Almost three years ago, I posted my first blog on Game Informer's website: an opinionated criticism of Capcom's publishing strategies (at the time, the company wanted to increase the frequency of its releases, which evidently never panned out, given its recent financial straits). Since then, my posting career has fizzled and spurted over time, resulting in a grand total of... 28 posts. Although a paltry sum compared to the prolific output of blogging machines like Saint and The Destroyer, I still take pride in each one of them. What began as an outlet for practicing my writing and discussing my favorite games has paid off in both regards, more or less. At least, I hope so.
Feeling nostalgic, I decided to dive through my old posts today, curious to see what a younger version of me had to say over the years. While reading, my mood swung through a full range of emotions. My love letter to the cult classic Wii title, Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon, for instance, filled me with joy, reminding me of why I love the game so much. I then took pride in my growth as a writer after reading a primitive (though still pin-point accurate, in my opinion) review of Resident Evil: Revelations. Meanwhile, my online investigation of Human Head Studio's doomed Prey sequel brought past letdowns to the surface. Overall, I found plenty of pleasant surprises and sparingly few examples of "old shame."
But the most startling surprise of all came when I casually glanced at the view counter for one of my oldest posts: a rundown of my favorite Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic mods.
Huh, 36,389 views... wait, what?!?
Yes, more than 30,000 people have, apparently, read my little post in the two or so years since it went up. That's more views than all my other posts have received combined. Sure, a few have vaulted past 1,000 views, but most hover in the high hundreds at best. Even the majority of articles in Game Informer's newsfeed don't break the 20,000 mark. For my humble article, tucked away in an admittedly obscure corner of the internet and buried by countless other, (and in many cases, superior) posts, to reach such a relatively wide audience is nothing less than incredibly odd. It has me dumbfounded. How the heck did this happen?
To give a short answer (that itself opens yet more questions), my amateur article somehow nuzzled its way onto Google's first page of search results for "best Knights of the Old Republic mods." Here's the screenshot to prove it:
Now, I have absolutely no idea whatsoever how my post, which I never actively shared, garnered such prime search engine real estate. I vaguely remember Saint herding it back in the day, but that couldn't have contributed more than a slight viewership bump. No doubt, hundreds of articles discussing the same subject exist online. Many of them likely surpass my offering in their scope and knowledge of the KotOR modding community. Did some random search engine fluke or dumb stroke of luck propel me to the front of the pack? More than likely, I'd say.
While not badly written by any means, my "The Best Mods for Knights of the Old Republic" article falls far short of my current capacity as a writer. Four semesters of university education have sharpened my mental pencil, drilling into me a new-found affinity for words. During the same stretch of time, I contributed articles to the volunteer news sites Zelda Dungeon and GenGame (the second of which apparently died a lingering death since I took a hiatus). It feels surreal seeing one my weaker posts come out on top after everything I've written since.
With any luck, my anonymous readers found the article useful. Each mod it highlights deserves to be played, and I am proud to have done my part drawing attention to them. At any rate, I hope to continue maintaining my little blog, buoyed by this surprise success. Now that I have a record to break, I might even post more regularly. Maybe.
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