EB Siege: Nintendo Power + Starmen.Net = Wuv
Some of you forum-dwellers may have noticed some zany antics happening on the forums around mid-July. The reason is that about 27 of us nerds got together to hang out near Seattle, WA for the 6th Starmen.Net Convention. It was a great time and we did lots of cool stuff, but one specific part of the trip was particularly awesome: our trip to Nintendo of America.
The scan you see to the left, courtesy of Pimpshi and his awesome username, is from an article which appears in the latest issue of Nintendo Power (October 2007, Volume 220, with Super Mario Galaxy on the cover). Obviously it could use a little context, so here we go...
Five of us were able to make the trip: Jonk, ShadowX, Meeellla, Plo, and me. We packed up and met a friend who checked us in, and proceeded to eat lunch with him and three of Nintendo Power's editors. We brought a bunch of copies of the EarthBound Anthology to give to the NP/NoA guys, as well as a Final Starman figurine and around 150 pieces of the envelope art you guys made for the EB Siege. Needless to say, they thought it was pretty cool.
We sat down for lunch in 'Cafe Mario' and talked about all kinds of stuff, obviously focusing around EarthBound and especially MOTHER 3. They actually asked us about the MOTHER 3 Fan Translation, at which point everyone looked at me, and I was all 'err heh uhh hmm'. As it turns out, they're pretty excited about it and are looking forward to playing it :) Who saw that coming?
After we finished eating, Andy took us to a conference room and we cleared some space out on a table for an envelope art photo shoot. None of us expected to actually be in the shoot, but they told us to get in there, so we all grabbed a few of our favorite envelopes and made stupid faces. It was pretty awesome, and as you can see, they actually used one of those pictures for the magazine, heh.
We left Andy with three extra copies of the Anthology to give to whoever he thought might appreciate them. Last we heard, at least one copy had made it to the Treehouse, so that's cool. We headed to the Nintendo store and bought Jon a Nintendo Wii as a way of thanking him for his monumental efforts on the Anthology, which he gratefully accepted and wouldn't stop thanking me for (actually, several staffers and convention-goers pitched in to help pay for it).
Anyway, back to the lunch conversation: the subject of EarthBound on the VC came up a few times. I won't tell you guys exactly what they said (or what we've heard elsewhere), but many of you have already begun to understand that we're expecting something to happen -- soon. And if we haven't made it clear already, then let me preface this next statement by telling you that the Nintendo Power guys agreed with us on this point:
If EarthBound sells very well on the VC, our chances of getting an official MOTHER 3 Translation increase.
Obviously the chances are already slim, so we're gonna have to post some pretty incredible numbers. But it is possible; all we have to do is pimp the heck out of it. And that is the final part of the Siege -- get every Wii owner you know to buy a copy of the game. Announce the game's release on your favorite forums. Put up posters at the mall or your local gaming haunt. Every single thing you can do to put the name 'EarthBound' into people's heads will pay off in the end, no matter how insignificant it might seem.
I've joked before about being the leader of EarthBound's surrogate marketing team, but it's for real this time. Prepare yourselves, because it will be happening soon! And by the way, don't forget about the other parts of the Siege, especially the Mail'N and the Call'N! They're still going on, and they're still important -- especially the Call'N! For those of you who took the time to participate in the envelope art Siege, it was time well-spent! xfisjmg1 actually recorded/edited a video of all the envelopes which I've embedded below, but you can also see it on Google Video -- enjoy!
Paralistalon
