Happy Blogday to me!

It's no coincidence that this blog celebrates its one year anniversary only a few days after SWTOR's first birthday. I've been here since launch after all, and while I originally wasn't planning to write about the game because I didn't want to "overthink" it, that resolve didn't even last a week.

If you indulge me for a moment, we can take a look at some of the things I wrote about over the course of the past year:

My very first "proper" post, not counting the "hello world"-type introduction was a passionate argument against people claiming that SWTOR wasn't a proper MMO, which is something that I still feel pretty strongly about.

In January, I wrote my first and so far only roleplaying post on this blog, about saving the life of a random stranger on Nar Shadaa. I really should do that kind of thing more often.

It took me until February to hit level 50 for the first time, which was accompanied by a very detailed write-up about my journey to max level, which I split into three posts. It didn't take long until I ran my first operation, which excited me to no end, and soon I fell in love with max-level PvP as well.

In March I wrote about how utterly and completely I failed in my first ever hardmode flashpoint and how I still enjoyed the experience anyway. I also mused on how my own experiences with endgame seemed to be the complete opposite of what everyone else was talking about, in that I found it hard to spend time on my alts (as compelling as their stories were) because playing at max level was just too much fun. I embarked on a balloon ride that I found way more exciting than it should have been. And finally, I wrote about how terribly I suck at romancing companions and how I always seemed to end up with the opposite of what I was aiming for.

In April I wrote a post that inspired some discussion about why some choices in the game are light or dark side respectively. This was also the month that featured the rakghoul world event, and I provided three posts worth of coverage about it.

In May I started my 10 Days of SWTOR Screenshots challenge, which took me until September to complete. I compared my guildies to "an overly excited bunch of weasels" when I relayed my first impressions of Explosive Conflict. And I talked about how I didn't think it was a problem that I was the only person on the fleet at 5am in the morning. That post is actually kind of strange to read now, even to me, because after six months on "mega server" The Red Eclipse I'm actually quite happy with life among big crowds.

In June I did my first ever operation with a pug and it was a very positive experience. Fun fact: the "experienced gunslinger" who tanked Soa is now a guildie of mine. It was quite amusing when we realised that we had been in that pug together and that I'd sort of made him famous by writing about it. This was also the month of the first big wave of server transfers. I moaned about them, wrote about how awful it was to be "left behind" on a server that had been abandoned by most of its population... and then I finally gave in, transferred, and everything was peachy keen again. Sometimes it's good to be wrong. Finally, I also wrote a long post about what it was like to try out the group finder on the first day of its release.

In July, I mostly wrote a big rant about how I was getting tired of people perpetually talking about SWTOR in a negative way. Then I got really mad when Bioware announced that the game was going free to play. The irony of this was not lost on me.

August saw the release of the game's second world event. Again I wrote one post about my initial experiences with it, and then another in which I summarised what I thought was good and what was bad about it. I also wrote a slightly sad post about how my guild was falling apart and how I knew that I was going to find myself at a crossroads about it eventually.

In September I decided that the real reason I love SWTOR is that it's basically multiplayer Dragon Age in space, and expressed relief when Bioware finally completed the server consolidations and shut down the old servers that had been ghost towns for months.

In October, I mused on how satisfied I felt after having completed my grind for War Hero, and posted about my first impressions of the cartel market. I also relented at last and left my old, abandoned guild to join my current, much more active one. It was a good decision.

In November, I talked about how I judge people based on their advanced class, which resulted in my new guild leader forever winding me up about how I supposedly hate him for being a Guardian. I wrote about my first impressions of the free to play patch, though with me being a subscriber, my focus was mainly on the other new features that came with it. I also revealed how terribly inept I was when it came to something as simple as capturing a taunlet.

Finally, this December I've talked about how neurotic I've been acting while raiding with my new guild, and about my difficulties with the hunt for HK-51.

What can I say? It's been an interesting year for me too.