1 Year Anniversary! Almost.

For some reason I thought my one year anniversary of this blog was going to be in December, but apparently it was already in November. So for one year, and one month ago, I decided to start blogging on a more regular basis. I've tried to make a post each day, and at first I thought that would mean to force thoughts out of my head. Make things up or write about things that didn't really interest me. Fortunately, and suprisingly, my filler posts have been really few! And even those have been posts I could've posted anyway. What differs them from my regular ones are simply that they're a tad shorter. Actually I had started this blog already several years ago. But I didn't start blogging "seriously", i.e with a plan, until a year ago.

Wow, 1 year... When I first started out I just felt like I wanted a place where I could vent my thoughts on things. What triggered it wasn't any experience or happening in WoW actually, but a movie I saw that was so abyssmally bad that I just had to tell people about it. And from there on it just snow balled away. Initially I wrote my posts the same day, so some days when I was just too busy, I didn't have time to make a substantial post and that's when my filler posts entered. Later on I learned to write posts ahead, and nowadays I always have a couple lying around just in case. Some of those have been in my "bag" for months, they just never get an opening to slide in! Most of the time there are just so many interesting and fun things that happen in WoW and around it for me to comment about, I don't think I've ever been completely out of ideas. Time, sometimes. Ideas, no.

How many hours have I put into this blog? Well I am closing in on 400 posts and I've put approximately 2 hours into each post, some less, some more. 800 hours? A month worth of pure writing over little more than a year? Doesn't sound impossible. Those 2 hours per post are rarely just writing, there is alot of editing, getting pictures and researching done too of course. At first I just posted whenever I was done writing. It still happens quite often that I write the posts I'm posting the very same day. Some things need to be talked about as soon as possible! Nowadays I always post my posts on the same time however, 5 minutes after midnight, swedish time. That gives every post 24 hours before the next one comes up. I do occasionally feel like posting two posts in the same day. Sometimes alot of stuff happens and I feel like waiting even 24 hours is too much. But on the other hand I want to give each post a chance of being read before I throw up another. On a site like wow.joystiq.com, having loads of posts each day works because most of them get alot of screen time. Also they write posts with very different audiences. I don't read their dk-posts, for instance. Also they have alot of writers, whereas I am only one. I should limit myself just so I can find time to actually play the game ;)

Some people write many small posts, I prefer the larger article ones. I don't mind reading the smaller, notice like posts, but I don't like writing them. I want to muse, elaborate and evaluate a subject. Just telling people I found something cool, or read something interesting, or did something fun isn't enough. I want to tell people why it was cool, interesting and fun. In all honesty I prefer other bloggers that do this as well. After all that is what sets their blogs apart from all the others - personal input.

It took me about half a year before I decided to let people know about my blog. I told guildies and friends, looked up various sites that will showcase your blog in different ways, and most importantly - I started reading other peoples blogs. I don't know why I hadn't done it earlier, but once I got started I couldn't find many blogs enough. I was set back by all the blogs that had discontinued, and even more blogs that just don't post often enough to be interesting. By now I have collected some 50 blogs that I follow with great interest. I always try to comment on the posts I find extra interesting, although I quite often forget to check back for a reply.

I was considering going on a small break now during christmas, not because I feel like I have to, but because I should. Can't become a blogoholic! But apparently I am since I love writing. It's really difficult for me not to type down something once I've started thinking about it, and there are alot of things to think about. I might still force myself away from this for a couple of days, just to see if I can shut up.

During this year, was there any posts I particularly enjoyed writing? I belong to those crazy people who love reading my own posts. In a way this blog works like a kind of diary, and since I only write about stuff that really interests me, I love to look back a couple of months to check out old stuff I've written about. It also prevents me from accidentally writing the same things twice. Sometimes I read a post from several months ago and think "didn't I write about that just some weeks ago?". Time flies.

I did love writing about leveling my warrior tank. Unfortunately those posts are outdated, when it comes to facts, but they still represent one of my favorite projects of WoW.
I've written plenty of posts about the gaming community and I love musing over why people behave the way they do. Here are a couple;

• 10 Signs you should leave a raid
• Tracing Playstyles
• To be good or bad (which was featured on wow.joystiq.com)
• Are new players too impatient?
• People are bass turd ninjas
• Is WoW hardcore or nothing?
• What kind of player do you want to be? 

I like to pretend I know stuff about this game, and write guides on how to do things. Some are mostly for fun, and some are actually to help people out;

• How to blog (part 2) (part 1 is mostly ranting)
• Guide to surviving the random pug
• Playing Off-Server
• How to use the Lightwell
• How to become the bestest dpser (part 1)
• How to become the bestest dpser (part 2)

There are some posts I put alot of time and/or brain energy into, and that I like for that reason. Although I actually kind of wish I had put even more time into them, like more research, to make them even better. I still think they deserve a chance, even if I don't have the means to give them all the love they need.

• How real is a game?
• The 12 Intelligences of WoW
• The Warcraft Pidgin
• Going back to the roots of WoW
• Going back to the roots of WoW (part 2)
• The switching of characters - when is it ok?
• Are gaming girls too pampered to be good?

As always I could go on linking forever, but needless to say I like to write about stuff. Hopefully you'll stick with me for a while longer, and we'll see what 2011 has in store in terms of interesting things to blog about. Live long and prosper!