Time to Loot Journal: January 2023
I missed a milestone recently. Whoops. On January 20th, Time to Loot turned four. It would also be fair to say that Time to Loot had a much quieter, less active year, than the ones preceding. Speaking honestly, it has been on my mind whether this might finally be ‘the end’, that the long afeared dip in motivation was here. That it was here to stay and that it would ‘win’.
That… isn’t what I want, though. At least, I’ve decided that isn’t what I want. Actual actions currently tell a different story. But I figure we’ll just run across the surface of that one today and change tack, deviate even further from how I typically do these ‘journals’, and focus more on the positive side: Four years!
I went back and looked at what I covered for the Third Year Birthday, and it’s certainly going to be a mixed bag this time around. I can’t really go through and pick a favourite post month by month, given… Well; some months I literally only posted one thing. The stats section will reflect that rather substantial drop in writing too.
So! Adaptation time!
Naithin’s Favourite Posts of the Past Year
I’m going to start out trying to pick a top 5 favourite posts this time around, and see how that goes. Maybe I’ll get as far as a top 10! It’ll be a mystery for us both! Although I suppose by the time this goes live, it shan’t be much of a mystery to me, and, well, a quick glance will remove the question mark for you in pretty short order too.
| Rank | Month Posted | Title | Why? |
| 1 | March | Difficulty with the Difficulty Debate | There are certain topics that are generally just… not worth the bother. The degree of toxicity and high-emotion can make for fairly compelling no-go zones. Perhaps against better judgement, I waded into one of these topics and dared to express an opinion. And you know what? I’m glad I did. |
| 2 | February | Sparking my Lost Love for the MMO Genre | Well… Long term, I seem to have been mistaken about Lost Ark’s ability to maintain my interest. But this post was (meant to be) a bit more than that. The MMO Genre is one that still holds a lot of promise to my mind, but I also go through long periods of disenchantment. Reflecting on what about the genre I love is thus always a fun exercise. |
| 3 | November | Rebinding | Still on the subject of MMOs… It has been a long, long, long time since I made any changes of substance to how I bind keys to play. Dragonflight — even in it’s prepatch — and Monk in particular, convinced me I needed to add more options to my repoirtaire. I feel like this change might be with me for an equally long number of years, so tracking it’s origin is something I may appreciate in the years to come! |
| 4 | August | Introducing Naithin | An Introduction post might feel like an odd one to include but… Well; I’ve never been particularly good at them. My woefully out of date About page is fair testament to that. But this one… This one came out OK, I reckon. In a year where I’d written more prolifically? Well, perhaps then it wouldn’t have made the cut. But I didn’t. Maybe things will be different in 2023? |
| 5 | Jan / Feb | Nuh-uh, Narwa! / Nuh-uh, Valstrax! | Plot twist! I included six posts, not five (or ten!). In part, these are simply for the fact they came before life got turned upside down this year, and in part because I really enjoyed both the playing and the recounting of my time playing Monster Hunter Rise. Sure, the Switch origins were still on display — but it could’ve been worse, and the gameplay itself was phenomenal. I haven’t played (much of) Sunbreak yet, but I’m beyond excited by the rumours of next-gen PC/console first Monster Hunter similar to World in the works! |
Time to Loot Annual Stats
| Year | Total posts | Total comments | Avg comments per post | Total likes | Avg likes per post | Total words | Avg words per post |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 201 | 682 | 3.4 | 848 | 4.2 | 162,239 | 807 |
| 2020 | 152 | 704 | 4.6 | 1,260 | 8.3 | 143,049 | 941 |
| 2021 | 158 | 599 | 3.8 | 1,037 | 6.6 | 141,982 | 899 |
| 2022 | 93 | 241 | 2.6 | 699 | 7.5 | 92,778 | 998 |
On almost every conceivable metric, 2022 was a down year. But I couldn’t really expect much else given the disruptions and my general engagement with blogging itself.
Earlier in the year? Yeah- it bothered me. It was something I had to come to terms with and make peace with. And that was true despite the fact my reason for blogging has nothing to do with the stats. It’s one of the key things, perhaps, which has kept me going so long on this one. Come Blaugust, I was ready to write about my views on chasing stats (part 2) all over again, reiterating the view that the best angle — if you can manage it — is just not to care about ’em at all.
… Still… I do have some hopes that I didn’t already peak in second or third year (depending on whether engagement or views are more important to you and how you look at it).
It’s unlikely that 2023 will be that turn around year, so we’ll have to see how things go.
I do know, that at the very least, I want to be at least a touch more active, reach out more than I have been, and perhaps even kick-off the next round of the Community Succession Game that I’ve been meaning to get going again for a while!
