UPDATESWow, I didn't realize that there were so many other conventions coming up! I guess it is that time of the year! Here's a list of some others at which anyone who is going can help us out as well:
October 11, 12, 13, 14:
New York Comic Con (New York City, New York)
October 13, 14:
Alternative Press Expo (San Francisco, California)
October 19, 20, 21:
Dallas Comic Con Fan Days (Dallas, Texas)
October 26, 27, 28:
Wizard World Comic Con (Austin, Texas)
October 26, 27, 28:
Hal-Con (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
November 1, 2, 3, 4:
Youmacon 2012 (Detroit, Michigan)
November 3, 4:
Long Beach Comic & Horror Con (Long Beach, California)
November 18:
So Cal Comic Con (Oceanside, California)
ORIGINAL POSTHey all, the timing of NCsoft's announcement totally sucked, being the exact weekend of two major regional gatherings (PAX and Dragon*Con) of the City of Heroes demographic and not giving us time to plan something like this. However, we have another chance to reach out to the gaming and especially the comic fan community with the
New York Comic Con coming up weekend after next (October 11-14). Here are a few ideas about what I'd like to do.
FlyersOne of the best way to get the word out is to hand out flyers in locations around the venue. Print out a bunch, take them with you, and give them to passers-by headed into the convention. The people who run the con might not allow you to do so inside Javits Center, but you should be okay on sidewalks outside the venue. I'll try to get in touch with the event organizers this week and nail down more information regarding any limitations on where you can do this.
Please keep in mind that I'm not asking you to spend the whole convention handing out flyers; I know that there are people and events you want to take part in. Having been to several of these conventions before, though, there is sometimes a lot of "dead time" that you spend in between speakers and getting autographs, time that you probably kill in the dealer room and whatnot. If you can spend an hour or two over the course of the day handing out flyers, that would be
immensely helpful.
There are a few flyers
posted in this thread, and I'll post more here as I get them. Ideally, your flyers will be visually grabbing, have a link to
http://www.savecoh.com/, and have a
brief explanation of our plight. Remember, most people will probably glance at it just long enough to throw it in the trash, so keep it simple.
Speaking of which, please don't be offended if people take the flyer and throw it away or refuse to take it to begin with. Don't take it personally, and for the love of whatever deity you hold sacred,
please don't get into an argument or fight with anyone. Remember that you're representing our community!
Oh, and if you have a City of Heroes t-shirt from any of the Hero-Cons, meet-and-greets, or Player Summits, wear it! (Unless you're going in costume, in which case we
really need you to hand out flyers!)
Working with DealersFor those of you unfamiliar with these conventions, they always have a really large display floor where dealers in various types of merchandise peddle their stuff.
If you know any dealers that are attending, please contact them beforehand, tell them who we are and what we're doing, and ask if they'll put some flyers on their table(s). You can tell them that if they will, I'll be sure to plug them here on our forums in a special thread dedicated to vendors who help us, where a lot of NYCC visitors will undoubtedly see it.
If you don't, take a bunch of flyers with you, talk to some of the vendors (especially ones selling comics), and ask as you're walking around if they'd be willing to put some flyers on their table.
If you see Save City of Heroes flyers on a vendor's table
please be sure to stop and tell them thanks for helping us! If you have a few spare bucks in your pocket, think about buying something from them to reinforce the thought that helping us was a great idea!
Talking to PersonalitiesThere are going to be a bunch of notable personalities there from the comic and entertainment world. If you see an opportunity to mention City of Heroes and our situation, please take the opportunity to do so. But one caveat:
Please be respectful! If you stand up in the middle of a session and start yelling, "Save City of Heroes!!!" I will personally come smack you in the head. If you have a few minutes with one of these personalities, though, and can get (for example) a picture of one of them holding a flyer or something, that's golden. Even if you just mention us at an autograph session so that if they see a tweet or something they might retweet it, that would be great.
Take some flyers with you to these sessions also. There is time before and after, and especially if you're waiting in autograph lines, to talk to other fans and give them flyers. Shoot, for that matter, if you don't already have something you want the person to autograph, get them to autograph a Save City of Heroes flyer!
As a side note, Sean Astin is attending. If you talk to him and/or get his autograph,
please tell him that it really meant a lot to us that he retweeted the Save City of Heroes tweet. I'm a big fan of his ever since I saw Goonies back in the 80s, so that was kind of a BFD to me. Also, if someone gets an autograph from Peter "Fifth Doctor" Davison for me, you will be my best friend forever, I'm just sayin'...
Taking PicturesThis is probably the most important part of this Call to Action.
GET PICTURES. Specifically, these are pictures that we can really use:
- Pictures of you handing out flyers. This would go in press releases to show how dedicated our fans are.
- Pictures of vendors who put our flyers on their tables. I really want to plug the hell out of anyone who does this, so please be sure to snap a photo of any vendors' tables you see with our flyers.
- Notable personalities doing anything City of Heroes-related. Again, please don't be annoying, but if you get them to, for example, hold up a Save City of Heroes flyer or autograph a flyer, take a picture of it! If you actually get them to autograph a Save City of Heroes flyer, be sure to take a picture of the flyer ASAP in case you lose it or it gets mangled. As a side note, please don't get offended or take it personally if a notable personality refuses. Some of them have contracts and whatnot that prevent them from being associated with stuff like this, so don't press the issue if they don't want to participate.
- If you can get video of something City of Heroes-related (such as any of the above), we can probably use that, too. Just please be respectful; you're representing us and I don't want everyone to think you're one of "those people."
Anything you get, feel free to e-mail me at
tonyv@cohtitan.com and I'll try to use it in a press release or, at the very least, get it posted somewhere for everyone to know what we're up to.
