they look cool? Handsome? Okay, let's check what type they are. Rare? Accept. Uncommon? Well, if they look awesome and kickass enough, they're in. Shallow, I know. But hey, it's only a video game. Right? Right.

Lip piercing? Knitted cap? Glasses? You're hired, Virginia!

This means that I currently have no male character at all. I had one that looked allright, but he reached his level cap and I retired him. Sometimes I think that maybe I should stop selecting from appearance like this. Diversity in video games and all that. But, on the other hand, it's a way of selecting without having to go into calculating extremes, where I need to make an effort in my planning.

You're cute, Phil, but cute alone  kills no walkers.

From pc to tablet

So. I've added tablets to my gamer title. I've always had this prejudice that games for mobile devices are too shallow for me. I mean, I'm used to Mass Effect-epicness, and WoW roleplaying. Surely I couldn't do with small mobile games, no matter the high ratings...?

Well. This spring, my gardening heart awoke and I started to plant seeds and plan for my garden, but my gaming heart lacked patience. So while my real life crops grew, I had to do something equal game-wise. Of course I had the Sunsong Farm in Pandaria, but it wasn't quite enough.

Hesitantly, I picked up my tablet. Searched Google Play for "garden games". Found stuff like Hay Day but I don't like extracting bacon from pigs, and Stardew Valley but I don't like old school pixel design, and then...! Hello Kitty's Garden. And even if I'm not that into Hello Kitty I still find her sympathetic. So I downloaded the game.

And was satisfyed. It had everything. Plant crops. Cultivate them. Farm them. Cash in. Do quests. Instant rewards, nice graphics, no brain work to speak of. That is, until I went hardcore Kitty and calculated maximum profit for each crop and started to plan ahead to get enough money to buy new gardens... And still it was fun!

Maybe I should consider myself lucky that it wasn't possible to buy star points, which you could exhange for in game money, for real money. The option was there but nothing happened when I pressed "buy stars". Only way to get stars, and in the long run, Hello Kitty herself as a follower, was to fill in forms, download and play other games, and so on. And I'm not doing that. Buy stuff for money to enhance my gaming experience - sure. Watch optional videos to get rewards - yeah why not. Hand out my e-mail and phone number and get spammed - nope.

Now, progress is slow. Very slow. I'm on 2519 out of a maximum 1600 xp (yes) and counting. I don't level up any longer. My garden isn't nutrient enough to grow all the available plants, and the next area I can buy is so expensive it'll take me months to gather that money.

Then I found The Walking Dead: No Man's Land. I'm happy again.