If we’re adding gaming communities to the sidebar, my list here of gaming genre-specific communities could be helpful.
Can testify to activity of !automationgames and !otomegames as their mod, to !incremental_games as someone with an account there (even if you do not see it from this side, federation issues…), and to !visualnovels, !shmups, !cozygames, and !lifesimulation someone subbed to them. The others might also have activity, including ones I listed as inactive at the time of that post. I sometimes post to the others on the list I am not subbed to if I come across a game in their genre, but I don’t remember off the top of my head.
By “girly” games I mean : games that have a soft/pink color scheme. About slice of life (preferably with romance elements), and non-violent with no/minimal combat....
A lot of !cozygames and !lifesimulation games would fit. !otomegames are romance visual novels aimed at women interested in men and a lot would fit too.
!infinitynikki is an open world dressup game very marketed at women and has that soft pink color scheme, warning for being a F2P gacha game although you can progress without ever spending money. I usually avoid gacha but gameplay is legitimately good and “good gameplay,” “high budget,” and “for women” is a combination this game hits that I do not see too often in video games. (Other commenter is right there is a lot of girly shovelware.) There is combat, but it’s definitely not the main focus. Very soft and pink. You might also like Beglitched (DEFINITELY pink and soft), and Style Savvy for Nintendo DS. I have been meaning to play both of those so I can’t offer perspective on if they fill the romance ask, though Beglitched has combat. You might also enjoy Slime Rancher, also lots of pink and soft. Although it’s also not combat-free it’s not the main point either. Cattails was fun, kind of like Stardew but with cats instead, although as with Stardew combat does exist (though if I recall correctly it’s optional and not the main focus).
Now probably my recommendation least like what you are asking for: I love the Touhou Project series. Don’t let the male-dominated fandom and the tons of sexualized art of the characters fool you, the games don’t sexualize the characters at all—I would feel very comfortable showing them to a 5 year old or Grandma. It is basically a bunch of superpowered women from Japanese mythology/folklore shooting very pretty lasers at each other. The focus is actually combat here, but I figured I’d give it a mention. Not specifically aimed at women but it’s not not aimed at us either. Lovely music too.
List more in the comments! I’ll add them if they are a community for a video game genre, and have had at least one post in the last month. Crossposted to !communitypromo here....
I feel if I spontaneously quit all my niche gaming communities and posted everything I’d post there on a general community instead, I’d annoy everyone with a bunch of Steam links for games they probably do not care about. People in the niche communities are more likely to care about a link to a game in a genre they already like. Also, for most of the small communities I’ve got at least one other poster sometimes, and that’s better than nobody! Despite all the trouble with incremental.social and federation, when I can get on there we do have a few regulars chatting there and that’s nice.
contains gender politicsThere’s also just fans of a certain genre being used to backlash from the wider gaming community. I did get mostly upvotes when I posted !otomegames, which is mostly romance visual novels for women who like men, to !newcommunities. I appreciate it. But I am not sure how posting these games to !games would go over, especially when I suspect Lemmy to be male-dominated. Visual novels already suffer from the “it’s all just hentai” stereotype. Now add the “media for women, especially romance media, is stupid and vapid and silly” prejudice. And even for those who just live and let live, I suspect most of the general !games community would be disinterested in otome game posts, which is fair because I’m disinterested in romance and/or sex visual novels aimed at men who want to date women (although they should definitely be allowed to exist and people should be allowed to like them in peace). So both to avoid any backlash, and to avoid annoying the wider community, I don’t want to post those games to this general community. I still want a space for it on Lemmy though, so I made that community. I have one other regular poster and sometimes people drop in and comment.
You could make the argument that I’m simply posting low-quality content, and I’d just have to raise the bar for !games to accept my posts, and that I just want my niches back, to which I say: fair. But unfortunately I’m no video game expert or connoisseur. I play and enjoy. The lovely guide and wiki makers usually get there before I can. I’m not too good at coming up with fun discussion questions that are better than what I’d consider low-tier engagement bait back on Reddit like “name one good thing about [noncontroversial character]”. So link posts it is, better some on-topic content than none at all. And even if I did write a wonderful in-depth review or guide, if it’s not for some big mainstream appeal game but something that only genre enthusiasts really like, not sure how well !games would take to it. So that’s my rationale for having these niche communities. You’re still very free to think I’m wrong ;) Thanks for contributing in earnest to !games!
I’ve just broken my left collarbone and for the next couple weeks have left arm in a sling. Thinking about games that are played just with the right hand?...
!visualnovels can help you out with way more visual novels. Including ones that do not have sex scenes or romance, counter to the stereotype of all VNs as sex games.
(and if you do want romance in your VNs, but from a female perspective, !otomegames has you)
If you end up liking Crusader Kings 3 you might also like Crusader Kings 2
If you actually do enjoy this genre and want some unironic takes (and no, they are not all dating sims or erotica) take a look at !visualnovels! Also related is !otomegames, a VN subgenre: dating sims aimed at women with male love interests. For transparency, I mod the second one but not the first.
Hey, just clicked on something in this series of posts for the first time. Genuinely, thanks for your effort in writing it. I usually see link posts, and I have missed big original writeups like this. We need more people like you on Lemmy.
Re: slowdown, I use Lemmy exclusively via browser and it’s a very smooth experience for me ;)
]ANYWAY, to the point, I really enjoyed this video from Fastminer07 on YouTube, it was clear and reiterates how important this is. Worth a look if you’re searching for interseting videos for your down-time](www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Ih__mE05c)
Might want to turn that first bracket to be an opening bracket so the link works.
I’m not a perfect being so I use Steam out of convenience instead of GOG, though I do have a GOG account. I am pleased to see good news from them and that they are maintaining a good library of games. It is nice to see the option that I think people choose in an effort to be anti-DRM and to support games preservation doing well.
I should probably look into the Switch emulator thing more, sounds ripe for an original !hobbydrama post.
politicsI guarantee Musk chose DOGE as the name to seem like some cutting edge internet maverick making a throwback to the meme, but it just… It doesn’t feel appropriately playful, like the actual CAN-SPAM act from the US government before he came around. It feels incredibly illegitimate, “stop trying to be cool,” and that’s putting aside any personal political beliefs I have about how it actually is an illegitimate department. I’m not sure why that got included in a gaming news post, though, to be honest politics is stressful. I do keep up to date, but having it show up in a gaming newsletter when it is not directly connected to gaming, even in what seems to be an agreement with my views, does not feel awesome. And no, it’s not an “ew politics” because it does not affect me, I stand to be very affected. I just have to be incredibly disciplined about my intake of political content to not be constantly stressed and dooming and scrolling nowadays, especially given how I stand to be affected, and reminders outside of Politics Time make me unhappy. Of course, it is your post in the end and you provided a lot of wonderful content :P I usually just make basic link or image posts or ask simple questions, I’m no creator.
Recently picked up shapez.io again, part of the !automationgames genre. Just started that community. Also currently playing !infinitynikki (which at least one person on Lemmy mistook for a waifubait anime gacha game with straight male gaze fanservice going off the community icon, which I think earned it a bunch of downvotes when promoted in !newcommunities. When to be honest, it is the opposite: still an open world gacha game, but marketed at women. No romance featured, no sexualized fanservice, but a lot of pretty outfits to dress up in with nice hair and dress physics), !pokemon, and Antimatter Dimensions which is in the !incremental_games genre. I have several !otomegames that I kind of just stopped midway through even though they were enjoyable; likewise with the !crpg Dragon Age: Origins. I enjoy the above listed genres and games, as well as !citybuilders, !tycoon or management games, and !lifesimulation games. There are other games I enjoy too but this is sort of turning into my subscribed communities list, and I’m not currently playing them right now 😅 I game on Linux (PC only, not in the market for a console, however Steam trying to sell the Steam Deck and then doing the whole Proton thing to try to make more games compatible with their Linux-based console means that suddenly a lot more games are playable on Linux so I’m grateful for that), iOS, and MacOS. Lutris has been very helpful for finding different emulators on Linux.
For transparency, I mod !automationgames and !otomegames but not the rest, and I want to help the other Fediverse communities I listed grow. I like those genres but am not super knowledgeable about any of them and like seeing recommendations and discussion about them.
Nice to find another woman on the Fediverse. Usually I don’t mind male-dominated environments as long as nobody treats me badly once they know I’m female, but the small amount of participants in !otomegames and !infinitynikki (both communities for games that are aimed at women) makes me wish for more women here. Meanwhile the gender-neutral !automationgames attracted a lot more attention.
Finished my first BG3 run, man the acting is great, especially at the when characters get their big emotional moments. I’m thinking “that’s acting!”, also recognised Omni Man immediately....
I picked up Total War: WARHAMMER III and Pennon and Battle, both strategy games. I’m thinking of getting Baldur’s Gate 3 as well. This should keep me busy for a while. My holiday plan is to stay home and game! https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/ecf5697b-192e-4bcf-87ce-7f1dfec76993.png
Bustafellows (95% sale). I have a huge backlog of !otomegames to play, and Bustafellows is not on it. But it was also like $2 so… worst comes to worst, I play the game some day, hate it, and my purchase serves to signal “hey, English-speaking ladies who do not live in Japan also like otome games, localizing them is a good business choice”. Which means more otome for me! I have heard of so many Japan-only games that sound so cool but also I cannot play them because I won’t understand a damn thing the characters say, and they are usually super story-based.
The Magic Circle. I forget what recommendation list I saw it on to be honest, but it still seems to hold up as something I would like and think is cool.
I like !tycoon games, so I was going to grab Parkitect, saw it in a bundle with more tycoon games, grabbed the bundle to also collect Project Hospital and Game Dev Tycoon. (I already had Parkasaurus.)
I also like automation games. I think its community might be on a dead instance… maybe I’ll make a new one. Finally grabbed myself Factorio (will never be on sale) along with Satisfactory (finally out of Early Access. I will never buy an EA game, I will always wait for it to exit EA).
Finally, Sun Haven. Stardew Valley fan, from what I have seen of SH it seems like something I’d like, and price dropped.
Aside from Factorio, everything I grabbed was on sale. Aside from Satisfactory, all the sales were 50% or more.
[Announcement] The community and its future angielski
Hi everyone....
Recommendations for "girly" games? angielski
By “girly” games I mean : games that have a soft/pink color scheme. About slice of life (preferably with romance elements), and non-violent with no/minimal combat....
Video game genre communities on the Threadiverse angielski
List more in the comments! I’ll add them if they are a community for a video game genre, and have had at least one post in the last month. Crossposted to !communitypromo here....
Suggestions for mouse only games? angielski
I’ve just broken my left collarbone and for the next couple weeks have left arm in a sling. Thinking about games that are played just with the right hand?...
A PUBG dating sim has been released for April Fool’s, portraying each of its guns as schoolgirls (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
Steam Deck / Gaming News #8 angielski
My week’s news!...
Is Baldurs Gate 3's voice acting so great that it ruined other games for me? angielski
Finished my first BG3 run, man the acting is great, especially at the when characters get their big emotional moments. I’m thinking “that’s acting!”, also recognised Omni Man immediately....
What did everyone grab during the Steam Winter Sale? angielski
I picked up Total War: WARHAMMER III and Pennon and Battle, both strategy games. I’m thinking of getting Baldur’s Gate 3 as well. This should keep me busy for a while. My holiday plan is to stay home and game! https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/ecf5697b-192e-4bcf-87ce-7f1dfec76993.png
Let's discuss: Visual Novels (beehaw.org) angielski
The format of these posts is simple: let’s discuss a specific game or series!...