The Nosy Gamer Turns 15

I normally don't make note of blog anniversaries or blog milestones. But today is the 15th anniversary of the launch of The Nosy Gamer. Looking back I found the initial rationale for starting a new blog.

Just as I had the itch to keep playing MMOs, I’ve got an itch to blog again. I made the mistake of listening to gaming podcasts and became hooked. At first it was just the broadcasts/podcasts over at Online Gaming Radio. OGR has two excellent EQ2 broadcasts on Tuesday nights, EQ2's-day and the Jethal Silverwing Show, and I started going though the archives listening to the old shows. I also started reading one of the writers on Online Gaming Radio, Sister Julie Whitefeather, who now writes blog posts for Virgin Worlds and is the co-host of the podcast "No Prisoners, No Mercy". For those of you who may not know, Virgin Worlds is a web site chock-full of podcast goodness for anyone looking for podcasts about MMOs. After listening to a few of the podcasts, I realized I’d hit the mother lode. But the more I listened, the more I wanted to speak out about my own opinions. I didn’t want to just be a comments poster. I decided a long time ago that if I was going to start posting on other people’s sites and blogs that I was going to have a place where other people could comment on my thoughts. I don’t want to just comment on what other people say. Occasionally I would like to drive the discussion. So this blog was born.

Things have changed over the years. Initially my big theme was writing podcast reviews. Those didn't last too long, although I do have 68 blog posts tagged as podcasts. Then about six months in, I started playing a new game, EVE Online. I left Everquest 2 due to guild drama and really haven't looked back. 

Overall, this is the 2487th post on The Nosy Gamer. Looking back, the top 10 tags on posts are:

1. eve: 1723
2. illicit RMT: 159
3. digital_dozen: 150
4. war_on_bots: 140
5. ffxiv: 139
6. games_business: 134
7. eq2: 105
8. wow: 95
9. star_citizen: 80
10. podcasts: 68

The first tag, eve, doesn't really require an explanation. What came as a bit of a surprise is that less than 70% of my posts are tagged eve.

Two related tags, illicit RMT and war_on_bots are what I might be most famous for, if a blog with a readership of 2000 visitors a month is "famous". But my biggest speaking engagement, on the main stage at HARPA during Fanfest 2015, is due to my writing on the subject of bots and illicit RMT in EVE.

The third entry, digital_dozen, brings back memories. From 2011 to 2014 I wrote a weekly column looking at the most popular MMORPGs according to Xfire statistics. Xfire was a free messaging service for gamers that finally ceased to exist in June 2015. But the column was fun to write while Xfire lasted.

The fifth entry, ffxiv, will probably wind up in second place by the end of the year. Final Fantasy XIV is currently my main game and with the Dawntrail expansion launching this year may be the second tag that reaches 200 posts. What might come as a surprise is considering 2024 will mark my fifth year playing the game that I haven't reached the 200 post mark sooner.

Next comes the tag games_business. I began looking more into the business and financial side of some companies over the last few years as business models changed, particularly Pearl Abyss and Cloud Imperium Games. I've also began to look at layoffs in the video game industry, which means the category will probably wind up in the top three tags by the end of the year.

The seventh tag, eq2, goes back to the game I originally played when I started The Nosy Gamer. I really haven't written about the game since probably 2010 or 2011, but I did write over 100 posts that warranted the tag.

The eighth tag is wow. How can I not write about World of Warcraft every now and then? Eventually I'll write the 100th WoW post.

The tag in ninth place, star_citizen, is for a game I had to write about, if only for financial reasons. Currently the game, along with the single player game Squadron 42, has grossed over $800 million since 2012. How could I not write about such a phenomenon? 

And finally comes the podcasts tag, which goes back to the beginning of the start of the blog.

My output has definitely fluctuated over time. I have had five calendar years when I published over 200 posts: 2011-2014 and 2023. I've also had 4 years in which I published less than 100 posts: 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022. Overall, I've averaged publishing 165.8 posts a year.

So what does the future of The Nosy Gamer look like? I'm probably not going to publish over 200 posts like last year. That only occurred due to the insane, at least for me, number of posts I made around the two EVE expansions last year. My goal is a minimum of 15 posts per month. If I average a blog post every other day I'll be happy.

And what about the subjects? I'll keep writing about video games and the business behind them. I'm sure that in the future some sort of technology will come along and the opinions about how games were "in the old days" might come handy. Or at least get a few laughs.