Last Wednesday was the last one of
2019, so this article was supposed to be posted then, a reflection
on Awkward Mixture's articles of the year.
I'd like begin by thanking everyone for
reading the articles of Awkward Mixture. January set a record
for the most views of any month of the past four years, while the
articles of May were the third most popular. In total there will be
(as of December 31st) seventy-seven articles for the year, one more
than the seventy-six of last year (and the seventy-six from the year
before that). Though the article count remains consistent, the goal
for next year is for eighty to eighty-five. Of the seventy-seven
articles, forty examined video games, whether as reviews, evaluating
the Dota 2 professional scene. Another twenty-three articles focused
on politics, with fourteen The Presidential Event articles. Ten
short stories means I missed my goal of one a month. Add two
reflections on the year and one article about a board game convention
in Boston to arrive at the final tally.
Total Articles
As if it would surprise regular
readers, the three most popular articles over the last fours years
remain the same; Building
the Best Army in Mount and Blade Warband: Archers and Conclusion,
Europa
Universalis 3 versus 4: Sometimes Simpler, Occasionally More Complex,
and Just As Fun, and Building
the Best Army in Mount and Blade Warband: Infantry and Cavalry.
Their success can be explained by two factors. One, they answer
popular gaming questions. Two, they were written the first year of
the blog, and have had more time to accumulate views.
Top 10 Articles by Views
Reader of years past know that the most
popular articles on Awkward Mixture are always about video games.
The subject has dominated the top 10 of the past three years. Of the
top thirty articles since 2016, video games occupied twenty-one with
four apiece for short stories and politics the remaining article for
Star Wars. In 2019 articles about video games only won four of the
top ten, losing to politics, which found strength in The Presidential
Events series.
The most read article on Awkward
Mixture in 2019 was Bomber
Crew: Take Off, the first of three articles
about a video game where the player controls the crew of a RAF bomber
during World War II. It isn't even a game I'd recommend trying, but
the same situation occurs repeatedly because games I wouldn't
recommend like Brigador,
Sins
of A Solar Empire, or Space
Tactics, repeatedly seem to garner more views than more memorable
experiences.
Politics not only earned five of the
ten spots, but the category dominated with positions two through
five. The first of politics four article run was Environmental
Ethics: The Categorical Imperative, the initial
article in a series about, obviously, the environment and ethics. I
hope to return to environmental issues, especially as the threat to
our planet grows greater, but so does the interest in transforming
our culture and economy to solve global problems.
Rounding out the top three was The
Events: April 2019. The most popular of the
Presidential Events series of 2019, it included the President ousting
Kirstjen Nielsen, recognizing Israel's claim to the Golan Heights,
and featuring in the released Mueller report.
The next most popular Events article
was the recap of 2018, in The
Events of 2018: A Conclusion, published in
January 2019. A recap of The Presidential Events of 2019 will arrive
shortly in January 2020.
Halfway through top 10 is halfway
through 2019, with The
Events: June 2019. That month included the US
accusing Iran of attacking two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, Jared
Kushner refusing to defend his father-in-law against charges of
racism, and the President generating a photo-op when he stepped into
North Korea.
Video games reenters the top 10 with
the Souls-like 2D platformer, Hollow Knight. It captured the sixth
spot, though it
wasn't as Deadly, or as Dark, as its inspiration.
Number seven also went to video games,
with Toby Fox's teasing the follow up to his 2015 fan favorite,
Undertale.
Named Deltarune, players aren't sure if the game is Unaltered
or Unrelated to its predecessor.
2019 saw the introduction of a new
topic, Amesbury
Additional, which featured local municipal news
from Amesbury, MA. While the first one generated interest, and
though I went to other events and meetings, I never wrote about them.
It's possible they may feature more prominently in 2020.
The last video game article on the top
10, at nine, was the second article about Obsidian Entertainment's
evil RPG, Tyranny. The article examined The
Mechanics of Combat and the Lore of Spells in
the land of Terratus.
Rounding off the top ten was the only
short story on the list: That
He Should Bleed For It As Well. I am not sure
what to make of it myself, whether it was obvious or inane, but I
felt compelled to write it after reading a poem. I no longer can
remember the title of the poem, even though I hid its lines in the
short story. Ok, it wasn't a poem as much as a hymn. Does that
help?
Top 3 Short Stories by Author's
Choice
Every year I pick my favorite short
stories to feature, though with only ten to pick from, minus the one
in the top 10 articles by views, the selection isn't what it used to
be.
What
is Worth Remembering? is a reaction to my 2016
short story, Is
it Worth Remembering? While the original
supported the notion that memories, even troubling or difficult ones,
are worth retaining, the sequel questioned whether people might be
better off if they were able to forget traumatic events or actions
they took. Both used the background of a totalitarian society which
manipulated the memory of its subjects for its own benefit. I prefer
the first, but the second isn't bad either.
The title (and core) of Without
His Lifelong Friend was inspired by the line
from Puff the Magic Dragon, which was also referenced in another 2016
Awkward Mixture short story, Change
and Diminishment. In this case, I find the
newer version preferable.
The
Perfect Life According to Glaucon, was like if
all the people who knew you best were asked to write a part of your
obituary, and they hadn't a single good thing to say. It felt right
to compose the criticisms of a perfectly unjust man from the
perspective of all the women he had harmed, in contrast with the 2017
short story Four
Voices Vying for Veracity,
which used the voices of men to condemn their
crudity.
The Year The Presidential Events
Took over the Politics Section
In 2016 I didn't comment on the
political articles of the year. In 2017 I summarized my proposals,
and in 2018 I highlighted my political opinions. For Awkward
Mixture, 2019 was the year of the Events, which I rebranded for
clarity as The Presidential Events . Not only did I write one for
every month, but January reviewed the entirety of 2018, while the
months of October and December included bonus articles about the
Ukraine scandal and impeachment. That's fifteen Presidential Events
articles, nearly half of the political articles of 2019.
Beyond this expanding feature, Awkward
Mixture included other informative articles. In January I completed
a three article series about the mistakes of the Obama presidency and
the focus on the politics of centrism titled: Failures
of the Obama White House: Which The White House and Congress Would
Repeat in A Second.
Later in the year
I wondered at the far left's ambivalent reaction to Trump and
Russia's interference in the 2016 election. It
seemed as if to Glen Greenwald (and other aligned people), who I
admired for his coverage of Edward Snowden in 2013,
was against injustice and corruption, unless it befell the United
States of America.
And following the release of the
Mueller Report, I read it, and did the best I could to
shorten Volume I, regarding the cooperation of Russia and the Trump
campaign, to a readable size. I hacked away
all the unnecessary information from the original 200 page document,
leaving four versions of different lengths. The shortest was fifteen
pages. Though I believe the data in the entire Mueller Report is
enough to impeach the president, his ability to discredit the
document so quickly convinced me that repeating the exercise on
Volume II was not worth the effort.
The End, But Not Yet
The official end of 2019 for Awkward
Mixture won't be until I've written a reflection on the video games
of 2019, and a Presidential Events for December.
Again, thank you.
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