1000 Posts and Counting

This blog started back in March 2017 and has been a going concern (sometimes very concerned!) for over 8 years now.

As my mental health has changed and my motivation has lagged sometimes, the post count has gone up and down, but I’ve consistently done about 110 posts a year (not counting some low years but also not counting a huge year last year of 160 posts, which I have no idea how that happened).

I realized earlier this week that an ideal 1000th post would have been last week’s “Why do we play games” post, but I did that without thinking because I wanted to break up the string of reviews that I had done.

Sadly, I can’t unpublish that and republish it later (I could, but that would be wrong) so I’ll just have to find something else to celebrate with!

It’s hard to imagine, 1000 posts (plus one post from a friend of mine who helped me name this blog and contributed one post, who is also dear to me).

It’s also hard to imagine that it’s taken me 8 years to get there!

I’ve been gaming regularly since 2012, as I detailed in my “how I became a gamer” post.

I was also a gamer long before that, though I took a break for almost 20 years so I don’t really count that earlier part.

Titan was a great game to wile away some time in college, and I really loved my time with Jerry Miller (he’ll never see this post, but who knows? A high school friend of mine found a post that referenced her and we reconnected, so that was amazing) playing Squad Leader and its expansions in his dorm room.

But I’ve been blogging off and on for maybe 16 years now and it’s something I’ve really enjoyed doing.

I started with a blog called “Dave’s Buttoned-Up Mind” back in 2009, where I wrote a bunch of stuff. There was no theme, just what I wanted to talk about at the time (plus it ended with a bunch of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode reviews, which I was quite happy with).

One thing I did on that blog that I’m really proud of is a series of weekly posts about one-hit wonder songs from the 80s and 90s, as well as the 2000s.

You know those songs that are from artists that you never hear from again, even though this one song was played all the time and maybe even hit Number 1 on the charts.

A lot of those posts will have broken video links, but I was proud of them because I kept it up consistently, once a week, and I thought they were pretty damned funny.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but I still like them.

Not only that, but I did manage to hit that target weekly, which I am now able to do with my “new to me games” posts, which I have not missed a month (unless the month didn’t have a new to me game) since the beginning.

That blog was eclectic, so you can explore it and find pretty much everything, even some social and political posts.

Hell, one of the featured posts was “Can a Woman Really Steal Your Man?”

I was happy with that blog, but during that time I also started posting video gaming blogs on the Game Informer magazine web site where they allowed user blogs.

Oh, I loved those days.

We formed a really bonded community of bloggers and wrote a bunch of posts about video games, but also just about life in general.

Game Informer took down the user blog section a number of years ago, but I salvaged one of my funniest (at least judging from the comments on Game Informer).

I wrote “Modern Dating” about the incessant use of codes to unlock DLC (downloadable content for those not in the know) when you bought exclusive versions of games from different stores.

Back in the day (and I don’t play that many video games anymore, so I don’t know if the “first-day DLC” thing is still prevalent, but it was back when I wrote this), this was a major problem that a lot of people complained about.

Maybe it doesn’t mean that much to people anymore, but we all laughed at the time.

When I got into boardgaming in 2012, I started posting boardgame reviews there but it didn’t seem right.

This was a video gaming magazine and it just felt…wrong somehow.

That’s when I decided to make my own WordPress blog and start blogging about boardgames.

Which was just in time, because only a year or two later, Game Informer shut their user blogs down.

With 897 posts over at Dave’s Buttoned Up Mind, as well as the numerous (and uncountable since they’re now gone) Game Informer posts, I would bet that I have done over 2500 posts in the blogosphere since 2009.

This doesn’t count the numerous book reviews I’ve done on Amazon, Epinions (now defunct), and Curled Up with a Good Book (the latter of which sadly seems defunct as well).

It’s interesting, because I’ve always wanted to write. I’ve been writing since high school, but never in any great amount and I’ve never thought the stories I wrote were any good.

I’ve done some short stories but never tried a novel. I admire greatly those who are taking the plunge!

Way back in the day, I never thought I’d be writing opinion pieces or just personal essays or what have you.

I hated essays back in school.

I’m proud of the writer I’ve become, even when the motivation leaves me sometimes because I think I’m not good enough, or I get down because this blog will never have the traffic of some of my favourites, like Dan Thurot over at Space-Biff, or my friends Grant & Alexander at The Players’ Aid.

I have to remember that I’m writing out of enjoyment and whatever engagement I get is just gravy.

But I also value the friends I’ve made through this blog.

Michal over at Boardgames Chronicle I have been friends with for so many years.

Clio over at Clio’s Board Games is the same.

Grant and Alexander, Dan, and more than I can really count.

Doing this blog has also allowed me to explore boardgaming in a way I wouldn’t have thought of before.

It makes me think about things like “what’s my favourite game right now?”

“How do I assess whether a game is actually good or not?”

Nobody may ever read this post. It’s quite self-indulgent, so I hope you’ll forgive me.

But I wanted to celebrate the time I’ve spent blogging, not just here but overall.

Over 2500 posts counting the other stuff.

That’s a long time!

And Dude Take Your Turn hitting 1000?

For me, that’s amazing.

I never thought I’d stay dedicated to a blog like this.

It’s definitely a record (Dave’s Buttoned-Up Mind only lasted 4 years or so).

I hope all of you know that I love you dearly, whoever checks out the blog.

Making new friends is always awesome (like Nate from The Breakup Boardgaming Society!)

If you’re a regular visitor, thank you for your patronage. I hope that you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have, and stay with me through 2000 posts and beyond.

If you’re new (and if you’re new, I’m really surprised you’re reading this post, but thank you!), I hope you stick around and see what’s coming up next.

I love you all, and I mean that.