Nerd Girl Goals – March 2021 (#WayForwardMarch)

Play to Satisfaction

For me, saying “Play to Satisfaction” gives me explicit permission to drop a game that’s not working for me, but also to grind away for nerd points if I’m really loving something. I’m trying to make it a policy for myself that I will always play to satisfaction – no more, no less.

I still have a few outstanding game-related stuff I’d like to finish up over the next few weeks, but there’s plenty of stuff I haven’t already talked about I’d like to add onto my plate this month.

Subscription MMO – World of Warcraft (Retail)

Sure, we might see 9.0.5 before the month is over, but I’m going in to March with the attitude that it’s ok if I basically want to raid log for the month. While I’m not quite ready to throw in the towel, I’ve been struggling the find the fun for a bit, and in order to get back to a place where I’m enjoying most of my playtime, I need to break the habit of doing chores for very little reward. It’s been formally announced now that unlocking Shadowlands flying on one character will unlock it for the entire account, so I plan to keep up with Krikket’s renown, and stop worrying so much about my other characters.

I’m not really all that great at playing MMOs casually, but I’d like to give it a whirl for a little bit.

Community Game-Along – #WayForwardMarch

I had every intention of skipping this month – I’m not at all familiar with WayForward Games, and a quick glance didn’t show me anything I was overly interested in. However, I did a search through my Steam library, and realized that I picked up a copy of Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse somewhere, and I decided I’d at least put an hour or two into it. Plenty of games have surprised me in the past; maybe this one will as well!

Subscription Game Service – XBox GamePass for PC

I probably won’t get around to re-subbing and playing The Medium again this month, but I figure if I keep carrying the goal forward until I do get around to it, at least I won’t forget! However, since the March Humble Choice is going to feature Control as one of its headliners, I’ll end up playing my own copy of that one – I just can’t even begin to guess when.

Other Games

I think that leaves me with the most potential time for this category of any month in recent memory, and in typical fashion, I expect I’m going to over-schedule and under-deliver. The weather is starting to break here, and there’s quite a bit of real life stuff I’ve put off waiting for the snow to melt away, so I may not have quite as much time as I think I will for gaming.

I briefly alluded to this is my February In Review post, but I’ve started a not-so-small challenge project. I’m going to try to get gold medals on all the Chef-for-Hire levels on Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2. I had assumed there would be an achievement for this, but I checked it out and … there isn’t. There is, however, an achievement for getting gold on all levels on a single restaurant, and then one for 6 and 15 different ones, so I’ll have some checkpoints built in.

I had also fully intended to participate in #LoveYourBacklog month last month, but I never did get around to it. However, I’d like to jump into #MaybeInMarch and re-install Bastion, which has been in my Steam library since December of 2011. I’ve started it a couple of time, but I don’t feel like I’ve ever given it a fair shake. It’s a fairly short game – HowLongToBeat says it takes about 6 hours to finish the main story, so it’s not like it’s a huge undertaking. I’ve heard nothing but good things about this game; I’m not sure why it hasn’t managed to hold my attention.

I expect I’ll be able to finish up the main story of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth this month as well. I mostly play for a bit before bed each night, but I have also played a little in docked mode on the living room TV. I actually think I like handheld mode better! I’ve already finished the first 15 chapters, and even if I do need to take some grinding time to level things up, finishing up the last five this month feels very doable.

Finally, the Magic: Legends open beta is scheduled to start on March 23. I’ve been interested in this one since it was announced, and I am very much looking forward to trying it out later this month.

And who knows, I may find myself unable to resist the siren song of Valheim – it feels like absolutely everyone is playing it, and I am definitely intrigued, although I fear it’ll prove too difficult to really be much fun for me.