2009/Sept - GAMERS Newspaper by Le Nurd Mystique, LLC

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We talked to GAMA Executive Director John Ward recently to ask him about the organization's shows, its finances, and its future. How long have you been Executive Director? When did you take your new position? I actually started full time in February of this year, so it’s been a little over six months. How would you evaluate your experience in those six months? I’ve been using the metaphor it’s like drinking out of a fire hose. I had about sixty days before the GAMA Trade Show and then sixty days after that before the Origins show. That first six months has been a definite learning curve. Let’s talk about the shows because I think

that’s the experience most people have with GAMA. Starting with GTS, which was down in attendance this year, what are your thoughts about next year’s show and what are you going to do to reverse that trend? I was pretty excited that our numbers didn’t drop further than they actually did. I looked at some of the other trade shows, and they’re seeing about 20, 25% and we hit about 17% [decline]. It was better than what we had anticipated; I looked that as some good news. Also this coming year we’ve had a lot of increased interest from some of our sponsors and participants in what we’re doing at the

shows. I’m looking forward to going into GTS this year with a full year of planning under my belt to actually start improving what we’re doing for our program. You said there was increased interest from sponsors or exhibitors. What do you attribute that to? I think we’ve been open to a lot of change and ideas. I think any time there’s a change in any organization, that provides an opportunity, and I just think that’s what people are looking for. Ideas in the past that we may have thought about and the staff has discussed, or maybe chosen a different course of action, now that we’ve got new people in place and it’s a little bit of a different team, we’ve got an opportunity to

revisit some of those things. And you’ve got dates at Bally’s next year for the GTS? We’re still at Bally’s next year. We’re still negotiating with dates because I’m trying to see if we can move off the Easter weekend. One of the things that’s helping us right now is that a lot of conferences cancelled in Vegas this year, so they’re very appreciative of the fact that we actually came and we went through with our show. That should hopefully give us some benefit and I continue to remind them about that. Let’s talk about Origins. What was your evaluation of how Origins went this year? I think the show went pretty well. I talked to most of our exhibitors. The hall was very vibrant this year. We did very well in sponsorships, much more so than we did last year. Attendance was (Continued on page 4)

Archie Comics Publications has signed on with CAA (Creative Artists Agency), the Tinseltown uber-agency that reps Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, LeBron James, George Clooney, Will Smith, Will Ferrell, and Peyton

Manning. CAA will attempt to create the kind of entertainment opportunities for Archie that it has established for toymakers Mattel and Hasbro. CAA helped Mattel set up its Major

Matt Mason property as a starring vehicle for Tom Hanks, while Hasbro has a number of its properties including Clue, Stretch Armstrong, and Battleship in development. Archie Comics controls a number of widely known comic book properties including the flagship Archie family of comics, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Josie and the Pussycats,

Celebrating Over 1 Year in Publication

Super Duck and Cosmo the Merry Martian among others. Variety notes that the Archie/CAA deal comes “as Hollywood is quickly gobbling up established branded properties as evidenced by Disney’s pending acquisition of Marvel Entertainment and Warner Bros. recent exec overhaul of DC Comics.”

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The Secret Language of Wookies : An Interview with Peter Mayhew Ben Chronister OGO Publications Writer

At Origins there was this random booth set up in the back of the vendors’ hall. It was quiet and out of the way. There was no pre-designed fanfare, no publicity anywhere around the convention, no mention of it in the Origins registration book. It was a small booth, unassuming, with only a table, a few chairs and a small curtained area for the booth’s owner to take breaks in. My first day at the convention I walked by, saw that some of the pictures were star wars related and assumed that the booth belonged to an artist or photographer. It wasn’t until later that same day, as I walked past the booth on my way somewhere else, that I noticed the incredibly tall gentleman behind the table. His very tall frame hulking over the table he was sitting behind, shaking hands with a fan that, though he was sitting down, he

was nearly eye to eye with. I was certain my eyes had deceived me though. Surely, Chewbacca couldn’t have shown up at this convention without my knowing it! As anyone who knows me personally can tell you, I am often wrong (ed. That's an understatement!). Not merely wrong in the sense of incorrect Trivial Pursuit answers, but wrong in the way that if the concept of wrong were to take physical form, (the periodic element of Wrongium [Wr], for example) My body would set off nucle ar wrongium detectors three states over. Yes, Peter Mayhew was at Origins this year. Not only was he there, but he was kind enough to allow me to interview him. For those of you who are unaware, Peter Mayhew is the actor who portrayed Chewbacca in the Star Wars movies. Another gentleman or two may have attempted the task, George Lucas may well have

wanted to turn Chewie into some CG freak of nature, but in the end the only man for the job is Peter Mayhew. Peter Mayhew is tall. I am not a short individual. There are not many people I ever interact with whom I must physically look up to. Mr. Mayhew is one of them. More impressive, however, than his height are his hands. I shook his hand several times over the course of the convention and he... Well, you know when your a kid and your dad or your uncle tries to teach you to shake hands but Uncle Joe's hand is like five times larger than yours? Yeah, it was like that. Between Mr. Mayhew’s height, wild mane of hair and his sweeping, graceful gestures, it’s easy to see how much of himself is in the character of Chewbacca. GAMERS: I’ve always felt the character of Chewbacca added a touch of class to the scenes he was in. Most notably, for me, is the scene in which he

simply kicks back, puts his hands behind his head and smiles at the camera. How did you decide to make him move? Was it a conscious decision or did it simply evolve over time? Peter Mayhew: I was always taught that large animals, or large people have to be more controlled than small people, and I was raised that way, therefore it came as second nature. Someone that big, they’re usually powerful, they know how to use their strength and they usually don’t have to. Their attitude is so different. GAMERS: What is your favorite thing about having achieved such a level of celebrity? Peter Mayhew: Well, it didn’t happen at first; there wasn’t so much craziness. When it first was a success, the others took the brunt of all the advertising. It wasn’t until after Empire [Strikes Back] that the press started taking notice of the guys in the masks. It’s a natural progression, really. It was

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Interview with GAMA Executive Director John Ward (cont) (Continued from page 1)

down a little bit, about 18%, but our day fare passes were up. What was really exciting for me this year was working with our Columbus partners, the hotels, and the sponsorship opportunities that they’re providing us. It really gives me a much better picture. Now we can enhance the show for next year. You said the show floor was vibrant. What does that mean? Most of the exhibitors that I spoke to said they did well at Origins this year. Financially they did well. The people that came in seemed to be very interested. We saw a lot of younger people come into the show this year. That’s new customers and new gamers and that’s what we’re really looking for. Where do you think that the decline in attendance there came from? Was it people who were traveling, was it local, where were the losses? I think it’s probably a combination of things. Our day passes went up by about 15, almost 16%. I think a lot of people who probably couldn’t afford to come to the show in the past just came in for the day instead of buying the four day show pass and paying for hotel expenses. So had we not had the day pass program that we started last year we probably would have lost those attendees. I think the economy’s just hitting everybody this year. What are you looking forward to next year at Origins in terms of any changes that you’re going 4

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to make or plans that you’ve already started? I’m very excited about what we’re doing with our open gaming space. That’s been a long tradition at Origins so people can sit down and just play pick-up games. We’re tying that into what we do with the Origins Awards and that will bring a little bit more into that open gaming hall and allow people to see the demos of new games. With the awards people are going to get an opportunity to see the best and the brightest we have in the industry, and that area is also open to the day pass people. Those folks who are not coming in to play games traditionally but are just coming in to see the art show and visit the exhibit hall will have an opportunity to see some of the best and brightest games we have released that year. People from the outside look at GAMA and see the two shows, which are two of your primary revenue drivers, decline and they’re concerned about GAMA’s financial health. What do you say to those people? The paradigm shift which we’re experiencing right now is just what you mentioned. We’ve been viewed as an organization that runs two shows and not necessarily as a professional trade association, and that’s really what the Board wants us to move toward. We’ve got a lot of really pressing issues to face as an organization right now. We’ve got changes in technology that we’re dealing with, we have changes in federal legislation and regulation and we need to get ahead of that. We’ve started to put some of that on our Website now, what’s been going on with the CPSIA, so we can continue to start to

move forward with that as a trade association. I’m pretty comfortable when we look at the actual core business models that those shows will be generating profits for us to support the organization. But that’s really not what we should be about. You talked about the paradigm shift but I’m not sure that I heard the answer to the question which was, with declining revenues how can GAMA survive? I’m not sure it’s all declining revenues. Reductions in attendance doesn’t necessarily mean reductions in revenue, or how we spend our money. We’ve got opportunities all sorts of places to look at what we’re doing with revenue streams. One of the things that’s been really good about the Origins show this year is (we had some time to prepare) we actually had a better bottom line this year than we did last year. We had a chance to look at some of our operational costs and work with our community partners and we actually had a better profit margin this year than we did last year. With the credit card revenues that we drive by bringing those credit card partnerships to our members, that’s a program that’s revenue positive for us. Membership drives in general are revenue positive for us. We’ve been increasing our membership at GAMA. Although they’ve traditionally relied on those two big shots in the arm every year, that’s not necessarily how we should be structured financially to maintain the organization as viable.

So you’re really looking at diversifying the revenue sources? Absolutely. And streamlining like everyone else is under operating costs. I don’t know a business right now that’s not looking at, “Now here’s our current operating budget. What do we really need to do, where can we cut costs, what things are going to be invisible and what things are our core functionality?” At GAMA I believe the staff is smaller than it was a year, two years ago. How can GAMA expand the level of services it provides to its members with a smaller staff? I think what they’ve done in the past, and again I’m speaking tongue in cheek, there’s been a lot of people that have been wearing a multitude of hats. One of the things I’ve done is bring on some part-time people. Obviously that’s not as expensive as maintaining full time staff. And we’ve got an incredible volunteer network. Our volunteers have asked to do certain tasks and step up and do some roles and we’ve taught them to do some of those things. They’ve been extremely helpful for us. I can’t say enough good things about our volunteer organization. Any final thoughts on your first six months at GAMA? It’s just been very, very good in my first six months. I just want to make sure the industry knows just how welcoming it’s been. It’s been a very easy transition for me, tons of support while I’ve had a whole bunch going on at the same time. I go back to that fire hose metaphor, but I really appreciate all the support of the industry right now. It’s been super.

Garanos – A Gothic Fantasy Webcomic Ben Chronister OGO Publications Writer

Webcomics each have their own unique story of how they came to be; how the characters were first created, the people who worked on the project along the way, how the artwork style was designed, and the final style of the panels. I personally read a number of different webcomics whose artists not only use different programs in which they do their artwork but use very different styles in their storytelling. As per the usual, a friend of mine recommended a new webcomic to me that I had never heard of called “Garanos”. The picture of the main character on the Facebook fan page looked interesting, and I endeavored to ex-

plore what it was all about. Though it was a short read at about 380 pages, this multipaneled comic has a compelling story with dynamic characters that leave the reader questioning what their true motives are. Artist Alex Heberling says in the About section of the website that the main character, Garanos, was created in the summer of 2003 as part of a group story project. Though the other people involved moved on to different things, she kept the character in her mind and doodled throughout high school. She wrote a short story in the Gothic style while in her senior composition class, and continued to write a 37 page backstory for the character. Alex attended a panel by Dave Merrill at Ohayocon about self -publishing your own comics,

and that was what began the webcomic. Though merely sketches at the time, she had another webcomic called “Jigworthy” that stopped her from doing more pages for a while. “Garanos” officially launched in June of 2006, and she hopes to finish the story in late 2009 or early 2010. The style of coloring is very interesting too, as it is completely lineless. All the webcomics that I have read use lined coloring, but the lineless style creates a very unique picture on each page. She updates the comic 3 times a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Alex also created a facebook page of which you can become a fan, and posts on it constantly. She writes a quick note to let the fans know that she goes onto Livestream to do her artwork

so that people can see the pages come to life. The story, simply as to not ruin plot for future readers, is about a woman on a journey to find her kidnapped fiancé. Characters join the story along the way with conversations, action, and touching moments. One key thing that separates Garanos from the people surrounding her is the symbol on her forehead which is a tradition of her people. I highly enjoyed this webcomic, and keep up with it as it updates. I cannot wait to see the conclusion of Garanos’ journey and the fates of the people around her. “Garanos” can be found at www.garanos.com. Hope you read and enjoy!

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Hollywood studios put a great deal of effort into scheduling their blockbusters, and the pecking order of potential blockbusters is becoming even more of a factor as competition heats up for the choice Imax and 3D venues where premium ticket prices can drive a film’s gross into the stratosphere. This is where having a stellar track record really helps a sequel. Case in point Sony’s Spider-Man 4, which will debut in IMAX theaters on the same day that it rolls out in conventional venues in May of 2011. Sometimes even proven performance is not enough. When Warner Bros. moved Harry Potter and the Half-Blood

Prince from December of 2008 to the summer of 2009, the studio was unable to secure any Imax venues until Transf ormers: Revenge of the Fallen had completed its run on the oversize screens. Competition for the IMAX venues and for 3D-enabled screens is intense during the summer movie season, and it’s forcing the studios to spread their dimensionally-enhanced blockbusters throughout the year in order to secure enough of the prime venues. While it’s a

good bet that more and more screens will become 3Denabled, there is still a shortage properly equipped theaters that is likely to be with us for at least a couple more years. This shortfall will be especially evident when a number of 3D films debut in close proximity. As for the giant screen Imax venues, they will remain a limited resource for the foreseeable future with just 273 theaters worldwide at present. According to Variety Disney has announced that its 3D film Tron Legacy will be released in

3D on December 17th, 2010 at both Imax and traditional theaters using Disney Digital 3D. The Mouse House has inked a 5-picture agreement with IMAX and has decided that Tron Legacy is Imaxworthy, even though the original 1982 Tron film, while groundbreaking in many respects, only brought in a mediocre $33 million at the box office. Disney is hoping that the prospect of a new Tron film produced in 3D will be enough to propel the pioneering property that melded movies and video games to success at last. It should be interesting to see if there are enough 3D-capable screens by December 2010 that films will be able to be released exclusively (or nearly exclusively) in the extradimensional format.

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