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March 5, 2010

Getting back on track

It's been ages since I've last posted here and I'm putting this post to remind myself that I need to start getting back to blogging. To explain my absence, I can only say that I've started a full time job in the past few months and, as expected, it has taken its toll on my game and blogging time.

Now that I'm gradually getting used to the fast-pace and long hours of the job and knowing what to expect out of it, I'm finally able to settle down and try to strike a balance between my personal life and gamer life.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to refurbish the furniture around here, so I hope you also like the new theme I've put up.

Another reason I'm putting up this post because during my hiatus, it has given my plenty of time to reflect on what I want to do and set new directions.

When I started the blog 2 years ago, I already had in mind a few things that I wanted to focus on, particularly about GMing, my personal styles and preferences with the occasional sprinkle of gaming news to inform my local gaming community.

After joining the RPG Bloggers Network, that focus shifted to almost the opposite direction. There I read numerous posts with great content that contained pieces of advice on gaming that it had become almost like every gamer blog should be done this way.

That's where I made my mistake, I conformed; conformed to the high standards that is the RPGBN that was just too high for me to reach with my limited experience, both as a GM and as a gamer.

To be honest, I took it like it was a competition amongst bloggers to produce the best content or to attract the most readers when you are surrounded by peers that emphasised on these things.

Over the course of time, I realized that I don't have the financial, skill and knowledge to make the cut which lead to the slow death of my enthusiasm and attachment to the community.

During my hiatus, I still continued lurking around forums and other blogs and I came to a realization. RPGs is not a game where everyone can have an equal opinion, the same goes with every arguments about editions, old school vs new school and or what rule is broken or unbalanced.

Every gaming experience on one table is unique for its own existence. We can discuss similarities between our games but we don't necessarily share them.

There were many things I wanted to say about various subjects but was too afraid that I would be disagreed by my fellow RPG bloggers, I was too careful with my opinions which partly became a barrier to express myself.

I don't intend for that to happen again.

So I hereby set a new course for the blog and what you can expect to see more and less in my future posts.
  • The direction will be more personal than communal from now on, which means that you'll see more 'I's and 'my's than 'We's and 'our's. Every post that I make from now on is more likely to be a personal opinion, despite how controversial or stupid it may sound and is not trying to conform itself to any kind of acceptable standard (if there was any). What I say is my own and only applies to me.

  • Post schedule is, at the moment, still uncertain but will try to stick along the lines of once weekly.

  • Due to my work schedule, I'm planning to drop some features namely the Questing's Readings because my time to read, decide and compile which post makes it to the post is limited.

  • On the other hand, I want to see how my personal and gaming life is progressing, so features such as the {Quest Log} might be back more often. New features are also in the works but you can be sure it's something more personally relevant.

  • I'm adding a rant label so to anyone who wish to avoid the occasional bile that comes out from a rancid gamer, I have placed the labels at the top of my posts so that you won't be caught unaware. You have been warned.

  • I'm adding comment moderation. Partly to have control over the spam that I'm starting to get, partly to avoid all out war in my blog based on my discretion.

  • Gaming news might appear once in a while but as far as I'm concerned, Word of Wizards is dead in the water from now on (if it wasn't apparent months ago). This has something to do with my severed detachment with 4E in terms of news (I'm sure Wyatt will understand).

  • I might get really frustrated at times and might incline towards trolling. If I make any rude remarks with links or mentions to names, blogs, forums, organizations and thereof, please be ensured that all is done in good faith with tongue in cheek. You don't have to take my personal opinions too seriously (.......yet).

That's all for now and I will inform you if I do add more but I think these are sufficient to inform my fundamentals and the expected change of tone and content that this blog is going to have from now on.

So now that this is off my chest, it's good to be back and roll some initiative.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand pretty much perfectly everything you said, and believe me when I say I've struggled through everything you said. I did look at blogging as a competition for readers and being a more useful site than others.

Even now I struggle with that, but I realized the same thing. So now my blog is just what I'm doing with RPGs that I want to do, like Eden stuff, my NAA D6 homebrew game, and so on. Blog for yourself and for your bros man, and be surprised and happy if others come join you. That's how I see it.

Also posting with openid because google keeps rejecting my SN sigh.

Questing GM said...

You sum up my words well, buddy although I probably didn't suffer a great stock price fall as much as you did.

I will miss your jabs at 4E thought unless those are some of the things that you 'want to do'.

Geek Ken said...

Yay! Glad to see you back. And a detachment to 4E? Do blog about it!

satyre said...

Good to see you back!

Was getting mildly concerned with all the flooding - and you're hosting the Carnival this month.

Let's see what comes up... :)

Questing GM said...

Thanks Geek Ken,

As for my detachment with 4E, you can read my comments that I have posted in Wyatt's blog at the link above.

If time permitting, maybe I would expand it into a post about it but my current stance is in Wyatt's post.

Hey satyre,

Flooding? Did I miss something?

Be sure to submit something for the blog carnival, we gotta revive that thing in the community. ;)

Ameron said...

Welcome back to the blogging community. Your presence has been noticed and missed. It's funny that the blog carnival topic came up. The Dungeon's Master team just had a conversation about it last week. What's the latest topic? I remember seeing a list of topics and hosts a while back, but have no idea if it still exists.

Questing GM said...

Thanks Ameron,

I would really like to see your team tackle this month's blog carnival. I think it should be very interesting and it will give some 'star power' to the carnival that will make others jump into the fray.

About the list that you were looking for, you can find it at this link.

http://groups.google.com/group/rpgbloggers/web/rpg-blog-carnival---schedule?pli=1

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