[Cons]/Brony Overload

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Okay, I know that I'm probably going to get some flak for this and I completely understand if I do for what I'm about to go on about here. However, before anyone goes too far with things realize this, I do attend events such as Bronycon and cosplay as Vinyl Scratch but I've been around (much thanks to my wife) for a lot longer than most in the pony thing. I admit I didn't get really into it until the new show aired, but I did grow up with it when I was a kid and I do like the older generation stuff thanks to watching it for the past 11 years. Well, not 3.5 but that's another matter entirely.

Anyway, something I've seen lately is a literal explosion of Brony conventions across the US and elsewhere. The fandom really is something in that regard and you gotta give it credit for mobilizing like it has. The levels of fan made works is completely insane and it has helped quite a few people out there break into new areas. For that I give it credit and while I would do this for other fandoms (and still might) this one just seems to be displaying that I find as potentially self destructive in the long run more due to it being so new. Will the fandom survive? I think so, but I think it will be different than it looks now.


That being said, there is a huge problem with things. Mainly on the end of conventions, we all like them, but damn guys...you're over saturating the market and hurting yourselves in the process with this. There are no less than 40 MLP conventions next year. 26 in the US and Canada so far. Usually I'm of the mentality that there is no such thing as "too much" of something at times...in this case. It is too much. I'm not counting things that are in the UK, EU or Asia either here. Mostly since they aren't even close to the same numbers of conventions.

But what about anime cons? There's tons of those!

Yes, but they have literally thousands of properties to revolve around and usually branch out into other things like Dr Who, video games, and yes...even Bronies go there. They're not just about one generation of a 30 year old franchise. To be blunt, they have a lot more going for them in the long run and there can be tons of them due to that.

What about Furry Conventions? There's a lot of those!

Yes, there are a lot of those but most of them really aren't that big in reality and they have more guests to choose from to go around. There's only a few that I can think of which are pretty large. Anthrocon being the largest at around 5,000 people. That said, they too have literally 1000's of properties to go with and tons of other things as well.

The other thing that both of these types of cons don't have to deal with? Limited numbers of guests. There are maybe 40 total guests for MLP:FiM that are officially related to show. Sure, there are some other bigger "Fan Celebrity" guests as well, but not many more to be honest. Anime, video games, furry? Literally 1000's.

See the problem here yet folks? Would you rather have a few big cons that are awesome? Or several small ones that may end up sucking? It's not like you can't go to other cons and go completely crazy with pony, people already do it now. Ohayocon last year had a meet up of over 300, Colossalcon had 350 show up to just the panel I was part of about MLP and even Anthrocon had about 300 or so at their panel.

I get that everyone wants to see the VA's of the show and other talent, but if you have one nearly every week or overlapping, you'll never get it anyways. I hate to say it, but it's true. Most of these will end up at best being over glorified meet ups. Why? You think guests and artists can get to all those events, plus the other major cons and do their day jobs? You've got another thing coming...

List of cons with an official presence online

As you can see, it's a bit out of hand. Everyone wants to have a big con near them, I get that. No one wants to spend a ton of money to get there, etc. I get that too, even myself and my wife have Bronycon up in the air next year due to the possible expense that it could be for us on top of other conventions we're going to (and we live pretty close to it this year). Another thing to remember is that some of these cons run up against some seriously larger more general conventions such as Otakon, Anime Expo, Dragon*Con, SDCC, Ohayocon, Youmacon, etc.

While normally that wouldn't be a bad thing, VA's and show talent also goes these to events too. Why? They do other things...just like many people involved in going to Brony conventions. Artists and vendors also do many cons a  year and this is somewhat out of control for them since they usually have to plan far in advance. Too many cons? They'll just ignore the small ones and just go to the bigger ones anyway, solidifying that most will just die off.

Let's also not forget the looming spectre that is MLP Fair, which has been going for years and draws a ton of people to it, mostly collectors but Hasbro does officially endorse it and send representatives there as well. Sure it's a traveling con, but that could rain on the parade here as well. 

In the end, there's no way they'll all work and it's a major problem that the fandom is creating for itself with all this. You cannot expect these things to continue at the rate they are. There is literally zero guarantee that the show will last past the next season. Fans will drop off (it's already happened some due to the long break between Season2 and 3), VA's will move on to other things and even fan celebrities will too. Critical mass has most likely been reached. This just proves it.

Yes, there could be as many as 7-20mil Bronies but again, there's only 40 guests to go around and only so much time a year. People putting together cons won't like this next bit, but maybe instead of having so much competition between cons for guests, artists, vendors, etc, people should throw their weight behind the bigger more established cons at some point in the very near future. It's the only way they're going to survive. Otherwise they'll all just end up cannibalizing each other and all being nearly the same thing or have nothing going for them.Where's the fun in that?