Magfest.

Moon Jump · Jan 22, 2015

Hopefully for 2016. One of the smaller airports here on Long Island has been saying they may resume flights to Reagan which is better since you can just get an airport shuttle from there rather then going down to Baltimore and renting a car and driving there.

ebinsugewa · Jan 22, 2015

I'm going. Will probably be playing Super Turbo all weekend, so come say hi.

andsuchisdeath · Jan 22, 2015

I was going to go but I'm not anymore.

I'm such a flake (not really).

Giga_Power32bit · Jan 27, 2015

andsuchisdeath said:
I was going to go but I'm not anymore.

I'm such a flake (not really).

You need a hug!!! :mr_t:

andsuchisdeath · Jan 27, 2015

Giga_Power32bit said:
You need a hug!!!

shut up loser

andsuchisdeath · Jan 29, 2015

So, was it that lame?

cdamm · Jan 29, 2015

andsuchisdeath said:
So, was it that lame?

they felt that i was not worthy of their lofty standards to attend.

so yes. since i was not there, it was clearly lame.

Jon · Jan 29, 2015

cdamm said:
they felt that i was not worthy of their lofty standards to attend.

so yes. since i was not there, it was clearly lame.

Windy Gaming vs. Mad-Gear.

Not a match...struggle!!!

Jon

cdamm · Jan 29, 2015

Jon said:
Windy Gaming vs. Mad-Gear.

Not a match...struggle!!!

Jon

lol. not even for the fun of seeing you guys.

their jury process for "vetting" people is a joke. i know of 2 garbage dealers with an overpriced shitshow and no table appeal that were declared "ok" to go. they declared me unworthy after looking at my site the week after another convention (read: wiped out- pre restock). No call/ email/ fb message to see whats up. i get praise from all the showrunners i meet when they see what i bring and how i do it. Every other convention i have ever done was "pay for table and go". This one they have to declare you worthy.

not worth my time to dick around and wait for months for a response and then get a form e-mail telling me "better luck next year". It was an unprofessional experience to say the least.

Even funnier they nearly still charged me for my tickets even though i was rejected. I caught that email and had to get them pull it. because they were trying to get money from everyone on their lists- even those they rejected.

max 330 mega · Jan 29, 2015

wow, sounds like things have really changed in the past few years since I have attended.

cdamm · Jan 29, 2015

max 330 mega said:
wow, sounds like things have really changed in the past few years since I have attended.

a lot of this going on:

Stefan · Jan 29, 2015

cdamm said:
their jury process for "vetting" people is a joke. i know of 2 garbage dealers with an overpriced shitshow and no table appeal that were declared "ok" to go. they declared me unworthy after looking at my site the week after another convention (read: wiped out- pre restock). No call/ email/ fb message to see whats up. i get praise from all the showrunners i meet when they see what i bring and how i do it. Every other convention i have ever done was "pay for table and go". This one they have to declare you worthy.

not worth my time to dick around and wait for months for a response and then get a form e-mail telling me "better luck next year". It was an unprofessional experience to say the least.

Even funnier they nearly still charged me for my tickets even though i was rejected. I caught that email and had to get them pull it. because they were trying to get money from everyone on their lists- even those they rejected.

Their vendor relations staff pulled nearly the same exact stunts & stalling tactics with my friend outside Pittsburgh- The one who opened a vintage game shop about two years back. Arbitrary quotas, backpedaling, and contradictions like nobody's business, lemme tell ya...

cdamm · Jan 30, 2015

Stefan said:
Their vendor relations staff pulled nearly the same exact stunts & stalling tactics with my friend outside Pittsburgh- The one who opened a vintage game shop about two years back. Arbitrary quotas, backpedaling, and contradictions like nobody's business, lemme tell ya...

exactly. its a convention. like all of them it should be first come, first served. book it and go. I was prepared to travel across the country in a damned uhaul to do this show and i couldn't even get a timely response from them. This stuff takes time to book and prep for.

needless to say, being not good enough for them is enough reason to not even bother trying for next year.

max 330 mega · Jan 30, 2015

well with that being said... kinda glad i didnt get to go this year or the previous two. last one i attended was the final one they did in Alexandria. you could already see that what was once 90% game sales booths was down to about 60%, sounds like now there is basically no reason to even visit the vendor area other than to see mad-gear. game shopping was half the fun.

Jon · Jan 30, 2015

cdamm said:
exactly. its a convention. like all of them it should be first come, first served. book it and go. I was prepared to travel across the country in a damned uhaul to do this show and i couldn't even get a timely response from them. This stuff takes time to book and prep for.

needless to say, being not good enough for them is enough reason to not even bother trying for next year.

That is damn depressing. What was even more of a joke is the quality of vendors they chose over you. There was some guy to the upper left of where Mad-Gear was selling kilts (I think).

The convention is supposed to be about "Music and Gaming". From what I could tell, the "gaming" part of that, in the vendor area anyway, was taking a backseat to toys, T-shirts, hats, and copyrighted artwork.

Edit: Before I forget, they seriously need to rethink having a con on a Monday. From what I heard, most of the attendees left on Sunday night.

Jon

herb · Jan 30, 2015

cdamm said:
exactly. its a convention. like all of them it should be first come, first served. book it and go. I was prepared to travel across the country in a damned uhaul to do this show and i couldn't even get a timely response from them. This stuff takes time to book and prep for.

needless to say, being not good enough for them is enough reason to not even bother trying for next year.

You gonna do TMG this year again?

16-bit · Jan 30, 2015

cdamm said:
lol. not even for the fun of seeing you guys.

their jury process for "vetting" people is a joke. i know of 2 garbage dealers with an overpriced shitshow and no table appeal that were declared "ok" to go. they declared me unworthy after looking at my site the week after another convention (read: wiped out- pre restock). No call/ email/ fb message to see whats up. i get praise from all the showrunners i meet when they see what i bring and how i do it. Every other convention i have ever done was "pay for table and go". This one they have to declare you worthy.

not worth my time to dick around and wait for months for a response and then get a form e-mail telling me "better luck next year". It was an unprofessional experience to say the least.

Even funnier they nearly still charged me for my tickets even though i was rejected. I caught that email and had to get them pull it. because they were trying to get money from everyone on their lists- even those they rejected.

These vendors you are referring to...do they sell video games or other products?

Anyway, Magfest pulls a very wide demographic and it runs four days so it appeals to vendors all over the country. Screwattack's SGC had a similar vendor room profile when I attended two years ago with lots of anime, steampunk, prop weapon etc. vendors mixed in with a handful of video game sellers. The key is 3+ days. If MGC went to three days they would be inundated with non-gamesoft vendors wanting to sell at their convention. Portland Retro Gaming expo likely the same. Also, recall TMG had quite a few non-gamesoft vendors there this year. I bought some pretty rad dust covers there while "scooping"

I'm friends with at least 20 vendors in the Magfest room, and I've never heard of a single vendor who has exhibited at the show talk poorly of it. It is a very well run convention, and the explosion in their growth over the past few years is a testament to that.

16-bit · Jan 30, 2015

cdamm said:
exactly. its a convention. like all of them it should be first come, first served. book it and go. I was prepared to travel across the country in a damned uhaul to do this show and i couldn't even get a timely response from them. This stuff takes time to book and prep for.

needless to say, being not good enough for them is enough reason to not even bother trying for next year.

Some conventions do just that, but there is a flipside. I know of vendors who have been selling at a convention for over a decade and then not get in because they couldn't be online that exact moment the sales went up. In some cases the convention can make up a significant portion of a vendors income...imagine taking that hit after years of growing with the convention because the internet crashed of you couldn't be online at that exact moment.

Other conventions sellout before the convention even closes. A-kon in Texas has a waitlist hundreds of vendors long and almost every vendor signs up at the show for the same tables next year making it next to impossible to have new vendors at their show.

cdamm · Jan 30, 2015

16-bit said:
These vendors you are referring to...do they sell video games or other products?.

one was a video game guy (who ended up not going, but got his approval) the other was not.

16-bit said:
Some conventions do just that, but there is a flipside. I know of vendors who have been selling at a convention for over a decade and then not get in because they couldn't be online that exact moment the sales went up. In some cases the convention can make up a significant portion of a vendors income...imagine taking that hit after years of growing with the convention because the internet crashed of you couldn't be online at that exact moment.

Other conventions sellout before the convention even closes. A-kon in Texas has a waitlist hundreds of vendors long and almost every vendor signs up at the show for the same tables next year making it next to impossible to have new vendors at their show.

both of those examples are just part of the business though. Miss a signup? File it under 'shit happens'. I hate to make it sound so cold, but it is what it is.

all i was doing was reporting back on my particular experience. I cant speak of other peoples experiences there. I was told the application process was going to be one thing, and it ended up being something else entirely. The hardest part for me was trying to explain in a professional manner to a bunch of customers who requested that i go, was that i was passed on.

Zapperkhan · Jan 30, 2015

Sucks to hear about the political bs cdamm. Would have been fun to look around your stall. I kinda hated how it felt like over 50% of the vendors were for apparel and arts/crafts. Like 20% was random shit like leather working and steam punkifying nerf guns which had very few game inspired pieces. They had like 20% of the room empty too could've easily had another 6 vendors or so.

ArmoredGecko · Jan 30, 2015

If everyone who had a booth selling bead pixel art was selling video games, I'd have been a lot happier. The plethora of trinket and doodad selling booths at videogame conventions is ridiculous. That being said I still had a blast playing Ghouls n Ghosts on SuperGrafx, and other games.

cdamm · Jan 30, 2015

ArmoredGecko said:
If everyone who had a booth selling bead pixel art was selling video games, I'd have been a lot happier. The plethora of trinket and doodad selling booths at videogame conventions is ridiculous. That being said I still had a blast playing Ghouls n Ghosts on SuperGrafx, and other games.

thats one of my other issues here- when i was rejected they said "they dont want too much of one thing in the market" then i heard that actual video game dealers were the minority there.

16-bit · Jan 30, 2015

I believe the very first vendor at Magfest ever was Fizzman Industries who makes figures. When I started vending at Magfest 9 years ago, M4, there was only one other video game vendor and the rest were artists. At that time and for many years following, any video game vendor could have signed up to sell at the show, but it was mostly artists who signed up so that is how the show evolved. They add new vendors every year, and SavePoint, a video game store, vended for the first time this year at Magfest.

16-bit · Jan 30, 2015

cdamm said:
they declared me unworthy after looking at my site the week after another convention (read: wiped out- pre restock). No call/ email/ fb message to see whats up. i get praise from all the showrunners i meet when they see what i bring and how i do it. Every other convention i have ever done was "pay for table and go". This one they have to declare you worthy.

not worth my time to dick around and wait for months for a response and then get a form e-mail telling me "better luck next year". It was an unprofessional experience to say the least.

Even funnier they nearly still charged me for my tickets even though i was rejected. I caught that email and had to get them pull it. because they were trying to get money from everyone on their lists- even those they rejected.

Two points regarding the scenario you presented, "they declared me unworthy after looking at my site the week after another convention" and your issue with the time it took to respond to you:

1. They had over 300 vendor applications for Magfest 13.
2. The fest is a nonprofit that is mainly run by volunteers who have full-time jobs. I think there are only two paid positions on staff total.

majors · Jan 30, 2015

ArmoredGecko said:
... I still had a blast playing Ghouls n Ghosts on SuperGrafx, and other games.

Your welcome.

Def not enough video game vendors for me, too much etsy for my tastes. But I also have never seen a concert and can count the total panels I've been to on one hand for 6 plus years I've gone to MAGFest.

Magfest.

Alfred Garcia's Butler

Rosa's Tag-Team Partner

General Morden's Aide

Armored Scrum Object

General Morden's Aide

General Morden's Aide

Trust the French?

Mr. Tater

Trust the French?

The Almighty Bunghole

Trust the French?

Philadelphia Freeman,

Trust the French?

The Almighty Bunghole

Mr. Tater

Metal Slug Mechanic

Angel's Love Slave

Angel's Love Slave

Trust the French?

Kula's Candy

Quiz Detective

Trust the French?

Angel's Love Slave

Angel's Love Slave

Overtop Pathfinder