Intro
Welcome to this week’s gaming post! A few weeks ago officially marked my two-year anniversary of blogging. Before I started this blog, I’d never published any content in the past and wouldn’t have even considered myself that great of a writer. Even before the blog, I’d been playing board games practically my entire life, and I was looking for an outlet to talk about my love for the hobby. So, after 100+ posts and blogging nearly every week since I started (I think I’ve missed one week), I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on the journey. So, without further ado, let’s jump into it!
Not Being Afraid to Change the Format
One of the early changes I made in my blogging journey was the format of my posts. I started off posting highlights – essentially posting about two or three recent games I’d played and highlighting pros and cons. However, I quickly found a few issues with that approach. First off, since blogging is purely a hobby for me, it’s challenging enough to get two or three different games played each week, in addition to having to write about each one of them too. Since I play a lot of different games, some games can go awhile between plays, so when I do bring a game out, I like to play it at least a few times before putting it back on the shelf. Secondly, I found I had much more to say on each game besides a couple of paragraphs. Therefore, after using this format for a handful of posts, I transitioned to dedicating posts to single games, reserving the multiple game posts for lists and top 10s.
I still wouldn’t call myself a typical reviewer. I don’t go into as much detail on the overview and how a game plays as some other media sites. Instead, I like to give a brief description of the game followed by some positives and negatives. No game is perfect, and even the games I love still have some elements I’d nitpick. Personally, I’ve found this approach provides a nice middle ground that reduces some of the pressure with having to play and cover so many games, while offering reviews that are easily digestible and engaging.
Seasonal Nature of Board Gaming
Before I started blogging, I wasn’t as concerned with the latest game releases. I usually waited for reviews to come out before deciding whether to purchase a game. Therefore, there wasn’t a lot of predictability in when I would acquire new games.
However, with reviews, there’s a lot more pressure to publish content near a game’s release to capitalize on the excitement. This is normal in most forms of media. As such, I’ve come to realize how seasonal the board game hobby truly is. Most publishers target a release date of their newest games around the Essen board game convention, which is the largest board game convention in the world. So around this time of year, there are relatively few new releases outside of reprints or games that slipped from their targeted Essen release date last year. As such, I’ve found there’s a big crunch for content creators around the end of the year to try to keep up with the newest “hotness”, and even then, content creators must prioritize which games they cover. For now, my preference is still to keep to my weekly cadence, but I have thought about ways to try to adapt my content schedule to meld with the seasonal release schedule of the hobby.
The Hard Reality
I mentioned earlier how I’ve only missed one week where I didn’t post. To try to avoid missing weeks, I always attempt to keep a few articles banked because you never know when things at work or in your personal life might crop up. I sometimes have to remind myself that this is still just a hobby for me and there are other priorities in my life that take precedence, and it’s very much a balancing act that I’m still trying to figure out. And as much as I enjoy reviewing and talking about games, there are some weeks that are more difficult than others. Sometimes it’s writers block, and sometimes it’s the challenge of always learning new games rather than spending the time playing games I already know and adore, especially after a long week.
Don’t get it twisted, I absolutely appreciate and know that I’m incredibly privileged to be able to make content about this hobby that I love. I recently watched a YouTube video from BoardGameCo discussing some of these things that might be best described as burnout. Like I mentioned in the last takeaway, I’m not planning on any changes to my schedule anytime soon. However, like most burnout, these types of topics are rarely discussed, and I think it’s worth mentioning and being transparent.
Welcoming Community
Switching to a more positive twist, I have been incredibly floored by how generous and friendly the board game community is. When I post, I always appreciate how positive and open the comments are, even if folks don’t necessarily agree. I’m a relatively small channel but have been able to work with many large and small publishers. Regardless of size, all the publishers I’ve worked with have been so incredibly generous in the review copies they provide and friendly, especially when I was starting out. I always try to remain objective in my reviews, and the publishers have respected that which I’m so grateful for as it allows me to be honest with my audience.
Openness to New Types of Games
On a similar note, this blog has led me to try a lot of games I might not have normally picked up. While I enjoy cooperative games like The Crew, Take Time was a surprise hit for me last year that I might not have otherwise tried. And on the other end of the spectrum, I had a ton of fun with Arydia last year (spoiler: it was my favorite new game from last year), and I’m still determined to see the entire campaign to its end. While my comfort games are still medium to heavy weight euro games, I’ve made a concerted effort to expand the types of board games I play. I don’t always love every game, but I’m always willing to try a game once – you might be surprised by what you might find when you step outside your comfort zone!
Closing
With that, those are five of my biggest takeaways from board game blogging for the past two years. Now, I’d love to hear your thoughts on anything I’ve shared or future content suggestions in the comments below. Happy gaming!
If you liked this post and want to be notified when new content is released, then follow me on Instagram @themeepledigest.
Leave a Reply