This is already the fifth post of the new year, but let's take a minute to reflect on the year that was: 2013. First, a personal take. Then, a blog-wide look.
I'll own up to it - 2013 was a pretty big failure with regard to my overall goal of trimming my backlog down to nothing. No specific category carries the brunt of the blame; I read just a dozen books, but also acquired only eleven. Meanwhile my movie-watching was up, but so was my movie-acquiring. And as much as I'd like to blame some big milestones this year for my underwhelming progress - planning a wedding, moving, going on a honeymoon, and so forth - I really can't blame my life events for the bad year on the blog. Yeah, my logging was at an all time low, but I could have easily countered that by not getting anymore books, movies, or games. Instead I went on a few too many acquisition splurges, and what could easily have been a successful year turned instead into a bust. Here are two interesting year-ending trends. First, sixteen straight video game loggings from me were either handheld games or downloadable games. The last console game I played on an actual disc (or cartridge) was Donkey Kong Country Returns back in late May. Wow! Second, fifteen straight movie posts were actually TV season posts; I've watched fifteen straight TV seasons since I last watched a movie. Both of these trends seem weird, as does my completely apparent lack of reading.
Enough about me, though. Let's look at what everyone did collectively.
Books
No series or author really stood out in 2013, although it warrants mentioning that both Webber and Dee were heavy on the Brandon Mull posts early on in the year. Elsewhere, Marissa and Keith both read The Giver and its sequels and both Webber and I dabbled in The Dark Tower just a bit. Sweeney posted a couple of Song of Ice and Fire books and I pitched in a third from George R. R. Martin. Tack on a couple of Kurt Vonnegut, Neil Gaiman, and Stephen King books, and you've more or less got the year covered, aside from a late diverse run by Marissa. Nothing really "trended" in 2013, I guess, but it was nice to see a bunch of people looking into stuff that had previously been blogged by others.
Video Games
We had another eight Final Fantasy games posted, again avoiding repeating the same one twice. This time four of us - Webber and Trevor in addition to Sween and me - combined for Theatrhythm, Tactics, IV, IX, Crystal Chronicles, VI, X, and XIII. There were four more Zelda games as well, along with three Sonic the Hedgehog postings. Strangely, no other franchise registered more than a pair of games on the year. One trend I did notice, though, was the emergence of shorter indie titles, whether those were PC downloads or console-based content. Titles like Dear Esther, Little Inferno, Starship Defense, Pushmo, Proteus, Hotline Miami, and Thomas Was Alone appeared on the blog this year, in addition to many others like them.
Television
To my great delight, The Wire really blew up in 2013, with Keith, Marissa, and Sween making ten posts about that show. Keith and Sween also made ten posts on The Sopranos and Keith and I did the same for Dexter. Not far behind was Game of Thrones, which racked up eight. Friday Night Lights and Sons of Anarchy each received four posts, and if you want to count it as its own show, WWE was responsible for five posts in 2013. That each of those posts was made by Keith should surprise no one. As always, I was our biggest TV contributor, so a lot of shows that I watched - Six Feet Under, Big Love, The IT Crowd - were also posted several times.
Movies
World War Z and Looper each got posted twice. It looks like JFK almost did, but the second post - Trevor's - is still in "draft" form. There was a decent amount of Kubrick from Trevor and me, and then a large amount of Wes Anderson for which I must take full responsibility.
And of course, a job well done by all to clear 400 posts on the year. Let's shoot for 500 this time around. I think we can do it!
I figured I'd post some goals:
ReplyDeleteI'd like to finish five movies for every one I purchase.
I'd like to finish three video games for every one I purchase.
I'd like to finish three TV seasons for every one I purchase.
I'd like to finish one book for every book I purchase.
I plan on finishing all of my movies.
I plan on finishing all of my PS3 games.
I plan on finishing all of my books.
And I plan on getting Kelly Kelly to fall in love with me by becoming World Champion and becoming a better person.
I'll post some goals too, but first, let's check in on how I fared with my 2013 goals.
Delete-150 posts
SMALL FAIL; I hit 119 on the year.
-Beat the five oldest games on my video game backlog
LARGE FAIL; I beat two of them (FF9 and Crystal Chronicles) without even touching Dragon Quest 8, Kingdom Hearts, or Metal Gear Solid 2.
-Watch all eleven remaining movies in my backlog
MINOR FAIL; I watched ten of them almost immediately, and somehow never got around to Trainspotting.
-Watch all ten HBO seasons of TV in my backlog
SUCCESS! The way I wrote the goal, it says "end the year without any HBO seasons in my backlog," which isn't currently the case, but I know what I meant, and it wasn't literally that.
-Read every science book remaining in my backlog
COLOSSAL FAIL; Went 0 for 6 here.
So, bottom line, I'm just fucking terrible at hitting my goals. Having sai that, here are this year's.
-Beat more than 50 games
This is tough on paper - I average 31 a year over the last three years - but given all the Genesis fodder in the backlog, it seems doable. It's essentially a game a week, and less than a week into January I've already knocked off three.
-Purchase no more than fifteen games
I'll allow myself the 33 Genesis games and whatever free ones Xbox Live tosses my way every month for being a paying customer, but other than that, I really need to cut back on my game acquisitions. This could be a very tough goal for me to properly budget, given all the recent and upcoming releases I know I'll want to play.
-Finish the year with 20 or fewer unwatched movies/TV seasons
I began the year at 34, so this essentially means I've got to hit a 14 mark for progress this year. Seems easy enough, particularly since I've really slowed down on my disc acquisitions and joined the streaming bandwagon at long last.
-Read 25 books
This should be challenging, especially in tandem with my video game goals. But it's only two books a month, and certainly doable.
That's what I've got planned. We'll see what actually happens.
Finally, here are the yearly post totals.
DeleteStan - 121 (There were two missing in the table I posted above)
Keith - 109 (60 of which came in January and December)
Sween - 69 (5 posts shy of 300 in his career)
Trevor - 41 (At least 2 posts in every month but never more than 5)
Marissa - 35 (16 between January and March, 18 in the final two days of December)
Webber - 23 (14 in January and 6 in October)
Brian - 6 (None since April)
Dee - 6 (All in January)
Danielle - 4 (But already on pace for 60 this year!)
Every one of us can do better this year. Let's hit 500!