No Machinima Booth at Blizzcon 08 Options

[Drewbie]

Recently I've been communicating with whomever it is that responds to the machinima@blizzard.com e-mail address about the machinima booth they had at last year's Blizzcon. I was dismayed to learn that they were not going to have a booth this year and instead were just planning to have a discussion panel with the DVD/Video team. Now, I'm not against that, but the rationale that having a discussion panel is better than providing the intimate setting of the booth is somehow better is just misguided.

I'll repost my e-mails for any interested people to see:

I was curious if there was going to be a machinima booth at Blizzcon
this year? I really enjoyed the booth last year and the opportunity
it provided to meet and network with others that share my hobby and
interest. It seemed like there was a constant flow of people to the
booth to meet with the artists and see some clips of their work. I
certainly hope that some floor space at the convention is devoted to
this art form and that perhaps people would be able to view not only
the winners on the big screen Friday night, but also some of the
entries into the contest over the course of the weekend and then
replays of the winners the following day over at the booth.

Please let me know if this is in the plans and if not, who I should
contact to try to convince them to include it in the plans.

Thank you,
Drew Syring

Greetings Drew,

Thank you taking the time to write and for your interest in Machinima!
There will not be a Machinima Booth this year, however, there will be a
DVD/Video Production panel where machinimators will be welcome to ask
questions. Please let us know if you have any more questions and we look
forward to seeing you at Blizzcon!

That is horribly, horribly unfortunate. I have no interest in talking
to the DVD/Video production panel and I fear that not many other will
either. There is a thriving community of machinima enthusiasts with
several websites, forums, IRC channels, etc. devoted to the art of
machinima and how to do it better. Having the team available during a
booth session for one on one time was great and it was nice to see the
folks doing this for a living working with Blizzard, but meeting the
rest of the artists that make the films I love was far more important
to me. Blizzard as an organization doesn't output a very high volume
of machinima so I fail to see why an entire panel would be devoted to
that.

This is just another slap int he face of the US warcraft machinima
community. The European machinimators often are profiled on the main
page and many machinima works are showcased on the site. Here we get
weekly updates on fan art and comics, while the extent of machinima
coverage is a list of the entries from last year's Blizzcon contest.
The two things we had going for us as a group were that the winning
movies were played on a big screen, in full, to an audience of our
peers, and that there was a small space at the convention to gather
and meet other artist to share tips, trade contact information, and in
many cases, plan collaborations for the future.

If there is any way to bring back the booth for this year's
convention, I urge you strongly to pursue it. It is honestly one of
the only reasons I had planned to come to the convention at all and
hearing after I purchased my ticket that it wouldn't exist is enough
to make me reconsider spending any more money on airfare and hotels.

Hello Again Drew,


We very much appreciate the support of machinima as an art form, and
please don't misunderstand the negation of a booth to be a retraction of
emphasis on machinima as a valid, pursued and celebrated art form. We do
hope that you attend in the hopes that other machinimators will join you
and provide a central hub for those who are interested in meeting their
peers.

This is certainly not meant to be a slap in the face, merely a way to
set up an actual discussion between machinimators and employees
currently working for Blizzard entertainment. We highly encourage you to
set up meetings between current machinimators and we hope that this does
not discourage artists from being proactive about networking and sharing
their love of machinima.

Your concerns will gladly be passed on, and we sincerely hope that
you still plan on attending Blizzcon.

Wish I knew who I was speaking to so I could return the courtesy of a greeting.

I guess I just don't follow how having them on a main stage rather than in a more personal setting like the booth is seen as "better" to whomever made that decision. Again, just making my feelings known.

I can tell you that the "central hub" most machinima artists I've talked to plan to use will be the bar across the street rather than the actual convention as more than a few prominent ones weren't able to get tickets and apparently won't be getting any from Blizzard with the booth going away.

Perhaps the panel could open up to more than just the DVD/Video team and some of the prolific producers could be included? Just a thought.

I encourage anyone that would like to see a return of the booth to email machinima@blizzard.com and voice your concerns. Regardless, I will be attending and look forward to seeing many of you there.