[2015 Retrospect] A Look Back At...Ourselves!

2015 has been a banner year for 0HITPOINTS.

While we started doing the podcast in late 2014, I'd say that Jan 1st was when it really "began". We had a whole year of having very tenuous grasps on how any of this would work, we didn't know how it would be received or if we'd even keep up with it.

I'm happy to report that we still have a very tenuous grasp on even MORE concepts!! This is a highlight because it means we're moving forward like blind men through a petting zoo. We'll figure it all out at some point but every now and then a goat chews on our shirts and we're forced into some sewing? I don't know where this was going.

Over the past year, Ryan and I have had so much fun making the show, doing the Hitplays, writing the posts and overall, just being 0HP. We're continuously discussing new ideas for the show, the "what's next on the horizon". There's a ton of things we'd like to do, a few things we absolutely *need* to do (OHAI Website) and some things we probably haven't thought of that will fit in both of those categories. The important thing to take away from all this is: We have absolutely no skills but will never let that stop us! The past year was an absolute joy. THANK YOU to every single one of you that has stopped by, listened to the podcast, chatted with us over Twitch/Twitter/Facebook and the BIGGEST Thanks to those who answered our ridiculous Question(s) of the Weak.

0HITPOINTS: YEAR TWO is coming hot and heavy. But before that, let's take a look back...at the year that was:

11/12/2014 - 0HITPOINTS Episode 1 Released!: 
Yeah yeah, it's not 2015 but hey, give us a break, we're late bloomers. This was the day the 0HP Podcast's debut episode was released to the public via iTunes and our Kilmer-studded "Special Free Temporary Generic Webpage 2.0!" The fanfare was unbelievable, the reception was insane, and we've gone sharply downhill ever since!! Don't worry, we have no intention on changing that trajectory! On a serious note: This was a big day for us. We were insanely nervous about putting ourselves out there but we did it. After 50 episodes, which doesn't seem like a lot, hearing the improvements and growth since Episode 1 is mindbottling.

11/12/2014 and 72 seconds - A Movie is Mentioned on the Podcast. We Should've Known.

11/19/2014 - The 0HP Theme Music Debuts and is Great
Seriously if you haven't said thank you to Sliptide or visited his site then take a minute!

11/29/2014 - Extra Hitpoints Debuts: 
Ok, ok. This will almost 100% certainly be the last thing from 2014. I think. Not even a full month after our debut episode, The Game Awards were kicking out their nominees and we knew we'd like to talk about it, so we opted to do a special, extra podcast just for that! Dubbed "Extra Hitpoints" for that sweet, sweet "extra hitpoint" action, it's no surprise that the second installation followed a mere 4 months later when a new entry in a favorite franchise was enough to encourage some related movie viewings and a two-part love letter from Matt (One, Two), and so The Mortal Komcast was born.

Mortal Kombat X was one of the first big games to be released after 0HP began that was just dripping with nostalgia for Matt and Ryan (and Matt again), and they both ended up enjoying the game quite a bit, but the cast quickly - and necessarily - devolved into "what if Scorpion was your cable guy." Since then we've done Extra Hitpoints for our Fallout 4 Giveaway and the 2015 Game Awards, and I bet if you really wanted you could probably figure out the next one on the way...

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12/12/2014 - The 0HITPOINTS YouTube Channel Goes Live

1/24/2015 - 0HITPOINTS is Now a Slightly Less Temporary Website!
We talked about it for months (I can say that because November AND December are Months. PLURAL) the whole "We've heard about the internet and even used it a few times. Maybe we should be on it like...always?" and so it went! Val-pal and the Special Free Temporary Generic Webpage 2.0 would continue to exist, but now we had our very own generic looking website, the appropriately addressed 0HITPOINTS.COM! Yeah. We know. It'll get fixed. We promise.

3/4/2015 - The Equinelizer is Born

6/16/2015 - 0HP Doesn't go to E3!:
No, we didn't go to E3. But we did talk about it an awful lot! Part 1 and Part 2 of our E3 (the "E" stands for "Extravaganza"!) recap had us hemming and hawing about how amazing Bethesda's kickoff was (Doom, Dishonored 2 and of course, Fallout 4), how Microsoft's backwards compatibility would be cool, how Sony has the No Man's Sky and whether or not every game Ubisoft showed off would actually work. We wrote a bunch of short pieces on a few of the announcements which proved we paid attention to something.

6/22/2015 - Let's Play a Hitplay!:
Ever since we began doing this, we've been asked: Do you guys ACTUALLY play games!? Because you never seem to have a clue. We responded slowly and somewhat decisively in the form of Hitplays! We prove to you every Thursday at 7:00pm PST (10:00pm EST, and whatever those other times are), that we DO play video games. And very excellently, pro-style, which is true. We've bounced around from GTAV to the Rainbow Six: Siege beta and of course, Star Wars: Battlefront. So, if you like awesome streams taken 100% seriously with no agitation or idiocy at all, definitely check out those Hitplays. They're something!!

8/28/2015 - 0HP Does Go to PAX!:
We attend PAX Prime in Seattle regularly. It seemed natural that we'd go again. But this time...we were prepared! We brought sweet buttons and shirts that we gave away to the very best PAX attendees. We played Rock Band 4 in our Vault-Boy masks, we hosted our first ever meet-up at the Pinebox, and we did our first ever LIVE podcasts (with Special Guest Adam "Doesn't Play PC" Parkin). We played games, we rubbed elbows (not with anybody famous, we just did it alone in our hotel room...together. We're a tight group) and we had a TON of Subway!! We'll see you there next year. And remember...Eat Fresh!

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10/28/2015 - Our First Giveaway: The Fallout 4 Contest:
After the initial announcement of Fallout 4, we knew we were going to do a giveaway of some type. Once PAX ended, we had a pretty good idea of what items we'd include in the giveaway but we didn't know HOW we'd decide a winner. The decision to make the contest a little more interactive than just an email + twitter handle or something, so we asked the audience to write-in with their *ORIGINAL* perk idea. We decided to podcast the deliberation and found our winner! Jesse C. won the contest with the following perk:

"Divine Clutz - Either with 1 rank only of luck or agility, when using vats with melee weapons, explosives, and certain guns, it will either backfire on yourself, fail in a spectacular way or grant extra powerful criticals or crazy good accuracy."

Great right? The contest was so much fun for us that we've decided we'll do it again. But probably with a different game. And different prizes. And a different contest altogether. And again, a big congrats to Jesse and a huge thank you to everybody that wrote in!

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11/18/2015 - Backwards to the Future: 0HITPOINTS Turns One-ish!:
I have to say, it was a little crazy when we kind of realized that we had been doing this for a full year (well, TECHNICALLY it was a year-and-a-week, but our pedantry is only acceptable when discussing film)! We knocked out 50 regular episodes, a handful of Extra Hitpoints, a ton of written content, and 21 Hitplays; so we figured we'd try doing an episode in reverse? You see the music was backwards! And we did all the segments in reverse order! And talked about Back to the Future stuff oh forget it just know that we're actually happy with what content we did get out there for year one, and we're still pushing for more! Will we do more themed episodes? That's a silly question, of course we will. Will they work? Please believe me when I say I really have no earthly idea.

11/24/2015 - The 0HP 52nd Episode Spectacular
If you thought 50 episodes wasn't impressive, I can't imagine you'll be swayed by 52 (FIFTY-TWO!!). But this one? This one was a real celebration of doing episodes!

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Well, there you have. 0HITPOINTS: Year One. Wow. It's a funny thing, time. It goes by so quickly, especially when you're having fun. Stick around for the continuing adventures of Goofus and Gallant (Ryan is obviously Gallant) because we've got so much more to give! Let us give!! We truly have a crazy amount of fun doing this. 

Games are a passion. They allow us to work alone or with friends, to build or destroy, to create and/or conquer. Games push us to find new avenues of exploration and resolution. They can be filled with wonderful information or just allow you to vent frustration on a demon from Mars. Games can be anything and we love that. We do 0HITPOINTS because games are part of our DNA, because we can't imagine a time where we can't play games. We do 0HITPOINTS because we love games and we want to share that love.