Happy Birthday to Us, DFG hits the Terrible Two's!

That is right, Dark Future Games officially turns Two today. When we started, Bell of Lost Souls was a blogspot address and From the Warp had less than 200 folks on their rolls. I used to read BoLS all the time and really liked how different it was from the forums (this was a while ago, I think they were posting new photos of the pre-heresy DG there). I started looking at other blogs in their roll and said, "I think I can do this" and proceeded to flop around for about 6 months before I got my act together and started blogging regularly. I would like to take the chance to thank a ton of people (this is going to be pretty long and likely not relevant to everyone) ...


I won't put you through the horrors again of my first posts and the terrible picture quality of my even worse quality paintjobs, but I would like to say say thank you to the folks who helped me grow as a blogger. In the last year and a half, we have seen Captain Obvious come back to the hobby and leave it again and then come back (lol), but were it not for his die hard enthusiasm for "getting a game in" I may have quit altogether myself. I think I owe a huge thanks to the guys from Evolution Games for being so welcoming and making my transition from the South so easy and also for constantly providing challenging games despite my smack talk!

I'd have to say thanks to our DFG Team, seriously, I went to Adepticon and got drunk with a ton of guys from Evo and we started something that belongs just as much to them as it does to me now. LSS, you have continued to challenge me and make running this blog fun. You have hit me with ideas that I raised an eyebrow at, but you turned them into little cult classics like your Sgt. Gunther series.

CVinton, you are the guy to beat for me. I just feed off of the rapid growth you have had in this hobby over the last year and I try to keep up while keeping my own style (no parade decks for me, lol). You are an asset to this blog and to the wargaming community, thanks for choosing DFG as the way you let your voice be heard.

Samsquantch, you are my sounding board, I run so many ideas off of you and no matter when I call you, you are down to hear about my lists and provide feedback. I think 2011 is the year me and you finally finish one painted army!

Farseer Re-rolls, what can I say, you have let this drunken hobo barge into your house so many times at all hours, wreak havoc and despite all of that, you still help me grow our blog and push the boundries in our local area. You are a linchpin in this whole thing and while you may be an underappreciated FLGS employee, you are the man!

Vogrin, you may be the latest addition to the blog, but you are one who I hoped would join since last Adepticon. You are one of the best generals and one of the best genuine people in the FLGS and you get a whole hell of a lot of respect from all of us. You had an impact here before you ever wrote your first post.

Aside from the authors, we have a lot of locals who are a part of DFG who ought to be mentioned: Deathbringer (stop texting me at 1am ... thank for the cigarrettes BTW), Meow Meow (your the only other person who remembers Mordheim from 1st hand XP), The Judge for being so ... Judgemental, Pusbelly for constantly suprising me with your awesome GW alternative collection and for always playing devils advocate with everything! I'd have to also thank Dale, the man with the best DA army in town and anyone who I have forgot to mention in this post (mostly because I don't want to use your real name or just GIVE you a handle).

... and don't think I forgot you SeerK, you Mon'Keigh hater, we have had a lot of good battle and plenty of great bull sessions. I always look forward to reading your posts and to seeing you at the FLGS. Thanks for blogging too ... now maybe if some other folks would start blogs, we could have a crazy MI blog network! (BTW, MI40k, here's to a bright future together, thanks for posting so much of our stuff, I really believe in what you guys are doing for our local gamers and I intend to help you out in any way I can).

To Wolfson, I can't thank you enough for bringing me back into the hobby and for whooping my Noob ass so many times without mercy so that I could become a better gamer. Look at the mess you have started.

I would also like to thank my beloved wife Jess, who has put up with so much ridiculous plastic space man talk and associated BS, she deserves a medal! She is the only reason I am a part of this community at all!

For those of you who have followed the blog, thank you very much. Over just the last year, we have gained over 200 followers, that is due to the word of mouth we have gotten from the top ten at FTW, the great platform Adam runs at Space Wolves Blog, Big Jim at Galaxy in Flames, the good folks at BoLS and the guys at HOP, not to mention everyone who links to us and includes us on their blogrolls. We have painted probably 1000 miniatures over the last year including all the authors, covered Adepticon (and we will so it again this year), gave away two commission dreadnoughts, gave away a f*%#ing BaneBlade, hosted a crazy tourney (and are hosting another), started a local commission paint business (BTW thanks for all the business, JIM!) and that is just the start. We plan to make 2011 a bigger year as we have grown. We plan to post more videos, more batreps, more hobby articles, have a bigger contest, host more tourneys, possibly start a blog network and maybe even join a podcast!

For those of you who made it to the end of this epic post of self congrats, thank you and have a great 2011!