Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Size of the Player Base (Interested Audience)

I tend to track the size of the readership of this blog. You get quite good analytics on individual posts to see which type of posts attract an audience and which are just a bit "meh".

The single biggest change with the content of this blog over the past year has been the switch from WHFB to KOW as the primary focus. Audience figures started to decrease midway through the End Times releases and that trend accelerated in the blackout period between the release of Archaon and the announcement of Age of Sigmar.

The weekly audience views settled around 5000-7000 mid last year prior to AoS. Over the past 4 months or so, and with the focus on Kings of War, they have averaged between 4500-5000.

Part of the previous audience came to see links to new GW releases and for the past half year I've made a conscious effort not to shill for them. I still think GW makes good models - though I'm not greatly enamoured with the style of the Fantasy releases and the 40k releases have been pretty uninspiring (a Tau transformer looks pretty much the same regardless of size, while a marine is a marine is a marine). But I'm not inclined to promote a company that treats its existing customers as appallingly as GW did theirs.

Kings is an interesting game to cover. There are a lot less releases and the quality of the Mantic models generally will not reach my purchase hurdle. I appreciate the price differential but suggest there may be some false economy given the additional prep time. As such I haven't felt comfortable promoting their figures.

List building is interesting to a point. However there is a lot less customisation in the game and you don't have to be Einstein to know putting Caterpillar on a cavalry horde or +1 to wound on an archer horde is a good idea - though there are people on forums who think such a move was a technological triumph akin to landing a man on the moon.

The blog tries to hit a variety of Kings' subjects - hobby, list, event, rules, tactics - but it is evident that the interested audience is much smaller than was the case for WHFB. I'm hopeful that I can post enough interesting material over time that it generates a loyal following and return visits to the blog. A lot of this will be predicated on how well the game grows. Locally, and internationally, the Fantasy player base is fragmented and a lot of people have leaked to new games - sci-fi, steampunk, WW2 etc.

I am always interested in feedback as to what interests the readers and which posts they enjoy.

8 comments:

  1. Any content on KoW is appreciated. Especially the NZ take on it. Are you guys also trying out 9th?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I come here because of your KoW content and useful information like putting Maccwar's potion on a cavalry horde. I also want to play on your deluxe gaming table. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I come to see the hobby updates and anything relating to your KoW experiences

    ReplyDelete
  4. I come here to see what's happening hobby wise in NZ and your hobby; myself I only play 40k, 8.5 and Armada. That said, interested in what happens in the KoW field.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Whilst the player base for KoW may be smaller, there aren't a huge number f decent blogs. For me your blog has increasingly become my first stop for KoW browsing, and as KoW players become more aware of your blog, I reckon it will serve that function for a much wider audience.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback. It gives me some stuff to work with.

    I think the audience base is smaller - as I stated - and it will take time to build. The splintering of the various scenes makes things a little more disjointed but hopefully over time we start to see a selection of blogs build up and we can see them feed on each other.

    I'm going to start a series looking at the six scenarios in the rulebooks and the tactics that I approach each with. Hopefully that will be useful to readers.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I read your blog for the NZ perspective I never played 8th in great detail and certainly not to the same extent and Comp that you guys did.

    I don't care for Kings of War but I always enjoy your modelling and painting projects and the occasional commentary on the state of the hobby I feel you hit some good points.

    That said I’ll keep reading KoW blogs as I do have a tonne of mantic models that I can make a new army for I just have yet to be convinced it’s worthwhile.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Would posting about other games increase the audience or would it damage the numbers of people already visiting?

      Delete