The Gonzo Guide to Video Games: Sex Work Edition

The Gonzo Guide to Video Games: Sex Work Edition

. 8 min read

PREFACE: Nike’s “Gonzo Experiment” Apology (or an introduction to my "Unique Style”)

Dear Reader,

I am so sorry, in advance, for subjecting you, Dear Reader, to this "incomprehensible garbage” which is how Hunter S. Thompson, the founder of Gonzo Journalism, described his own style. 

This piece took almost a year and over 40 emails back and forth between me and the Amazing Grace-Given Tryst Team. I am so grateful to be able to express myself and gush about my “technomagical experiences” to my fellow Night Butterflies and followers. Still, I would rather make an interesting nightmarish reading experience at the expense of sounding insane to you, rather than conjure a boring “college style” essay. 

I plan on forcing myself to “rote” rewrite all of Neuromancer and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72 as a pittance for this slurry of pretty, written vomit. I know it is self-indulgent and decadent. 

Consuming games made in 2026 is a gift, it is supposed to be “fun!-GAMING!” or should at least bring you some happiness. (What even is fun? I am currently 16% through my first Souls game as of writing this—yesterday I got banned from r/cyberpunkgame AGAIN for “having an OnlyFans” on a separate account and commenting “awesome” on Rebecca fanart). I am unaffected by these obviously painful experiences and I do not know why. Probably pure love of the Game.

This stupid Gonzo-style of writing which I am undertaking can be defined as: 

“An energetic first-person participatory writing style in which the author is a protagonist, and it draws its power from a combination of social critique and self-satire.” Wiki.

Although We Working Ones are in games so much (I mean everywhere, why even) I don’t think we play them enough. I want the world to hear what I see, how I feel while playing.

I promise that I can write ‘normally’ and that I care so much about how my work comes out, despite the unpolished nature of my following work. I hate rehearsing. I love adrenaline. 

Writing in Gonzo so far has been comparable to gesture drawings, frustrating and fun. 

To show with words to you is so hard, Dear Reader, forgive me but I shall try to. 

Will I, as a blade-living edge-lord whore, be able to get the same type of considerate audience that Thompson was awarded? Nobody knows, until we shall see. I am fine being read as a clown if I lead you to fun, guide you to new digital open worlds. I do not deserve this God-like gaming computer. I shall try to emulate experience through words with it, and I shall fail. Please forgive me.

~Nikke Pro PDX


(I was dreaming of you but)

Just then

Nyx, in her Isla Platforms by my bedside, 

(woke me.) (1) 

Sitting in my Quartz Razer BAPE in front of my new black chrome, bespoke stained-glass tower. LED-light spilling out “raytracing in real life” (2)-ass Desktop—my illuminated manuscript. Cash fueled me to an enlightened experience—one that most undeserving tech bros have gotten to experience, joylessly. Thanklessly, the Bros play God Sims and are desensitized to 4k open world ultra-violence and they become spoiled. Sugar, no substance. Made into personified rotten teeth. Lifelong players that have never hungered take it for granted. They will never feel this new discovery. My just deserts shall be true understanding while gaming, not just seeing Night City and saying, “I want to live there” (3) as 45% of r/cyberpunkgame did. Let the Braindance Wreath light up your vision, Apollonian in utility but Dionysion in effect. WHEN YOU HAVE NOTHING, THE VIRTUAL WORLD REMAINS, SO LONG AS IT IS THERE IT AWAITS YOU! READY! ESCAPE! UNIVERSES FOR EVERY PLAYER. 

“Spectacle in the palm of thine hand.”(4) 
–”ThorHighheels” (Describing Game Boy Advance)

I express my vulnerabilities through this cryptic pixelated proxy. Almost immediately after getting a safe room of my own and a secondhand Switch to play on, I started cataloging, posting and writing about all of the sex workers I found while playing games in my IG “Sworkersinvideogames”. Virtual worlds, pixelated caricatures, accidental tells about how they see us, where they place us. At first I was surprised, I was not expecting to see so much of us. I still remember the first Non Player Character (NPC) working girl I found by chance, caught by surprise—garish metal bunny-ears and clown-colored bunny suit, out of place in a child's dragon game, the “Honk Honk Girl” in Dragon Quest. And then later the helpful “Dancers” In Assassin's Creed III: Liberation (5.) 

Video games help me switch modes from working to living. From Business-Nike to at home-Nike. To me, playing as a video game character is a fun, middle-personality, in between relaxing and working. 

Here is a list of some of my favorite video games that my fellow e-thots might appreciate, hate or like to nibble at. I would like the lovely reader to look forward to me writing future articles about these listed titles and grouped themes. All titles will include us Sex Workers whether they do us good, or terribly.

AAA games that I love

Long games that have a lot to say, all of which include us Sex Workers. Containing high frame rate delights for the eyes. First person shooters with a 400 million budget such as 2077, a dystopian, idealistic oasis for the eyes. TechMeds to prescribe. Cyber vitamin- candy. Yummy yummy and very pretty. Is consuming these in binge amounts good for you? Kinda don’t care. No thoughts, just blood and beauty. Why do I enjoy being lost in a digital ‘open world?’ A Painterly facade to run into. Go in blind? The anticipatorily exciting feeling that I could see anything in this huge gamescape that I have not researched at all. Let me lead you through mental escapes. TechMeds to prescribe. Worlds so vast that you could be Isekai’d into them, and it would be ok for a couple days. Cyber vitamin-candy. 

  • Hitman, by Studio IOI
  • Cyberpunk 2077, featuring The Moxes, by CD Projekt Red (CDPR)
  • The Sims, by EA
  • Yakuza: Like a Dragon, by RGG StudiosNote: After RGG Studios controversies (#REMOVEKAGAWA, boycott still in place). Do not write about us sympathetically and then let us be abused by RGG’s real actors.
  • Persona 5, by Sega/Atlus
  • Elden Ring, by FromSoftware
  • Nikke: Goddess of Victory, by Shift Up Studios (mobile game)

I know the gaming experience is fake but I need to feel powerful. Does it have to be deep? No. But we will dig until we hit Playstation platinum for deep cuts in big titles. These are important at least as they are an oasis of cyberhappiness for me.

(Burgerville organic beef, drive through, RSO (some would say “too much”) lazily applied as sauce)

Underappreciated cybergems 

Aka the Indie and Overlooked categories. I will shove onto you secret made-with-love pesto-weed sauce, to pour over the algorithmic, majority rules slop feed. Please eat, or at least nibble. In this category we have games such as: 

  • Catherine: Full Body, by Sega/Atlus
  • Needy Streamer Girl Overdose, by WSS Playground and Xemono; written by Nyalra
  • He Fucked the Girl out of Me, by Taylor McCue
  • Night Shift, an Exotic Cancer tabletop Role-Playing Game (RPG)

Don’t like “normal games?” Wanna be an edge-lord femmecell like me? Play these, be cool and know things tech bros don’t. 

(2077 Jig-Jig titty implant Ads for taser nipples. Homemade Weed brownies with Dolly Parton instant brownie mix)

Not really fun, but important games 

Classics with us Sex Workers in them that the overworked moms among us don’t have time to play, but will be quizzed about whenever bringing up “gaming” to a tech bro. 

  • BioShock, by Irrational Games
  • 2K MarinFallout 76, by Bethesda
  • Assassin’s Creed: Origins, by Ubisoft

Titles that help remind us about empathy and understanding, sometimes. Refined, compacted trash that is a building block to today’s trash. Haunting and boring representations, if any.

(Vitamin gummies aka sleep walkers temptations, store-bought THC infused turkish delights, tap water with fluoride)

Games I hate, and why 

These games need to be shit-talked more. Pithole timesinks disguised as ‘games’. Mass appeal aka the “truly overhyped”. Don’t let these surface level suggestions spoil gaming for you, keep going. If you like a story and hate endless live lobbies of weird bros that scream every time you speak in Grand Theft Auto (GTA) online. So many cool femme colleagues have had a gaming experience like this early in their search of fun. The soulless vastness that is Teamfight Tactics (TFT), GTA, Fortnite, urgh. People often proceed to write off games-GAMING entirely. I will not be a mark of the Gacha games tempting with kawaii/moe girl and adorable outfit designs—next year I am wasting my money gambling for plush in real-life claw games.

  • GTA V, by Rockstar Games
  • HoyoVerse games: ZZZ, Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, All.
  • Saint’s Row, by Volition
  • Soul Hackers, by Sega / Atlus
  • Persona 5: The Phantom X (iOS, gacha), by Sega / Atlus

 (Burger King burger with fake Bodega “Spyce” weed as lettuce)

When I got my first console I slept with it. I had a large bed and a small room with not much but my shitty lagging 100$ TV. I didn’t realize at the time I was both hiding and discovering, like a tiny, frozen Water Bear in space, hibernating and floating. 

THE HEART IS BETWEEN THE HANDS AND THE HEAD (Metropolis) (7). 

MY fellow OLD PRO ANGELS LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT GOT ME THROUGH. Even if you don’t have the time or money to do it yourself, let me tell you what the fuck these nerds say about us. How they mod us to fuck us and kill us over and over and over. How that makes me being The Best at these games so much sweeter.

Works Cited

  1. Robinson, David Moore. Sappho and Her Influence. Plimpton Press, 1924. PDF.
  2. Action Button. “ACTION BUTTON REVIEWS Cyberpunk 2077.” YouTube, 2021. 
  3. Reddit. “If You Had the Chance to Go Live in Night City for the Rest of Your Life, Would You Take It?” Reddit.com, 2021.
    Poll results: Total Yes = 1,012 (46.05%), Total No = 1,237 (53.95%)
  4. ThorHighHeels. “Review of Games Saved from iOS Captivity.” YouTube, February 12, 2025.
  5. Contributors, “Database: ‘Dancers.’” Assassin’s Creed Wiki, Fandom, Inc., 2025. 
  6. McCue, Taylor. “Review of He Fucked the Girl out of Me.” Itch.io, May 21, 2022. https://taylormccue.itch.io/trauma.
  7. “Science Fiction Film History – Metropolis.” Scififilmhistory.com, 2025. https://www.scififilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=metro.

A Note to Our Community: The Tryst.link blog is not affiliated with or endorsing any sites, brands, or products linked here. This industry isn’t built to protect sex workers, and not every platform has good intentions. We share resources only where we feel they might add real value to sex workers’ knowledge or autonomy—and when the benefit feels worth the risk. Harm reduction isn’t blind trust. Ask who owns it, who it serves, and whether the info is current. Do your own checks and move in ways that protect you.


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