So here we are half way through the #RPGaDay2016. I decided today this would be a good muse. As I look over the questions so far I noticed my thoughts on the entire endeavor were mixed. Three years ago I took part in the first of the #RPGaDay blogging marathon and, I loved it ! It was new and even then a ton of people participated in the event. The questions were decent and it flooded my blog with a ton of blog posts. I gained many new viewers and as well as many followers from taking part in it.
Going into year two I was excited but after 30 days of blogging, I was happy to see it go away for another year. I try my best not to ever phone in any of my responses. But 31 short blogs in a month on top of regular blogging is a hefty workload. I wrapped up year two drained. I was one of the vocal people that begged, please give out the questions a few weeks earlier next time to lighten our personal work loads. Thankfully they heard the comments and about 2 weeks before the 1st they revealed the questions for this year.This year’s questions are much deeper and require a lot more thought than in years past. I like that.
So what are my though’s overall this year ? Mixed, Some of these questions have been excellent, some not so amazing. That said you can not make everyone happy all of the time so if I like at least half of them I would say you have done a damn good job with the selection for the year. So I will declare this years questions a good set at least personally.
BUT….
Yeah, I am going to stir the pot a bit. I find myself with a growing complaint/Gripe/concern. In the first year, a few bloggers and Vloggers and fans took to the internet and took part. In year two it became somewhat of a slow moving avalanche. More and more as the days went by people joined in the fun.
This year… nothing short of a terrifying amount of people are doing #RPGaDay2016. I see it everywhere. I wonder how do I cut through the noise ? Is it worth it to keep doing these questions ? I weigh the burnout factor of the workload vs the determination of trudging through. I exaggerate in some regards, yet not in others. I welcome the tidal wave of responses and input from the community. At the same time, I fear a ton of very good blogs responses will have been lost in this ocean of Hashtags. I also wonder if my very own followers might be growing tired of the day after day RPGaDay content growing wall on my blog.
In the end, I have decided to gut it out and keep doing them for now. I do not know if it is the #RPGaday that has generated the conversations or new and awesome followers that are eager to share their thoughts. But one goal I have always wanted to reach in my blog is my audience interaction. I have had several replays on more than one day of This years #RPGaDay content and I am thrilled by that. Here is hoping it continues.
Are good posts being lost in the mix ? Maybe, I can’t honestly be sure. What I can tell you is that I spiked several hundred views the first week. Also my second week my total views were noticeably lower than average as well. So who knows ?
So, I will end on a question. Do you think the concern is valid ? That the #RPGaDay hurts the blog more than helps ? Or do you enjoy the questions that are posed and interested in replies I have on the topics ?
UPDATE: I wanted to also wanted to point out the fact that years later some of my #RPGaDay topics still get consistant hits each month! That is impressive!
With a quick search around the internet can find numerous conversions for Mass Effect. Myself I know of Six separate systems with a Mass Effect conversion book . My point being that if you look hard enough you will find a conversion to of this setting in most any system that you can fit it in.
So as of the writing of this blog my most recently played RPG would be Dresden Files. For any of you that have not played this game I can not encourage you enough go out and find a game of Dresden!
It is little things like this that elevate games to a level far above the rest.
