Happy Birthday, Blog

I launched this blog one year ago today in an effort to alleviate boredom during slow times at work, and to help vent some of the nerd thoughts that sometimes roost in my head.

Looking back over the year, I'm very pleased with how the blog has come along. Truth be told, I wasn't sure when I started out if this effort would even last a year; many a blog has withered and died after a few months of posting. 

So what kept me coming back?

Part of it is the benefit that writing has for me personally. It's very cathartic and rewarding to express ideas here that I might not have been able to anywhere else (and to be able to prattle on as long as I want.) Writing up the tactical articles, model reviews, and battle reports has also helped me grow and mature as a Warmachine player. It's one thing to review a game afterwards and chat about it, but there's a whole different level of insight that you sometimes tap into when you're reporting a game turn by turn.

The other big thing that kept me motivated was seeing that people were reading what I was writing (and presumably enjoying it.) I'm enough of a dork to actually track the traffic this blog gets, and while I won't be putting Penny Arcade to shame anytime soon, I've been very impressed and grateful for how my view totals have grown over the year and eventually stayed consistent. I'm sure my friends and my wife contribute to those totals, but I don't think they do that much (and if you guys do, thanks!)

What really kept me invigorated throughout the year were reader comments. It's fantastic feedback that someone is reading what I'm putting up here, and that I'm doing enough to foster conversation/discussion that they want to respond. Every single comment I've received over the past year has been greatly appreciated, so thanks to all who have done so. And if there are other blogs you read, leave comments there too! I'm sure they'll appreciate them.

Moving into year two, I'm looking to maintain a steady pace in the face of increased work and home responsibilities. Last year was a pretty chill year for me, so I was able to kick out articles kind of willy-nilly. That may not be possible this year, but I'm hoping to maintain a pace of at least two a week (going up Tuesdays and Thursdays) with 3 article weeks being fun bonus weeks (those will post on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.)

And I'm sure I'll have a lot to talk about! All of the current generation gaming consoles are rolling into what will probably be their best set of years in terms of releases, there are bound to be new expansion books for Warmachine and Hordes, Malifaux is set for a Wave 3 beta at some point, Killer Instinct Season 2 is going strong (and Season 3 may be coming at year's end,) etc, etc. All of that is in addition to any zany Warmachine list ideas I need to theory out on here, of which I'm sure there will be many.

On top of that, this is the inaugural year for the MD Brawltimore Warmachine Tournament Circuit, and I've decided to make this the year I try to go to events semi-regularly. I'm going to try to average one a month for the whole year - May and November threw me off a bit so I'll be doubling up elsewhere - which is going to translate to plenty of games for me and a semi-monthly stream of tournament reports for your reading pleasure. Will a year of playing Khador at least moderately competitively drive me from the faction like it has so many others? Tune in each month to find out!

In closing:  to anyone who has been reading this blog for any amount of time, thank you very much for doing so. I'll hopefully be continuing to provide you with fun stuff to read in the coming year. To anyone that found this blog recently, welcome! And stick around. 2015 is shaping up to be one helluva year.