A Note on This Week's Poll

Good morning, Sword Machine readers!

As some of you may know, Sword Machine is a small RPG blog that is mostly run by me (Brandon) that grew into its own site from my own personal blog. It was meant to be more of an outlet for me and some friends to get the opinions of legitimate RPG fans out into the media, and hopefully provide a more casual (but informed) RPG news source.

The site has since become fairly well-read over the last 8 months (though comments remain low), and I thought that coming into 2009, it might be nice to add some new features to the blog. I've listed the new features I am considering over there on the weekly poll, and I want you to tell me what you would most like to see. I've provided a detailed description of each of the ideas below:

Top 10
I used to do a weekly top 10 list on my personal blog. Though I can't guarantee that I have that kind of time, I would like to get out one or two a month. Topics range from fairly standard lists like "Best SNES RPGs" to "Hottest RPG Girls" etc.

Obscure Game Tuesday
Another carry-over from my previous blog, Obscure Game Tuesday devotes a fairly in-depth look at obscure or indie RPGs, and provides you with a reason to maybe expand your interests beyond just Final Fantasy.

Character Duel
Two RPG characters face off every week. A classic "who do you think would win in a fight?" competition, the characters will basically be fighting for your love and comments. As a heads-up, this one requires reader comments to work. ;)

The First 3 Hours
I've heard it said that most gamers judge a game by the first 30 minutes. Most RPGamers, however, know that you really don't get into an RPG's real content for a few hours. The First 3 Hours gives you my impressions of a game after I've put in those first hours, effectively giving you a hands-on preview of some newer RPGs. I can't provide game reviews as fast as bigger sites, so I would like to do this feature for those who want some feedback on a game before shelling out for it.

Sword Machine Podcast
This is the least fleshed-out idea of the lot. Giggity and I were talking about doing some kind of podcast for your listening (dis)pleasure. I can't really tell you exactly what we would talk about, or exactly how interesting it would be, but hey, it's an idea.

Site Domain + New Layout
Okay, so I'll admit it: Sword Machine's layout is not exactly attractive. It's okay, I guess, but I would really like to get in and make the site look pretty. And hey, while I'm at it, why not get the site fully fledged into its own domain? Don't worry, I would make sure that everyone with a Blogger account could still use it to comment. :)

Ultimately, I would love to encorporate all of the above into Sword Machine, but since I don't do this full-time, I really want to know what you, the readers, want the most, so I can focus on that first.

Thanks for reading Sword Machine! I look forward to hearing from you! (Oh, and feel free to comment on this article if you'd like to see something that I didn't list.)