I’m not saying other game bloggers post things just to get stats, but as soon as I personally put stats over content, I’d get bored with myself and quit writing I just trust in RSS to get my posts out to people who might be interested in reading them.

I love Google Docs, and Google Reader, and iGoogle. I’d love it if Google had mind maps too. I’m kinda hoping they pick up Mindmeister at some point. Good tip, and I’m happy you added it here for anyone else who reads this.

@ Andrew, you’re welcome If you find yourself spending as much time writing comments on blogs as you do reading blogs, you might be a blog writer! That’s kind of how it happened for me. When I realized how much I was commenting on other blogs, I finally saw that I could probably produce enough content to make my own place.

Thanks for putting to words your thoughts/experience of putting up this blog.

I think most of us who visit blogs play with the idea of starting up our own.

I keep putting it off because of the initial investment of time to research the differences between wordpress and blogspot and taking the plunge. Yet, I spend so much more time visiting other peoples blogs, my reason for not starting my own is weak.

I just wanted to elaborate on your final paragraph about writing. I find it helpful to set up a Google Document and bullet out all the ideas you might have for different posts. I then use sub-bullets to flesh out each of the ideas – kind of like a mind map.

It’s much easier to break down your ideas into smaller pieces that you can elaborate on rather than starting from scratch and trying to write the finished product start to finish without any sort of guidance (as Rick says).

This is a tip I picked up at a songwriter’s workshop and it has been invaluable for helping me overcome writer’s block and adding more detail to my stories.

All made possible by having a blog, btw. (/tie in to Rick’s post)

I have a Gax account, but haven’t used it in a while – I should really. Or start another one as ‘arbitrary’. Am trying to get all my net IDs to the same place!

Sorry for the confusion.

I’d be way bored with myself just broadcasting stuff here and never getting any feedback.

I also grew up being one of only a very few people I knew who were gamers. Some people would play games with me, but not a lot of people wanted to play games as much as I did, or wanted to talk about them as much as I wanted.

It wasn’t until the early 90’s, working in the tech industry (manufacturing semiconductor materials), when I found other gamers. Part of that was the tech/geek culture at my job, but part of it was also the growth of personal computers and the internet.

The internet is what really helped me find like-minded gamers from all corners of the world. I never would have known so many smart, funny, dedicated gamers without the internet. I feel pretty lucky to live in an age when I can find people who share my hobby just with a Google search and a few comments on blogs I like. It’s a good time to be human.

Shamutanti, I really like Gax, and I’m going to try and spend more time there when I get back from vacation. I think it’s got a chance to take off and turn into an interesting place for gamers. I just wish I could push my blog posts from here on to my Gax page. I guess I’ve got to stop being lazy and cut and paste stuff over there. Or maybe I should write Gary or William and suggest it, see if there’s a way to bring bloggers into the community without them having to post in two different places.

I’d love to do all my blog reading on Gax, sort of like a social network RSS feed. The more I think about it, the more I think I’m going to mail someone over there and see if they’re considering anything like that.

You’know it’s funny in a way though, you see someone’s blog and you always think “I wonder what it could take to simply ‘talk’ to them beyond the blog”. When you have someone who carries a name like say yours Keen around the gaming blog world, which in truth it does in a fairly wide area, be it only the Virgin Worlds ‘community’ as I see it, them being the center framework to out branching bloggers (at least that’s how I’ve found every blogger going that’s been a good read) there appears, at least to me, a ‘barrier’ between the blog and the blogger and even comments can at times only be one directional.

Yet when you, let’s say invade, cause we’re taking over Ricks blog here, to chat/talk, it seems that walls breaks apart. It’s why in many ways I think it’s important to become part of a social network such as Gax AND make blogs. So to new bloggers or even old bloggers I would say connect with people outside of your blog when possible, don’t just hide behind it and that in many ways includes talking ‘beyond’ the comments section, that is, answering comments upon YOUR blog via comments on YOUR blog means you’re still… you guessed it, in YOUR blog. Break out a bit from it.

Interaction between blogger and reader is at it’s best when it’s broken down.

@Shamutanti: Ahh, you’re referring to the hate we get. That’s just nerd rage from people who disagree. Most of what you read deals with Age of Conan, am I right? We stood out from the mob mentality when neither Graev or I liked Age of Conan. We called Funcom’s bluff by stating what he disliked and pointed out several issues we anticipated would be a problem (like things being unfinished or left out of the game). The hate ensued and we ignored it. A month later all of our predictions and experiences in the game were proven correct. Trolls will be trolls, and that’s all they’ll ever be.

As for my experience I’m not sure how that can ever be brought into question. I simply list the games that I play and then I talk about them. I’ve been playing and testing mmorpgs since The Realm (graphical MUD) was in Alpha testing (around 1996). I’m an open book in that regard and never claim to know more than I can back up. *shrug* I’m happy to clarify any questions regarding what experience I have and do not have.

For future bloggers this is a good lesson to learn early. Not everyone will agree with you. Some will passionately disagree. And then some will even hate you for your way of thinking. As a blogger that’s not your problem, it’s theirs.

No one can tell you that you’re wrong for having an opinion. Remember that.

@Keen
I don’t want to de-tract from Rick’s blog post in truth, derailing isn’t something I enjoy so instead I’ll try and ‘link it back’ somehow.

Through a variety of websites, I’ve seen comments about yours and your brothers blog and the amount of ‘experience’ you have, along with your opinion relating to gaming matter. It could be simply fanyboyism (which in my view is something always to avoid. Fanbois are a ‘danger’ I find for bloggers, at least new bloggers, in that their often fantatical and strong minded views come across as hostile, sometimes offensive and can place a seed of doubt/why? upon the building of a possible great blog) or possibly just, ‘haters’ (my how I love that word), but either way I’ve seen attempts to discredit the weight of your blog posts when used as ‘evidence’ for support upon certain arguments, reasonings behind things etc.

That is, some people dismiss the quality of your posts/comments/thoughts with a suprising hostility, emplowing acid tongues, often stating your knowledge/experience isn’t as ‘large’ as is made out (although quite frankly I couldn’t give a toss – good posts are good posts, especially if the context can be transferred/used in other places) and your (Gah, my mind boggles, drinking does hurt the ol’ memory banks) validity it seems as a blogger appears underminded in places.

That being said, people do like to ’speak their mind’ upon the internet and often that can mean abuse to achieve that.

Tobold posts way more than I ever could, though. I’m impressed with his dedication, although I don’t think I have that much to say every day.

@Keen, thanks for the compliment, it’s appreciated “Be yourself” is excellent advice.

Is it my imagination, or is arbitrary Graev? It sounds like a follow-up to Keen’s comment; there’s a couple “We’s” in there.

I totally know what you mean about sometimes having too much to say. I don’t post daily, but when I do post, it tends to get long! Brevity’s never been a strong point.