At some point (OK, November 11, 2011, to be precise) I turned on Google Analytics for the Strange Assembly website. This gives me a vast trove of data that, frankly, I have no particular use for, and probably wouldn’t know how to use anyway. I find it at least mildly interesting, however, to see where the website’s visitors are from, and I thought you might be interested as well – who are you, gentle reader? And what do you want?
Well, most of you are from the United States, but not a big majority – 56%. Given the English-language nature of the website content, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that #2 and #3 are Canada and the United Kingdom. After that, however, we get our multilingual audience – because, thankfully, the world is much better at understanding me than I am of understanding it (I took Russian in high school and college; I was really, really bad at it):
4) Philippines
5) Spain
6) France
7) Poland
8 ) Australia (no multi-lingual props for you!)
9) Germany
10) Brazil
But what about a more narrow view? Apparently I can see visits by city, too:
1) Duluth (a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia)
2) Apex (a suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina)
3) Makati (Philippines)
4) London
5) Oklahoma City
6) Paris
7) Madrid
8 ) Singapore
9) Austin
10) San Francisco
What web browser do you use? Firefox, Chrome, Safari – poor Internet Explorer is a distant fourth.
And what do you like to look at when you’re here (let’s go back a little further in time that Google lets me do on this one)? First of all, previews. Unsurprisingly, the best way to get L5R players clicking away (and most of our readers are L5R players, even if they also play other things) is to offer to show them pictures of pieces of cardboard they haven’t seen before. Six of the ten top individual pages are previews. Of course, this leaves the top ten I’m going to list relatively decklist heavy:
1) Emperor Edition Decklists #1
2) Emperor Edition Decklists #3
3) Emperor Edition Decklists #2 (Atlanta Kotei Ediiton)
4) Review: Rites of Battle (Deathwatch RPG)
5) Emperor Edition Decklists #4
6) War of Honor – A Look Back At Samurai Arc (Part 1)
7) Three Things To Expect In Early Emperor Edition
8 ) On the Cheap – Crane Honor
9) Episode 033 – GenCon 2011 L5R Story Team Interview
10) Kitsuki Honor in the Emperor Edition Environment
And, to confirm – yes, our most-clicked content that isn’t a preview or a collection of decklists is not L5R-related. The ST interview is also a noteworthy inclusion because the vast majority of our podcast downloads come from subscriptions and/or the Podcast page, not from people clicking on the individual episode post. And three articles that I didn’t have to write!
This list also tells me depressing things like how, it would seem, none of you care what I think (well, at least as not as many as those of you who are interested in more in-depth content). Oh, the humanity.
It’s a little depressing to me, too. My little throw-away article apparently got more hits than the Strange Assembler, which I spent probably 8 hours on. Ha. If it makes you feel better, Chris, I like 10TIT, which is how I view its acronym.
Because this is the internet, and humor does not always work (indeed, my humor isn’t terribly reliable in person), let me clarify that I am not, in fact, traumatized because people read strategy/deckbuilding articles more than my short thoughts.
I really just wanted to write “10TIT” on a post. I figured you weren’t too broke up about it, but good to know.
I know that Jay and I would show up as Duluth, GA, and possibly Trevor too.
I’ll hope that the fact that three of our recent articles made the list is an indicator that more people are checking the site. Or at least, checking the main page.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, when I manage to get actual content on the site every day, people visit the site more. Not just because they go to a particular article more, but because it gives them a reason to actually come visit more and see other articles too. Like Sam here, I think.
The Emperor Edition Decklist series are probably very valuable information for longtime players who attend koteis and know every card there is.
As a new player, raw top-player decklists are not something I’m looking for at the moment. The “on the cheap” and “Kitsuke Honor in the EEE” are the articles I read, repeatedly. They provide valuable information on the building of a good deck.
As a fellow boardgamer, I enjoy 10TIT very much. A short list of thoughts, and it always provokes good comments.
New players might not be the majority of your reader base and as such, the best route will be a balance between providing for the old and the new.
For me, SA has become my morning routine with a cup of coffee at work, and I would like to thank you for it.
Randy,
Do not despair about the Strange Assembler article. I have found that article extremely useful to a person like myself who studied Computer Programming / Engineering. I’m a numbers person and that worked very well for me.
I happen to be a relatively new player (only since May 2011), and don’t get to play due to our Stronghold store being clear across town and reliant on the local bus system, which doesn’t run late enough. I’ve been able to get Egg of Pan-ku kinda running on my computer, but haven’t had any luck in being able to play anyone else. I like the articles on the cheap decks, although I’ve been inputting the Kotei decks and playing against myself with them. I actually have quite a few cards, as this is the only CCG that has managed to interest me lately (I used to play Battle Spirits, but when Bandai stopped supporting the U.S. players, I had to find a new game. I like just about everything about L5R, just wish I could hook up with a group near where I live…
I probably show up as Duluth as well.
Sam, Jay and I are going to start work soon (tomorrow in fact) on a brand new project that we hope will prove very useful to new players. It will initially be aimed at very new players, but if it’s successful, aka people like it, I would like to expand it.
Rock! I look forward to it.
Sounds great! Are there going to be more decks on the cheap?
There should be.
Decklists, and also more noise about how wretched the Crane and Spider situations are.
Haven’t we commented enough on how bad Crane and Spider are doing? Chris basically puts out new math every week showing that they’re performing worse than average.
I assume it’s meant more of as a “in general” kind of thing.
I check this site fairly frequently. There was a large gap of non-posting for awhile, but it seems to have picked up quite a bit.
I started L5R in 2007 while stationed in WA, but then went to Japan where there is no L5R, and now am back in the USA (MI) and trying in vain to stay involved in the hobby. I loved Unicorn throughout Samurai, but it seems everybody has more options to out-maneuver cavalry, or has more cavalry than we do anymore. Kind of disheartening. Also, I was hoping for a legitimate scout deck in EE and have been let down. How can a clan that spent 800 years scouting foreign lands, not have a scout themed deck build, but a bunch of guys on a wall do? Call me confused… Anyhow, rant aside, I enjoy the site and reading all of the posted articles. Thanks
The CCG doesn’t make a whole lotta sense in terms of the story. How are spirit animals honorable (Mantis pokemons)? What -exactly- is a paragon? The world may never know.
Well, the Hiruma being scouts is pretty heavily established (they’ve always had a scout school in the RPG).
The Unicorn did have a Scout deck in Celestial Edition, but it was mostly lousy, partially because of the anti-synergy between Cavalry and Recton actions which were, at the time, all Limited and Open actions. Turns out that telegraphing where you’re going doesn’t work out well for guys on horses. Now, in Emperor Edition, that isn’t really an issue anymore – the default for Recon actions is now that they are Reactions. It makes me wonder if maybe the Unicorn Scouts fell into a hole there – they decided to cut them for EE, then came up with the whole Recon Reaction thing.