Murf is looking for some great non-Blaugust posts to talk about for his Blogging Bonanza column on MMOGames. We often worry about how popular our posts are, but what are the ones we are particularly proud of? Including this entry, I have posted 727 times on this blog. Perhaps not as many as some others out there, but enough that I don’t even remember off the top of my head everything that I have written. This list may not even include my best work by some measures, but these are the ones that stood out in my mind when I read Murf’s appeal. In no particular order:

“Developing Character Backstories in MMORPGs”

In which I share my my philosophy and advice on how having backstories enriches character development and, perhaps, player immersion and enjoyment of the game. One of my first “guide posts” and also the first time I guest-posted on someone else’s blog. I posted for Steve “Slurms” Lichtsinn of Multiplaying fame, and co-host of the recently retooled MMO Show podcast.

“Ascended”

In which I relate the first moments of my Guardian Warrior’s rebirth into the world of Telara. One of my many attempts at creative writing. Again, perhaps not my best, but it’s the one I immediately thought of. “Ascended” is as much a word painting as a story of any kind. I had an impression, a few images and sounds, that I tried to convey through the written word. You can judge if I was successful or not.

“A Little Player in a Very Big MMORPG”

In which I discuss how I do not need to be the Big Damn Hero of the world in an MMO, and how I think MMOs miss the mark when they attempt to make the player feel that way. Strangely enough, I am right now heavily involved in a game that seems to just that, SWTOR. One of my gaming design philosophy posts, and one that involved quite a few respondents.

“Cloud Atlas”

In which I try to encourage folks to see this awesome film. One of the few movie reviews I have attempted, and by far the best, partly because of the way the movie itself affected me. Perhaps by coincidence, this was also by far my most popular post for a long time, and even now it is my third all-time most popular.

“My Lovely Bride”

In which I defend this term of endearment for Scooter. Another post that had a lot of commenters; some for, and some against. It was a lesson to me of how our own personal gestalt tinges the way we see the interactions of others. Any long-time reader of this blog knows how much Scooter means to me, this post may have been the first time I articulated it in writing.

So that’s them, my personal favorites. As I said at the top of the post, you may think I have written better posts than these. I certainly have written posts that got more hits or comments. Let me know what you think of my list in the comments below.

~~~~~~~~

If you’re interested in joining the madness (Vloggers are welcome, too!), Belghast has a set of rules for qualifying for any prizes at the end. Your second stop should be the Blaugust Nook, where Bel is keeping track of everything and community members are sharing encouragement and ideas.

~~~~~~~~

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.