The Other Side blog: Year 2012 in reveiw

It is just about that time to get reflective on the year we have past and look forward to the new year.

Kickstarter
2012 might well go down as the Year of the Kickstarter. Sure we had Kickstarters in 2011, but this was the year that everyone seemed to be getting on board.
We saw the introduction of the RPG Kickstarter Group on Facebook and I'd wager we will get something similar on Google Plus Community soon. One of the more useful sites though has been Tenkar's Tavern and his round up of late Kickstarters.

Movies
I mentioned the Hobbit already, but 2012 was a great year for movies. All sorts of Superhero action, with the Dark Knight Rises as my favorite super hero movie of the year. I also enjoyed Brave quite a bit.

Games
Not much came out this year that I had to have. My Witch book came out and I was quite pleased with that.
In terms of running games, well it has been a busy year.
I am still running the D&D 3.x with my two sons, the Dragonslayers. We had hoped to finish up this year but various things got in the way. I started a new 4e game with my sons and some of their friends. That one is more intermittent, but still enjoyable. At Gen Con we also started a new 1st Ed game, designed as a "Next Generation" of our 3.x game. I introduced my oldest son to Ghosts of Albion and he enjoyed it. I want to introduce Doctor Who to them both since I think my youngest would like it as well.

The Edition Wars seemed to end, more or less. WotC is working on 5e and printing 1st Ed material. The OSR and Pathfinder is still chugging along.

Blog Traffic
So far this year I am sitting at 540 or so posts compared to 511 for last year.
My total traffic is down 109,747 visits (as of this writing this year compared to 121,509 visits last year. This is a general trend I think most bloggers are seeing. While this is all down there is not a huge change in the patterns of traffic, just less of it. One thing I have yet to figure out is why Google Analytics gives me different numbers than the Google Blogger stats. For example if I just look at Blogger stats I got over 300,000 hits this last year.
Regardless of the amount, the trends are about the same.

Here are my Top Ten Referers for 2012:

Google+
A lot of what is going on with Blogger and Bloggers is Google Plus. A lot of bloggers have been spending more time on talking and posting Google Plus.

Reviews
By the end of last year I had written a little over 200 reviews for DriveThruRPG. This year I reached my goal of 500 and hit 531. Not sure what my goal should be for 2013.

2013
Not sure what the new year will bring to the Other Side yet. I want to continue White Dwarf Wednesday and Zatannurday. More games and reviews to be sure. I have a few WiPs I can alos talk about more next year.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Year 2012 in reveiw

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