2009: The Year in Review and Preview of 2010

First off, I need to look back at my 2009 predictions and see how well I fared.

1. The Dungeons and Dragons Digital Insider will go away.

Way off on this one. DDI survived the year and 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons still leads the RPG industry in sales and name recognition. On a related personal note, I am still deeply unimpressed with 4th edition and work very hard to avoid playing it. It did not “grow on me” as some of my more pro-4E friends suggested. 4E is just as boring to play as it was last year.

2. Gen Con emerges from bankruptcy unscathed.

Nailed this one. Gen Con finished their bankruptcy process and moved on. I attended last year and had a blast. I am also attending this year, barring a catastrophe between now and then.

3. Gen Con 2009 will lose money.

Wrong on this one too. Although attendance was down, it was not a catastrophic drop and numbers looked quite good considering the miserable state of the economy.

4. Trask will keep blogging for another year!

Amazingly, I was able to keep blogging throughout 2009. Traffic is up significantly from the previous year and continues to grow, albeit slowly. I suppose I have to keep at it and continue to inflict my opinions on my readers.

For 2010, I have some interesting content planned and hope to continue providing more focus on the business side of gaming. I am going to the GAMA Trade Show in March again, so I will have extensive reports on the latest releases. For those that are not familiar with GTS, the GAMA Trade Show is the main trade show for hobby gaming. This includes RPGs, board games, miniatures and family games. Last year I got an early look at the new releases from all of the large companies and posted about them. This year my coverage will be even better! I am tentatively bringing another blogger along to help me cover the show and we have the stated goal of putting up content about every single vendor at the show, regardless of size! Last year there were 80 vendors and it was just too much for me alone, but with reinforcements Livingdice’s coverage will be more comprehensive.

Gen Con 2010 is also on my radar and my plan last year of only playing new games (new to me at least) paid off with some interesting discoveries.

In addition to my usual RPG commentary, I plan to add more content regarding board games. Do not worry, RPGs will continue to have pride of place on the site, but I feel the need to diversify.

Although I generate 95% of the content on this site, I am considering an open call for contributors in 2010. When I say “contributors” I mean people with interesting things to say that do not want the work-load of a full-time blog. It is amazing how many people I speak with have great ideas and good writing ability, but lack the time to devote to developing a blog. A more official post on this is coming in the near future, but if you are interested in working with Livingdice.com, drop me a line.

I am excited about the new year and hope Livingdice.com you found my content useful and continue to do so going forward.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

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trask

Trask is a long-time gamer, world traveler and history buff. He hopes that his scribblings will both inform and advance gaming as a hobby.

3 thoughts on “2009: The Year in Review and Preview of 2010

  • January 4, 2010 at 6:40 am
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    Sounds awesome!

    And I didn’t realize you felt that way about 4e; I must missed the post where you initially said it. Thank you for not allowing your feelings about the system to color your reviews of 4e products.

  • January 4, 2010 at 7:32 pm
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    I wouldn’t say it grows on you. I learned to deal with it, and honestly as long as it’s a good group of people what game we play doesn’t matter a whole lot.

    I am liking AlphaOmega though, I think we are finally starting to get the rules down too

  • January 4, 2010 at 8:04 pm
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    I have no issue with my game group and I can play pretty much anything. That said, 4e grates in a way that no other system ever has in my 25+ years of gaming.

    Trask

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