Wait, the game asks for paypal donations at the end? Didn't it initially cost like 2 bucks before it was changed to free? Meaning she initially intended you to buy the game and then also donate? Yeah, nah. Zoe is totally in it for the games. Totally.
The history of Depression Quest is kind of ambiguous. It's actually been available for a LONG time before this Steam thing in July/August 2014. I could have sworn seeing links to a similar CYOA-type game about "depression" posted on /r9k/ well over a year ago (with similar comments from wizards about how Chad with his girlfriend & friends couldn't really be "depressed").
It was only recently I realized realized Depression Quest WAS that game. It's been on the internet since February 2013 -- it even had several reviews and write ups by then.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130215122425/http://www.depressionquest.com/
The only thing different then was the alternate paypal donations went to "patrick (at) pixelsordeath.com" and there's an embedded video announcing that it was launching on "Valentine's Day 2013" (the vid has since been deleted, but you can see the title on the embedded video at the link above).
When I realized DQ and the game I was thinking of was one and the same, I went through some old /r9k/ posts and ... well, some of these are pretty odd. Frankly it sounds like Zoe, or someone who "isn't Zoe but knows her" as people say when they're nailed sockpuppeting, was actively promoting it there, among those
scary creepy wizard apprentices:
http://archive.heinessen.com/r9k/thread/S5681854
The first mention (in the archive, these things are not necessarily canon but the archive is pretty good). A mere two days after the domain was registered and one day after the "Valentine's Day 2013" launch. It got 1 comment 3 hours later, praising the creator as someone that had obviously gone through depression before. (That itself is pretty weird, considering 4chan negativity and /r9k/ being basically concentrated nihilism.)
http://archive.heinessen.com/r9k/thread/S5691311
Later that same day. Another post, another link, continual bumping because nobody posts for more than an hour. Takes off this time, though opinion is rather split, with the wizard viewpoint that the creator is a "normalfag" gaining the edge.
http://archive.heinessen.com/r9k/thread/S5707712
Hey what was the name of that game that people keep posting threads about? You'd think this game was a sensation based upon how often threads are being made about it on /r9k/. But it quickly dies again.
http://archive.heinessen.com/r9k/thread/S5708927
Two days after the game is released. /r9k/ just can't stop making threads about this game.... yet, for a game which /r9k/ couldn't stop starting threads about, /r9k/ doesn't really seem to have much to say about it. The threads are made, bumped a long time later, and die.
http://archive.heinessen.com/r9k/thread/S5818462
> Hey /r9k/, are you still playing Depression Quest?
This thread just looked awfully suspicious. Every criticism of the game is basically "addressed" by insulting the person making it. If you've spent any time reading the logs or Zoe's tweets, they read
exactly like she writes. If you read nothing else in this thread, read the responses at this link. I couldn't get halfway down the page without believing for sure that it was her.
The intensity of posting the link to depressionquest.com never again reached this intensity that you can see in February 2013, a few days after the game launched. A few posters have posted about it, even started threads about it, but never again on that level and in such a suspicious pattern.
tl;dr is that Zoe Quinn was probably actively promoting this game among Wizard-types all along. She knows who they are because she always knew who they are.
Is it wrong to find all this just so hilarious?