Doomed for a Year

Doomed is now more than a year old, from when I started the blog back at the tail end of last April. Its scope and layout have changed a bit. Early on I was picking WADs out at random from a huge folder of recommended items culled from various favorite lists and the first flurry of posts was just a dump of the scanty notes I'd taken on the few works I had played (which I have since beefed up, if ever so slightly). I still have the old first impressions of Evilution and Plutonia, though I'm going to be giving those a more thorough examination before too long. 

Early on I shifted from playing random works toward more focused pursuits, like playing the Moellers' TiC releases, eventually settling into going through Doomworld's Cacowards, which has been a blast, with some side trips. I also adopted an unofficial schedule which I'm happy to say I've kept to, and in some cases exceeded by posting material early, back I thought I had waaaaay too much buffer (oh regret). Nowadays I'm content to post surprise / filler reviews to stall for time when I get distracted or stuff takes too long to play through (*cough* Hell Awakened *cough*). I also made the boneheaded decision to play through the 2011 Cacowards winners and recommendations. Boy is my face red! But, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I have to admit that they were all pretty good, if not amazing (which many were).

I've seen some cool stuff I never would have thought, like drive-by comments from classic authors Tom Mustaine, Chris Klie, Dietmar Westerteicher, Jan Van Der Veken, and Adam Windsor. If I'm forgetting anyone, I'm sorry! I also see nice posts from current authors I've reviewed (valkiriforce, Skillsaw, Nil, Vordakk, ReX) and amusingly enough early commenters who now have reviews on file (deathevokation, ProcessingCentral, Snakes, darkreaver). And, of course, ancient Doomed blog buddy Herculine, whose blog now has an entirely different candor, and other posters who I haven't yet had the pleasure to review (like vdgg and Printz) Last but not least, the lurkers. I know you're out there, and thank you guys for reading!

What lies in store? Well, after finishing the final threads of the few 2012 Cacoward nominees (leaving Eviltech for now) I can finally knock out '98. The next period is a mixture of cool stuff (I swear!) from '94-'98 along with some items I'm tentatively calling "bribery reviews" that I've wanted to do for some time but have put off. Then it's on to '99 and '00, which I'm combining into one full span with both Darkening episodes back to back bridging the years. Then, who knows. I'll probably catch up with the '12 Cacoward nominees at some point. Be on the lookout for a 64-bit surprise...

Some quick stats: 160 reviews, 323 credited authors, and 1311 maps. That's roughly 2 authors per review, 8 maps per review, and 4 maps per author. Fun stuff!


And now, the ten most popular pages by pageview, according to Blogger, and my reactions:


10: Sacrament

Pimped around the Russian community, Sacrament just barely beat out Whitemare, if only because it's been a page longer.

09: Master Levels for Doom II

Like a few others on this list, I have my suspicions that a lot of these page hits are looking for warez, but a fair number were filtered through my anemic Features tab.

08: 1994 Tune-Up Community Project

Still draws a few hits daily.

07: Doom 2 Unleashed (Paul Corfiatis's Community Project)

Same as 1994TU.

06: The Phobos Directive

Dark horse candidate! Very popular review for no reason I can see through search traffic or sources, unless I missed some copious link traffic.

05: Aliens: Colonial Marines TC

Piggybacking hits off of the Colonial Marines property, for the most part, with a few looking for the '94 conversion.

04: Eternal Doom

Half of the search hits I see mentioning Eternal Doom are looking for hints, amusingly enough.

03: Star Wars: Chibi Rebellion

Like Aliens, but a much more blatant case when I see the search hits. I hope a lot of this traffic gets interested enough to download Mouse's excellent Star Wars FPS!

02: Perdition's Gate

One of the oldest posts on the blog. Also, tons of warez hits. I want to get up the gumption to petition Atari to release this as freeware...someday.

01: Hell to Pay

Ditto on every point.