The story of how I got into DW is interesting.
Y'see, it was by accident.
I first looked at the game back in 2024, around the time the Connie/Looey update just came out. At the time, general hatred for the game from non-fans was at its peak, and I just knew it as "That Roblox game with a pred in its developer team." I got on the game solely out of curiosity, and to nitpick the art with friends.
I was looking through Dandy's shop when saw Glisten for the first time. I assumed he was just a girly-girl at first, since most of the designs seemed to be emulating gender-normative cartoon characters (I didn't even know Vee was a lady yet); I almost just glossed over "her" until I noticed "she" had a subtle masculine edge to "her" design (No eyelashes, very light makeup, curlicue resembling a short hairstyle), and really stopped to stare. I looked at "her" wiki page to confirm a suspicion I had, saw "Pronouns: He/Him" and bits of his dialogue, and it was all over from there.
For context, since I don't think I've elaborated on this before: The reason I have such a huge fixation on Glisten specifically is that I've always had this platonic obsession with campy, fem, "stereotypically" gay/gay-coded male characters. For me, there's a genuine appeal in the characters themselves as individuals, I'm fascinated in the history behind this sort of archetype in media... And I just find them cunty. (In case this seems weird in any way, I should note that I'm a Lesbian, and just autistic; I also have standards, and I hate depictions that are irredeemably problematic/hateful or just downright gross.)
So, me seeing that the game had a character based on this sort of thing was like dangling a piece of crack-laced cheddar in front of a mouse.
On my own time, I started figuring out the game and grinding through it, because I was laser-focused on obtaining the fabled mirror. I would scramble when he was on the board, work my ass off to get high floors in case he spawned more later on (I didn't know how Rare spawn rates worked yet), smash through solos to get machines done, the only other toon I bought before him was Rodger so I could complete his research requirement faster. My original plan was to unlock him, then never touch the game again.
I started guiltily liking DW TikToks to get them on my FYP, particularly ones with Glisten in them, so I eventually learned that Rox had been thoroughly removed from the game's development, and that there wasn't really any actual problems with the game. With that, I started to indulge in the game fully unironically, and even got my friends into it, too; they helped me finish my Glisten requirements, and we play together frequently.
Over a year later, and here we are now. Still here.
