Hello, everyone! I'm Karistina Lafae, and I'm pretty much a full-time casual gamer. I'm permanently disabled, chronically ill, immunocompromised, and mostly bedbound... and the four walls of my bedroom are quite confining, so video games make each day more bearable.
I'm also an author, though most of my published work is not family friendly, but even when I'm writing, I have a game open on my phone so I can appease my ADHD tendencies.
I used to be addicted to WoW and other games requiring a lot of motor coordination and teamwork, but my body just doesn't work the way it used to anymore, so now I have to consciously choose solo games that I can pause as needed, nothing requiring nonstop real-time action.
On my laptop, that means I'm super into simulation games. Right now, that means Two Point Museum and Cities: Skylines II. They are both so immersive that I can just play either one for hours on end... and I do!
On my phone, my favorites change pretty regularly. Out of my current rotation, I've been playing Mergical the longest - a couple of years now! - but I also enjoy games like Design Home, Merge Inn, Number Match, Cat Snack Bar, Nonogram, Cube Master, and Royal Match.
It's a lot different than my days running rated battlegrounds with Sapere Aude - my old WoW guild where I was the Guild Mom, and we had a few guild meetups - including a wedding between two of our players! And the games I play don't lend myself to the lasting friendships my husband and I built with the Radio GKOL community when we played, lived, and breathed Kingdom of Loathing back in the day, or Project Rockstar - but the games I know and love now keep me in better mental health than if I wasn't playing them.
Even if you're not disabled like I am, I'm sure y'all can agree with that last part about better mental health via gaming!
