Welcome to a very special update on
Bearers Of The Word.
Why? Because it's been ten years since
I've started doing this blog. Ten years. Let that sink in a bit. A
decade of my life spent writing about games, off and on, here and
there.
While I started off with some others,
documenting our adventures with Warhammer 40,000, they've gone off to
other things. So, now I run the show all by myself.
Since I run this solo now, the focus
has changed, moving away from Warhammer and now includes all kinds of
traditional games. Role Playing Games, Card Games, and even a few
other Miniature Games. Whatever I've got laying around. Or some of
the new stuff I pick up in the course of my adventures.
In the past decade, the world of table
top gaming has changed. It's become much more popular, especially in
the last few years. It's a very weird time to be alive, let me tell
you. Let me give you some background. I first started playing RPGs
back in 1996, just after the Satanic Panic (look that up if you've
never heard of it). I was told that I was going to Hell for playing
D&D. Even a few years later, my dad was surprised that I would be
willing to read one of my gaming books in public. When D&D 3rd
Edition came out, I was looking at it on the bus had had someone ask
me if I ever played sober. I was in high school, so yeah... Now,
there's YouTube channels all about D&D and RPGs, the conventions
like GenCon are wildly popular, and you can find groups or people who
play everywhere you look. Not to mention the ability to play with
people online. It's a wild time to be alive...
But, there's more to gaming than just
D&D. It's just the most popular, and I've had fun playing it in
the past, but it's not all there is. And I'd like to “Bear The
Word” of these other games, be they old or new. I figure if I help
one person find a game that they like, I've been successful. I also
like talking about games. Doesn't matter what kind of game, if I
enjoy it, I'll sing its praises. I do try to be honest and up front
about any problems I find.
One of the other things that has
changed since I've started working on this blog is the amount of free
time I have. Which is pretty typical of the adult world. So, not only
do I not have a bunch of free time, but most of the people I like to
play games with doesn't have the time to play, either. So, this blog
gives me the chance to get something in with gaming that doesn't
consume as much time. I can usually write an article in an hour or
two, with editing taking half as long. However, I do aim to have one
entry out per week, usually on Friday (or Saturday at the latest), as
I think that's a healthy balance of time spent. In the past, my
posting was very irregular. And I'm sure you've noticed that there
were very low content years. However, I've decided to make this blog
more of a priority these days. But, we'll see how long that lasts. I
do try to play the games I look at before I review them, but that's
not always possible. If nothing else, I take a good, long look at
things before I sit down to work.
You see, this whole thing is a labor of
love. I make zero dollars from this blog. I don't have any sponsors
(nor would I accept any). I don't have a Patreon. I don't even have
AdSense turned on for this thing. I could, but I'd rather not. I have
several reasons for this, including legal ones, but I don't plan on
changing this in the future.
The one complaint I do have is that I
almost never get any comments. It's been almost three years since
I've gotten one. And it's a little disappointing. I can see that I
continue get hits from all over the world on a lot of my articles.
And, while I do this for myself, it's nice to know that people are
enjoying the content and what about it they enjoy. I'd like to think
that my articles are amusing and informative. But, if no one says so,
I might just be blowing smoke up my own ass, you know? Great. Now I
sound like one of those guys on YouTube...
So, what's next for the Bearers Of The
World? Well, I've started several different articles. Some of them
have died off (along with the games centered around them), but I'm
trying to keep the rest of them going for as long as I can.
Later this year, it looks like
Cyberpunk 2077 game will be dropping. As such, I'm going to be
focusing one article each month on something related to that genre of
fiction/games. Of course, I've already done a review of Cyberpunk
2020 (which the video game is based on), so things will get kind of
out there. Stay tuned and I hope you enjoy...
