NBI 2016: Some initial directions

He's one month later than usual, but the red dragon is back in town, bringing along with him the famous Newbie Blogger Initiative (NBI). For those new to the scene: the NBI is a month of old time gaming bloggers supporting new gaming bloggers, offering advice and exposure. Ever wondered if having a blog of your own would be something for you? This would be the perfect time to take the dive. We old timers know what a big step it can be and will help you in any way we can.

SWTOR 2015 in review

As the odd days in between Life Day and New Year's eve were passing by, I found myself thinking about what has happened the past year in my favourite MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. The Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion is the first thing that came to my mind, but when you think about it, is was released only recently in November. Surely more has been going on this year... But wait, I have a blog! 

Browsing through the almost 100 articles I've written this year, I've collected the highlights of SWTOR 2015 for you in a month-by-month review. Enjoy!

Safari through the games I play

One of the things I liked most of the NBI 2015 was Murf's Screenshot Safari. I had a lot of fun checking out everyone's entries during the course of the event. And I wasn't the only one: Murf counted an overwhelming total of 105 entries from 35 different blogs! Check out his post with all the facts and numbers here if you haven't done so yet. I enjoyed reading it a lot.

The NBI of 2015: Return of the SWTOR blogs

This year's NBI is over: three hurrays for the Class of 2015!

The scariest place... for a hungover Elf

I love how the bear looks over the edge anxiously, as if he already knows what is to come

She has faced a Balrog, Gortheron and Saruman and lived to tell the tale, but this is the scariest place lore-master Ravanel has ever been. She and Bear are on a tiny island in the freezing sea of Forochel. The water is so cold that touching it will result in instant death. There's no safe way off, but that's not why she is in distress.

How I ended up gaming

The first friends I made in an online game. Here back in 2007, after beating Annúminas.

I've really enjoyed reading people's tales about their gamer history, so I thought it would only be fair to return the favour. Behold the story of how I ended up gaming (because there was no grand plan or dream involved, really).

Capturing High Fantasy

One of Murf's screenshot categories of his Screenshot Safari challenge had me scratching my head: High Fantasy. What is High Fantasy? The first thing I thought of was that it might be a synonym for "real fantasy", as in, "Lord of the Rings is real fantasy because Tolkien invented the genre - everything after that is lesser fantasy". Murf doesn't strike me as someone being into fantasy elitism (if such a thing even exists), though, so I googled it:

The Republic wants YOU

The last week of the NBI is there, and I have so many things to post still! More things than my usual writing schedule of Monday - Wednesday - Friday permits, so you will see Ravalation posts on odd days (gasp), just so I can get all the posts out. There, I've warned you.

Juggernaut Neserys: hero or villain?

This is my submission for Murf's 2015 Screenshot Safari, category Heroes or Villains. At first I read the category as requiring a screenshot featuring people of which their status (hero or villain?) was unsure. But then it dawned to me that we were probably allowed to enter either a hero or a villain as well. I decided to stick with my earlier interpretation, though, because I thought it was an interesting approach. What do you think of my juggernaut Neserys depicted above: is she a hero or a villain?

NBI 2015: Call for blogs

This week was the start off of the Newbie Blogger Initiative, the one-month event that has become the pillar of the gamer blogging community. The concept is simple: bloggers that have been around for a while help out new blogs by sharing their knowledge and giving them exposure. So if you have been thinking about starting a blog, or have started one that you think could use a kickstart, now is the time.

NBI: It's almost over

The last day of October, and thus the last day of the Newbie Blogger Initiative 2013 today! Also, confession day: I was planning to write several more advice pieces than the single one I have done, and I also had planned to feature three new blogs that I liked each week, but this real life thing came in the way and... ah well, I think the NBI was fun either way, with many new enthusiastic blogs and lots of discussion. I hope it was as much fun for our newbies as it was for me over a year ago, when I was a newbie myself!

Three final blogs for you to check out:

Thinking Play: Pasduil writes clever and thorough posts about gaming in general, but also about his passion, the too little represented (among newbie bloggers) LotRO. I'm hoping for more of these treats soon.

Away from game: Even though this blog is about different games than I play, Lonegun is a passionate writer that knows where to find those spots that interests any gamer. A pleasure to read.

JVT workshop: The blog of the one and only Joseph Skyrim (whom's name was totally stolen by the Elder Scrolls), prolific blogger ánd commenter. The place to be for in-depth posts about game design and you-name-it.

Last-minute advice

I know, I know, I should've been a good blogger and just posted these as articles themselves (bad Rav!). But late is better than never, no?

Layout: Contrary to what others may have written about this during this NBI event, I firmly believe in that you should make your blog look like how you like it yourself. Don't make it a simple blank page with black letters (read: boring) just because some readers might want to appear reading work stuff at their work. Those one or two readers aren't worth the effort - not to talk about the fact that almost everyone uses readers anyway. It is useful to think about some sort of format of your blog, as a consistent look makes people recognize it. For instance, as you may have noticed, my posts always start with a banner picture - and if I don't have an screenshot available, I torture my readers with homedrawn ones.

Name your games: People like to read blogs about games they play themselves, so there's no better way to catch the attention of a visitor than by making clear what games you write about, especially if you have a multi-game blog. If it's not clear already from your blog's title or layout, a short list of games can do wonders. Otherwise you risk people with short attention spans to just skip over your blog if they don't see anything that interests them right away. Here are some inspirational newbie blogs that did it right: Gamer by design, Part Time Core Gaming, Vagabond Worlds.

Comments: If you want to be part of the community and like interaction with readers, allow these. Make it as easy possible for people to comment and avoid Captcha like the plague. It's super annoying to regular visitors of your blog and I know of commenters that will just not comment at all when confronted with it. If you're afraid of spam, first try how much spam your blog actually receives and base your decision on that. A holding-comments-back-for-approval system is not advisable either if you want a fluid conversation between visitors. I know how frustrated I am when checking a blog I commented on several times a day to see if there are reactions and the owner hasn't seen or approved any yet. I myself use a hybrid system of no-Captcha but approve-comments for posts older than 14 days, because I found that I got spam on my older posts. I have no spam now, and I hope it's not too bothersome for people to select a profile they can comment with.

Blogroll: Again, if you want to be part of the community, take one. A blogroll is a good way of being part of the community and at the same time shows your visitors what sort of blogs you like. Don't be afraid of people leaving your blog faster because you have a blogroll: if they are bored with what they read, they will leave anyway, blogroll or no blogroll. People are usually quite conscious about what they are reading and don't just accidentally click away (that's something for your grandma who never touched a computer, not your average reader). Also, linking to others might mean they'll link you back. If you've just started a new and unknown blog, think about it like this: if you don't have a blogroll yourself, why would people add you on theirs? I prefer blogrolls on the front page myself, but you can always consider having one in a tab page if you think that clutters your page too much. 

Oh, and don't write walls of texts. Like the one above (facepalm).

Keep in mind that this is just advice and no more, so you're welcome to disagree, politely shout at me, ignore me and do whatever you want instead. I know you will, anyway.

Okay, this is enough for today. See you at the next NBI event! Or hopefully earlier.

NBI: The harvest of one week

My harvest back in 2008 - note the oldschool SoA outfit (one of the first screenshots I ever made)

It's Monday today (I know, I was vile of me to emphasize that), but... it also means we've survived one week of the NBI, hurray!

I think almost every sponsor wrote at least one advice post this past week, which made us end up with about enough food to publish a whole book. I first planned to post them here, but when I saw their large amount (28 and counting) I became struck with a sudden strike of laziness. You can always check them out here at the source, though.

At first I was a bit worried by the low amount of newbie blogs participating - I know some say that blogging is dead, but surely it isn't that dead?! - but as the week proceeded, more and more checked in, and now I'm having a day's job checking out all these new blogs.

I've made a special blogroll with NBI initiates which you can see to the right (scroll down a bit). Be sure to check them out and leave a comment if you have the time - I remember how much that motivated me when I was a newbie myself last year. I know there are a lot of blogs on there, but picking just one to leave a comment behind is already a great thing. And if you cannot choose, I'll help you a bit here.

Three new blogs for you to check out:

• Lyle's Grind: brand newly started and inspired by the NBI, Lyle's Grind certainly doesn't look at all repetitive as the title implies. Lyle writes about all sorts of games and mentions tribbles in a post, so this is a blog I cannot ignore.
• The Cynic Dialogues: a recently revived blog in which Scree is currently investigating new games on the horizon. I'm enthusiastic about the prospect of another blogger who might get into TESO and for the most part just can't look away because the layout looks so darn nice.
• Crucible Gaming: no official newbie of the NBI, but a new blog nevertheless that I discovered earlier this week. Much to my surprise, Sig writes about LotRO and SWTOR: my favourite subjects! A must-check for everyone interested in these games.

That was it, keep blogging, commenting and see you around with the NBI!

Using a pseudonym

Ravanel Griffon is not my real name. (Noooooooooooo! She deluded us! REVOLT!)

As I'm sure you're aware of, some people use their real name, and some use a pseudonym when blogging. And while scouting about around blogs, I sometimes stumble upon the following thought:

"Using your real name makes your blogging more professional." 

This also implies the opposite: using a pseudonym makes your blog being perceived as less professional, therefore having less credibility, less meaning. And guess what, this is not true.

Hence I thought it was refreshing to see Tobold (a quite successful blogger using a pseudonym himself, may I add) write a post 'in defence of the pseudonym'. He made me think "ah yes, that's why I write as Ravanel Griffon". And then I thought this might just be the thing to ramble on about in the light of the NBI, so here it comes.

The pro's of a gaming identity

Tobold in Survival and identity (Tobold's blog):

I am a scientist, and I have written publications in scientific journals as well as a bunch of patents. Now imagine somebody is doing a Google search on my real name for some professional reason: Obviously I do want him to find the stuff I have written professionally. But Google sorts search results by popularity, and games are a lot more popular than hard science. So if I had written my blog under my real name, my professional identity would have been buried in the search results.

I'm not ashamed of my activities as a gaming blogger. I think the idea that gaming is a waste of time is old fashioned and done for. Gaming is a fun way to pass your time and as long as you're not overdoing it there's nothing wrong with it - and this pretty much counts for any type of leisure activity. There's nothing wrong with blogging either: if anything, it's a very brain active hobby that trains both writing and networking skills. So why do I then 'hide' behind my gaming identity?

Indeed sometimes I feel like I should actually use my real name to make a statement and show people it's okay to game, but that is not the main purpose of this blog (it would look different if it would be, I tell you). I think Tobold hit the nail on the head.

It's fine as it is. People I know through gaming know me as Rav, and finding me as such on this blog is only logical to them. That I blog is no secret for people I know in 'real life', and if they're interested I'll give them the link. But if you look for Ravanel Griffon you'll get gaming related stuff, and if you look for my real name, you'll get professional stuff. It's just more convenient this way.

In the end, using a pseudonym isn't strange at all. Think about the book industry, where it is commonly accepted for authors to use one. Singers also often use pseudonyms and nobody is surprised with that. This doesn't make these people less credible. Why would blogging be any different?

Finally, Tobold gives some good advice on how to pick a virtual name, so make sure to check his post out.

But I want to use my real name!

Well, that's fine too, of course. Maybe you work in the gaming industry and want your name found related to your blog. Or you want to show your blog to all your friends without having to explain who Pwnmeister xBloodbathx is. Main point is, your gaming identity will reflect on your real name and will become fused with your online identity, and that is something you should be aware of.

My advice in this post therefore is: use whatever name you want, but make a conscious choice.

To conclude, if you're a blogger and reading this: what name do you use and why did you choose to do so? Write in the comments or write your own post about it. It would be interesting to hear and, who knows, it might even help a few newbies making a choice.

NBI: Start your own gaming blog

Ever read Ravalation and thought: hey, I could do that as well? Well, maybe not, but for me that was exactly what I thought when I read the blog of another gamer and blogger, Lothirieth, over a year ago. I decided to give it a try, and here I am. 

Making a start with blogging is hard. You might feel insecure about what you write, or irrelevant because nobody knows you're out there yet - I know I did. But if you've ever considered starting a gaming-related blog, or have one you don't feel is quite finished, this is your chance. Starting October 1st, the second Newbie Blogger Initiative (NBI) will start off, giving newbie gaming bloggers all over the blogosphere a great headstart.

This year's hotspots:

• NBI Headquarters: this brand new website is a portal to the NBI community with news and some good advice articles to get you started. 
• Register at the NBI forum and write a post in the Newbie Blogger Check-in so people will know where to find your blog. This is the place where you can freely ask any questions and will get answers from experienced bloggers.
• This time there's going to be extras with challenges, events and mentors - I'm certainly excited to see where this is all heading.

For me this is going to be a special time because I participated as a newbie last year, and now I'll be a sponsor! So hopefully I picked up enough to be of some use in this.

Hopefully see you there during the NBI 2 event!

NBI: One year and a week later

It's been a year since the Newbie Blogger Initiative (NBI) and this has hardly gone unnoticed - many former newbies (like me) or sponsors have written posts to commemorate the event. The first posts where already at the start of May, so I'm a bit late to the party. On the other hand, this means that I can wrap up what other bloggers have written about this subject.

Present state

I have the luxury of being lazy, because others have already done the hard work and counted the numbers. Of 111 blogs, 28 (over 25%) are still active (thanks, Ocho!).* This is not bad, considering that the average blog apparently has the "livespan of a fruitfly", with 60-80% of all new blogs stranding within just one month.

So why was the NBI so successful? It might be all those fantastic guides that experienced 'sponsors' wrote us. It might be the energy that goes around when multiple bloggers are talking en masse about the same subject. Or it might be the welcoming community that gave us newbie bloggers a great head start with the feeling that we were valued members of a group.

Ocho speaks about "my fellow NBI brethren" in his post, and I thought that was actually a cool thing to say. True brethren do of course need a mark to strengthen their relationship, so I crafted us our own badge. It's all yours! Show it off on your blog somewhere, or of course, laugh in my face at my inferior drawing skills. Do with it whatever you like.

I for one loved the NBI and the amazing blogs that emerged with it. I've learned many things and it was good to look back to for a moment. See you around, my fellow brethren. To many years to come!

Click here for a larger image.

Others about NBI's anniversary

Let me know if a post escaped my attention and I'll update the list.

Avatars of Steel: Virtual Party to celebrate the original Newbie Blogger's Initiative
Casual Aggro: The Newbie Blogger Initiative - 1 Year Later
Healing the Masses: Newbie Blogger Initiative Info and Guides
I Have Touched the Sky: NBI: Retrospective
World's End Tavern: Newbie Blogger Initiative: One year later
The Ancient Gaming Noob: New Blogger Initiative a Year Later - Who Survived?

Edit: The badge is there for any NBI participant (newbie or sponsor) to use. Rowan made a cool version for sponsors specifically.

* Others have come up with slightly diferent numbers, depending on the criteria used to define an 'active' blog. Calculations range from 28-40% still active.

NBI: In the head of a newbie

Last time you saw me thinking about other blogs, but this time it's the turn of my own little blog. Yup, I am aware that the NBI is over, but I felt I wanted to give a short summary of what the month May was all about. Or wait, skip the 'short' part, it's not exactly one of my strong points... Anyway. A lot of different people participated in the NBI, ranging from oldschool dinosaurs to freshly hatched butterflies. I thought it might be interesting to tell what all the fuss was like for a newbie like me.

What I first thought blogging was:

Blogging? That's like people who post random stuff on the internet that nobody reads.  Mostly about baby pictures/raising a family, RL fashion or house decorations. Boring stuff.

Yes, that's really what I thought blogging was all about. So what happened? I was just innocently browsing the official lotro forums, especially the lore-master section, when I saw a link in someone's signature that I'd seen several times before. I'm a curious girl and I had seen this person posting pretty sane things on the forums, so I checked it out. It brought me to Lothirieth's Wandering through Middle-earth blog and this was an eye-opener for me. It was fun to read: all personal stories about what happens to a girl like me playing Lord of the Rings, and it suddenly struck me. I could do this too!

What I then thought blogging was:

Lothirieth's blog got me so enthusiastic that I started my own. I scrolled through my LotRO screenshots, noticed there were an awful lot of them, and started setting up my layout. It was all pretty exciting, but also a bit scary. So I was pretty terrified when I showed my blog to someone else for the first time, and the victim was my good friend Wynnie. This is point where she could've laughed out loudly at me and y'all would've been spared a lot of reading terror. Instead, she said it was fun, and she started her own blog, Wynniekin's Adventures, so we could keep track of each others adventures (as we're not in the same kinship anymore). Still, at this point I believed that blogging meant this:

You write some articles you like, and if someone likes them, they'll click the "follow" button. In exchange, you follow blogs you like yourself.

That's all there is to it, right? I continued some weeks, looking for blogs with the same interests as I. Blogger doesn't have a good search engine within itself, though (or at least, I haven't been able to find it), so I kept ending up at Star Wars or Tolkien related blogs - fun blogs, and I still follow some of them, but not writing about online gaming at all. And then the NBI stormed in...

What I now think blogging is:

Suddenly, I found there were way more bloggers out there that wrote exactly about what interested me. I had just been unable to find them so far. Also, there were apparently loads of ways to read, address and appreciate blogs, such as RSS feeds, guest posts, reblogging... It wasn't easy to get a grip of everything. For instance: I spent two weeks getting my RSS feed to work. *traumatized* Everyone was really helpful, though, which was great! I also gave each blog that interested me a place in the MMO blogroll in the sidebar to the right and am following these actively. Apart from the newbie blogs that I mentioned yesterday, I also found several great sponsor blogs that I started following (yup, I'm a real stalker now), of which Rowan's I Have Touched the Sky and Xhii's Roll one hundred are my favorite. And that is what the NBI mostly meant for me: discovering that there are loads of blogs out there, that formed some kind of community.

I found out that 111 newbies is a bit too much to keep track of. Matticus suggested in Syp's wrapup thread to make a list with a better overview, sorted by game. I tried doing this, but soon found that this is a lot more complicated than it sounds. Many blogs don't focus on a single game, but write about several, like I do myself. While it is in my case pretty obvious about which games I write (at least, I hope the buttons and tabs give a clear idea), it is often not for others. On top of that, many people are of the 'gaming butterfly' type. They're not loyal to one or two games, but hop from game to game. Blogs are amazingly diverse, and it's damn hard to label them. Nevertheless, I gave it a try for the two MMO's that I play: LotRO and SWTOR. I should've done this ages ago, as I found out there are some I've missed! I searched through all 111 and selected these on the criteria that they have active and a reasonable amount of content on the subject. Make sure to check them out if you like these games yourself.

Newbie blogs in 2012 sorted by game

LOTRO
The Adventures of Danania, Supergirl of Lorien
Beyond Reproach
Brazokie's Blog Space 
Glimpses from Middle-earth
Hipstalotro
The Horn & Ivory Gates
Landroval Style
Lotro Cinna
Lotro Family of Flosin Nightsong
Middle-earth Initiative
MMO Juggler
Newbie Hobbit
Ravalation
Real Adventures In Fake Worlds
Windy Acres Ranch
Wynnie goes Free to Play
Wynniekins' Adventures

SWTOR
The Altoholic
Conveniently placed exhaust port
SWTOR from scratch.
Ravalation

I sense a distinct lack of SWTOR blogs. If you're looking for a target niche, this might be the place to start!

Finally, I'd ask you to check out the Gaming Blog Nexus (and especially so if you write a MMO blog yourself): a congregation of NBI blogs. You can easily sign up by sending an e-mail to Roger and get added to the feed.

A final farewell

...to the NBI that is, not to this blog! Many bloggers wrote posts featuring blogs they liked to celebrate the fruits of the NBI. I was really surprised when I found that people had been featuring Ravalation as well. I'm probably breaking some sort of unwritten blogger rule of humbleness here, but whatever. This is what some of them wrote:

Real Adventures in Fake Worlds: "Currently covering Lotro, Swtor, and Mass Effect, which are wonderful choices, this blog is full of beautiful screenshots and entertaining commentary. Her appreciation of these games really comes through in her writing."

Shards of Imagination: "If I had to describe Ravalation in a few words it would be “a feast to the eyes”. Not only her posts are filled with beautiful screenshots (some times with her own drawings too!) but it is all accompanied with very interesting text too. It is like a combo of pure bliss! Right now Ravanel is writing about Lord of the Rings Online, Mass Effect and Star Wars: The Old Republic. I highly recommend her blog to anyone interested in any of those games."

I also got selected for Syp's NBI Awards in the category "Best newish blogger", which was sweet. There's no way I'm going to win that over those librarians, but feel free to vote if you like this blog.

I even got mentioned in I Rez Therefore I Am in Awesome Lookin' New Blogs: "Ravalation has a beautiful masthead image that sets the tone, a great menu bar that runs thru that image and lets me select a particular virtual world if I like, and then scrolls down thru a series of nicely laid out and illustrated posts. All that and a great content-filled sidebar including a “Wordle of the week!”

All these nice words just made me blush so much. Every blogger that I've met has been very helpful and nice. The NBI might be over, but this blog isn't yet. I got to know some very great blogs and people. Thanks for all your support, it encouraged me and I'm certainly determined to keep writing!

NBI: Nearing the end

Time's going faster than I thought. I was just about to publish a "learning challenge" for Ambermist as actuality caught up with me and I was already supposed to write another, unexpected challenge, ominously described as The Final Challenge. So I dropped the other post and got right on it. It struck me that this was her hardest challenge so far, as the assignment was this: "Find three blogs that participated in the NBI, introduce me to each, and give me at least one reason you like each blog."

Three blogs you should not miss

Okay, I admit that finding three NBI blogs wasn't that hard. After all, Syp just posted 111 of them (yup, I counted them). The real challenge was of course to select just three of them. So here I present to you:

Image Heavy: even though she writes mostly about a game that I don't play myself (World of Warcraft), Clumsygrrrl keeps catching my attention with her humorous, smooth writing and her original insights. Both text and images make this into a cheerful blog that you should keep an eye on.

Shards of Imagination: no overflow of images here, but plain, good old fashioned text. And that is exactly what Rakuno is good at. He can write about pretty much anything, but always manages to voice his thoughts and opinions in his very own and pleasant way. Lean back and take the time to read some of his posts. It's worth it.

Hipstalotro: the description "me and my smartphone wandering through Middle-earth's coolest places" made me giggle the first time I saw it. Honestly, who takes on the idea of posting "polaroid" pictures taken in Lord of the Rings Online? Accompanied by humorous captions, this is the perfect picture blog to check on a daily basis.

Cheating

Okay, and while you're at it, I reckon you're not bored yet and want more blogs to check out. Or actually, to be honest with you, I'm just looking for an excuse to present you some other good newbie blogs that I've actively been following. After all, everybody else did it, so then it's okay, right?

• Brazokie's Blog Space
• Kemwer Game Blog
• Real Adventures in Fake Worlds

The NBI has been overwhelming and I sincerely hope that many blogs will make it through and keep being active. I'm also sure that I've missed many good blogs, as there were just too many to keep up with them all. The ones that I've been following (and it's been more than mentioned in this post) are all found in my MMO blogroll. Let me know if I've missed your favorite!


Edit: my initial thought was to only feature newbie blogs in this post, but my chaotic blogroll containing both newbies and sponsors set me up! (I haven't really been keeping track of who's a newbie or not, since I just enjoy reading blogs no matter what category they fall in.) I'll keep it like this, though, the blogs mentioned totally deserve their spot.