RPGWatch - 2021 in Numbers

Happy New Year!

Let's look back at the numbers of 2021:

We have covered 146 RPG releases - the days of playing every RPG release are long gone.

The RPGWatch Curator recommended the following new games:

1. Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen
2. Geneforge 1 - Mutagen
3. Urtuk: The Desolation
4. Tortured Hearts - Or How I Saved The Universe. Again.
5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV
6. Solasta: Crown of the Magister
7. Dark Deity
8. Wildermyth
9. Wargroove
10. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
11. Tales of Arise
12. Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG
13. The Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos
14. Ruined King: A League of Legends Story
15. ATOM RPG Trudograd

With more than 218000 followers The RPGWatch Curator is the 9th most popular English Steam Curator.

We got two new team members: Redglyph, who is hunting newsbits every day and Ripper, who's moderating the forums of the Watch. And some new Watchers as well - Welcome everybody!

103 new RPGs are already expected for 2022 - so this year will be interesting, too.

20 Watchers donated 814 Euros for the Watch - thanks a lot:

1. Bateman
2. BrianOConnell
3. crpgnut
4. DJ
5. GraemeL
6. Hastar
7. HiddenX
8. Jaw
9. Luethar
10. Moorkh
11. Morrandir
12. Philistine
13. Pladio
14. redman5427
15. rgolas
16. rjshae
17. Rook
18. Timeslip
19. TomRon
20. You

And our editors wrote some interesting articles in 2021.

More information.

With more than 218000 followers The RPGWatch Curator

dissapointing so few join the forum

The RPGWatch Steam Group has currently 3605 members, this group is very active on Steam - and you are right a few more could join the discussions here.

I have the impression quite a few are reading but not registering to write back (I've actually done that for years, and seen others saying the same). Not everyone wants to write their opinion publicly.

Besides, the Watch is not a mere mainstream forum, and I'm not only talking about game genre.

Steam … I'm not a huge fan, but with a bit of hindsight, I think it's just the matter of selecting the right subforums, this can vary a lot from one game to the next. I don't know if there are other interesting places there, for ex. unrelated to games?

One advantage of Steam is the real-time chat feature - one on one or in groups.
I use it for non-public discussions and @henriquejr often send me newsbits there.

I like some other specialised game curators as well.
For example:
Choice and Consequence
Turn-Based Tactics

Originally Posted by HiddenX
One advantage of Steam is the real-time chat feature - one on one or in groups.
I use it for non-public discussions and @henriquejr often send me newsbits there.

I like some other specialised game curators as well.
For example:
Choice and Consequence
Turn-Based Tactics

That's interesting, I've always wondered how the curator feature worked. Did we get to post as curator because there is a website? I suppose it's reserved to content producers?

I didn't even know there was a live chat, though it makes sense since Steam has all the tools.

I rather like Discord these days, I've seen a few other members there as well. The contact with the devs, or at least with their community manager, is much better, and there are often interesting info flying by. But it's a pure IRC-like chat environment, with a few extra features (for ex. notifications when you were mentioned or replied to while AFK or disconnected).

Each Steam Group can establish a Steam Curator.

Here's our Curator-history.

Currently I'm managing the RPGWatch Steam-Group and the RPGWatch-Curator.

We had a GOG-Curator as well, but GOG cancelled this feature.

The Steam Group and Curator have two functions:

1. Give Steam users some orientations when buying CRPGs.
2. Lure some CRPG enthusiasts to the RPGWatch website.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
I rather like Discord these days, I've seen a few other members there as well. The contact with the devs, or at least with their community manager, is much better, and there are often interesting info flying by. But it's a pure IRC-like chat environment, with a few extra features (for ex. notifications when you were mentioned or replied to while AFK or disconnected).

Discord's good when it's used right - as an IRC and/or Mumble/TeamSpeak replacement. But the recent trend of using Discord to replace forums is absolutely terrible. It's hard to carry on any kind of serious discussion, and information gets effectively lost rather quickly, instead of being stored in a good, searchable format indefinitely.

Originally Posted by HiddenX
Each Steam Group can establish a Steam Curator.

Here's our Curator-history.

Currently I'm managing the RPGWatch Steam-Group and the RPGWatch-Curator.

We had a GOG-Curator as well, but GOG cancelled this feature.

The Steam Group and Curator have two functions:

1. Give Steam users some orientations when buying CRPGs.
2. Lure some CRPG enthusiasts to the RPGWatch website.

Your efforts are greatly appreciated. Great work

Originally Posted by Stingray
Discord's good when it's used right - as an IRC and/or Mumble/TeamSpeak replacement. But the recent trend of using Discord to replace forums is absolutely terrible. It's hard to carry on any kind of serious discussion, and information gets effectively lost rather quickly, instead of being stored in a good, searchable format indefinitely.

I agree, it's complementary and shouldn't be misused. It's a convivial way to chat, spontaneously discuss an issue or get information. Or to discuss subjects that don't need to be kept (those long mega-threads on TB vs RT, party sizes, … in which nobody takes the time to read the previous posts).

It's just the trend to get more spontaneous and superficial communication, Twitter is the prime example of this (I've always found this tool ridiculous, its only advantage is being a central hub). I also think that it's annoying for people to have to register to different forums.

Originally Posted by HiddenX
One advantage of Steam is the real-time chat feature - one on one or in groups.
I use it for non-public discussions and @henriquejr often send me newsbits there.

I like some other specialised game curators as well.
For example:
Choice and Consequence
Turn-Based Tactics

Thank you for the mention, Freund!

You and all RPGWatch Staff have been doing an excelent work all these years. Keep it up!

Thanks for all that you folks do in front of and behind the scenes, it's truly appreciated!

Originally Posted by Stingray
Discord's good when it's used right - as an IRC and/or Mumble/TeamSpeak replacement. But the recent trend of using Discord to replace forums is absolutely terrible. It's hard to carry on any kind of serious discussion, and information gets effectively lost rather quickly, instead of being stored in a good, searchable format indefinitely.

Couldn't agree more. Discord is fine in its place, but the trend of taking over from forums I think is a real shame - all that information locked up in an un-indexed proprietary silo. It's like having the treasure trove of forum info locked up in MSN messenger.

I couldn't even estimate how many things I've learned from general searches leading to answers on forums.

Originally Posted by Ripper

I couldn't even estimate how many things I've learned from general searches leading to answers on forums.

A lot of my searches these days include "Reddit" on the end.

As a person on Discord all the time I also agree - it doesn't replace forums and I hope it never does. I have a much easier time finding answers on a forum then searching on discord. Its a nightmare trying to find stuff.

Also thanks for the data on RPGWatch, love this stuff and great to see some of the stats on it.

Yeah, I often have Discord on, yet I wouldn't make it my primary form of communication on the interwebs, I use it mainly to try and keep in touch with folks that I used to game with. These forums are far more important to me!

Utawarerumono, said no one, ever. There's probably only like 20 posters I'd recognize. 200k, lol?

Dark Deity: made with Game Maker, so I got interested. Only thing I liked was the smooth options screen. I must create that in Game Maker. The rest of the game is I think a mess.

Urtuk however I recommend heartily. Second time now I'm playing it to finish. Also I want to experiment a third time with all three ranged, rock ball-rolling characters.