The Queue: wow, it took me way too long to get the pun in Marvel SNAP

I’ve been playing the card game Snap since I was a kid. I was also passing familiar with Pokémon Snap, but that played on “snapshot” rather than the card game. I assumed Marvel SNAP had gameplay similar to the card game, but also maybe had something in common with the Pokémon version, particularly the “catch em all” motif associated with TCGs. I’m not sure exactly when it hit me that the annoying all-caps brand styling emphasizing SNAP was depicted as cracked and disintegrating, a la the infamous Thanos Snap in the MCU, but man did I feel kinda stupid that it was more recent than it should’ve been.

This is The Queue, where you ask us questions and we’re probably on the ball enough to know the answer. Maybe.

NaNoWriMo Queue support group? NaNoWriMo Queue support group.

I’ve decided on a setting, genre, and main character, but I need to figure out where the story’s actually going to go, and also almost all the other characters. I’m planning on writing a cozy mystery, so the secondary and tertiary characters are super important, especially the dreamy sheriff, from what I know of the genre. I frequently have trouble trying to find ways to fit them in, beyond “everyone in town hangs out at the diner, or farm market, or cafe, or library, or park, or maybe marina? I guess?” so this may be just an exercise in making myself do it, as opposed to something I’d even self publish under a pseudonym on Amazon.

I’m not sure whodunnit yet, especially since I have like, one character planned out so far, but I’m sure the characters will tell me when I’m halfway through writing it.

I think hyena, with a close second to raptor.

I’d only put hyena higher because raptors seem so very inherently Troll, but I think it fits for goblin pretty well, too. I’m also throwing raptor out there because raptor is easily targeted — from a specific boss in a specific dungeon — but the hyena seems to be a very randomized drop from the chest at the end of M+ dungeons. You may be able to get the hyena more quickly if you incorporate M+ into your normal gameplay sessions, but just chain queuing for De Other Side would likely yield results in fewer runs.

This is my general strategy, but I also keep an eye on new releases and purchase the ones I’m very interested in to play immediately. I’m waiting on a cursory review of Potionomics from Kalcheus before I buy that one, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to get it here soon. I also recently bought Immortality which was written by Sam Barlowe, whose games I really enjoy (but I always feel compelled to remind people to check the content warnings, and definitely play when nobody else can see your screen). That way, those aren’t lost in the morass of sale games.

I’ll also make a point of just starting games every so often. Frequently when I just start one I’ll get into it, even if it’s kind of bad, because I just want to see what happens and how they use game mechanics to make the story unfold. It’s the starting it that tends to be rough.

I’ll also add that unless I’m really excited about it, I usually buy triple A games when they’re slashed to their lowest levels possible, but for an indie, I’ll buy at a higher margin. Part of this is the higher box price — they still want $60 for Red Dead Redemption 2? Definitely waiting for 75% off. But part of it is that, even with the cut from the Steam store and possibly the publisher, the cash from a lower price point indie is going to actual people who are passionate about games, and probably using that money to pay for rent or food or piano lessons for their kids, not being funneled into the pocket of, well, whatever choice description you’d use to describe Bobby Kotick and his ilk. Red Dead seems fun, and certainly it has a lot going for it, but I have tons of other open world games to explore until they slash the purchase price.