summer of sonic USA

[Roareye Black]

Whilst I'm sure you don't mean to, you're inevitably implying that the yanks here are too stupid or lazy to organise such an event, or even consider doing it, by claiming that it has fuck all to do with location.

I agree that if there were individuals of high profile and who were willing to set about organising such an event, it would help. But even organising SMALL events in the US would be a nightmare and like it has been pointed out, such small events are required to grow the confidence that a massive one would work. A massive, well established event is going to attract people from furhter away, but that does not change the fact that most of the individuals at SOS live close by.

You seriously have no idea. And whilst I'm only hypothesising some of the reasons why such gatherings in the US don't seem to work (which like I have pointed out, are not restricted to the Sonic fandom), the fact of the matter is - they don't work as easilly as they do here, they just don't.

I'm not suggesting either, if anything it is a bit of laziness. But moreover it is fear of doing something outside of their comfort zone. All it takes is for someone to have the bottle to go "I'm having a Sonic meetup in New York at this time and this location for all Sonic fans who can attend. I have x, x and x coming along so there will be a small group. The more the merrier" and see what happens. Most of the Sonic fans are people who tend not to go out a huge amount and are more comfortable to sit at a computer, but if you actually stick a viable meetup under their nose they'll go to it. You just need someone to spearhead it. So it IS either laziness or fear of responsibility. The UK started with just 3 people, now we have SoS. America can surely manage a first meetup of 3 or more people? If they can't then it proves the fanbase just isn't as strong there.

[Dreadknux]

Erm, okay. I'll just avoid whatever's going on in here, lol.

As AAUK said, there might be ways to work something out when it comes to an SoS in the States. Like, an 'official' SoS, if that's what we're talking about here. It's going to take a lot of planning, but the whispering in the wind is that Sega America are interested in the idea; they've kept a close eye on how things have happened in the UK, so who knows? That's not putting anything in stone or confirming anything, before you start - just a view of the landscape, courtesy of me and AAUK.

I appreciate that the US is like, ten times the size of the entirety of the UK or something, so having Americans to meet up can be quite the troublesome issue. Consider that it's not a simple case of picking the first guy who happens to be a Sonic fan that lives closest to you - I consider T-Bird to be one of my closest chums alongside AAUK, and T lives a good six hour drive away. It's not easy to find people you get along with, who live close by. In the US, the distance problem can be as bad as opposite ends of that huge country. Simply hopping on a plane for a four hour meetup from one coast to another isn't very economical (or cost-effective), so I can see why meetups have so far gotten sour too. It is something of an issue.

Doesn't mean to say that nothing can be done. I'm sure if you did something like a tri-state meetup - have a low-key gathering with fellow fans who live in the next state along or something - you can start to build some great friendships. As others have stated, SoS couldn't have been done if none of us had met several times in person. You simply can't put your trust for such a huge project in someone you only know on MSN.

London does make things easier, as does the size of the UK. But what also helped in a way was the high-profile nature of TSS' meetups. Sure, the first meetup between myself, AAUK and T-Bird was almost pure chance, but subsequent meetups used TSS to highlight such events, and brought more people together. I'm sure if Sonic Retro put the odd bulletin up on such things, you'll get a considerable turnout. Especially since, like TSS, Retro has a large userbase that is old enough to travel, work and is generally independent.

My advice to anyone wanting to try something similar (you won't be able to use the SoS name though ) is simply to start small. Do the tri-state idea, in blocks or something. Keep organising until you strike gold and enough people come to say hello. Use US-based sites (or even TSS - if you want the word spread, I'll be more than happy to do so) to make your meetup high profile. Meet your Internet best-friends face-to-face. Build a friendship and you guys will form a bond that will allow you to trust each other and commit fully to an event like SoS.

[Arrow]

I'm not suggesting either, if anything it is a bit of laziness. But moreover it is fear of doing something outside of their comfort zone. All it takes is for someone to have the bottle to go "I'm having a Sonic meetup in New York at this time and this location for all Sonic fans who can attend. I have x, x and x coming along so there will be a small group. The more the merrier" and see what happens. Most of the Sonic fans are people who tend not to go out a huge amount and are more comfortable to sit at a computer, but if you actually stick a viable meetup under their nose they'll go to it. You just need someone to spearhead it. So it IS either laziness or fear of responsibility. The UK started with just 3 people, now we have SoS. America can surely manage a first meetup of 3 or more people? If they can't then it proves the fanbase just isn't as strong there.

I edited my post a few times whilst you were replying and can't remember what I added when so, I'm sorry about that.

For reasons already mentioned, it would be hard to get even a small group of 3 or so together.

It does not prove the fanbase there isn't as strong (however this wouldn't surprise me), it proves that any friends online who wish to meet up and live in the states have a SLIM chance of being within close enough range to make it happen.

[cdrom1019]

Meet up in the USA!? I'm so there! I'd suggest you book someplace at the New York State Fairgrounds. The Fairgrounds are located Smack dab in the middle of New York state...that makes it easy for all of new york to find it. I happen to live 5 min away from the fairgrounds. And of course...i'd be happy to volunteer for this awesome fest.

[segasage]

Surely the main issue is location?

You could start by figuring one out. Do a questionaire of people who'd go, with a list of Cities and they tick which they can easilly attend, can attend and couldn't attend.

thats a good idea you have very usefull ideas unlike some peaple.

I disagree with the large percentage. A majority is not being denied, but myself and Dread certainly don't call it home, nor does T-Bird or Elson or Hannah Echidna or the coach from Germany... we had alot of people completely outside of London attend the event. Hell T-Bird has been involved in the standard Sonic community meetups (And even arranged one) despite being a good 5 hours away from London by train. It took us 7 hours to drive to him. He's not close by. So while America is more vast, it is NOT impossible to actually arrange an event. The problem is that people expect to create an event like SoS on day one, and it just doesn't work that way. It certainly didn't in England, and as you say the population is closer together here. The first meetup had 3 people. The second had four. The third had 8-10. The fourth had 15ish. You see my point now? America hasn't even bothered to do a community meetup with a few people from a few locations, regardless of size. If there really that many fans over there that really crave a meetup such as this, surely they would have had at least a State-wide meetup somewhere in the last 19 years? I know a State tends to be bigger than England, but hell you guys haven't even tried. And yet you want an event that gathers 500 people done in the click of your fingers? It won't happen without the effort of people actually trying to get together as it is.

It is not impossible. The whole Coastal side of the state pictured (And no, not Australia lol) could have a meetup surely? That's actually less in terms of total travel than England. Or even attempt a State-wide meetup? Tread softly, meetup little by little. But nobody can be bothered to do the first meetup, you guys just expect to jump straight to meetup 10, or even a full blown convention for you? To get a convention like that too be successful in America would require a smaller space and a tour of different areas. This would require a dedicated team to travel across America, which eliminates it being the Americans (Who've done nothing thus far), and eliminates the Brits unless we get it as a paid job. Sega wouldn't pay us for a fan convention. And if they did or if they hired professionals to do the jobs, they'd want some money back somehow due to how expensive it will be, and the whole event would become a lot more commercial. Thus not making it a fan convention.

Lol no offense but

'OMG YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT GET OUT' much? lolz.

Seriously, the Summer of Sonic was invented and built from the ground up by Dreadknux. AAUK then came along and assisted as a lead project manager with Dreadknux to make the convention physically possible. However despite these facts this has not so much to do with one person than the fact that SoS has a dedicated team behind it, which I fail to see happening in America. And if you wanted an American to supercede Dreadknux for head honcho, who do you have? The most you have is a gingernut arsewipe who doesn't even understand the freedom of information act properly and spouts bullshit across his pages to piss people off and get those "all important" page hits. Trust me, he wouldn't give a toss enough to give you a good convention. Sega couldn't trust him to organise something with their creative property and be safe in the knowledge that their plans for the show wouldn't be leaked out the second they began to mouth the words. He would just use the convention to stick his middle fingers up and SEGA and shout "I HAVE MY RIGHTS! FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT! <post editted - inflammatory - T>

I dont see why your so against the idea. like you and dredknux i want there to be a place were sonic fans can meet up so i thought hey a conventions a good idea. so you wont get mad im renaming the convention supersonicUSA so 1 its more uniqe 2 so you'll stop telling me im trying to overshede dredknux. so there.

[Legendary Emerald]

First off, no one has ever mentioned not wanting someone to "overshadow" Dreadknux. Get that idea out of your head. What I was saying is that the TSS staff has been around for a number of years, and they've proven that when they set their minds to something, they can do it.

There is no group in the USA who holds the same clout amongst Sonic fans. That isn't to say one may not rise, but I wouldn't go to a con that was made by someone without their own site who just has a load of cash. They wouldn't have the same connections to SEGA, and if the convention even got off of the ground, it still could end up a failure due to bad placement and other matters.

As an American Sonic fan, I'm for the idea of a con eventually taking place in my home country. I just don't see it happening anytime soon, that's all.

[Pelly <3's U]

See this is also a huge problem. Here we have someone wanting to plan the event but honestly.....none of us even know who he is. There isn't a real level of credibility behind the idea. How do you know that someone who comes along and says, "Hey guys I want to plan the most super awesome convention in America!" Isn't just some 10 year old kid (no offense you segasage, I'm just putting it out there). When Roareye and Dread are giving advice instead of shaking it off and saying things like, "OMG WAAAH THEY JUST DON'T WANT US TO BE SUCCESFUL!" You should probably realize that they're talking as people who have pulled it off before, and it wasn't as easy as just, "Hey here's the date, everyone come and Sega plz give us money."

I mean I live in the midwest where the states are huge, if I drive for 7 hours in one direction I might get a state or 2 away at most. The simple fact is you really do have to fly in the US most places and that costs a lot of money, so you're not going to be able to have that, "Hey, the gangs all here!" That you might otherwise get in a smaller country. That's not to say nothing would work out, and this is where I think you need to listen to what Roareye and Dread are saying. If you know any sonic fans that live around you should suggest getting together (this probably would work best in a place like New York City or something where commuting is easy, even highly populated places like California are still huge) and see if you have a dedicated group of people that are willing to make it work out. You also might change the scope of things, I mean if you have smaller regional meetups they probably won't all be able to be the scope of SOS but that doesn't mean you can't have a good time. I remember the thing lots of people like about SOS is the feeling of it being a fan event run by fans, and you don't need a huge scope to do that.

Otherwise you always can try to become Slingerlands drinking buddy.

[Barry the Nomad]

I'd love to see a US SOS, but I agree that finding a location would be difficult.

Personally I'd love to see it happen in NYC. With Sega of America being in San Francisco, I feel that a LOT of the Sega events always occur way over on the West coast. East coast needs Sonic love too! Maybe a yearly SOS that is NYC one year, CA the other year?

[Light]

I can see a small RSVP community day happening in the US; one that isn't run by the fans. I'm not sure if the average fan would be able to set one up in the US. Usually these US video game community days are run by the company (probably organized and set up by a community manager of some sort) around the time that a new game is going to be released to generate even more buzz. I know people in San Francisco would show up if SEGA decided to hold another one. It's the only way I can see a US gathering of fans happening at this point in time.

Examples of what I'm talking about:

http://blogs.sega.com/usa/2009/10/28/the-psz-community-day-event-is-finalized-check-here-for-all-the-details/

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/10/insomniac-games-community-day-to-celebrate-the-launch-of-ratchet-clank-future-a-crack-in-time/ ---> Turnout of event

Also, take this post with a grain of salt as I haven't attended these events myself. Just throwing out here what I think would be possible.

Edited January 23, 2010 by Light

[RainbowLizard]

Lol no offense but

'OMG YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT GET OUT' much? lolz.

Seriously, the Summer of Sonic was invented and built from the ground up by Dreadknux. AAUK then came along and assisted as a lead project manager with Dreadknux to make the convention physically possible. However despite these facts this has not so much to do with one person than the fact that SoS has a dedicated team behind it, which I fail to see happening in America. And if you wanted an American to supercede Dreadknux for head honcho, who do you have? The most you have is a gingernut arsewipe who doesn't even understand the freedom of information act properly and spouts bullshit across his pages to piss people off and get those "all important" page hits. Trust me, he wouldn't give a toss enough to give you a good convention. Sega couldn't trust him to organise something with their creative property and be safe in the knowledge that their plans for the show wouldn't be leaked out the second they began to mouth the words. He would just use the convention to stick his middle fingers up and SEGA and shout "I HAVE MY RIGHTS! FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT! <post editted - inflammatory - T>

XD relax. I was just kidding. I'm not even from America, mate. I don't even care, just thought to add a silly comment.

[Roareye Black]

thats a good idea you have very usefull ideas unlike some peaple.

I already told you why that idea won't work. Everybody you ask will give a resounding "Yes I'll be there!" answer to you and should you decide to spend your own hard earned money into a convention you'll discover that 98% of the people you asked will have an excuse not to come. It's "too far" or "I'm working" or "Only just found out" or "I'm ill" or "No money" or "I made other plans". It's so easy online to just say yes to a hypothetical meetup, and you'll find people will not be honest with you about it. You have to actually create a meetup, set a date and see what happens. You're already guaranteed that TSS and hopefully other main sites will advertise it, so it's not like it won't be noticed and hopefully that will make sure you get at least 5 people at your meetup. Yeah, I know 5 people isn't a lot, and you were looking toward the 50-100 mark, but that just doesn't happen. No way. Once a few meetups have come and gone, you'll notice that 5 will grow to 10, then 15 then keep growing. Once people are aware that meetups are happening and actually seen through with people turning up and hanging out, more people will actually go out of their way and spend time and money to turn up. It's an issue of people trusting you to hold the meetups. People don't want to spend however much on a fare to NY to discover that the meetup is cancelled, so for a bigger crowd you're going to have to wait and enjoy the company of those in the State-wide(ish) area.

I dont see why your so against the idea. like you and dredknux i want there to be a place were sonic fans can meet up so i thought hey a conventions a good idea. so you wont get mad im renaming the convention supersonicUSA so 1 its more uniqe 2 so you'll stop telling me im trying to overshede dredknux. so there.

I'm not against the idea, where do you get that idea from? I have spent the last few replies giving you help and information towards making your community meetups happen. If I didn't want it to happen then I just wouldn't reply.

A convention is a bad idea for a first ever meet up. Very bad. Because a convention requires you to have contacts with Sega, to try and get in artists and musicians, to collate artwork and collaborate with others (Whom you've still never ever met) in order to make a large and fulfilling experience. This is what you need to work on, meeting friends and finding those you can rely upon to really put the effort into meet ups and then see if they would be interested in a convention. At this point you don't know if the friends of yours online would even be bothered to turn up for a meeting.

Seriously just organise a day, a day to meet friends and hang out at the Arcades, or a drink (If you're old enough) or just generally relax with other fans. Just say something like;

US SONIC MEETUP

New York, East Coast

Corner of 4th and Main

12:00 hours

All fans welcome, we will meet up and have a great time together.

Believe it or not, the UK meet ups did not involve SEGA originally. There was no games, no conventions, no musicians or anything like that. We just all met up and talked, shared our relative interests and got to know each other more closely. This is your first point of action. The people against the idea are the people in here telling you "It can't be done. USA is too big", believe it or not I'M the one on your side. You may only get 3-5 fans on your first meet up, it's not a failure. There was only 3 in the first UK meet up and 4 in the second. Now we have SoS.

So you're not getting one over on me, or "beating" me or any form of deranged view that somehow a Sonic meet up can't work without Dreadknux. Your attitude is currently one of failure because you view my advice to start smaller meet ups as me attacking the idea in general and telling you it can't be done. A fan convention at this stage just is not possible. You need to build the relationships with fellow US fans and work together to make a convention happen. And believe it or not, you guys start meeting up and building strong relationships with one another and AAUK will find it far easier to get an SoS convention over to the USA, because he'll have an already active team of Sonic fans ready to collaborate with him and Dreadknux on a Summer of Sonic event. Or if you preferred to make your own event, you've got a team of people still there ready to help.

Roareye Black.

[Arrow]

I actually have a non-defeatish suggestion.

One of my concerns with regard to a Sonic meetup that takes place anywhere is what on earth would you do? In London, it's perfectly easy to plan to do nothing and just have a wonder around. I'm going to bet that there are very few US destinations where this would work. People have, time and time again, suggested meetin gup for a drink - but to get almost anywhere in the States one has to drive, so even if they were 21 this would be problematic (more to the point, I'd be put of going to a meetup with people I didn't know "for a drink", but that's just me.)

A couple of years back I went to a Sonic meet with some people from STC-O. They went to a games event at the science museum in the morning (which I didn't do, I came later, but this is kinda irrelevent).

Maybe It's worth finding something like that going on, so the meetup has a kind of "purpose"? It may give it a bit of rooting. Even if you have to pay a bit to get into something like that? Or, like has been suggested before now, go to some kind of attraction - like an arcade or something, or a fair or something. http://www.victoriangardensnyc.com/? (Okay, I admit, It looks lame. But you ge the gist?)

[AuroraRedwinters]

Go to a place with go karts and reenact Sonic Drift. Problem solved.

[nUcLeArEnVoY]

I say we go for a compromise and meet halfway!

Massive Sonic convention in Reykjavík, Iceland. Anybody?

We can have it on the Ice Flats, it'll be like Die Another Day meets Icecap Zone.

Edited January 23, 2010 by nUcLeArEnVoY

[Arrow]

I' on Expedia looking up flights to Iceland, right now.

[BakingBluePotatoe]

I like Cass' idea of a roadshow... that could acctually work!

There could be one in NY one week, and then in DC, Miami, San Francisco, ect.

--

Honestly, though, you guys do have a point...

In the words of the blue blur himself... "Nothing starts until you take action!"

so why don't we all find some fans in our own ste and meetup with them? and then work from there.

*runs in a random direction*

[Scarred Sun]

It's funny that something like this topic should come up, as I did quite a bit of research on this around this time last year. I've listened to a lot of feedback from those who have attended SoS, both positive and negative, and tried to formulate something that would work as well in the United States. Unfortunately, there are a few major problems.

First is the issue of transport and cost. I live in the Midwest, and figured that the best place to hold such an event would be either in LA or the Bay Area, as ideally I would have had Sega involved on some level. Disregarding the annoyance that is organizing something a thousand miles away from you, for me to get there would require either two solid days of driving or a flight + rental car. This is of course to say nothing of those who live even further away. Generally, if you make that sort of commitment in travel length, you also want to stay for a while, leading to the problem of needing to buy at least one or two night's worth of hotel stays. That makes the cost go up exponentially over Europe, where the travel may take a while, but you can generally go and back in one day. This also puts pressure on the event to be a multi-day event, raising the cost of the event itself.

I have a stable life and am relatively well-off; I can afford to do such things both in terms of cost and having to take time off work and other commitments. It's harder for most other people, even in their 20s, to be able to do so.

Second is in terms of organization and roping things up. If I had my way, such an event would be organized like that of MaxFunCon, where there would be a variety of smaller "workshops," talks, and activities for the various factions of what is a large and diverse fanbase and some key events bringing everyone together. Everything would be on-site, so lodging and meals could be provided. Getting all that together would require me to take some time off from my other commitments, and once again, the lack of being in California would make this a phone tag headache. I also know from the organizer of MaxFunCon that the deposit to get everything worked out was...five digits, to say the least, and that's on the hopes that you will get enough people to commit.

Third is the issue of the fanbase itself; diversity in age (we're talking 4 to 40 here) and interests makes roping in a general enough audience while being able to cater to people's specific wants rather difficult.

I basically came to the conclusion that without much help or financial backing, I simply could not organize something. However, it's not for lack of wanting to do so.

[Meow]

There needs to be a SEGA of Canada and have it in say like...Vancouver or somewhere (cause thats where all kinds of VG companies are) so I can 1) Work there after college (xD) and 2) so that all of us Canadians can go to Vancouver and hold one and just get SEGA of Canada involved!!11one.

But no really, I wish I knew more Canadian Sonic fans that we could take a weekend or so and all hang out from time to time and eventually work up to a SoS Canada. I'm in British Columbia (Kelowna to be exact, attending college here) and so I'm not too terribly far from Vancouver. I was planning on making a trip after college was over since I don't really get summer breaks, just a week off between every quarter, except for Winter Break which is 2 weeks ish, sometimes more. If not and SoS is still around when I'm done college I'll take a trip over, I'd be looking for a job anyway so I'd probably pop by SEGA Europe if that was the case haha. But now I'm rambling...I'd love to set up one here. I just don't have the funds (I can barely make rent right now because jobs are hard to come by!) So yeah, if we just found a persons house to just hang out at for now in my area that had all the games and shiznat, I'd be down for it and we can just call it SoS Canada 8) *shot*. Also dammit SEGA, get a Canadian branch already 8) 8) 8)...;_;

SoS CANADIA 2011/2012!?!?!??!?!11one

[Chris]

There needs to be a SEGA of Canada and have it in say like...Vancouver or somewhere (cause thats where all kinds of VG companies are) so I can 1) Work there after college (xD) and 2) so that all of us Canadians can go to Vancouver and hold one and just get SEGA of Canada involved!!11one.

A) Ontario would be more likely because of the population density

Hosting a North American based convention in Canada is a pretty fail idea

The most likely areas for a Summer of Sonic in the USA would be either in NY or CA due to the population density.

[cdrom1019]

agreed.....so....like i said before...how about the NY state fairgrounds....located right in central new york...a place i happen to be 5 min away from

[Arrow]

agreed.....so....like i said before...how about the NY state fairgrounds....located right in central new york...a place i happen to be 5 min away from

Whilst I'm sure it's a decent enough location suggestion and I'm glad you're at least bothering to make suggestions, does it occur to you that the only reason you'd go is that you are, indeed, 5 mins away? Which was my point with regard to London.

Other people should throw in other NY location suggestions, and then you should have a vote.

[cdrom1019]

well..it's not just because I happen to live 5 min away...It's because it's located right in the center of New York State.....so when it's time for the fair or any other huge event at the fairgrounds....everyone from every city turns in a different direction...but they all focus on the same point

[Meow]

A) Ontario would be more likely because of the population density

Hosting a North American based convention in Canada is a pretty fail idea

A) I always hate how Ontario has to get everything. Vancouver is a huge place too

B ) I didn't say it would have to be a North American based convention, I was specificially talking just about Canada xD. If the USA can dream of having one, I can too 8)

Edited January 28, 2010 by DesertPunk

[Chris]

A) I always hate how Ontario has to get everything. Vancouver is a huge place too

Population Density. :\

In 2009, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,419,974 (about 2 million of whom were in Metro Vancouver).

The Ontario Government projected a population of 13,150,000 people residing in the province of Ontario as of July 2009.

2.97x more people and this isn't counting Quebec (which is likely to add quite a few more people on top of that number). The same reasoning applies for why most conventions are in New York or California in the 'States and not in, say, Minnesota. It's all fine to dream and whatnot but I'm just applying the realism factor here..

[Crystal Kingfisher]

Even though MGS and Disgaea are my two biggest gaming obsessions nowdays, I'd still love to have a Summer of Sonic in the USA. I would discuss my love for the classic Sonic games, and discuss my hate for the new ones.