Category: The Craft

No, This Isn’t an Overwatch Blog Now

~ mellopanther

Every so often, I find myself realizing that I haven’t updated the site in a while. Part of that, unfortunately, is my nature. MelloPanther Productions isn’t part of my regular routine, and there’s still not really space to insert it neatly into my work/life balance (though that may change this year). However, between work, (lack of) cons and now having a paid game show gig I’ve started watching Overwatch League with more reckless abandon. I like sports very much, and while I still have no real desire to pick up the game, the way OWL is presented is very compelling and it scratches my math itch, so I’ll occasionally post here to scratch that itch. It’s a better use of the space than what it was doing previously, which was nothing.

That being said, I still continue to use this site as a central point for all of my convention comings and goings. Just because I’m going to be out of action until the fall (though I’ll probably be working with Megaroad at Otakon) doesn’t mean I have other things to do. After another successful run of programming at Tekko, Pop Ramen has officially joined the content farm at Unlocked and it’s only a matter of time before I start trying to infiltrate our channel with some of my content. As a side effect of this, I’ve also decided to dust off my more personal Twitter (which was only actually being used to access MikuMikuDance content…don’t ask) and start throwing in some musings that aren’t big enough for blogs.

In summation, the spring and summer may be slow on the convention side, but it’ll be busy on other fronts. I know I want to have another OWL article to put up during All Star Not-Actually-On-A-Weekend (which will be less mathy, I promise) and more will come as it is available and inspires me to post. Thank you for your continued support.

Vacation What I Never Wanted

~ mellopanther ~ 1 Comment

It was likely through some combination of skill and luck that my 2018 was somehow more productive than 2017 despite going to less conventions. Want a more concrete recap than the graph above? Here:

  • Exceeded last year’s output in both number of programs (29 vs 25) as well as hours (32 vs 25.5)
  • Increased output over the year before for Setsucon, and Tekko
  • Maintained output at Sangawa and Anime Midwest
  • While losing four unique shows (Anime Mini, GAF, Anime Mid-Atlantic, Blurriecon), gained five (Zipcon, Nyancon, GAO-Kon, Hazard Con, Anime Weekend Atlanta)
  • Three shows for AFC, Five for Wheel of Fortune
  • First 10-hour show (Tekko)
  • Anime Weekend Atlanta becomes my second convention with 20k+ attendance I have presented at (Otakon being the other)

All in all, it was a good and productive year. It’s a shame it won’t be that way in 2019.

Continue reading “Vacation What I Never Wanted” →

Hi, Fidelity

~ mellopanther

Otaku are sometimes overly-prone to stricture; things must be a certain way or else that thing is invalid. This often shows itself in vitriolic fandom debates and other dark cervices on the Internet, and while some concepts should be universal (like you should never affix -gate to something perceived as “scandalous”, because 1) making it a -gate is not how that etymology works 2) most scandals of import don’t have -gate on the end and 3) you’re just an asshole trying to harass other people over nothing) there should be room to play.

I had dinner with someone recently and there was a discussion about fidelity to the source material in game shows and it was brought up about how I was a stickler for things. I can’t personally recall anything I specifically did or commented in the past, but I am certainly not that way now. Between my Name That Tune not really resembling any NTT from the past, my Wheel of Fortune subtly changing forms almost every go-round, and variants of Press Your Luck and Pass The Buck that don’t even share the true names of the source, I think I’m more than willing to stray from the source every now and again.

To be honest, my view is that strict adherence to the source material is not a mandate to me, but a conscious choice. If I choose to do something to the letter of the law, it’s because I wanted to do it. Stylistic choices, rules, and rituals are only to be used if they make sense to me and help create a better product. Otherwise, I’m going to do what I can to ape the game show experience, even if it’s not a singular game show experience. For example, my newest passion project involves celebrities, trivia, and bluffing. Now there are several easy options (and one not-so-easy) but instead of resorting to some other format wholesale, I’m trying to take things from other shows and incorporate it into the original format to make it work because a) it’s more fun for me and b) the audience isn’t going to care about the small stuff if the product is entertaining.

Too bad I won’t be doing anything like this for Anime Weekend Atlanta, but there’s always more shows around the bend.

MCU: MelloPanther Convention Universe?

~ mellopanther

Long continuity seems to be the fad of the day, and after a dozen years, I’ve seemed to reach my own Phase Three not too long ago. Now that I’m starting to consistently do heavier workloads for bigger conventions, it’s time to reassess the state of some of my programming. My recommendation panels are likely evergreen as new things come and go across my radar, but some of my how-to’s need to evolve if they are to stay in rotation. I wouldn’t necessarily call them reboots or sequels and they’re a little of both. But for sake of brevity, I really should consider them separate works. The problem is there’s only so much space to put things on this site while keeping things clean. That’s why any future panel spin-offs will be included on the page for the original panel, simply listed below with an updated description. Anime Midwest is going to be the first to get the full MCU experience with new variants of I Can Japan and The “How To Make A Panel” Workshop. In addition to those updates, I updated my resume to display my work history in a much nicer-looking tabular format. More updates and changes to come, as always. Excelsior!

A Thought While Browsing A Shop About To Go Out Of Business

~ mellopanther

One of my pie in the sky goals for MP is to have the ultimate portable system to run my programs on. This would include a computer, mini displays, peripherals, all the bells and whistles I would need to put on a presentation or a game show. I already know that what I would need would be able to fit inside a suitcase, but now I see that not only are PC towers smaller that ever, but there are now hard suitcases that fit under an airplane seat.

And that got me to thinking…

Anyway, Setsucon is in the books. I wheel into Zipcon this Saturday at 3PM.

Hello world! Again!

~ mellopanther

So this is a major step. This is my first post published from the brand new mellopanther.com! Not “dot wordpress dot com,” just “dot com.” This allows me to evolve a little bit as I adjust my business and marketing models (and yes, I do have them, stop laughing). All the old posts have been migrated, and I’m still trying to re-jigger a few things (particularly the sidebar) but all the new stuff will be posted here.

Speaking of which, watch this space, because I’ll have something new to share this very weekend!

Doge Gone?

~ mellopanther

As much as it makes sense to reference Japanese money at Japanese culture conventions, I’ve stuck to dogecoin for most of my game shows that deal with dollar values. The one I prominently use it with is Wheel of Fortune, but I’ve also used it for Millionaire and my variant of Press Your Luck. My original reasons for using dogecoin were twofold: the inherent goofiness of the cryptocurrency allows me to stand out from anyone who uses the yen, plus when I started using it in 2014, a million dogecoin was around $100-200, which meant I could throw out ridiculously large numbers but stay within my budgetary needs.

That may need to change soon. While the strength of dogecoin has been on the rise for about four weeks, this weekend the price has skyrocketed. From mid-2014 to early this year, 1 dogecoin had been worth about 0.01 or 0.02 cents. (Yes, we are talking about 1-2% of one penny.) Over the past 24 hours, that same dogecoin has been trading as high as 0.78 cents. Just to put that in perspective, the weakest the yen has been during that same time frame is 0.80, although it’s currently trading around 0.89.

doge graph
Source: CoinGecko

With my next game show still a month away, I’ve made some adjustments to my games in the hope that there is a regression to the mean, but what happens if there isn’t a regression? What happens if dogecoin overtakes the yen in terms of purchasing power? To be honest, I’m not sure. Wheel is probably my favorite game to do at conventions within driving distance, and that will be the most adversely affected game. Do I go back into the archives and pull out Wheel values that haven’t been around since before most attendees were born? (This is a friendly reminder that Wheel has not been a daytime network show since 1991.) Do I start transitioning back to lecture panels and comedy? I don’t know, and hopefully I won’t have to.

What Do You Do With Three Months Off?

~ mellopanther

There used to be a panel that frequently ran in the Northeast/Ohio Valley convention circuit called “10 Conventions A Year” which explained how an attendee could budget and schedule their way to double-digit shows. Most of my circle of friends thought that there were better things to plan for (like, say, a trip to Japan) so we didn’t pay much attention to it.

Fast forward to 2017, where I’ve been to 12 shows in less than 10 months.

Now granted, all but 1 of those have been while working with Megaroad Toys and the compensation I get for that, combined with my lack of buying tendencies (except for prizes) and benefits at my day job have helped enable my excursions. I also haven’t been presenting at all of these conventions (mostly because I’ve missed submission deadlines; I’ve been fortunate to not be declined for a show I’ve applied to this year) which can keep incidentals down, but it also means I can’t scratch that particular itch.

So what will happen when my next scheduled show after Blurriecon is in the middle of January?

Continue reading “What Do You Do With Three Months Off?” →

Making It Up

~ mellopanther

Every so often, I do improv, and sometimes that requires suggestions. In order to help the process and get as many good suggestions as possible, I’m turning to you out in Internet Land to help me out. I’ve put up a survey featuring games that will likely be used, as well as some example videos in case you weren’t sure what would work best. At each event, we’ll pick some of the good ones and use them.

Fill out the current version of the survey here or copy and paste https://goo.gl/forms/iyTz1J5SI4UyxUNm2

Fandom Feud Survey Post

~ mellopanther

So I decided that I want to do a Family Feud program for conventions, but it’s hard to get full families at a convention, so it’s getting renamed it to a much more common occurrence at conventions.

Of course we can’t play the Feud without surveys and so I have two for you to fill out. Because I have game show friends who are necessarily into anime and vice versa(???) I’ve set up one survey for all comers and the other for anime fans. Try one or both; it’s up to you. If I can get 100 people quickly enough, I’ll send out two more surveys. The goal is to have 20 viable questions for two full matches, so I want to get through as many as possible without overwhelming you.

You’ll also note at the bottom of each survey I ask for your e-mail. This is indeed for S&P purposes, but if you’d like, I’ll let you know when the next surveys are out.

The links are below and I hope to update them when the next surveys go out. Thanks a bunch!

Survey 1-1 (for all audiences) https://goo.gl/forms/V6QUywcgf4dsEBKQ2
Survey 1-2 (for otaku and con goers) https://goo.gl/forms/hIQafyOc5uOGBjrn1