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| Yeah I'm not sure I have any 'classics'... |
Well I wasn't too sure whether or not I was going to partake of International Blog Necromancy Day, simply because my Blog isn't even a year old. It's coming up to 10 months sure in mid March, but I guess I just felt that Blog Necromancy from less than 10 months ago really wasn't all that difficult a task to achieve. But, I've had some nagging PM's off of people saying I should give it a go, and get into the spirit of the day. Well just what is the spirit of the day? Apparently there was this chap named Rob, he used to write a Blog called Warhammer 39,999 or something. He felt, so the legend goes, a bit put out that some of his early work didn't get the credit or views that he felt it deserved. So he got to thinking, always a dangerous thing if you ask me, and he wandered if other Bloggers were in the same position. Turns out they were! Any way this chap then had the wizard wheeze of designating a day whereby all Bloggers could legitimately recycle all their old crap posts and force you all to read them, and he named it 'Old Stuff Day'!
Yeah OK so the titles not very snazzy and could do with a bit of a rethink, I personally like 'International Blog Necromancy Day'. Although I would also accept 'International Lazy Bloggers Day' or 'Deja Vu Blog Day'. I do think in principle though that the idea is a sound one as it stands. Thing is, and I'm not trying to be big headed here but most of my Blogs have actually had pretty good viewing figures, thanks to all you lovely lot, my readers. Sure there were some early Blogs that didn't get much viewing, but as they're mainly crap I guess I'm not too bothered if anyone ever reads them ever again. So a conundrum we have (yeah OK I said that in my head with a Yoda voice). So I've been looking through my Blogs and I've decided to bring a few articles to the fore again because of varying reasons, but not necessarily because they didn't perform all that well in terms of hits. I hope you enjoy them, and if you've already read them all I'm sorry, but apparently being lazy is the new being productive!
Golden Age of GamingYeah I'm bringing this bad boy back because I originally published it on a really dumb day... New Years Eve 2011. I know, I know it's not that long ago, but I was drinking and in full on passionate flow about why I currently love the hobby right now, and why it's just so awesome to be a gamer in 2011/12. It did OK for responses I guess, but here's the thing... turns out most of you had other things to do on that day than read my tipsy ramblings on my Blog. Go figure! So huzzah for International Blog Necromancy Day because I now get to try and inflict it on you again. Hopefully the second time around more people will actually read it and get suitably inspired to go out and try something different. After all it's one of my biggest personal missions with this Blogging thing I'm doing. Any way if you haven't already given it a read please do, it's kind of my own personal party political broadcast.
Adventures with girls (sadly it's not what it sounds like)This was a three part trilogy way back when I was still really finding my 'Blogging feet'. It actually did OK even back then for hits and I'm more than pleased with how it seemed, at the time to increase my followers quite rapidly as a series. So why am I bringing this series of Blogs back? Because I'd actually forgotten that I had written them, and while flicking through my published articles I stumbled across them again. Reading them again just reminded me what a really good night of gaming it was, and how much fun we all had. So much so that I'm going to try and organise another one! Except this time without Descent: Journeys in the Dark. Any way here are the links to Part 2 and Part 3 of the series. The link at the top will take you to the first article. I guess what I'm hoping this article will do for those of you who read it, is maybe get some of you to arrange your own night in of gaming in with loved ones, friends and there partners. Bring out the snack food and get the alcohol flowing and just enjoy yourself with a board game or two and not take it seriously. Just have some fun.
Internet army lists: The death of originality?I'm not so sure why this one seemed to get passed over at the time. There were certainly plenty of comments from readers etc. about the topic, and some really good ones. But compared to other articles around then I guess this one did kind of under perform or get lost in the mix. However, it's getting the Blog Necromancy treatment primarily because I'm not too sure what I think about this topic anymore. Personally I still prefer to try and write my own lists and armies, BUT some people I know have given some quite convincing arguments as to why they use them. I guess I'm revisiting it as a topic because re-reading the article after all these months made me think about it again as a topic. Be interesting to see if anyone else has changed their minds too.
Are you in an abusive relationship?Ah yes, my infamous 'abusive relationship' Blog. Now here I was thinking I was tackling a pretty hard topic for some in a lighthearted and funny way. You know just giving some people I know a gentle prod and saying 'look that's you that is'. Turns out it actually got some people hot under the collar... why? Well it's not because I likened the Games Workshop to someone who commits acts of domestic violence, if it had been that people were taking issue with I'd have held my hands up and said sorry. No what people disliked was that I should even suggest that the Games Workshop hobby is anything other than the best thing on the planet for everybody, and that I with my 'opinions' was ruining it for everyone. It's getting the Blog necromancy treatment though because yet again I'm hearing people whinge about certain aspects of Games Workshops business plan that they are never going to change. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a bit of constructive criticism, but when it crosses over into the petty and meaningless... well guys and gals, it's time for you to move on and break the abusive cycle.
Can any game system ever truly be balancedThe last series of articles I'm bringing to everyone's attention actually rank as some of my most frustrating to date. Each one of them ranks highly in terms of hits. Each grabbing over 2000 hits each... yet no one bloody commented on them really. Certainly not that much after the first article. So I guess I'm asking people to take a look again at them and give me your thoughts, even if it's just to say I think those articles are rubbish and here's why! Here are the links to the other four articles in the series:
Game balance: Part 2
Game balance: Part 3
Game balance: Part 4
Game balance: Part 5
Hopefully I'll get some debate going on them, I know that where links to the articles got posted on forums they sparked some interesting and often heated debate... it's just a little sad it didn't come back to my own Blog and take place here, and thus add to the original articles. If they don't create any further comments, sod it I'll just ignore my failure from here on out. Stupid bloody Internet!
So that's it for today. No 'new' articles as it isn't the day for them. Hope you don't mind me recycling some of my old stuff. Peace out!
What?
ReplyDeleteNo, no, no.
'Is Games Workshop a metaphor for the Imperium?'
You need to run that.
It's a CLASSIC.
The 'Abusive Relationship' one is good, too.
Maybe dud but I can't believe there's a gamer left out there who hasn't seen it!!! Honestly it's hits are astronomical.
DeleteI liked the Golden Age of Gaming one, I remember thinking "this guy seems drunk!"
DeleteHey SinSynn... I replied to you about five times in your thread about complaining on HoP the other day but I seem to have been banned or something. I got a pop-up saying my comments were in moderation, and now I can't seem to post in the thread any more. Weird hey?
James that happened to me for a while at HoP. Then it mysteriously sorted itself out. Don't know why or how.
DeleteAs to my Golden Age of Gaming article, I was ever so slightly tipsy on that day to begin with and by the end of writing the article I was relying on Mrs FLG to make sure I wasn't just typing "God I love you guys... no, no, listen, I mean it. I really do love you guys. I'm going to cry now." Yeah I was that hammered at the end I need someone to dictate for me, all my own words though!!! But she did stop me saying I love you guys!
You know, Rob at Warhammer 39,999 was one of people who helped me get into blogging. He gave me heaps of useful advice for getting connected with the community, including suggesting I sign up with the then-fledgeling House of Paincakes.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm fine with the name out of respect for a good bloke :)
James I too am fine with the name. I was just poking a bit of fun at the day. I actually think it's not a bad idea at all. I'm not sure I've used it properly truth be told but I felt the above articles needed raising again for various reasons I guess.
DeleteI like 'International Blog Necromancy Day', that's a good one that.
ReplyDeletePersonally I like dredging up 'dead' content. The Internet is a strange medium, really, where something written last week might as well have not been written at all, considering the social prohibition of THREADOMANCY and the general lack of sustained discussion on entries that have 'been and gone'. Anything that makes that content 'live' again is worth a dekko from me.
Forgot to copy/paste this bit back in:
DeleteIt doesn't have to be about the hits. I've dug up entries which are relevant to what I'm doing at the moment and which cover fundamental parts of my attitudes/opinions. At some point I keep meaning to put Pages together for that stuff but I'm not convinced anyone actually reads those...
Von I'm glad you liked the name. ;) I thought you might!
DeleteI agree the internet is a really weird format, sometimes I get a spate of people reading an article that is pretty old and I just assumed 'dead' I guess. I think the Link within widget really helps with cycling old content out through the Blog. I get a lot of follow on hits from that. But you're right, sometimes it's not enough! I actually think the principle behind the day is sound. Even though I feel like a bit of a fraud taking part as my Blog isn't even 1 year old yet! lol.
See, again, I think you're still seeing it in terms of hits and not discourse.
DeletePeople read dead blog entries, but do they comment on them? How much of the conditioned reluctance to THREADOMANCE carries over from forums? I know I hold back from commenting on things when I see the date and think "the author will resent this dragging-back-into-the-past-ness", and I can't be the only one. Needs moah discourse.
Let me be clear then, not only do I get hits, I also get comments on older posts, Not as frequent as the hits I warrent, but it does still happen. For me it's the comments and discourse that counts. Nothing was more disheartening than seeing each of my game balance article top 2000 hits, some of them easily so and then get hardly any comments. It's the comments that I look for the most.
DeleteSee, that's more like it. :p
Deletelol. I prefer to see a discussion to the hits counter spinning if I'm honest. I appreciate that people read the bollocks that I write, and that some of them do come back to read more, but it's the comments and chats I have on here with peeps that are really important and keep me Blogging. :)
DeleteGroundblog Day, anyone?
DeleteYesssss... that would have been the obvious one Will. Question is now, why the bloody hell didn't I think of that? lol.
DeleteAlways next year...I'm not sure exactly where it came from myself.
DeleteYes there is that. lol. I guess I'll have to remember it for next year... probability of that happening? 0%.
DeleteVon I think the internet culture's aversion to threadomancy is pretty terrible to be honest. One of the main advantages of the net over other media is its potential to exist as a conversational medium across long stretches of time. Anyone can pop in as though time was irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteAnd then self-appointed forum bigwigs across the net decided a good way to assert their dominance over their adopted communities was to rise up in outrage whenever anyone dared to discuss something that had been discussed before. I used to always give people like that a piece of my mind when they complained about threadomancy. It's petty and stupid.
I LOVE it when someone comments on an old post on my blog, and I don't hesitate to comment on things that are even years old on other's blogs. I still find myself apologizing for it out of forum-bred habit though:)
It's really sad isn't it. I get loads of private messages about my Imperium as metaphor for the Games Workshop article because people are scared to comment in it given it's months and months old now. I really wished they would. I don't see my Blogs or articles as archives or standalone articles. I view them more as discussion pieces or consciousness dumps. I'd still be willing to chat with anyone about any of my articles if they wanted too. It's possibly the main reason I started my Blog. I'd hope people still felt able to comment on my articles years after they were posted.
DeleteHear hear. We need to start a consciousness shift I think. Up with threadomancy!
DeleteAgreed. Perhaps the topic needs a Sunday Sermon of sorts... hmm.
DeleteThis got me thinking about threadomancy in forums and there seems to exist a catch 22 situation; I've seen numerous times on a forum where somebody starts a new post asking for help on a given topic only to find that the first response is a self-appointed forum bigwig telling them they're fed up of answering this question and that they should use the search function. If that same poster was then to use the search function to find a relevant post on the subject and then make a comment (perhaps asking for further assistance/clarification) the very same self-appointed forum bigwig will then be posting telling them not to commit threadomancy!
DeleteWith regards to posting on older posts on blogs, there have been a few instances where I've read a new article but not had time to respond immediately (usually when I've had a quick browse at work to see if any new articles are up) but had the intention of commenting at a later date. When I look again I usually see more comments which then spark more thoughts for my comments but ends up delaying me further; by the time I do get to the point where I might comment another article or two have popped up and I think it's probably not worth posting on old content.
It's good to know that (here at least) it's not frowned upon to post on older articles and seeing as it's evidently motivational for you to receive feedback I'll make a concious effort to post where I find I have something to add.
Hendie all comments on all posts are always very welcome here. As long as they steer clear of actually insulting other users of the Blog I'm all good with it... I'm OK with people calling me names though, I've got a thick skin. I will always attempt to reply to people's comments as well and give them some thought. I always feel it's the very least I should do if somebody has taking the time to read my articles and actually give me their opinion. I always value the effort, no matter what Blog it's on, or when it's posted. I always get email alerts from comments so I do know when people have commented on older Blogs too. I actually quite enjoy going back to older discussions and re-reading them to see if my opinions have changed any.
DeleteI would do something like this with old posts that didn't get any comments, but I'd be up all night putting that list together.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should just cater to the search terms people are using to find my site. Things like "why is games workshop so [expletive] overpriced compared to the uk in nz?" could be an interesting start.
Or, I could just get off my behind and finish up my three-part GenCon series as well as my Dark Eldar Necromunda conversion.
Buddy, one of my Blog's biggest successes was a brief article I did about the troubles I was having with Blogger, I kid you not. Very bizarre if you ask me o_0
DeleteStill I have to be honest and say at the start of my 'Blogging career' I followed the hits and gave people what they seemed to like. Thing is after a while it gets boring for you as a writer to churn out the same stuff week in week out... so I'm mixing things up here a bit more now and I'm looking to do it some more and see what peeps think... but yeah actually writing articles does help buddy. :P I'd be interested to read about some Dark Eldar Necromunda stuff.