Multiplayer Challenge Results

Well adventurers, yesterday was the final day of Multiplayer Week, and therefore the final day of the Multiplayer Challenge. You remember the challenge, right? Our goal was to gain seven followers by the end of the week, one for every day. In return, I would play some multiplayer games with any interested followers and fictionalize these battles or races or whatever here on the blog. With Multiplayer Week over, the time has come for me to announce the results of the challenge.

We didn’t hit the goal.

We did accumulate a couple of new followers this past week, but nowhere near the goal of seven that we set. It’s a bit of a disappointment, but one I am confident we can recover from. For today’s post, I want to talk about why I think this happened and steps that I will be taking in the future that I believe will be good for the health of the blog.

Multiplayer Week has never been a particularly successful initiative as far as the whole sharing thing goes. I think the reason for that has a lot to do with the subculture of blogging. You see, I learned most of my promotional and networking techniques from watching Youtube and Twitch. I see guys like Rhett and Link encouraging people to share videos, having special days or weeks where they have a strong push for followers, and I think “hey, that’s a great way to get more people interested in you.” But the thing is, the Youtube subculture is different from the blogging subculture. Bloggers are a different kind of people. There’s a reduced focus on interactivity in this world, a focus that I am beginning to see more and more as I really get into the swing of things here.

Is that bad? Not necessarily. But it is different, and it’s something I need to adjust to if I intend for the blog to grow.

I think the other issue is that the reward for the Multiplayer Challenge wasn’t necessarily something that adventurers would be interested in. What would have been better? Beats me. But I know now that a push for followers is not something that is going to be beneficial for Adventure Rules. Of course, I’m not referring to our 100 follower goal for 2016. Just the idea of Multiplayer Week, and the idea that encouraging other people to share my posts is not how the blog is going to grow. In fact, some people are turned off by this sort of promotion. So if I’m going to get Adventure Rules out there and spread my impact, the work has to be done with my own two hands.

With that being said, there are some changes coming that I want to let you know about.

CHANGE #1: The End of Multiplayer Week
BUM BUM BUM! Yes, let’s all be sad. Multiplayer Week is ending, and it will not be coming back for the foreseeable future. I feel like this is a good choice for a few reasons. For one thing, Multiplayer Week has never been particularly well-received and has never really changed anyone’s sharing habits. Adventurers are the kind of people who only share when they really feel that the post is worth it. And you know what? I admire that about you all. Don’t change. It forces me to bring my best work. For another thing, having a regular push for the followers may create the impression for people who are not familiar with the blog that attention is all I care about. I mean, I guess everyone who regularly posts on the internet is seeking attention to a degree, but I don’t just want clicks. I really want my posts to make you think, to help you with games, or to inspire you to try something you’ve never played before. Constantly asking for people to share and follow might make my motives seem impure, and that’s something I don’t want to do. So say goodbye to Multiplayer Week – and say hello to some new things that are on the way.

CHANGE #2: A New Segment is Coming
Last year when I first started blogging I got a little segment-happy. I created so many segments that even I don’t remember all of them. A few of them happened maybe once or twice, some of them were monthly, but I decided to calm down on the segments and focus on a few that would really be a part of the blog. However, just because I’m not pumping out two new segments a week doesn’t mean that we’ll never have another one. And this seems like a good time to introduce a breath of fresh air to Adventure Rules.
The segment is called “Off Topic,” and it’s dedicated to writing about something that has nothing to do with video games (GASP! How terrible, why would you do such a thing, etc?). My reasoning behind this segment is twofold. Fold #1: sometimes, I have ideas about other stuff, and it’d be convenient if those ideas could be used as posts here on Adventure Rules. Fold #2: posting about new topics means posting content under new tags. For every tag I add, that’s another sphere of influence I am reaching that I have not touched before. And perhaps some folks who would love to read the rest of the content here will find it because they read an off topic post underneath another tag.

CHANGE #3: Adventure Rules Content will be Expanding
At the beginning of the year, I declared five goals for the blog. Those goals included the 100 follower goal, improved social media usage, finishing one full season of The Outrealms, finishing first drafts of both the Myers-Briggs and Paper Mario tabletop RPGs, and completing the Facebook 2016 Reading Challenge. I mentioned when I set these goals that throughout the course of the reading challenge, I would do book reviews and such as extra content for the blog. While I haven’t read any of the books for the challenge yet, I have decided that starting in March, we are going to start having novel-related content on the blog on a regular basis.
The first week of March, I’ll be doing an entire week of content dedicated solely to books and reading (except for Fanfic Friday; I don’t want to mess up the schedule of The Outrealms). After that, reading-related posts will be a regular feature on the blog. Chances are, they’ll be about as regular as tabletop-related posts – consistent, but not an overwhelming majority. Adventure Rules will always be a gaming blog first and foremost – however, expanding the content makes it easier for me to post consistently and it helps the blog to reach more people. I hope you all are excited to read about books here on Adventure Rules!

I want to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who has been supporting the blog. Please do not think that I’m upset about people not sharing or about us not reaching our goal. Remember, Adventure Rules is relatively new (as far as blogs go) and I’m a new blogger. We’re learning together the best way to go about doing things, and this challenge was simply a lesson in what methods don’t work for the blog. I hope I can count on your continued support as we go forward, and in turn I’ll do my best to provide great content. Together, we’ll make Adventure Rules successful in the way that comes most naturally.