As you guessed by the title, this week marks one year since I released the first post of ABXY! The idea was to release this post on the exact day, but well, let’s just pretend today is December 2nd. In that post I shared my vision for this project, and after 32 posts I can say it turned out to be pretty much what I had in mind - a place where I can document and share my opinions of all the games I play, be it in a review format or via something more casual, such as the “Played this month” rubric.
A lot happened during this time - not all related to games, but let’s stick with that for the context of this post - as I learned how hard it is to run a blog. At least I improved my writing skills and speed as a consequence. Part of the difficulty was my perfectionism and “impostor syndrome” always getting in the way, but even looking back at everything I wrote, I’m happy with the end result.
Let’s do now a retrospective, going through the good, the bad and also some key events of this first year of ABXY!
The good
It’s still standing after a year
That’s right! It might not look like a big achievement, but it took some perseverance to keep posting, especially during periods where I had less availability to do it, or my “creative juices” were running low. By this point this is my longest running side project ever, and I want to keep increasing that record.
Writing is becoming easier with time
One of the main reasons for me to start ABXY was precisely to improve my writing skills and so far I can say that goal is being achieved. For you to have a better idea of what I’m talking about, the first review I ever did went through several revisions (I can’t specify how many, but let’s assume more than 4 or 5) until it reached its final version, while the most recent was done in a couple of hours, without any re-writing needed.
The bad
Lack of consistency
By far the hardest part of running a blog is to keep posting quality stuff regularly, and that’s one of the main problems of ABXY. Sadly it’s the only one that I don’t imagine getting much better without a bigger time investment, something that’s practically impossible for me at this moment.
Not that many readers
While this blog is in part a way for me to log my gaming activity, I would be happy if other people also read and enjoy the stuff I write. Since the beginning I already got great feedback from various sources, for which I’m very thankful. But apart from that, the engagement with the content is very low. To be fair, I did nothing to change that, but I intend to. By the way, this blog has an RSS feed if you want to be notified each time I post something new. I hereby invite you to follow it!
Almost non-existent divulgation
This point is directly related to the previous one. If people don’t know about the blog and its posts, it’s obviously difficult for them to read them. The occasions where the blog had more views was precisely when I divulgated it on my Instagram, Marketing genius, I know! I simply have to be more consistent on that, otherwise, all this effort in writing reviews and opinions with a pinch of personality is not totally wasted, but a bit in vain.
Key events
Gamescom 2024
Going to Germany to attend one of the biggest gaming conventions in the world was absolutely fantastic, even if very exhausting. I even did a post back then, documenting my experience there. This Gamescom also marked the first time I participated in The Games Tome podcast live stream, precisely to give my first-hand impressions of this year’s event.
The Games Tome
For those who don’t know, The Games Tome is a long-standing Portuguese podcast about video games from every era, covering everything retro, as well as the current news and releases, with a fantastic cast and community. For years I was a regular listener and participant, via chat, in their Sunday night live streams. A few months ago I was invited to participate in a spin-off episode that consisted of a deep dive review of Persona 5 (which was my game of the year of 2023 if you remember). Since then, I started to participate in the main episodes as well, as the fifth member of the main cast. So far it has been amazing being part of this incredible podcast, even if my Monday mornings have become a bit rough because of it (as we usually end the stream around 1-2am) but to be honest, the sacrifice is totally worthwhile. You can follow the podcast on YouTube and on audio streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
And that was the first year of ABXY, quite an eventful one if you ask me. I hope in a year’s time I’m here once again to celebrate its second anniversary. Until then, thank you very much for keep reading my gaming-related ramblings. See you next time!
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