To be honest, I'm always rather suprised to see that anyone comes here at all, let alone reads my rather self-indulgent ramblings. I can only imagine that people are putting wierd stuff into Google and, as it turned out, Not Feeling Lucky. Between that, and my inadvertent blundering into Trackback minefields at sites which are actually quite popular, I probably get more hits than intended for a site which mostly exists because if I don't take this stuff out of my brain on a regular basis, my mind starts to sting.
There definitely seems to be a bit of a trend amoung 'Real' websites and newspapers to trash blogging lately; various parties all going on about how we're not real journalists, and how we only talk about what we had for breakfast and how we're biased, and amatuers, and we're just cluttering up the infosphere with useless junk, and presumably, getting in the way of 'real' journalism. And you know what, they're probably right, and I don't care.
I can't speak for everyone, of course, but personally, I blog because I enjoy MMOs, and enjoy writing about them. That's it. I like to think people enjoy reading my blog, but ultimately it exists for my own amusement; nothing more. No secret agenda, no axe to grind and no soapbox. I imagine many other amatuer journos maintain blogs for similar reasons, and it does seem a healthy thing, particularly in the gaming industry, which is a very cynical and commercial place when you get right down to it.
I love reading about what other gamers think about the passion that consumes so much of my life. I love the refreshing honesty involved in the mini-reviews and snapshots from these unpaid pundits. I love the often witty and wry viewpoints that filter the experience of playing in these imaginary worlds. Most of all, I love the idea that in the pursuit of a pasttime I'm too ashamed to tell friends, family and co-workers about, that I'm not alone.
In this spirit, Buttonmashing.org is currently hosting a 'Carnival of Gamers', a celebration of online punditry in the field of computer gaming. It consists of snippets from nineteen blogging gamers, and covers a wide array of topics, from next-gen consoles to video gaming reviews, and more, and not a mention of cornflakes anywhere. Some of the posts are from links I have on the left, but many more aren't and this is a great opportunity to pick up a new Favourite or two:
Buttonmashing.org: The Carnival of Gamers
(They also have some vampire-hunter obsessed hack gibbering on about bad grouping experiences, but don't let that put you off.)