NYCC staffers get the boot at Big Apple Con [UPDATE]
Wizard employee responds to allegations
Despite Wizard’s stonewalling on the issue, Wizard employee Mark Allen Haverty finally responded on the Wizard message board to the allegations made by Lance Fensterman of NYCC regarding NYCC staffers being kicked out of the Wizard con. Although the comment has apparently since been scrubbed, our friends at Bleeding Cool managed to snag it before it disappeared into the ethernet:
If Reed had shown any respect, they would not have shown up to not
one but two Wizard cons to hand out their fliers for their con. They
did so not as vendors, retailers, or exhibitors, but as people buying
tickets. That’s unethical on multiple levels.
But, please, feel free to think that Wizard is somehow a bad guy.
This will be my last reply here, because I really don’t want to sit
here and listen to 20 people scream at me. Here are the facts, though:
1. You don’t call Marvel a–holes when they make you choose between buying X-Men or a DC book.
2. You don’t call Sony an a–hole if they release a movie you want to
see at the same time as another studio releases a movie you like.
3. You don’t call Coke a–holes because they force you to choose between Coke and Pepsi.
Business is business. Just because some comic fans on a message
board want to make it personal does not make it so. In business, there
is going to be competition. Wizard and Reed are competing for the
convention market. Reed has been playing dirty by walking into Wizard
shows and handing out fliers – which, by the way, is a fact that
multiple sites will confirm. Wizard shot back by deciding to go
head-to-head with them. That’s called the free market – if Reed is
better, it will win; if Wizard is better, it will win.
I think the reality is somewhere in the middle, and I think in a
city with 20+ Million people, plus legions of tourists, there are
enough people in the city to support both. In terms of retailers, I
think Reed will do a better job attracting the big-time Silver Age and
Golden Age people as their audience will be the more hardcore fans
while I think Wizard will do a better job attracting the retailers that
were putting up displays with discounted trade paperbacks, dollar bins,
and other goodies that fans with a more limited budget enjoy
(personally, that is what I look for if I am buying). In terms of
guests, Reed will be more comic-heavy while Wizard will be more
diverse. Some will choose one or the other, and quite a few will go to
both.
As for being brainwashed or whatever else you want to imply, you
clearly have never read any of my posts in any other thread. I will not
defend things the company has done or does do that I disagree with.
Heck, that’s part of the reason they like me – I’m outspoken and will
argue my points hard. As for the shows, I won’t be working the show in
all likelihood but going as a fan, and I might check out both while I
am in the city. Guess what? If I do, I don’t think Wizard will cut my
paycheck.
But, again, please feel free to hate all over Wizard since
everything that goes wrong in the world is Wizard’s fault, and do so in
a forum that Wizard provides free for you to do so…
And, with that, I’m out. Anyone that wants to discuss something else
with me can find me on other threads, usually over in the magazine one
where I answer as many posts on the magazine itself as possible.
Syndicated from The Outhouse – Comic Community Run By Fanboys, For Fanboys
Posted originally: 2009-10-21 07:42:05
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