Happy 2 Year Anniversary

I just realized that with it being January 24th that the blog is actually just over 2 years old. Which is pretty much solid reason for a holiday right? Right? No? Well alright, let's turn this into an advice post as well then. That said, happy 2nd birthday Reality Refracted!

Showing Up Is Key
From my understanding, and just looking at the blogs I've removed from my blog roll (which is in need of another pruning round btw) it seems like the 2 year anniversary is a rare one for a gaming blog to reach. Now there are a lot of reasons I can think of for why this may be happening, but one of the big ones is likely that the authors simply stop showing up. Regular updates, especially on a near daily basis, are hard to keep up with. I made it to this December before I started having real troubles, but they hit me all the same. There are times where your choice is sleep on time, or get the blog post done for the next day. When that happens, what do you choose?

A lot of people choose sleep. Then, having missed a day, the second day is a lot easier to miss. The blog goes from daily to weekly, from weekly to monthly, and then to non-existent. This isn't a critique of those bloggers by the way. Life happens, and priority management is important. It still is a factor in what happens.

Ideas Come From Where?
I'll be honest, I'm surprised this is still going myself at times. Why? Well, because when it started I figured I could rant and rave about gaming and GMing for an indefinite amount of time without running out of things. However, keeping track of what you've covered is hard - and I know I've covered the same topic multiple times now, sometimes with different viewpoints. At the same time, there is also only a limited amount of stuff you can cover from a theory perspective, especially in the non-system specific vein that I like to keep my topics in.

Does this mean I'm out of topics? No. I can't list what I have right now, but ideas are there if you keep your eyes open. This is also why series like Character Types, Inspiration Point, and System Analysis exist. They give something structured to focus on, which in turn helps the brain wander for other things to cover.

Still Gaming = Still Blogging
the real thing that will keep you going as a blog though? Keep doing the thing you are blogging about. You won't have new ideas or things to cover if you don't do the hobby. More to the point, it is hard to stay passionate about a hobby you don't do anymore. I like the game Malifaux, but I haven't played it in nearly a year. I couldn't talk about the game, save to say I've played it, because I only have my memories of what happened and how it worked. Meanwhile, I play in about 2 games every week (different games every other week) so I regularly have at least something fresh to talk about. even if it is just an amusing anecdote and the problems that came from it in game.

Find A Timetable that Works
As a last note, fine a time table that works for you. I'm still looking for a time for posts to go up that I like. I dislike noon because it feels too late. 8 am worked, but was also kind of weird and arbitrary. For a bit I'm going to try midnight. That starts the day off right, isn't super late for fellow east coasters, and hits right at 9pm for the pacific folks. We'll see how that goes I suppose.