Around the Network

Goodness me, the last couple of weeks have been some of MoeGamer’s best for a long time in terms of visitors. So a hearty “welcome” if you’re new around here!

I’m delighted that so many new people have come along to see what I’m up to; I’m perhaps less delighted about the circumstances which prompted such an influx of readers — as you’ll find out more about shortly — but at the very least, I hope those new readers have found a place where they can enjoy their favourite things without judgement or censure.

As you’ll know if you’ve been following for a while, I don’t have any great grand plans for MoeGamer to be a one-stop daily gaming resource — I don’t really do “news”, for example — but I do make a point of, at the very least, taking titles the mainstream press have treated like crap and giving them the respect they deserve. So stick around if you want to see more… and check out what you might have missed this week in this article!

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MoeGamer

The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 27 – Death to the JRPG! – My podcasting buddy Chris and I settle down for an in-depth discussion about why we should stop using the term “JRPG” for such a broad array of diverse, unique games. Plus the usual news and “what we’ve been playing” segments.

Happy Birthdays: Someone Still Makes ‘Em Like They Used To – Remember “god games”? Populous, Mega-Lo-Mania and the like? I thought they’d died a death in the early 2000s, but it seems the creator of Harvest Moon decided they were long overdue a resurgence.

Warriors Wednesday: It’s A Trap… Again – You can count on several things in every Warriors game, chief among which is the fact that “it” is usually a trap. And today is no exception.

We Need To Get Better At Talking About Sex – An astronomically popular piece this week, suggesting that there really is an issue we need to do something about here; I look at how negative, derisive coverage of eroge and games that make sex appeal a key part of their aesthetic is doing a disservice to everyone — not just heterosexual male players.

Senran Kagura: An Almost-Comprehensive Look at Gessen’s Use of Classical Music – This extensively researched multimedia extravaganza of an article continues the current Cover Game feature with a look at where the distinctive musical themes for the characters from Gessen Girls’ Academy in Senran Kagura came from.

Final Fantasy Marathon: Wrath of the Lich King – Our Final Fantasy playthrough reaches a significant milestone: the first of the confrontations with the Four Fiends. Bring it on, Lich!

Taito Essentials: The New Zealand Story – As a nice quiet way to finish off the week after the earlier chaos, I take some time to look back on a thoroughly charming Taito platformer that does things a bit different from many of its contemporaries.

Atari A to Z

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This week, we look at an impressive type-in listing that Antic magazine believed was the first ever Atari 8-bit port of the classic Rogue; a scary “MacVenture” that creeped out an awful lot of people I know; and an early Atari 2600 game from Carol “River Raid” Shaw!

Cool Stuff By People Who Aren’t Me

First up, Patreon goodness! Right now, I’m supporting chaotic “old men (and Octav1us Kitten, who I also support) attempt to talk about games, usually fail” collective Digitiser 2000, the ever-grumpy (and always hilarious) Cheap Show Podcast, the wonderfully supportive Normal Happenings, independent games writing collective The Well-Red Mage and fountain of retro computer gaming knowledge Rob “Hellfire64” Caporetto, all of whom you can find out a bit more about by clicking through to their profiles.

Here’s a selection of recent YouTube and podcast goodness from several of this lot:

And from around the WordPress Reader this week:

The Guide on Being a Mature, Distinguished Gamer: Part 2 – Failure, Success and the Gaming Mindset (Games With Coffee) – Ryan Cheddi continues his ongoing series looking at gaming as a grown-up — this time taking a look at how we deal with success and failure, and how that might differ from the attitudes we held in our younger days.

Choosing sides: playing characters of the opposite sex (Later Levels) – Phil is well and truly back on the blogging train, and this latest piece echoes a lot of my own sentiments. Which, in turn, go rather against the common media narrative of “Gamers Don’t Want To Play as Girls”!

How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? (Episode 8) – What if We Get Lost? (Ecchi Hunter) – This is your regular reminder that if you’re not following Ecchi Hunter and you enjoy cheeky fanservice, you should correct that situation as soon as possible! You should also probably watch How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? because it’s fabulous and inspirational.

Advice for Creatives: Buy a Good Notebook (GeekOut UK) – terraphi offers some helpful advice for aspiring creatives that I can certainly vouch for — if you respect the materials with which you work, you’ll respect your own work more!

Don’t @ Me: Just Another Ten of my General Anime Opinions (Shallow Dives in Anime) – The clue’s in the title: Dewbond shares some interesting thoughts on a variety of anime, some of which you might find yourself wanting to check out! Regardless… don’t @ him.

All right then. That’s another week over and done with. Thank you once again for your support and another hearty “welcome” if you’re new around here.

Don’t forget that if you enjoy what I do and want to help ensure I’m able to do more of it, you can support the site directly by buying my book (more of these coming soon!), by donating on Ko-Fi (for one-off contributions) or subscribing via Patreon (for ongoing pledges). MoeGamer is proudly ad-free because clickbait and hatebait suck, so these sources are my only means of getting paid for my work. Every dollar gets ploughed right back into this site, be it for hosting and administrative costs or helping me to expand my collection with new software and hardware to write about.

Thanks again, and I hope you continue to enjoy my work!


The MoeGamer Compendium, Volume 1 is now available! Grab a copy today for a beautiful physical edition of the Cover Game features originally published in 2016.

Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this article. I’ve been writing about games in one form or another since the days of the old Atari computers, with work published in Page 6/New Atari User, PC Zone, the UK Official Nintendo Magazine, GamePro, IGN, USgamer, Glixel and more over the years, and I love what I do.

If you’d like to support the site and my work on it, please consider becoming a Patron — click here or on the button below to find out more about how to do so. From just $1 a month, you can get access to daily personal blog updates and exclusive members’ wallpapers featuring the MoeGamer mascots.

If you want to show one-off support, you can also buy me a coffee using Ko-Fi. Click here or on the button below to find out more.

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One thought on “Around the Network”

  1. I’m very glad you had such an amazing week Pete: you deserve it, and that post We need to get better at talking about sex, is one of the best things you have ever written: period! Looking forward to whatever will come up next week! 😊 Have a good one!

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