I’ve never tried to compete with other gaming weblogs out there, because there’s really no point. I do this because I want to put my love for the hobby into words.

So why write a blog if you don’t care about an audience? I’d rather let the writing speak for itself. It’s amazing how this simple concept evades some people. I don’t really like the weblog format for the feedback as much as I do the conversation that results. If no one reads one of my posts – it doesn’t bother me. If no one comments, it can be disheartening at first but you also can think of it in another way – there’s nothing more that needs to be said. Saying “awesome post” is about as useful as saying “you suck”. The last thing I want is a bunch of comments that add nothing to the discussion.

jvm is exactly right in making note of the ubiquitous RSS. Instant updates are delivered to your reader, so there’s no time wasted checking weblogs that aren’t updated that frequently. I think webloggers are setting themselves up for unneeded stress or have an inflated sense of self-importance if they feel they have to produce content on a schedule. There are enough regular webloggers out there that people are aware of the circumstances – we do this on our free time. We are not obligated to do anything if that’s our choice. Before RSS there was an unwritten covenant between the weblogger and the reader: you keep updating, I’ll keep visiting. It still exists to a degree, but the convenience of having a series of regular feeds you can be alerted to makes the relationship a little less…demanding. There should be no expiry date on quality commentary or critique.

The problem I find with linking and posting a brief opinion – and this is true of any weblog – is that you start to hear an echo. After the first day or so of heavy linkage of an article, review, etc., there isn’t much more that can be said. And if you’re writing for your own satisfaction that’s great, but I’d rather put some meat to it and go a little more in depth, which usually takes longer. Besides, half the time the quick link and opinion stuff is usually corrected a day or two later, since everyone wants to be the first to comment. It’s become quite tiresome.

With the advent of RSS, I think regular updates are less important than they used to be. It used to bother me when I went a week or two without a post, but now it’s less of a problem since people just browse headlines and will hit your site when they see a new post. (E.g. that’s how I ended up here…)

Posting a link to news or writing about a new game and tacking on an opinion is fine with me. Those who have something good to say will have something good to say right off…and later too.

Re writing for writing’s sake, I love to write. I am at my happiest, I think, when I am crafting a new article. Finding the right scrapline, balancing between erudition and humor, carefully choosing whatever critical thing I am about to say about someone I respect…

But does writing exist if no one reads it? Does anyone take pleasure in being the Emily Dickinson of blogging? The attention of an audience is important and can provide good feedback.

There is, naturally, a point at which the entire thing gets lost if you work for webhits instead of insight. My most linked story was a brief bit I wrote about the new E3 policy on booth babes. (I wasn’t the first to write about, but I got linked a helluva lot…). If I was driven by advertising, I’d be tempted to just write about the gaming triple play of “sex”, “games as art” and “payola!”.

Anyway, happy anniversary.