State of the Shack: #3!

Hey my fellow gamers, I thought I’d take this opportunity to say a few things about what’s going on around here. We hit a couple of milestones, have a few things coming up, and have a thank you or two to throw out there…

This is My Game is our current Favorite Site of the Month, and our post about it received the most number of hits (compared to other posts about our site of the month feature). So, clearly a great many gamers agree with us on that one.

This brings us to the point of our new Favorite Site of the Month Badge. This is My Game was the first to receive it, and I apologize that we didn’t have one sooner. Jonathan Baldwin is responsible for its design and creation, and I think he did a fantastic job working his digital magic (that’s our mascot there, The Red Knight – courtesy of Greywulf). If your site is one of our past favorites, go ahead and post it if you like!

This also brings up another new graphic, our RPG Site of the Year Shield (Soty). Adam Bragg (Spiralbound) is responsible for this image, and I gotta say that I feel blessed to have Adam as part of our triple-threat of graphic wizards (and he’s a great writer, too).

For 2011, Critical Hits won our Soty award (and $225+ in prizes), and our next one is fast approaching. Who will take the Soty Shield for 2012?

This past weekend we received 100 Spam Comments in a single day. Ha! I don’t know if that’s good or if it’s bad, but it’s a milestone of some sort. So thanks(?) dirtbags! (not you, the spammers).

Also, we just topped 200,000 hits, but I’m looking forward to getting that every month. Is that a stretch? Maybe. Can I do a better job at applying more effort and implementing more SEO strategy? For sure. My goal is not a challenge; it’s merely a matter of time…

John Lewis is firing up Forsaken Destiny, a site dedicated to the Warhammer 40k RPGs. John is a talented writer and has a nice set of followers here at the Shack (and from RoleplayingPro). I know Forsaken Destiny will be top-notch, and I’m looking forward to reading it (as I’m gearing up for playing in the 40K universe).

I’ve never played it, but I often hear that the Mass Effect video game is the shiznit. Wouldn’t it be cool if someone would make a tabletop RPG out of it, or at least post a conversion using a popular d20 system? I’d be totally into that special project…

Stay tuned as we continue to update writer portfolios and profiles. We have a lot of crew members and guest writers, and we’re making it easier for aspiring writers to set up their own gaming column. So thanks for reading, and stick around, ’cause the Shack is only going to get better!

Author: Chris Stevens

In Chris's opinion, the very best vices are dirt bikes, rock music, and gaming, while the very best medicine is fatherhood. If he could just learn to balance them all, he'd live forever. He's much more creative than intelligent, often wakes up belligerent, and ponders many things insignificant. Lastly, in an effort to transform his well-fed body, P90X, Roller Blades, and Food are all laughing at him. And the pain continues. View all posts by Chris Stevens