Making goals is a New Year’s tradition. I want to set some goals and share them with you all to help keep me accountable. These are goals related to the blog, gaming, and other related activities.
- Find an MMO and stick with it for at least 4 months.
Playing MMO’s is my hobby. Some people collect stamps, some build models, but I like to immerse myself in a good role playing game with an online community.  For the past few years I haven’t managed to stick with any MMO for more than 4 months at a time before moving on to another. This year I pledge to find any MMO and stick with it for at least 4 months. It doesn’t have to be a new release.
- Â Write more creative pieces about my ideal MMO
As I mentioned in my review of 2012, I spend a lot of time this past year writing about the state of what is instead of writing about how I think things could be. In the past I have written several gems that I think get lost in the archives of the blog. I want to revisit old ideas, come up with new ones, and really expound upon the ideas I have for the perfect MMO.
- Grow the Keen and Graev Gaming Community
We have an awesome forum community. People come and post about upcoming games, post gaming sales, form guilds, and just have a good time talking with and meeting like-minded gamers. Our forums are awesome. I want to increase the traffic they receive, and keep them the same. What I want to change are the guilds we form. I’m not happy with how I’ve handled them, and I’m not happy with how they end up when people start to move on to another game. If you’re looking for a guild of awesome people that can be your friends, and play more than just one game with you, then I want KGC to be the guild you want to join. We’re going to have more structure, accomplish more, yet still maintain that unshakable dedication to community.  Come check us out in 2013. If you played with us in the past, come back and see what has changed.
- Live Stream More
We started our Twitch.tv live screaming two summers ago, but never devoted a lot of time or effort toward streaming regularly. I wanted to this past year, but one thing led to another and ultimately I didn’t make it a priority. I think it would be fun to always stream what I’m playing, or at least set up a schedule to allow our readers to watch as I play certain games. Graev and I have toyed with the idea of a unique approach to live streaming; We think some type of review show where we regularly review games while playing them would be beneficial to our readers and even attract new visitors to the blog.
- Ramp up our giveaways
I want to be able to give things away to our visitors. They don’t have to be full priced games or expensive hardware. Maybe Steam gift cards, or keys to beta tests would be enough. Do we need to do giveaways? No. 2012 was the busiest year for traffic we’ve ever had and none of it had to do with giving away free stuff. It’s less about bringing people here, and more about wanting to thank you guys for constantly making my day by engaging with me in conversations, debates, and teaching me new things.
- Newsletters
I added a K&G Newsletter widgets to the sidebar of the blog. You can enter your email address, then confirm your subscription via email, and start receiving our newsletter. I think I’ll send out two regular issues a month, and add additional ones for special occasions. Maybe I’ll use the newsletter to help pick winners for the giveaways. Regardless, these newsletters will help keep you connected to the best content on our blog. My goal is to make it happen.
Sticking with an MMO for 4 months…that is a tought one. However, if I look at 2013 – and after having gotten a feel for Darkfall 2.0, I think this will be the game I will try to stick with for a while. Assuming it gets released and the bugs get squashed, it seems playable enough to overcome my 1.0 issues. In 1.0 I just felt the game was so cluncky and annoying to play that it didnt feel worthwhile…it didnt look nice…it didnt feel fun…I am actually enjoying the beta and the environment plus gameplay so I will definitely try to stick with this one long term…( more than 3 months)…
As far as GW2 and SWTOR are concerned…I felt the games were fun to play – for a while – seeing the environments, learning the ropes, experiencing the story – it was fun. However, once I “get the idea” and I dont see any long term potential (because the game just doesnt provide the long term hook that I look for in an MMO)…I just lose interest…Darkfall has this long term potential…and now the execution seems much better than in 1.0.
What are the big MMO releases that we expect (hope for) in 2013? Seems like Everquest might not be ready? Elder’s Scroll Online could make it…? Defiance…?
I find myself with the mirror image of your problem. One of my MMO resolutions for 2013 is to play more MMOs and not get so embedded in any single one.
Before GW2 launched I expressed a mild concern that it might prove too addictive and push all the other MMOs I wanted to play into the margins. I didn’t really think that would happen but it has and I am increasingly uncomfortable about it. I’ve played virtually no other MMOs since GW2 Headstart in August and if I’m honest about the only reason I’ve played *any* other MMOs in the last four months is because I felt I needed to have something else to blog about now and again. If I didn’t have a blog I probably would have logged into nothing but GW2.
As far as it having hooks, it has far too many of them for my liking and it sets them too deep. I have four Level 80 characters and I’m enthusiastically working on a fifth. The whimsical idea I had of having a max level of each of the eight classes, something I thought would probably never happen and even if it did would take years, looks likely to be complete by Easter.
This kind of brand loyalty is not really what I want from my MMO hobby, not any more. In 2013 I really hope I can play less of any one MMO and more of many.
While it is a nice thought to play a MMO for 4 months in a row. I notice myself playing less and less MMO games.
Last I played was GW2 and some asian game I can not even remember the name of.
They just get stale to quickly. As an MMO gamer I want to live spend time and live in a MMO world. Not a short holiday.
Myself I do not mind F2P games and I see a sharp rise in quality in those games.
The problem is that I do not see that in the F2P MMO genre.
As for giveaways. We love those.
No need for material things, as people are happy with beta test keys for games that are hard to obtain one for.
I bet you got magical connections. ^^
On the newsletter thing. regarding regular readers of your blog. When I read a fresh newsletter it contains info I’ve already read on your site. Maybe an idea to add whats coming up next in the next few weeks? Just something I could not have read on the blog already.
p.s. Have you heard of Dungeonland? I watched it on the angry joe show youtube channel. Its like a dynamic dungeoncrawler game where an actual person is the dungeon master. I believe its set for januari? Looked like a lot of fun to me.
And a fresh concept. (at least in videogames)
This is the first year in awhile that I have no future MMO that I am looking forward too. Currently enjoying Riders of Rohan expansion for LOTRO which I am playing very casually. After being disappointed in SWTOR and GW2 my hype meter for future MMO’s is completely empty. Feels refreshing actually :)Gives me more time to catch up on other games and hobbies. So my resolution would be to not play as many MMO’s and seems feasible to pull off this year.
Keen, also wanted to ask if you had looked at Age of Wushu at all, article on Massively called it “the greatest sandbox you’ll never play” and compared it to Eve, might be something you would enjoy checking out.
Yeah more Graev to the twitch!
@Bhagpuss: You can look at the subject from different perspectives. If there were an overwhelming number of MMO’s that warranted my lasting attention, I would want to play them all too. That will never be the case in 2013 (like 2012), at least not for me. I have different tastes, and I am obviously a lot more picky about what I play. That’s why I want to find one (new or old, probably old) and settle in to play.
@Zyler: Thanks for your feedback. I’ll take your newsletter ideas into consideration.
@Imem: I haven’t hard a lot about Age of Wushu, but I’ll look into the claims about it being a great sandbox.
There is no MMO I’m truly looking forward too after a fairly lackluster year. I suppose TESO, but I’m not too excited about it.
I recently went back to finish SWTOR because of f2p and wanting to see the stories. I’ve largely played it as a sp experience and have enjoyed it.
I would love to have an MMO that I can play for longer than a month, but this doesn’t seem possible in a postwow world. hopefully eq3 fixes it, but ill be reserving judgment and hype on it til much closer to release.
[…] beyond just soloing or the odd duo session, it’s the same itch that Keen talks about in his 2013 post. I know that some MMOs have good communities and so when/if I feel the time is right I want to dive […]
KGC is on Ehmry Bay right? I think ya’ll should take a single week transfer vacation to one of the servers in the top 3 tiers. My totally biased recommendation is Isle of Janthir.
WvWvW is absolutely awesome, and the battles are fantastic every single night in primetime. A group of 15 coordinated players can absolutely change the battlefield. Never had more fun in an MMO than WvWvW on competitive servers with organized guilds/alliances working in tandem. We left Anvil Rock a couple months ago, and we’ve never looked back. Our guild has tripled in size and we went from rolling with a single WvW group each night to 3-5 groups a night.
[…] Keen from Keen and Graev’s  Gaming Blog recently posted his goals for 2013, which inspired me to post some of my own. The general theme of my goals is growing this blog and turning it  into something that not only do I enjoy doing as a hobby, but something that I would define as “successful” even if only in my own eyes. […]
@Gali: When I make my return to GW2 (once I’m back at my gaming computer sometime after the 5th) I’ll consider it.
If ya’ll decide to check out a higher tier servers WvWvW, whichever one you choose, I must recommend that you find out how to get into contact with the server leadership and get thier voice comm info. It’s so incredibly valuable to have your guild WvW commander in both your guild voice comm and the server leadership voice comm. Fun is multiplied by knowing where help is needed the most and where your guild can make the biggest impact. I’d say all of the top 9-10 servers have this sort of infrastructure in place already and running well. Once you’ve got that up and running, start portal bombing the heart of mindless enemy zergs in tandem with a push by your servers main forces. 15 guys with all thier cooldowns up and ready to go suddenly appearing in the middle of a 60 man enemy zerg that’s been blowing it’s cooldown skills in zerg v zerg action… alway a good time. Siege engines melt, loot bags drop, frontlines adjust, and women lament.
I want to add another goal!
Youtube Videos
One of my biggest regrets the past two or so years has been our lack of videos. Back when we used Youtube a lot we shot to almost a million views and gained a large following of subscribers. I would like to start making more videos highlighting games we play and review.
Moar Streaming!