Friday 14 February 2014

Realm of Chaos 80s: Two Years On!


Its been a strange road. 

What started out as a desperate attempt to avoid doing any school work one Sunday afternoon in February 2012 turned into a blog that has been subsequently viewed over 500,000 times. Half a million page views? I would never have imagined getting ten thousand when I originally began typing away on my (now deceased) silver laptop. What's even more amazing is that fact that 400,000+ of those page views were chalked up over the last twelve months! 

Last year I wrote:

"Its been twelve months, 150 posts (not including this one), 925 published comments, 108,000 page views and 168 followers..."

At the time of writing those same stats can be updated to:

Twenty-four months, 311 posts (not including this one), 2640 published comments, 508,095 page views and 333 followers...

Wow!

So thank you all so much for reading and contributing to this tiny slice of Old School Cyberspace and making RoC80s the small success that it has been. 

Regular readers may have wondered why output has been a bit slack of late, well the answer is sadly very mundane. The toxic combination of illness (my own, and my family's), increased workload (school reports anyone) and a sense of utter exhaustion every time I sit down to write or paint. Thankfully, today was the last day of term and I have ten whole days of holiday sitting ahead of me. Those ten days I intend to fill with miniature wargames related enjoyment. There is plenty to look forward to, I can assure you, and hopefully my posts in the coming days will be nice and varied; painting, modelling, history and collecting stories to inspire and interest you all out there. 

Talking of painting. I haven't finished a miniature since just after New Year when my abscess struck. My Slannesh army sits unfinished still in bags and I have found my enthusiasm for completing the project has waned. Sure, I have a handful of miniatures that need finishing up and I will certainly get them smartened up over the weekend but I feel like a need a new project.

Something big!

Of course, I have my Warhammer Bestiary painting project to work on. Four lovely old Citadel elves wait upon the painting station for completion but I really do feel that I need something substantial to fill the next year of my modelling/collecting/painting/writing time. I have been inspired by Warlord Paul's attempt to do a 'gaming session' at the Wargames Foundry in April/ Sadly, I cannot attend as the event clashes with my family holiday but his idea has encouraged me to think about a 'Realm of Chaos 80s' gaming day of some such. 

Anyway, its all nothing more than a collection of vague ideas at the moment. So time will have to tell what comes out of it.

Right, those Slannesh models are calling out to be based as we speak and I have a piece of scenery to complete too. More posts soon though, as its birthday week after all! 

Thanks for reading followers and lurkers. 

Orlygg. 

17 comments:

  1. Congratulations on such a landmark. Keep pumping out the brilliant articles. Hopefully one day in the not distant future I'll actually be able to give you a game of something or other. Cheers! Have an end of term drink. I'd reccomend a malt!

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    1. Thanks Mr Priest. If you must know, I am fond of a neat glass of Southern Comfort. No coke, no lemonade, no ice - straight from the bottle.

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  2. Yes, that end of term feeling; lovely, ain't it? Well, in part inspired by this blog, I've painted up my little Tzeentch band and, end of the world weather permitting, will roll my first 3rd ed. dice tomorrow as we kick off the half term break and our RoC narrative campaign.

    @WP - malt is good, but tonight the grape won over the grain :)

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    1. Hope you enjoy that RoC narrative campaign as much as I did when I played mine. The part I enjoyed most was creating the new followers after each battle.

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  3. Awesome achievement! Who would have thought that this humble blog would have
    kicked of the Oldhammer movement. As well as skyrocketing the price for old minis on Ebay! Ha Ha Ha
    Seriously though, great job, and I hope there is loads more to come.

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    1. Thank you sir, and to think, you were there in the early days when all I did was ramble on about nothing rather amateurishly... Oh, actually, I am still rambling on rather amateurishly, aren't I?

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  4. Congrats mate - fantastic achievement and a great flagship for Oldhammer!

    Ah, the end of term - can't wait to indulge in luxuries like drinking and painting myself, although possibly not at the same time...

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    1. Yeah, never mix Citadel and booze. Its a dangerous mix only defeated by a good Dettol bath! Thank you for your kind words too, I remember when I started off this blog there was really only you, Erny and Gaj banging out old school stuff and flying the flag. Now there is bloody hundreds of us!

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  5. Well done! You have a great blog and I am not surprised over it's success with all the work you put into it with e.g. interesting interviews.

    Your blog was the first I encountered about a year ago and made me realize there were quire a few like minded oldschoolers out there which has been an inspiration since. So big thanks and keep up the good work :)

    /Hans

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    1. Thanks Don. If interviews are you thing, you'll be happy in a few days as I'll (hopefully) have another finished and ready to share.

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  6. Well done Orlygg, you earned the accolades because of your high quality hobby journalism and your blog deserves to be a hub for fans of the old school. Bask in the glory!

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    1. Thank you Paul. 'Hobby journalism', have you created a new buzz word?

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  7. Congrats and all I can say is you earned each view with your work and talent !

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  8. Despite it only being a year or two since I found this blog, I can't even remember how I discovered it! Glad I did though, it's been such great entertainment and I've learned so many things about the history and legacy of the miniatures and games we all love. So Mr Orlygg, thanks for your tireless effort and skillful writing, and to many more great blog posts!
    Hopefully we'll meet again at Oldhammer 2014 and I can have my revenge against your Slanneshi minions!

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  9. Congrats sir! Along with Fighting Fantasist, your blog inspired me to set up my half-arsed effort. Keep up the top work and I'll raise a glass to yer.

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  10. keep up the good work buddy, I've wasted so much time at work procrastinating over your blog it's untrue...

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  11. Thank you all for the kind words about RoC80s. Its funny to think that here we all are talking about all this old school warhammer stuff and only a few years ago I thought I was the 'only one'! I know plenty of other people felt that same!

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