We Are 15 Years Old

Posted by Gary N. Mengle on

So this month, October 2022 (and specifically 10/22/22) marks the 15th Birthday of the first appearance of Ardwulf’s Lair here on WordPress. I had actually been blogging before that, on a couple of sites that don’t exist anymore and therefore are impossible to date (and at any rate, this was only a few months earlier). So the first post here is the official hatch date. I was very prolific for several years coinciding with the heyday of MMORPG blogging, but then school, and then work, and then the YouTube Channel all drew my consistent attention away.

At first my content over on YouTube was right in the same wheelhouse as here, as this first video attests; this EverQuest II video remains my most-watched even to this day. But by 2015 my attention was increasingly drawn to history, and thereby to my oldest hobby (dating to 1979) of tabletop wargames. And that interest found itself at home on YouTube, much to my surprise.

So now, I find myself a YouTuber much more than a blogger. I have a lot more people watching and supporting than I ever thought possible. This blog, where it all started, is now mostly just a placeholder, aside from the couple of posts a year that land here. It may or may not stay just that, but at least it isn’t going anywhere.

Anyway here I am, older and fatter and quite a lot grayer, 15 years later.

So, for anyone reading this who recalls the old days, you can find me over on YouTube, where this month there’ll be a bunch of livestreams, all with giveaways, and plenty of other videos, both about wargames as well as tabletop RPGs. The livestreams also hit Twitch, if that’s your boat. And certainly nobody should have much trouble finding me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or even TikTok, where I haven’t the vaguest clue what the fuck I am doing.

I do want to say thank you. To everyone, reading this or not, who’s helped or been an inspiration over the years. And everyone who’s read a blog post, watched a video, or been a sounding board for a halfassed and doomed idea. That’s you. Thanks.

5 responses to “We Are 15 Years Old”

  3. Happy blogoversary, Ardwulf, from another long time blogger! A whole mess of us are rapidly becoming old farts in the blogging community –I think Bhagpuss has us all beat in real life– but it’s good to see long time blogs such as yours still trucking. Maybe mostly quiet compared to the YouTube videos, but still trucking.

  5. I don’t use Google for anything, so I can’t comment on your Youtube. I’ve been interested in HarnWorld and HarnMaster for years, and your videos have helped push me into actually picking up 3e and its world supplements.

    I am a huge fan of Glorantha, so crunch and detail are things I like. I look forward to exploring a much more medieval and grounded world.