End Times 2021: The Best of Solitaire Times

2021 is the year our website turned in on itself. Kind of fitting for another year of curfews and lockdowns and rain over here in Europe. Nothing real exciting happened. Our posts were mainly read by regular visitors. If we don't watch out, we'll slowly fade away, like the folks in nursing homes.

But hey! Don't let it bring you down. Not on our watch. We're just moving to a new editorial formula, and I'm actually really looking forward to next year. We gave ourselves some breathing space. And once that pays off, we can think about attracting new audiences again. I'm practicing my TikTok moves already.

What clicked

At the end of the year I always check which pages were visited most. I like to see what's popular. As a section, like every other year, nothing can beat Crowdfunding News (or: "Kickstarter News" as it used to be called). That's no surprise, it has the most content. We aim to be a good source for new soloable games on the crowdfunding platforms and I think we're still going strong.

Also scoring high are the "Notifications" section and Loners Lounge. That's a new trend, and the ground for my conclusion that we're mostly visited by regular readers. On the plus side, we now have a community that's very dear to us.

Loners Lounge - image source: Donning the Purple: Votes & Virtue

What you want

Best read post in 2021 was Raise the Double Standard, my grumpy post about Tascini and Board & Dice. Later in the year I prepared two follow-ups, but we didn't want to become an overly "political" website so they weren't published. They were good posts though! You missed out. 😁

Next up: Best of the Best (2020 Edition) - an overview of the best games released in 2020, as chosen by the 1 Player Guild on Board Game Geek, plus the ceremony for our very own Solitaire Times 2020 Awards. People love awards.

You may remember that Hallertau was the winner of our prestigious Game of the Year award. I think I can let you in on a secret now. It was also the only game from 2020 that Athena had played. After the award ceremony she sold it off to me. I really enjoy it, so the title is still deserved 😁

In the news section these were the most popular announcements:

1. Rangers of the far future (Earthborne Rangers)

2. Fresh out of the portal: Portal Games releases for 2021

3. Play your cards Beyond the Rift (Beyond the Rift: A Perdition's Mouth Card Game)

I happen to have backed the two Kickstarter games, so I really feel part of our audience.

The Owl

The posts by Athena that attracted the most views, were the diptych on John Burton's The Brambles and her report on Lonely Cairn. A post on culling was another of our readers' favourites.

• A deck of curiosities - Table Presence

• A Pictorial Guide to John Burton's The Brambles - an essay on the artwork

• Icy Terrors

• Since I left you / I found the world so new - the games that had to go

The Monkey

Despite the impression you might get when browsing this website, JW isn't always grumpy. We get to see all sides of him in his best read posts.

• You're no rock 'n' roll fun - the games that had to go

• The Seal of Disapproval: March Crowdfunding Grumpy - we get a new pet

• Are oranges the apples killer? - Underwater Cities vs Terraforming Mars

The Bat

Zerbique posted a lot of well read announcements for new games. Especially the ones on fantasy games are popular. But the dungeon crawl through the shelves of his own games was perhaps even a bigger hit. And his top-20 of solo games made for an interesting read as well.

• Sexy Shelfie

• Sexy Shelfie - part 2

• Zerbique's Top 20 Solo Games 2021 - part 1

• Zerbique's Top 20 Solo Games 2021 - part 2

All in all very diverse content, I think. And that's good. This is the age of diversity - we're happy to show you all colours of the rainbow. See you all in 2022!