Amended (Un)Realistic Goals for 2012

In January I created my (Un)Realistic Goals for 2012. The 10 goals cover a range of activities from marketing to rewards to community building to self improvement. Now that six months have passed, it is a good opportunity to reflect on the goals.

Here’s what the goals looked like in January:

• Attend gaming conventions.  I am running a game at Total Confusion this February and plan to attend Huzzah in May.  We’ll see if I can expand into a third con.
• Maintain the bi-weekly podcast release schedule.  Delays have always plagued the podcast.  Looking back to 2006 I see that is true.  This year I aim to stick to my promise of a new episode every other week.  Some exceptions are to be acceptable such as major holidays and so forth.
• Release at least 20 podcast episodes this year.  A new episode every other week = 26 episodes but let’s face it.  Shit happens.  Putting out 20 episodes means I will deliver 20 hours of gaming audio for your enjoyment.  It will take me no less than 40 hours to make that happen and it will be worth it.
• Book interesting guests.  Last year 6 guests joined the show for a total of 7 episodes.  This year I want to expand the number of guests to include those on the announced guests plus surprise guests.  I want to invite some past guests back onto the show too.
• Mainstream t-shirt distribution.  By this I mean that I want to make the giving of Wargaming Recon t-shirts a more common occurrence.  They’re expensive but with increased support I know this can happen.
• Grow sponsorship.  12-7-Games keeps this endeavor going.  The support of Bill Dettmers and his company is vital to the existence of this blog and podcast.  But, let’s expand!  Increased sponsorship helps to provide the amazing contest prizes, t-shirts, and everything else that happens.  Last year we received support from a myriad of places such as Battlegames Magazine, Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine, TotalCon, Huzzah Con, Bailey Records, and Imperium Star Games.  Many of the contest prizes and giveaways were made possible because of those generous entities.
• PAINT!  I painted 28 models, 1 building, and 10 bases of FoW infantry last year.  This year I want to do more.  I aim to finish my American Revolution army using Perry Miniatures.  I intend to assemble and paint at least one of my Architects of War terrain pieces, and I plan to finish painting the rest of my Flames of War army (6 BMW motorcycles and 1 Famo recovery vehicles).
• SAGA.  Buy the SAGA rulebook and begin a warband.  Anglo Saxons are my likely choice.
• Play.  I want to continue to play Black Powder in as many different time periods and conflicts as possible.  I want to spend time to learn Flames of War.  Dystopian Wars is also on my list along with SAGA.
• Improve Editor’s Choice.  The Editor’s Choice award is a nice way to acknowledge excellence.  But, it can be better.  It must be better.  It will be better.

Here’s my amended goals for 2012.

• Attend gaming conventions.  I attended Havoc, Huzzah, and Total Con. Plans are underway to attend all three in 2013. On top of that I will be virtually attending the Boston Media Makers and Southern New England Media Makers meetings in 2012.
• Maintain the bi-weekly podcast release schedule AND Release at least 20 podcast episodes this year.  So far I’ve released 8 full episodes, 2 half episodes, and created ReCast where I re-release episodes from the vault. Releasing a new episode every other week is difficult but I try to maintain equality between consistency and releasing content you love.
• Book interesting guests.  Angelia Heroux, Media Director for TotalCon, has been the sole guest in 2012. Clearly, I need to bring more great guests like Angelia onto this show. This is something to work on..
• Mainstream t-shirt distribution.  I am working with a graphic designer to assist with rebranding the podcast and by extension create artwork tailored for different purposes. This involves creating t-shirt artwork that makes sense. Once complete I will move to a cheaper alternative. Printfection has been great but it is very EXPENSIVE.
• Grow sponsorship.  The number of sponsors has stayed the same but the level of sponsorship has increased slightly. It is unlikely that sponsorship will grow this year.
• PAINT! Models for the Dedhampton Revolution have been painted along with a few JR Miniatures buildings. There isn’t a ton of output in the painting department but there’s something.
• SAGA.  This is completely on my back-burner. My attention is focused on the Dedhampton Revolution. There is a certain level of my resources I can commit, which prohibits participating in SAGA at this time.
• Play.  Each month some fellow historical gamers and I meet in a casual gaming club. We play Black Powder and have used it for the American Civil War and some Napoleonics. We will also use it for the Dedhampton Revolution. We are working on creating an event for TotalCon 2013.
• Improve Editor’s Choice.  This is being dropped. With so many items on my plate I know that this cannot be properly accomplished. Perhaps I’ll work on a special award on behalf of the Troll in the Corner Podcast Network. Until then you can expect to not see anymore Editor’s Choice award recipients from me.