It has been another year since my first blog post and a year since my year 1 review. Like last year, for the year 2 review of my blog, I will consider lessons learned and what I will aim to do moving forward. I shall also reminisce on my gaming activity since the last review.
As was first stated a year ago, I still do not consider myself a ‘content provider’. This is still very much a platform I use to write about and enhance my gaming experiences. A way to document my gaming achievements and share them with whoever is interested. Because of this I have only made a minimal effort to share my content with others but have started to do so via a few live YouTube videos and occasionally with Discord to a small number of people I regularly play Classic World of Warcraft with.
With that disclaimer out of the way, it would be remiss of me not to mention as part of my year 2 review that there has been a complete re-design of the website to include branding and be fully responsive to mobile devices. I have also used my branding on all all other platforms I use, including my Twitter, YouTube, Twitch accounts, videos and as an avatar wherever possible. I really liked my blog this time last year, even if it was devoid of branding, but now, I am ecstatic with how everything looks and comes together. I must take this opportunity to thank my good friend Jason for making this possible and for continuously helping in all sorts of ways, not just a site redesign.
Having created a small number of YouTube videos, I feel like I have learned a lot about video production. I have been using OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) to capture my gaming activities and Sony Vegas to edit the footage and convert it to a YouTube friendly format for uploading. Embedding these videos in some of my posts has given my blog a new dynamic and helps to visually document my gaming achievements and activities. I still have a lot to learn about video production, so far I have clipped the beginning and ending of footage, added an intro, faded in and out volume and a few other minor things. Sony Vegas is a powerful tool and I still have much to learn.
My most popular post is a sort of educational one, Alpha EVE Online: Vexor. I posted this back in April 2019 and people are still finding it and use the site search to find information about the Vexor in EVE Online. It’s pretty much the only post where I have shared my knowledge about a game and how to better play it. While I have not played EVE Online for quite some time, it is tempting to play it a little again, just to put together some posts and perhaps YouTube videos about the areas of the game I have some expertise.
Perhaps the most important lesson I have learned is actually about myself. Last September I wrote a post called Playing Alone which, for people who know me, might be somewhat upsetting to read, especially towards the end. Since that post, I have joined a guild within World of Warcraft called Inspire and they have been awesome. After playing games alone for so long, it’s nice to group up with some like minded nerds and achieve the things we want within a game we enjoy. I also sought and recently completed a course of therapy which has helped me understand my mental health and has given me professional diagnosis. I am still learning how better to handle depression and anxiety, but I am incredibly proud with how far I have come. It’s also incredible to think that, in a way, my blog has helped me take steps to lead a better life and tackle issues which I have carried for most of my life.
As was written last year, there is still so much more I can do with my relatively new hardware and internet speeds. I aim to create more unlisted YouTube videos to use on my blog within the context of relevant posts, but, I would also like to create more listed YouTube content which might drive some traffic to my blog. I am nearing the completion of creating 15 or so videos of a play through which I will make live as soon as it’s complete, I am hopeful that this will be a good start.
I am continually disappointed that I do not play a wider variety of games. With that said, I have no intention of not playing Classic World of Warcraft or Snooker Nation, the two games I play the most. Time is not the issue, I do in theory have enough time to indulge in quite a lot of gaming activity if I want to. I believe the issue is a lack of planning and commitment on my part, not just with playing video games but with life in general. In future I will plan, schedule and communicate gaming activities with my employer and family. Hopefully, this with a little more commitment, I will be able to broaden my gaming horizons.
I have been thinking of creating a page in which I list all completed games since the beginning of my blog. What sort of format this page will take and whether or not I share it or how I share it is still something I will need to think about. I have often wondered how many games I have completed start to finish in my lifetime and while I cannot easily recount what I have done in the days before my blog, it might be fun to to start listing my gaming accomplishments in this way.
Because of a limited following, I have to date had little feedback. If there are any regular readers out there who would like to provide some feedback, be it about the website, the brand, my year 2 review or my gaming, please feel free to do so. You can leave a comment or contact me.
I think your blog is evolving nicely, the video media definitely adds more depth, although I am not really much of a gamer these days, I do enjoy reading your experiences in games. If I have one criticism, it would be to check your spelling and grammar, there were a few typos, which made reading a little difficult, I corrected those typos, btw :-). Finally, there really is no need to keep mentioning my contribution to your blog, it’s the content that brings people here, not the design I created for you!