2007

It’s the last day of 2007! Most people are irritated that they fell short of their goals or resolutions they set forth last year and begrudgingly prepare to make new ones. Some people are depressed that they are yet another near older. Me? I’m just glad tomorrow begins 2008 and we can put this awful year of gaming behind us. No, put away your pitch forks and torches people I didn’t say there were no good games in 2007. Overall though 2007 was below the imaginary line of averages that I have drawn across the gaming spectrum. If you’re interested in yet another person’s look back at this year and a few overall sentimental paragraphs then continue reading past this sentence.

The Blog. I’m not going to quote you our blog stats or post any analytical graphs that I don’t understand. Instead I’m going to tell you that we started our blog in February of this year with no more than 5-10 visitors a day. We were lucky to break 50-60 visitors a week when we began our writing over on blogspot. When we expanded to our own hosting and domain the traffic increased slowly and we are now sitting at between 400-1000 unique visitors a day. That’s an accomplishment that I never once expected. Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog is now linked at over 90 other blogs and hundreds of websites ranging from spammy news sites to official fansites. Our writing and creative works were featured several times this year which I credit largely for the traffic and readership we now maintain. My thanks to those who found our efforts interesting enough to share with others.

The Comic: CTRL+F Funny. We started our comic alongside the blog. Graev gets most the credit since he draws and colors them. Together we come up with the ideas to fill in the blanks. The comic has been neglected heavily but the good news is that we plan to begin releasing a new set of adventures to correspond with Warhammer’s release. We’re not setting out to be the next big web comic. We laugh at them more than anyone else probably does and that’s our goal. If someone who sees them happens to laugh or smirk or have any reaction then all the better.

The Podcast. Back in August we decided to undertake an ambitious goal of releasing a podcast twice a month. The entire purpose of the podcast was, has been, and will be to extend beyond our written word and offer our readers and visitors another means of obtaining useful and entertaining ‘stuff’ that we like to talk about. We fell short of our goal to release a podcast once every two weeks and have since adapted to a more manageable approach. We will be releasing podcasts when we have something worth talking about in an audio format. (Read: Probably every 3 weeks or so). That’s broad, I know, but it’s the best we can do. We prefer not to release boring and repetitive “newscasts”. Podcasting for the sake of podcasting is worthless to us. NOTE: We plan to release a podcast tomorrow detailing a look back at the games we have nominated as the “Best”.

What games did Keen play in 2007? I’m going to take a step back and talk about the games (good and bad) that I spent the majority of 2007 playing. Graev’s list differs greatly and perhaps I can get him to find a free minute to write more. Without further ado I give you the games that captured most of my free time:

Vanguard – I rang in the new year playing Vanguard. What more can be said about one of the worst MMORPG launches I have ever participated in? I had been beta testing VG since September of 2006 and the game had enormous potential. That was, back when Sigil was actually intending to follow through. Thanks to some, what could have been a MMORPG for the ages gained infamy for the wrong reasons. I leveled several characters to the mid-levels and a fews beyond that. I enjoyed the game immensely but could not continue playing a broken game. Total Time in 2007 Invested: 2 months

Lord of the Rings Online – Shortly after Vanguard’s demise, or maybe it was during, I began bets testing LOTRO. I began participating in the beta somewhere near the end of January/beginning of February and continued playing until October. My thoughts on LOTRO are split like this: I really enjoyed the basics of the game and felt that it had an overall interesting enough approach to the standard fantasy formula. Where I begin to dislike the game starts right about level 35. It becomes too much of a grind-without-purpose and loses the spirit that it readily maintained from the start. The end-game is like WoW. You raid for gear to raid for gear. No thanks. The PvP was awful. Yet given all the crap there was to put up with I still managed to max out 3 characters. Go figure. It’s a testament to how truly barren the MMO scene has been in 2007 that I would stay with this game so long. Total Time in 2007 Invested: 8 Months

Everquest II – If I had been blogging longer than only 10 months you would have seen EQ2 and a similar writeup many times. I’ve said it enough that the game is great at heart. I’ve subscribed and canceled to EQ2 more than any other MMO and each time I play I enjoy it – a lot. Why then do I keep leaving for ‘greener’ pastures? Short answer: I don’t know. Long answer: Maybe it doesn’t have the staying power for me. I just can’t keep my subscription going longer than a few months at a time. Total Time in 2007 Invested: 2 months

Pirates of the Burning Sea – This one is still in beta but I’ve been playing since around September I think. The beta process has been long and the game has come a long way. You can find a lot more of my impressions in recent blog entries so I leave you with this link. Total time in 2007 Invested: On and off over a span of 4 months.

Team Fortress 2 – Probably the fondest gaming memories of 2007 for me were those from TF2. I’ve spend hundreds of hours playing this zainy first person shooter fragfest and still enjoy it. I’m usually not very good at FPS games but this one I had a special connection with. I find it to be an awesome blend of pickup and play and satisfying non stop action. Total Time Invested so in 2007: 3 months

There you have it. The games that held most of my attention in 2007. If I were to list every game I played you would have quite a long list that covers probably 90% of the games released this year. A few honorable mentions that released too late in 2007 or that I didn’t start playing until December: Call of Duty 4, The Simpsons Game, Rock Band, Star Trek: Legacy, and probably a few others.

Now for the best part! Looking forward to 2008 I foresee a magnificent year of gaming. Several blockbuster MMORPGs will release and even more announcements will follow. At heart I am partial to MMOs. Console games and other PC games are fun but I can’t find anything that entrances me quite like a virtual world. With Warhammer Online and Age of Conan coming at us full speed ahead this will be a year to remember for both blogging and gaming. In addition to the blog we’re going to release machinimas and comics and all sorts of stuff to make 2008 a year to remember.

Cya 2007, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out!