I Spy With My Little Eye

This week's blog is a very informative post from Patti Larson. Before talking with Patti, I had no idea what IHOGs were. But thanks to Patti's helpful post, I've discovered a new genre of video game. There truly is something for everyone in the gaming world. Thanks Patti!

Mystery Case Files: The Thirteenth Skull

I’m not a typical girl gamer. No first person shooters for me—they make me anxious. Timers? I can’t handle them without becoming nauseated from nerves. My husband loved video games at one time and tried for years to draw me into Doom, Grand Theft Auto and other such aggressive play, not understanding just how stressed those types of games made me, taking all of the enjoyment out of the moment.

Honestly? I couldn’t even watch him play.

He’s since lost interest, his PlayStation sitting idle while I’ve become obsessed by a different kind of experience, finding my own source of gaming entertainment.

I’m a hard-core IHOG fanatic. If you have to ask what that acronym means, you’ve never played—and I’m warning you, once you try an interactive hidden object game, you’ll be hooked.

Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove

Allow me to explain. Players are presented with a scenario, typically creepy or paranormal in nature. Most of these games are stunningly rendered art and animation with fantastic sound effects and music. Not only are gamers expected to solve complex puzzles using items they find along the way, part of the challenge is locating said items in different scenes. Players must hunt down a list of things cleverly hidden in ordinary objects, such as a banana curved in the arm of a chair or a key disguised as scrollwork on a lamp.

I became fascinated immediately with the process, drawn in by the clever story lines and the mental gymnastics my brain undergoes each time I play. I suppose it’s not a surprise I enjoy these games, not just for the puzzles and object searches, but for the fascinating stories that go along with the experience. It’s like being part of a movie, unfolding before me, though that movie only progresses when I do.

And while my more hard-core gaming sisters might giggle at the thought of playing something that doesn’t require blowing things up, I’m happy to indulge my sense of mystery and need to escape into games with something requiring me to think first and shoot second, rather than the other way around.

Last chance to send me your pictures! At the end of this month, I will be doing a compilation of all the awesome photos I receive from fellow female gamers. If you're a girl and you're a gamer, take your picture with a sign that says you're a gamer and/or your favorite video game and send it to me at samantha@samantha-warren.com. Be as creative as you like, just keep it PG-13. 

Don't forget the prizes! For every post you comment on this month, you will be entered into a drawing to win either Call of Duty: Black Ops II* or Guild Wars 2* (or another game of your choice of similar value). All you have to do is comment!

Patti Larsen is an award-winning middle grade and young adult author with a passion for the paranormal. Her YA thriller series, The Hunted, is available now. Book one of that series, RUN, is a recent recipient of the 2012 PEI Book Awards for Fiction. Seven books of her very popular Hayle Coven Novels, beginning with Family Magic, are also out now. Her YA steampunk series, Blood and Gold, can be found on Amazon, along with her YA paranormal novel, Best Friends Forever, and The Diamond City Trilogy. Her middle grade novel, The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House (Acorn Press), is available now. She is a full time writer and a part time teacher of her Get Your Book Done program. Patti lives on the East Coast of Canada with her very patient husband and four massive cats.

You can find her:
On her website www.pattilarsen.com
On Facebook www.facebook.com/pattilarsenauthor
On Twitter www.twitter.com/#!/PattiLarsen
On Amazon.com and Goodreads