I love Wandersong so much. I’ve tried to put into words what makes this game different to every other game. It usually goes something like this.

Nearly every game is about winning. Some are about plumbers leaping their way to the flag pole. Some are about gun-wielding heroes shooting everything. Those are pretty obvious examples of games where the primary emotion is Fiero (the feeling of pride after accomplishment). But even games about cozily pushing blocks, or doing skateboard tricks, or running a successful shop are also predominantly about fiero.

Now, I agree that not all games are about this one emotion. Horror games feature fiero, but are mostly about exploring fear. And there are lots of games that explore other emotions as their primary goal. But the vast majority of games are about winning and the emotion of fiero.

Wandersong is about happiness and not fiero. It makes that perfectly clear in its opening moments. The protagonist is made (painfully?) aware that he is not the hero. The Bard goes on to have several conversations with other characters about happiness. The plot largely revolves around increasing happiness. And, in terms of gameplay, in almost all the places a typical game would offer players chances to feel fiero, this game offers the player opportunities to experience happiness instead.

If you’re looking for it, it’s clear that the game is occasionally working to prevent fiero and present happiness in its place. The game frequently puts the player in situations where there is no opportunity for them or The Bard to “win”. Instead, they have the chance to help or to be helped. And sometimes even when things turn out well, it’s despite The Bard and the player failing at their goal.

It’s a unique game made with tons of love and I treasure it. I would recommend it to anyone with a heart.

I’m honestly having so much fun getting out in my neighborhood and completing quests

I get that you’re being practical here. You’re not technically wrong, and the people who are disagreeing with you really are arguing points of nuance.

But they aren’t wrong either. That nuance matters in certain contexts.

You can pick this hill to defend. Or you can learn something that you didn’t know about the people in your online community, and probably your IRL community too.

Embrace learning something new. It will almost never be a waste of your time.

I appreciate you.

Wow. Yeah, absolutely. I had forgotten about that game until you mentioned it. Thank you for reminding me. It’s entirely unique and deserves to be remembered. But yeah, I don’t think I have it in me to replay it.

Third vote for Silverbullet here. I’m really enjoying using it.

These are called “aptroynms” and Wikipedia has a great list of them and also inaptroyms. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptronym

Thank you for this

My coach used to tell the story of a really promising track and field athlete who might have had a serious shot on the world scene, but quit to play in his band called The Barenaked Ladies. I never fact checked that, so I have no idea if it was true or not. But it stuck with me because it made me think of all the people who might have been incredible in one field or another who just never gave it a shot.

That’s exactly what I did!

I think the important difference in this case is like the difference between a human enjoying a song that they hear being performed vs a company recording a song that someone is performing and then replaying that song on demand for paying customers.