Thursday, June 3, 2010

One Year In

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I started this blog one year ago today, so I thought it would be a fine time to do a little self-inventory.

Firstly, some things I'm proud of. I'm generally kind of hard on my own work, but there are some things that gave me a certain sense of accomplishment.

A big part of why I started this blog was to share my Mega Mission cards with the English speaking world, and even though I have a lot more I want to do with them, the translation itself is up and I'm glad to have accomplished that much at least. Along those lines, the Rockman picture book, and a few other stories that I was happy to have uncovered.

My Chrono Trigger and Tatsunoko vs Capcom FAQs were pretty satisfying to write up, and I'm happy with the number of hits they've gotten on GameFAQs (which are way higher than this blog generally gets, actually).

Now, for some things I'm looking to improve on. Last month I really tried to kick myself into gear, but before that I had lost interest in blogging several times over the year, and I can't help but feel set back, with all that lost time. Lately I'm trying to get myself into a regular routine with updates. But, I'm not always sure what's best to focus on. I'd really like some reader input on this one.

You've probably noticed this site is mostly nostalgia-driven, focusing more on 90s Rockman goods rather than current or ongoing news. This is generally because I feel that other fan sites are already covering such news, more thoroughly and probably far better than I could myself. Even so, I'm wondering if I shouldn't try to cover some more recent developments here in my blog. Or stuff from the last decade, at least. What do you guys think?

And as far as the stuff from the past goes, how do you guys think the new schedule is working out? Are the rare art posts interesting, or a waste of effort? Should I rather be devoting myself to finally getting those Mega Mission scans up (regardless of my scanner issues)? Do you find the random topic articles interesting, or would you prefer I focus more on larger translation projects?

And for that matter, what would you be most interested in reading about? I have old materials from other popular Capcom franchises also, things like Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Strider, Captain Commando, Disney and Marvel, etc. Would you guys be interested in more of a general Capcom fan-blog direction, or should I stay focused primarily on Rockman?

I'm interested in hearing thoughts other than my own. Comments, if you please!

5 comments:

  1. Whilst the rare artwork posted is pretty neat, I must admit that all the translation work you've been doing catches my interest the most. Everything from the very helpful rare information such as MegaMission and Blues, to the charming and fun short stories about Plantman and Roll, Wily's dreams about the X-series and ofcourse the Battle and Chase one.

    Also, I was pretty excited to hear about the prospect of routine updating. However, if you're going to keep up that up, you might want to consider advertising this blog around the community more. I only recently discovered it by coincide myself, even though its actually a year old. So, there are probably many who don't even know this place exists. When those people ask questions about things like Blues and Megamission I'll be sure to link them to this blog.

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  2. I agree with Zan in all points. I had no idea that this blog existed until he told me about it. The translations are very much appreciated and I'd love to see more of those (I've been looking for translations of ZX Gigamix in forever). The artwork also interests me, as there are many pieces here which I hadn't seen in the Complete Works artbooks released by UDON.

    This blog has the potential to be a very reliable resource for the more obscure elements of the Rockman/Mega Man franchise, so keep up the good work.

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  3. Thanks to you both for your input!

    I know this blog is a little under the radar. When I was starting out and didn't really have any content up, I figured I'd just see how far google and word of mouth would take me as far as readership. You guys found your way here, so something must have worked out okay! You have my thanks for helping spread the news about this place!

    Maybe I'll try affiliating with some of the sites I link to, see if they want to do that. I wonder if I'd need to make a link button or something. We'll see how it plays out.

    Other than that, it sounds like you guys are happy with the direction things are going. I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing then!

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  4. Updating with some sort of rough schedule is a good idea to build up and maintain your audience. I'm already sold to the idea of this blog, of course, but others would probably become regular visitors only when they know that a new post shows up every few days.

    As far as tracking the new releases and developments in the Mega Man world, I'd say don't bother. You've got far more potential in digging in your extensive archives and by bridging the gap between the Japanese and English-speaking audiences than what you'd get by spending time reposting what's already available somewhere else. You've got a lot of source books that precious few people know about; if I was you, I'd aim to use that content to pull yourself apart from other sites and blogs. Obviously, if you see a new development that can be linked to older events (such as, say, Mega Man 9 being released after more than ten years of wait), then you're fully justified to talk about it whatever of your stance on this issue.

    I think that the rare art posts are interesting, since there's a lot more official Mega Man artwork than what we tend to see plastered all over. Often, this includes rarely seen characters and other curiosities about the franchise. I don't have as many books as you, but I enjoy going through my material from time to time and see full art and sketches that don't seem to be seen anywhere else.

    Personally, however, I don't especially care for Capcom's other core properties. I know that these are posts that wouldn't catch my attention for long compared to your other blog entries.

    By the way, if you're looking for a more permanent place to store and display some of your content, I've got some space available on my server. Drop me a note if you've got a need for it!

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  5. Think I'll have to adhere to your sage advice! About branching out to some other Capcom series, it sounds like for now I should probably just stick to Rockman. Sometimes in the CFC materials there is some topical overlap between the franchises tho, and I'm wondering whether to be lazy and just do the Rockman related stuff, or be thorough and do it all. I'll put up an example of what I mean next week.

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