Sound the "Slow Death of the Fandom" alarms, we've received an email suggesting that BronyCon is no longer a Pony Convention, at least not in the conventional sense. This Email, forwarded to us by an ex-staff member on the condition of Anonymity, confirms that the largest pony convention is no longer pony-exclusive. They plan on becoming a "Geek Culture Convention" and this year may be diluted by Pokemon and gaming.
We've included the contents of the Email below.
What does this say for the state of the fandom? What does it mean for the future of conventions?
How will Bronycon be much different from other general pop-culture conventions that have pony events and guests?
How will Bronycon be much different from other general pop-culture conventions that have pony events and guests?
UPDATE: Confirmed by Bronycon
[Archive Link]
" Every year brings more gaming cosplays, more Steven Universe EPs, more Undertale art in the marketplace and more totally out there meme-ry."
Pony Meme confirmed for Ded
The email reads as follows:
"TL;DR: This year, BronyCon will include other properties, but My Little Pony’s still our main focus. It’s a brave new world for all of us!
This year, BronyCon is expanding in some exciting new directions. We want to get everyone on board as soon as possible so we can all get to work on taking these new elements and making them first-class parts of the awesomeness that is BronyCon. However, please remember that this is a sneak peek for BronyCon staff only, so don’t tell anyone outside of staff about this until we announce it to the world.
For the last few years we’ve watched our attendees bring interests outside of My Little Pony to BronyCon through their music, cosplay, panel submissions, and merchandise. In order to keep up with those growing interests, and to bring new fans into our community, the Convention Committee got together to brainstorm ideas for the future of the convention. Taking those ideas as inspiration, we created a new vision for BronyCon as "a geek culture convention celebrating media that transcends generation and brings people together."
So, what does this actually mean for BronyCon? Well, for starters, pony isn’t going anywhere — we can’t have BronyCon without ponies! But it does mean that we’ll be dipping our toes into new waters and seeing what things make good complements for My Little Pony. We built BronyCon around My Little Pony because it’s a show that unites people from of different walks of life, so whatever we choose to bring in needs to express those same values. For this year, we’ve decided to introduce Pokémon and have an expanded focus on tabletop and video games."
"so don’t tell anyone outside of staff about this until we announce it to the world."
OOOPS
Shit
Welp, it's also on /mlp/ now
OOOPS
Shit
Welp, it's also on /mlp/ now
Yeah, because ponies aren't the main reason people go to Bronycon. The con is clearly just an excuse to visit the beautiful city of Baltimore. :^)
ReplyDeleteOh my god, you have no idea how I can't wait to get harassed by beggars in the streets again.
DeletePretty much my reason. The con is nice but I had a hell of a great time at the aquarium and Ripley's.
DeleteBaltimore's a shithole bro. Go 4 blocks from the inner harbor and you take your life in your hands.
Delete@00:33 True, I heard downtown is the worst. Though Harbor has it's issues too. Noctis is right about people asking for money. That and last year the BLM protests.
DeleteSounds about right. With furry invading at every corner, and then the surge of Undertale, expanding the field of interest is probably a good idea.
ReplyDelete"so don’t tell anyone outside of staff about this until we announce it to the world."
ReplyDeleteHorse News and reading comprehension everypony...
Horse News aren't the ones being instructed of that
Deletethe leaker was
How dare you bring facts in this argument
DeleteThat's what you get for voting for a racist
ReplyDeleteNot gonna lie, former Bronycon attendee here. This is disgusting watching the Bronycon staff betray the Brony community. But in all seriousness, we need more real horses at this convention.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I think a lot of Bronycon's problems stem from a disconnect from the community itself. Half (if not more) of BC staff don't even know whats going on in the fandom. They book the same guests, the same musicians, the same panels, every. fucking. year. People stop going because it's always the same shit. And, imho, this is why people think, "oh the fandom is dying". It's not there is still amazing art, amazing video games, amazing music, just none of the big events or names promote it well.
ReplyDeleteThey can focus on games, anime, whatever all they want but most gaming, anime, and pop culture cons are either openly, explicitly, anti-brony, or they keep it on the dl and don't want it there because their attendees don't like it. Naka-Kon is pretty open about not allowing pony merch or artwork in their vendor hall. What in the hell makes BC think that bringing in Pokemon guests will get Pokemon/Anime fans to attend a "Brony" convention when most of them despise bronies? Again it just shows how disconnected the BC staff are from the fandom at large.
I'd love to see BC go down in flames tbh. NMND, EFNW, PonyExpo, and seem to be up and coming and pushing new content geared toward bronies.
Aside from last year (which was unfortunately forced into 4th of July weekend) BC has experienced growth every year. This year will be tough because Otakon is the same weekend, but I anticipate our numbers will still be better than last year.
DeleteThat's also because at least the staff who I've interacted with (a few I believe were at the top of their respective chains, I don't remember) kind of had that same vibe the fandom has had. Instead of building things for the community it was built for their own resume.
DeleteFrom the blogpost:
Delete>This year, BronyCon is going to invite a little bit of non-pony under our roof. Think along the lines of a beefed up gaming area and some new, additional programming. To reiterate, pony is still priority number one.
>Little bit
There you go, nothing's going to be changing. They just might invite a couple of guests like an Undertale writer, or something along those lines.
See, these people - and adult pokefags, etc. - are generally kinda ponyfags at the very least... So nothing's really going to change.
You're a faggot Capper
ReplyDeleteThis
Delete>calling Capper a Faggot
Delete>on a likiweaks post
k
As someone who use to be on staff and still has contacts with plenty of staff. It has never been called "Convention Committee" it's always been called the "Board of Directors". So take that for what you will. To me this sounds like a fake email.
ReplyDeleteBoard of Directors is the Lunar Solis Corp board, also knwon as the Board of Trustees. Convention Committee, or ConCom, is correct. It used to be called Council. Let's get the popcorn. I think this is real.
DeleteThis's quite real, actually. Current staff here on Con Ops, and I received this email myself.
DeleteAnother current staffer here. I can unfortunately confirm that this is real. My heart sinks every time I read it.
DeleteFormer department head for BC here. We were discussing changing focus from ponies to general nerd shit in closed meetings as soon as we moved to Baltimore. This move is only a surprise to the general public.
DeleteSo basicly doing, what Canterlot Gardnes did in 2012. Just invite whatever the con organizers like. I wouldn't mind another Bender/Trixie crossover.
ReplyDeleteThere's still a difference, Canterlot Gardens was backed up by a rich guy,the con never had monetary problems, of course after their first successful con, their "own" "Purple Tinker" wanted to take control of the con, so the con's founder and most of the staff abandoned ship (rich guy included). Without support "Purple Tinker 2.0" tried to raise funds and failed and that's how Canterlot Gardens disappeared.
DeleteI can't think of who the real convention chair is of that convention. I've dealt with the guy who claims to be it on a pony project for about six months...And I don't have anything pleasant to say about that.
DeleteThe founder of Canterlot Gardens is a guy who goes by the pseudonym "Klisk Midori"
Deletehttps://i.ytimg.com/vi/g_N3Q2kKt1U/maxresdefault.jpg
https://www.linkedin.com/in/klisk
Ah, alright. The guy who I know must be the Purple Tinker 2.0 then. It would explain a great many things. Thanks for clarifying it.
DeleteI went to BronyCon in 2014 and met up with my fellow ponies from Bronies Boston! I haven't been there since, but it was memorable. I look back at those time like Shiroe looks back as his Debauchary Tea Party in the anime "Log Horizon". However, in that show there is a good correllation here. That guild fell apart eventually, and so did Bronies Boston over time. The same thing is happening to BronyCon, but I agree that a lot of new cons and groups are replacing the Old Guard. I want to try a lot more places, cons, and meet a lot more ponies(Pegasisters, I'm single!) Galacon being my first stop in that regard because I've always wanted to visit Germany in a greater capacity than an airport layover on the way to war. The times they are a changing!
ReplyDeleteAs another current staffer, I can add: Pony is still the focus, and nobody is trying to dilute the convention. Over the last couple years, we've seen more and more people cosplaying stuff outside of pony, (Steven Universe is a big example) video games have always been popular, and if you tour the vendor hall and artists alley, most booths are not exclusively pony.
ReplyDeleteThe idea to include more into the convention isn't to "phase out" anything, but to better reflect the interests of our attendees.
TL;DR Monetary problems.
Deleteactually, no. not monetary problems. Fiscally, the conventions is more than excellent.
DeleteMore like Bronycon cannot survive from pony alone.
DeleteBronies cannot live on Pony alone.
DeleteThe business paradigm here is "diversify or die" .
Delete"if you tour the vendor hall and artists alley, most booths are not exclusively pony."
DeleteALL pony cons are like this. I'm a vendor and I don't sell exclusively pony. You don't see other cons looking at artists selling more than pony and going "well shit, we should generalize our con!" That's ridiculous.
Ah, well if we're talking about vendors here then I can add something as a vendor. The reason most vendors bring non-pony merch with them is because they're already stocked up for other non-pony cons happening later that year. If they only brought pony merch with them, most of them wouldn't be able to fill in the entirety of their table. So they cross their fingers and hope that what's relevant to them/their other customer bases is relevant to their brony base as well.
DeleteAnd to be honest, unless you're selling from really popular main stream properties (Pokemon, Undertale, Overwatch, One Punch Man) it's usually going to be a slow sell. Some might even call it a bonus to their sales instead of a percentage. Most indie games and niche anime series rarely get noticed even by attendees at geek cons. Compared to pony cons, general nerd cons can be quite a gamble in terms of picking properties. With ponies you just have to pick characters.
Brony Fan Fair did a similar attempt back in its...Second year? VIP+ members got a goodie bag that had I think an anime game in addition to the regular pony goods. I personally liked it but I've understood that theoretically though it is possible to get people who aren't a big pony fan into a convention and create issues with the existing demographic.
DeleteI went to BronyCon 2014. I've felt that there's only so much merchandise until vendors are competing with one another.
more like the attendees have already expressed interests in things other than pony, so why exclude it
ReplyDeleteSo first the fandom music grows a ponyphobia where if someone guesses it's related to MLP, you lose and must end your career, then the convention attendees stop dressing as MLP characters and play DDR and Smash in the gaming rooms for most of the weekend, now the conventions are preparing for when the show ends so they can keep milking their events forever.
ReplyDeleteI hate to sound the "fandom is dying" alarm, but it sure seems like it's stockpiling cans of soup and spending its nights in a concrete box in the ground.
"The fandom is dying?" Seriously? I've been hearing that crap since 2011, when there wasn't even really a fandom yet, just a bunch of /b/ros and other assorted chan-ers. It's not dying, it's just dying for you. Let the newfags have their new fandom. Nobody wants horse power anyway.
ReplyDeleteAlso, could you imagine if something non-pony were to be an integral part of the brony fandom? It would be absolutely ridiculous *cough, cough* Fallout Equestria *cough*
It was stillborn since 2011.
DeleteI plan to go to two non-pony cons this year, and i'll probably go to them again next year if BronyCon screws up the Con this year. I've been at BronyCon since 2014.
ReplyDeleteso, the lost herd finally accepts their place in the grander furry hive in order to exist.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the biggest problem with these conventions is that they're essentially built to strip the fandom of resources rather than maintain what we have. A lot of bronies tend to save up for that one big thing (i.e. BronyCon) and once they're done they simply go back and enjoy the fandom from the internet. The only conventions I've been to where I don't feel this way tend to be conventions that are smaller and not really connected to the larger conventions.
ReplyDeleteThe second biggest problem is that I feel like there's only so much content that can be done in any given weekend and it's really hard to binge on a pony-only convention. I lost interest in going back to BronyCon (outside of the miscellaneous reasons) simply because it is way too big for what it is built to do. Comicpalooza may have over 2,000 hours of programming over a four day weekend but I've been able to pick what I want within interest and still have time here and there to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. If I remember correctly panels were scheduled to where I would have to compromise in many time slots while others I had no interest in. This may or may not be because I was interested in one genre and everything for that was at the same time. Why pay for something now that a person may not get to in a few years.
I think the last big reason is most of these pony conventions tend to try to get tourism rather than support the local community. Travel is expensive. I don't mind staying in a hotel but driving from Texas costs more than a plane ticket if I wasn't splitting the cost between four other bronies. Trying to get the same people to visit the same convention that isn't local is just draining.
tl;dr BronyCon was hurting the fandom since its inception.
I would say the last point is pretty valid. BronyCon, in the BroNYCon days, tried very hard to dissuade tourism. They wanted it to be a New York Bronies meetup and intentionally kept the attendance small. People were still grabbing tickets to their events from far away lands, though, and taking spots that were meant for the local community. So they finally caved and moved to a larger venue in 2012, the documentary got interested, and since they were still the only convention geared only for bronies, it just absolutely exploded into the tourist trap con. When you look at the BCC, it probably is one of the best convention centers in terms of accessibility. Two hotels connected by skybridge, light rail stop that leads directly to it from the airport, AmTrack stations in Baltimore itself ... I've been to conventions across West and East coast, and I still find the BCC to be the easiest downtown convention center to access as a traveler myself.
DeleteThis all being said, maybe the introduction of newer properties is them trying to appeal a little more to the local community this year?
I kind of feel that the technological aspects of preventing tickets from going out too far wasn't utilized well enough. Though at the same time I wasn't there and it being half a decade ago I'm sure a lot of people probably don't remember. Accessibility wise I agree that getting there was fairly easy (except unless you commute like I did, parking is a pain). The convention center itself sucks in terms of getting around. I'm used to the George R. Brown Convention Center here in Houston as well as the Anaheim Convention Center in which they were both symmetrical and very open.
DeleteI think your last sentence actually ties into more of my first point than anything. If a lot of bronies are no longer interested, no longer bronies, or just want something other than BronyCon then they're not going to go. The convention has to get so many attendees to make itself viable, especially with said convention center.
purple tranny
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Thank you for providing this useful information
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