Adventure Rules Monthly Update; or, Saying Thank You Repeatedly

A week ago on Twitter I posted that March had already broken records on the blog. And that was with a week still to go! As I’m typing this post, it’s midnight, and I stayed up specifically so I could have fully accurate data for March for this update so we could see together just how successful the month of March has been.

First off, my record for most views in a single day was broken not once but TWICE in the month of March! My peak single-day views jumped from 87 to 95 in mid-March, and then a week later the number jumped again from 95 to 105. These days were really successful largely thanks to a series of posts related to the hashtag #MyFirstPostRevisited. I was tagged in the challenge by Charlotte at the Mosaicca blog, and my response to the challenge was received very well by the adventurer community. Then when I tagged my pal Geddy at Nostalgia Trigger, he in turn tagged me in thanks which brought the second wave of traffic and led to the current site record for most single-day views. So a big thanks to everyone who enjoyed revisiting my first post, and I heartily encourage you to check out these wonderful bloggers!

Next, the overall monthly record. February was a “technical” defeat in a series of positive months here on the blog, but March made up for it in earnest. Specifically, my monthly views increased by a whopping 50% in the month of March. And that to me is just wild. I haven’t seen a difference in numbers that drastic since the release of Pokemon Sun and Moon back in November, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this sudden spike in views happened to collide with the release of the Nintendo Switch and Breath of the Wild. In the past 31 days I have reviewed the game, written a basic survival guide, revealed the locations of the captured memories, and started a work-in-progress armor guide. Covering Breath of the Wild that extensively (and taking breaks from playing to do it) was certainly a daunting task, but I think it was worth the effort. Plus, guides pay long-term dividends that my other posts don’t – my Fire Emblem Birthright guide still gets the most views every single month, with a whopping 22% of this month’s traffic coming exclusively from that one post. So I think that investment will prove valuable later on – and if at least a couple of people are having a better experience with this game thanks to my advice, then I count that a success.

Of course, there were other fun events in March. I got to try out a new upcoming tabletop game called City of Mist. This was not only a fun game to play and review, but for me personally it was an opportunity to spend a night with a number of friends I hadn’t seen for some time, and we all had a blast. If you love pen-and-paper RPGs and are interested in a blend of superhero fiction and noir/supernatural, this game is one to keep your eye on.

The wonderful folks at Later Levels hosted a blog party where a number of bloggers got together to share content and check out each other’s work. If you missed that event, you can check out the post and scroll through the comments to see who all came and what they brought to show off. I found multiple blogs to follow this way, and even if their featured article didn’t catch my attention, I enjoyed looking through each blog and reading content that spoke more to my interests. I fully recommend that if you enjoy gaming blogs, you go check out that post. And while you’re there, read some articles by Later Levels too – Kim just recently posted about this really cool social experiment that I found very compelling. You should check it out!

I owe a lot of the success I’ve seen in March to these bloggers and others for sharing content, liking, retweeting, and commenting on posts. There’s an awesome community of writers here on WordPress and if you aren’t reading their stuff, you’re missing out. I owe a lot too, though, to the silent majority of adventurers, those who consistently read posts when they see them on Facebook or Twitter but may not be as vocal as fellow bloggers. Your support and presence help the site grow and give me the drive to keep writing. So whether you’re a game blogger or just a guy/gal who likes to read about video games, thank you so much for your support this past month. You have been an integral part of helping Adventure Rules to grow.

So what can we expect in April? Well, as I’ve already announced, I am taking a break from Breath of the Wild content. I mean, I’ll probably continue to try and develop the work-in-progress guides, but there won’t be any new Zelda content until the DLC drops in summer or maybe even during the holidays. Instead, I want to try and cover some of the smaller, oddball titles for the Switch. The console has something of a narrow library right now, so my hope is that I can find some indie gems to pass the time til the next big-name title and then recommend them to you to play as well.

On the tabletop side of things, I am going all-in on my card-based RPG concept. And honestly, I am really excited about it. I’ve been jotting down small notes on scrap paper at work as ideas come to me, and I think my idea for the combat system is going to be really unique and engaging for a tabletop format. I’ve also recently had an adventurer state that they would be interested to see my class-building approach for Dungeon World from the ground up, so that’s something I may very well post about in between big concepts for the card RPG.

One thing I want to do moving forward (but I’m not sure if it’ll happen in April or not) is introduce some kind of more interactive segment here on Adventure Rules. I’ve tried this sort of thing in the past, but I think that my ideas weren’t concrete enough and my own ability to network and interact with other people was pretty lacking. However, I’m getting better with my own comments and shares and I think that is encouraging others to do the same for me. What I don’t have right now is a concrete idea of what an interactive post would look like on Adventure Rules. So that’s something I’ll delve deeper in to as we move forward, but I definitely want to do something to say thanks to everyone who has supported me so much in the last month.

That’s gonna be it for this update, adventurers. March was an incredible month that saw impressive amounts of growth here on the blog. I’d love for April to continue that tradition and help me to reach more gamers so that they too will be able to wield the Essential Companion of Heroic Adventurers. Seriously, folks, if you took time to read even one post this past month, thank you. Your support is valuable and helps the blog to succeed. If your interest was piqued by this update, feel free to use the links spread throughout the post to check out other content on the site (and on other folks’ sites). I look forward to interacting with you all about all things gaming in the month of April!