Top 5 Blog Posts of 2016

Hey everyone, Happy New Year!

This is the first year that I've (mostly) managed a blog post a week, and as is typical of who I am and what I do, most of the blog's content has been about video games, anime, and my writing. Traffic has jumped up quite a bit since I start posting regularly, so what do you know, more and regular content works.

Since this is the first year I've been so prolific, I figure now is a good time to look back at which posts were the most popular, starting with the Top 5 in reverse order.

We start with...

#5 - VN Talk: Zero Time Dilemma - Non-Linear With Style

I played Zero Time Dilemma very close to launch so I was able to talk about it while the property was still hot. Like most of my VN (Visual Novel) Talk series, it covers what I thought of the plot and how it was handled. I wasn't surprised that this landed in the top 5, and in fact, it wasn't my only post on the subject.

#4 - #My5: My Five Writing Influences

This was the shared creative influence post between me, K. M. Alexander, Mike Ripplinger, and Eric Lange, which no doubt helped drive traffic to my blog that it wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I talk a lot about the different media sources that had an implact on my work, and some of them are fairly non-standard!

#3 - 5 Writing Lessons I Learned from Zero Time Dilemma

I still want to write a non-linear time-bending story just because Zero Time Dilemma was so damn fun with all its timeline hopping, decision making, and the characters being conscious of it all and as often as not, not giving a damn. It wasn't perfect, but there was lot to like in this game and because I can't write like Kotaro Uchikoshi (yet) I will have to quietly brood in a corner about it, for now.

#2 - Fire Emblem Fates' Child Problem

This was another gaming post for the hugely popular Fire Emblem series that again I was playing relatively close to launch so I was able to tap into the player base more. Fates wasn't necessarily a bad game, but it suffered from trying to be everything that Awakening was but better, and living under that shadow meant that it had to keep features (like the child system) even when it no longer made sense.

#1 - Voltron Legendary Defender: Changing My Favorite Character was the Best Thing They Could Have Done

Far and away my most popular post of 2016 was my explanation for why changing Sven into Shiro for Voltron Legendary Defender was the best decision ever. Seriously, this post had more views than the other four combined, so if you want an essay about representation, my childhood, and pictures showing why I was so happy Takashi Shirogane is Asian again, this is it!

Here's to more posting, more writing, more gaming, and more anime in 2017!