Tank like a girl

In just a couple weeks, I will have my one-year anniversary as a blogger. It’s been a fabulous ride, though it has its ups and downs. It’s tough at times to come up with new content, but I am hanging in there, knowing that some of my regular readers will enjoy reading it, regardless of me raiding or theorycrafting or just rambling.

2009 has been a strange year if you look at the WoW blogosphere. Some of the biggest names in WoW blogging have closed their doors, including BigRedKitty and Resto4Life, but also guys like Skeleton Jack, who wrote my favorite DK blog. It makes me determined to keep going, even though the WotLK WoW is so different to TBC WoW in many ways.

The past couple of days has seen a bunch of posts from several WoW bloggers that show the vast dichotomy that currently exists. On the one hand, you have the professionals. There’s Matticus’ guide to blogging, who at times almost feels commercial with his ventures. Sometimes his blog feels less like a blog and more like a brand, and it’s all over the place. Incidentally the same day, Lassira, another (former) writer of the ubiquitous WoW.com, formerly known as WoWInsider, posted her commandments how to not suck at blogging. I vehemently disagree with some of her ideas. I only have to look at the post I wrote that has the highest ever comment count: Red Sword of Hotness. This much coveted drop touched a nerve with people. Gear and progress can do that. And it doesn’t make blogs boring. It all depends on how it’s written. A post that says ‘I got Last Laugh, mwah.’ might be boring. A post that tells an exciting story that finds you holding Last Laugh in your shaking hands at the end, now that sounds pretty neat to me. Not everyone comes to blogs to read the latest professional guide about classes. If I can find any fault with the two blogging guides above, is that they take things a bit too seriously. I am not writing to make money.

And so you have bloggers like Saresa and Leafshine, who present their views about WoW blogging, which are very different and a lot more relaxed than the above’s. Who’s right and who’s wrong? I enjoyed reading both sides of the dichotomy, and I fall somewhat in the middle. I try to come up with quality posts about tanking, solid stuff that’s decently written. I try to entertain with journals about my time spent in WoW, and that has just as many responses as my guides do. There’s a place for both in the world. I love reading Veneretio and Yakra as much as I love reading Naissa’s latest stories. There’s room for both. There should be. Every blogger wants to be read, and there used to be a time that I fretted over the visitor count, but life’s easier when you don’t. As long as people keep commenting and keep reading, life’s good.

That said, I have often pondered tossing out a request for new posts out there, for my target audience: not the tanks that are working on bosses deep in Ulduar, but the tanks that maybe just picked up protection, people who wish to start tanking and could use pointers. If you have any requests, send me a mail via my contact form, and I’ll see what I can do.