CONVENTION WRAP UP… WHAT IS NEXT FOR MEGA64?
Thursday, July 19th, 2012
Well, the (initial) onslaught of cons is over. We had Anime Expo, RTX, and Comic Con all in a row! When we found out earlier in the year that these events were all side by side, we had honest concern. Everyone in the Mega64 crew is great friends, but cons are exhausting, and any kind of continual confined space between even the best of friends can turn sour. However, our experience at all three of these shows was actually really positive.
Anime Expo is always a cosplaying-big-haired blast, so no surprise there.
RTX, the big convention newcomer, ended up being intimate and grandiose all at the same time. We had only been to Austin once briefly in a winter-time setting (As in, not DEATHLY HOT like it was this time), but we really had a blast checking out their downtown nightlife, and of course, meeting the fans that came to the event. There were a lot of you! Our booth was a major hit. Our panel hit a few technical snags, but fun vids and some great Q&A patched it all up. And the attitudes of every one of you guys in Austin was really positive- Even those who were carrying firearms all day (which was everyone). Wh0 knew!
The big surprise of the summer, however, was Comic Con. Last year, we had kind of a negative experience, and went into 2012′s show a little bummed out about it. Comic Con staff was great (and continued to be this year, as well), but the overall vibe and attitude of the crowd was really dismissive and negative to us. It felt like the people who really cared about Mega64 were getting vastly outnumbered by manner-less zombies looking for free stuff. It was honestly a bummer. This year, however, the code was cracked- We moved our booth to a new area (Away from the major studios and in closer proximity to our friends at Rooster Teeth, Penny Arcade, etc.), and that ended up washing away a lot of the sour taste we had. Being there filtered out a lot of the mouth-breathing slobs and brought us directly to the crowd we wanted. On top of that, we had our first ever panel there, and it went totally perfect (in our eyes, anyway!). The crowd was great, and because it was in our hometown, our families and friends were in attendance as well. The only bummer of it all was the fact that they had to turn away a few hundred people because of capacity issues. It’s great knowing a ton of people came out in support of us, but we still never want to be responsible for people wasting their time or being disappointed. We’ll try to work something out for next time. Big thanks to the folks who came, and the Comic Con staff for running the panel perfectly. When we became the final panel of the night, they even let us stay in the room until security kicked us out! So rad!
So yeah- all positivity. I guess that’s the moral to this whole story: Being cool. Which brings us to our final part- our neighbors. The booth next to us at Comic Con was called “KILLER PUMPKINS.” We looked them up months beforehand, and honestly, we had our doubts. What were they? They sell paintings of evil pumpkins? What the hell?
We almost always have some kind of dud neighbor at Comic Con, so we feared the worst. But let me tell you- these guys couldn’t have been cooler. They not only created horrifying pumpkin art, but they knew how to sell the crap out of it! They had a great sense of humor and couldn’t have been better neighbors. Go get some of their art right now!
There was one point where we were doing one of our many dance parties on the first day. It was a little loud. We didn’t know what their response was gonna be, but they looked older and tougher than us so we thought it might get ugly. We couldn’t have been more wrong. They were 100% polite and just asked if we could cut them a break and just turn the bass down a little. They spoke to us, exhibitor to exhibitor, in an earnest way. We absolutely turned it down after that. The reason I’m bringing this up is that we feel like we’ve been talked to man-to-man like that way less this year than any other year. We’ve had so many people just confront us/approach us with outright anger and condescension. There was a booth nearby us (ironically, filled with people our own age) that wasn’t happy with our dance parties, but never once politely asked to cut them a break. They immediately came over and started ranting about shutting our booth down. We saw them tattling on us to security all weekend. If they had just nicely leveled with us and asked us to take it easy for their own sake, we would have happily obliged. Outright rage grants you nothing. You’re still a douche and nobody wants to help you out.
If there’s anything we learned this week, through either events or the news, it’s this: Internet or off-culture “fame” doesn’t grant you anything. You’re not better than anyone else, and the second you think you are, you’ve lost. You’ve become THAT guy. We’re all in the same dumb club. Treat others like any of your other buddies and everything is so much easier. You will never be anything but cool in their eyes. We made friends this past week with pumpkin-painting vendors who knew this. I think it’s something we all need to remember.
But the bottom line is that the people who came to the cons were really wonderful this year. We actually just dumped a ton of pics from Comic Con, RTX, and Anime Expo onto our Flickr page. Check ‘em out when you get a chance, and we’re sure there’ll be much more great footage and whatnot to come.
There’s a great audio interview with Rocco and Derrick during RTX over at ProvenGamer too! Give that a listen.
One final note- Many have been asking about the return of the Mega64 Podcast. It’s coming. There MAY even be one this weekend! Stay tuned for it.
On the subject of merchandise- Our classic logo shirts just sold out. Tons of our stuff is sold out. But don’t worry. New Mega64 merch is coming! Will you be ready? Only time will tell.
Above all else, expect us to return with new videos soon. Thanks again for supporting us here at Mega64. Don’t think for a second that we have ever taken it for granted.
