covert.creations

A big thank-you

Two years, 56 posts, and my adventure in ascii gaming continues.

On this very happy anniversary, I get to pause, poke my head out of the sand, and begin the flagellation.

First off, I’d like to extend a welcome to many new readers, and thank some old ones. For your great patience as you’ve slogged through lengthy articles over these two years… a sincere thank-you!! I really appreciate it.

To me, it’s the comments and feedback that make this effort worthwhile. While I could easily write an essay of appreciation to all, I would be remiss not to single out Justin Johnson of RSA Security for his constant feedback, editorship and support. He’s made his presence known behind the scenes, and I’ve taken his criticism (sometimes in the mouth) in an effort to continue the hard work of providing quality material. Thank-you.

covert.zeitgeist

Total visitors since September : 276,604
Going strong. Proof that you can have a lot of visitors, and relatively few comments. One post appearing on digg got over 10,000 views and not a single comment.

Average daily readership : 870
Many from RSS. Tons from Google. Hello!
(edit : this is closer to 300 daily, but the big ones throw off the average)

Most widely read post : MMORPGs, Security, and the Grand Promise of Middleware
Got some good traction, thanks to Steve Davis and the good folks at IBM.

My favourite post : Immersion, anywhere
I was really pleased to have made the “December Carnival of Gamers”. Thanks also go to Michael for his support.

Funniest search term : “fuck insane vanguard tradeskills”
I don’t hate Vanguard, but lots do.

Most popular search term : “narbacular drop”
This is a huge one. I should email Valve.

Funniest comment :
“Believe me, the mods that do play “hide the penis” are WAY better than the “find the penis” variety.” – Headcrash
On “It’s the tools, stupid”. Thanks for the LOL.

Good trends :
more readers, better quality (imho), better graphics (I hope), more industry interest

Bad trends :
longer posts, horribly infrequent, dry content

Event Horizon

Feedback.

Today is also your chance to really let me have it. Tell me what you like, tell me what you don’t, and tell me what you hate.

I invite your comment below (or in my forums). If you’re a new reader, I’d love to hear from you, too.

This day also marks an inflection point for this site, as I will start to make some big changes.

Over two years of game-blogging has shown me that peoples’ time just keeps shrinking. More games, more people, more text. Despite an insane amount of reading (>500 gameblogs) and a ton of participation, I am starting to realise that it’s a big ask to get people to come and read a 1500-word post. It’s doubly hard to expect sustained feedback. There’s just too much out there.

So I’m killing the monolithic, researched, “big post”. It’s a difficult thing, since I love writing them. Unfortunately, not everyone has time to read them!

Volume will now increase, and some enjoyable surprises will appear soon. Expect less ascii, and more adventure.

Wherefore art thou, Web 2.0?

I had hoped to give you a taste of what’s to come right now, but I’ll have to settle for something equally interesting.

My previous post touched on the subject of Web 2.0, and how it can improve gaming communities. If the concept of “Web 2.0″ is new to you, or if your cynicism is too strong to take it all seriously, then I invite you to watch this. Think about how it applies to gaming.

Including this video is also a small hint of what is coming here at covertcreations.

Happy 2 years, everyone!