By now we’ve drunk our champagne, stayed up to watch the Hootenanny and welcomed in the new year with open arms. Before we wave goodbye to 2010 for good, I wanted to thank everyone for helping me to make Mana Obscura a success. From Blog Azeroth helping me take my first steps through to all those who’ve helped me or linked to my articles along the way, I owe you a debt of gratitude.
To all the readers and commenters, thank you. You help to motivate me to write new articles and come up with new ideas – you’re like the oil that keeps the blog turning. To everyone who’s e-mailed in with feedback or comments, thank you. And to those that I’ve talked things over with, bounced ideas off or generally nagged, thanks for putting up with me.
2010 was the first year of Mana Obscura, starting up in March as a small side project. Since then it’s grown, moving to a new home and spinning out a forum, podcast and youtube channel in the process. I’ve also started to use social networking more, with dedicated twitter and facebook pages. The year ends ten months later with 134 posts and more commenters, subscribers and readers than I could have hoped for. I just hope I can keep you all entertained and informed throughout 2011!
Best Of The Blog
The article on Mages in 4.0 was by far and away the most popular post I’ve ever written. The compendium of information from the Cataclysm beta took about three days to stitch together, but is still seen as a handy “getting started” for people looking to level their mage in Cataclysm
The problems with putting a solid UI together seemed to strike a chord, with several suggestions in the comments on addons to use and ideas on how to improve the interface to remove clutter. It also started a series where I started documenting how to customise particular interface elements. This is something I’m hoping to revamp for Cataclysm.
Back in July I looked at how Blizzard had managed to keep the game feeling busy even though it felt that player numbers were dropping due to burnout. I still think we’ll see some of the predictions I made arrive in 2011, particularly cross-realm auction houses.
Assorted Greats
The Mage Forums have also been immensely popular with readers, particularly where members have posted their own guides and lists of resources. A great example of this is Glynda’s great list of mage pre-raid gear. Windsoar’s list of Mage specific addons has also been a popular read for those looking for new addons to try.
The Obscurecast was also started this year, growing to become spun out into it’s own site. I started off the show with Stu from Broken Paradox, bringing his own special brand of Scottish wit and charm. Pewter from The ‘mental Shaman kindly took over when Stu went on hiatus, helping to complete the first season. We also had some fantastic guests on the show, including:
- Esh and Kat from Gaming Worlds Collide
- Jaedia from Jaedia’s Menagerie
- Aislinana from Empowered Fire
- Gnomeageddon from Armageddon’s Coming
- Anne Stickney from WoW Insider
- Rebecca Judd of MMO Melting Pot
Looking To The Future
It’s scary to think just how much has happened in the past year, how much content has been produced and how helpful and supportive the community has been. When I started this project I never thought it would get to where it is now. And while I have a few ideas for 2011, it’s feedback and comments that help me shape things for the better.
Gaming wise, January marks the start of raiding for my guild. Most of my time is going to be spent getting the final bits of pre-raid gear, getting the professions of my supporting alts sorted and organising stocks of consumables. There’s also a couple of games that I’m looking to pick up this year like Star Wars: The Old Republic, but my main focus will be tuning up the gaming rig with an Intel i7, a DirectX 11 card and possibly a SSD. After all, those new raids deserve new framerates!
Once again, thank you all. Here’s to a new year and a new expansion!
thank you for all your work this year, Gaz. i’ve learned a lot from you and all the fellow mages (you know who you are!) i’ve been keeping up with in the past year, and i have more to learn, so please keep it up! you are ALL very much appreciated!
A huge congratulations from me, regarding the success of your blog, your podcast and everything else you’ve achieved this year. Things dont just create themselves and apart from the help you describe getting, I know you’ve worked hard and long to improve the site, the blog and the podcast. Congratulations, because you deserve it.
Looking foreward to raid with you in the new year!
Mall.
Happy 2011, Gaz, and thanks for a year of hard work and great content! You’ve done so much for the mage community this year. I don’t hesitate to say I’m so glad you started the blog, and in such a professional manner I thought you’d been blogging for yeaaars.
As always, looking forward to more! Cheers.