Best Gaming of the Year
This is a bit of a close one, I had two highlights for the year, the first was the Necromunda campaign I’ve been running with Matt. This had some fantastic moments; people being eaten by dogs, gang members being shot off the top of towers, and some totally useless zombies that wouldn’t do what I wanted them to. Though the best part has been to watch our gangs grow in skill and pick up larger and more bizarre weapons as the campaign has progressed. My other favourite piece of gaming was one of the many games of Space Hulk I played when I went to visit Jackson Pope. It was a fantastically tense game which pretty much came down to the last roll of the dice, which I managed to win. In your face Pope!
Best New Game
Well it’s an old one but it’s new to me, and it’s Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I bought the Battle for Skull Pass boxset when my son James came to visit over the summer holidays and we both loved. I then introduced Matt to the game and he loved it too! I have since managed to obtain a large box of Goblins and a Giant, so I’m looking forward to getting those on the gaming table next year.
Meeting People
One of the benefits of running this blog has been the people that I have met. By selling off old miniatures on ebay I met Matt who was a fellow Necromunda player and also met his friend Kenny, who plays 40k. I also met fellow Plymouth based Blogger Von (make sure you check out his work here), and I’ve also spoken to a lot of people at shows who’ve been following my Year of Frugal Gaming. Speaking of Followers, I’d like to say a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who has added themselves as a follower of this blog. It’s always good to know that people are out there reading!
So how did I do?
When I started my Year of Frugal Gaming I set three goals, but did I achieve them?
Goal 1 - Spend less. This is the goal that I certainly achieved! I bought very few new games and far fewer miniatures than last year. I did spend money traveling to shows and buying raw materials for projects, but more of that later.
Goal 2- Game more. I wasn’t sure how I’d done on this this year. My normal games night had been a bit disrupted throughout the year so I thought I’d have played fewer games than in 2008. The figures from my profile on BoardGameGeek speak for themselves, the top list is this year's games, the bottom list is last year's:
I was quite surprised that I'd played more games this year, but many of those listed are party games, which is mainly down to me taking games along to parties and forcing them upon people! This has proved to be a good approach and it also helps people to understand that not are gamers are complete geeks; Its something that we can all enjoy!
Goal 3 - Make money from gaming. Well, this has been the trickiest and, to be fair, wasn’t one that I put a lot of effort into. I made terrain, sold items through ebay and also sold off some old items at the Bring and Buy stalls of local wargaming shows. Selling off old items is an easy and satisfying way to make money, though it’s only a short term measure! Making terrain was pretty hard work and took a lot of time, though I really enjoyed it and all my items sold (eventually) I managed to over the cost of all my materials and transport to the show, and even had enough profit left to put towards an air compressor (which I’d been after for a while). I discovered that it’s not easy to make money from gaming and those people out there who run gaming related companies have my utmost respect.
The Final Statistics
So how many people have visited and read these pages? The official statistics for the year are 39,535 page views over the past 12 months, which works out at over 750 views per week! I’m really impressed with this as a single guy who only posts weekly, so thanks to everyone who’s clicked on these pages in the past year.
Overall I’ve had great fun running the blog, the fact that I have had to write has helped me find the confidence and get out to try new gaming related experiences and actually commit to finishing those projects and clearing out those shelves and cupboards.
So overall, I would say that the best piece of advice I can give to any other gamers who would like to live the frugal lifestyle is to start blogging! I’ve had a great year and I can highly recommend it to anyone. All the best for the new year.
Dave
1 comment:
Thank you for a very interesting and worthwhile perspective on table top gaming. Setting and tracking those three goals was a remarkable achievement. Best to you and yours in the future.
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