So, You're Reading My Substack

Hey! Been a while. I've got big ideas and I hope you like them.

Photo by Taylor R on Unsplash

Hi. My name is Natalie, and I have a very dirty secret to share with you. It’s taken a lot for me to build up the confidence to admit this, so I hope you’re willing to give me a chance to explain myself and most of all, not think less of me when I tell you. Are you ready? Here we go:

I really like competitive multiplayer games.

I know, I’m not the person you thought I was, but it’s true. I was part of that magical generation of millennial children who owned both an Xbox 360 and a copy of Modern Warfare 2 at the same time. The negative effects of being in that test group are still being studied(minus the idea that this period in time, where people threw slurs left and right, was ‘better’, for some reason), but I can say it’s left me with a deep enjoyment for any game with a loadout system or map voting feature.

I don’t just play these kinds of games, to be clear; my steam library can attest that I have just as much love, if not more, for visual novels and dating sims than I do for whatever competitive game catches my fancy. But even when I’m playing those games, between Baldur’s Gate 3 or Final Fantasy XIV or whatever else catches my fancy, my free time is often filled with some manner of cortisol-raising competitive experience.

They aren’t the best, usually not innovating, sometimes something I’ve seen a million times before, but they are all fun, nonetheless.

How did this come about?

For the past few years, my gateway into games writing has been exclusively guides. To be very clear, I love guides writing. I love getting to help people through whatever’s giving them pause in their favorite game, be it how to find every collectible or how to get past an imposing boss. I can never get tired of writing guides because they speak to how I love engaging with games.

Long ago, however, I did a little bit of everything. Reviews, features, top ten lists- anything that would get my metaphorical foot in the door. Those of you who’ve been here a while will probably remember that I did a lot in that time: I was Editor-In-Chief for 100WordGaming, where I met some of my longest running friends in the industry; I’ve done sporadic features for various outlets like startmenu and my beloved IndieGameWebsite, and even gotten to script a video for IGN, which is easily one of the most enjoyable things I’ve gotten to do!

I really missed that varied writing that got me started. The thing about writing guides is that while they pay pretty well, it’s very unlikely that people can put you to that byline, unless you also do feature writing or the like on the side. I still fully intend to keep going with guides, because I love it, and, well…I have bills to pay. But Hard Counter is going to be my side space for getting back into the writing I’ve put on the back burner for a while to focus on guides.

Why are you doing this?

I don’t want to get too far into the weeds with this-mostly because others have done so, and so much better than I ever could- but to make a long story short, games writing has been a very weird, layoff-heavy place for a while now. If you keep up with it in any measure, you’ve probably noticed that more and more are going independent to remove those barriers and hopefully keep the industry from entirely from crashing entirely.

To be clear, I’m one person. There are writers with independent sites that you could also give money to, like Mothership or Aftermath, and in fact, if you give anyone money, it should be them. But as I found out when I was just getting started, there is an audience of people interested in games writing through a queer or black or feminine lens and, thankfully, I’m capable of all of those things.

What are the details?

So, here is how this is going to go.

• There will be one article a month, with likely-smaller ‘bonus’ articles strewn throughout, depending on what I feel I would enjoy covering. This is to both A. allow me to continue to do guides work/figure out a day job if need be , and B. prevent me from burning out, which has happened before.

• There will be zero paywalls for any article. I am, more or less, doing this for the love of the game. Obviously, I would like you to contribute financially if you can realistically do so, but I don’t want to paywall anything I write. I do ask that you share what I write if you really enjoy it.

• If you do want to donate monthly, pricing is as follows:
  - $5 USD Monthly
  - $50 USD Annual
  - $100 USD Founder’s Annual
  
  In case you’re curious, these are the minimums I have to set for Substack to allow me to do this- originally, I was going to do a single option monthly at a dollar, but Substack flatly refuses to let me do so. Since that is the case, I’d really like to hammer this home; you don’t have to do this at all. You can read every single thing I will ever post for absolutely free. Please do not let any of those above numbers frighten you, they can’t hurt you if you don’t let them.
  
  (I do want to add that if, for some reason, you genuinely choose the Founder’s option, I will write you a hand-written thank you note under every single article I ever write forever, even if you only do it once. This is the only way I can morally justify even having that option in the first place.)

Is this explanation post this month’s article?

No. This month’s article comes out on Friday. It’s about women and the support role.

Anything else?

Truly, if you even read this far, I’m eternally grateful. I’ve always been passionate about my writing, whether it’s a guide or a leading feature, and to have the opportunity to write once more, even if it’s just for myself, brings me more joy than anything else in the world. If any of the above sounds agreeable, or if you’d just like to see what comes next, then do I have the button for you: