From the editor Lone Warrior website Solo wargaming

Happy first anniversary!

Rich BarbutoComment(1)

The Lone Warrior Blog is one year old today!

The Lone Warrior Blog was born from a long dialog among the many contributors to Lone Warrior. We wanted to bring the joy of solo wargaming to an even wider audience, and  in the process, recruit more readers and more contributors. We have succeeded well beyond our hopes. You can read the hit counter. Interestingly, it took 10 months to reach 100,000 hits but only two months to add another 50,000. We average nearly three new posts weekly. We know that people are paying attention because hits show an immediate increase after each posting. So, it seems that we are effectively complementing other avenues and media in which solo gamers draw inspiration, innovate solo techniques, and get a glimpse of new (and some old) products.

Our goal has not been to replace the kinds of content found in the pages of Lone Warrior, but to supplement that material. During the year we added pages for miscellaneous articles and reviews of books, figures, rule sets, and games. We added tables of contents and started marketing back issues in PDF. We are pleased with the response across the board to these initiatives. 

Our thanks go out to all the Blog contributors and especially to George Arnold, site administrator. George has not only accomplished the technical tasks of maintaining and expanding the blog, but also he has been a strong voice in the editorial direction of our efforts. Thanks, George! And thanks to all who post and comment!

Where are we going from here? Given that the LW Blog and Lone Warrior magazine are efforts born out of passion for the hobby, there is perhaps more energy than available time. George and I and the regular contributors to Lone Warrior look to the rest of the community to give some direction. The Blog only exists as long as readers find it worthy of their time. We continue to consider offering Lone Warrior itself in PDF format and the experiment in back issues has been helpful in discovering pitfalls and achieving efficiencies. But in the final analysis, the vitality of the Blog depends on you, the potential contributors. There is a continuing need for fresh content. The Blog remains open to all, including (and especially) first-timers.

So, celebrate with me our first anniversary. Consider contributing. Subscribe to Lone Warrior if you don’t already do so in order to achieve the full experience. Most importantly, “Stay solo, my friends.”

— Rich Barbuto

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One thought on “Happy first anniversary!”

  1. I think The Blog has turned out to be a great success – congratulations to Rich & George as the prime movers behind this addition to what the SWA does !

    I think it offers a great blend of comment, thoughts, battle reports, sample gaming articles and a very sensible place for the reviews. I’m enjoying helping out on the classic books review series – one day we’ll have them all (but there are more than you probably think !).

    And I like the way it compliments Lone Warrior proper – immediate stuff (convention reports!) can come here, freeing up room in LW for the discussion of the serious business of how to control our little lead or plastic men !

    Here’s to the next 12 months !

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