I’m going to disable comments on this article because there really isn’t a great deal of profitable discussion that can come from it; I think the news stands for itself.
In a previous article, I mentioned about the Video Games Live concert that was going to occur all across the country. Unfortunately, in a recent press release, the concert has been cancelled in all cities except Seattle and Vancouver. The cause for the cancellation is a result from low ticket sales for most of their engagements.
I don’t know about you, but I’m a little disappointed to see this happen. To hear in person the Zelda theme (amongst many others!) on stage would have been a dream come true. I was really looking forward to the Columbus showing of VGL, but seeing as how I can’t cast Din’s Something-or-Other to change that, well, I’ve accepted it for what it is. They have, however, promised next year to make a run for it again, and there are ways that you can help to make it happen in 2006.
Tommy Tallarico, co-creator of VGL, says this on their website:
I would like to use everyone’s passion here today to help support the future of video game concerts everywhere. YES… Please tell us how disappointed you are because you were looking forward to this… YES… Please explain how important a concert like this is to everyone. We will use that information to show the promoters, local markets, cities, venues, etc… that people DO want to see this and they DO care. Right now a lot of the people who are putting on these events are thinking that people aren’t as interested in hearing this stuff as we all know they are.
Exactly. Video games haven’t become “mainstream” yet; it’s growing, but it’s not there yet. Just as with the animé crowd, we’re still a subculture, a clique within our national identities. A lot of this has been helped along by the aging of video gamers. It’s because of the size of our clique that movies such as Tomb Raider, et al, have been created, but so far each attempt to leap into the mainstream has so far fallen short of the inevitable goal. (It’s precisely because of this why Miyamoto is trying to do the very same thing with the Revolution controller, bringing video games to the forefront of our cultures.) The notion of the mainstream world accepting a video game concert is no less a task than that of creating a successful movie based upon a video game.
What we can do, however, to slowly cross this bridge is to show our support for this. For those of you who really wanted to attend one of their concerts, I encourage you to write VGL at info@videogameslive.com and give them your support for trying to make this goal happen. Let them know that you’re interested in their idea, that you would attend a concert in the future if you had the chance. However, make sure you’re sincere about this. Don’t do this just because I’m asking you; only do this if you really want to see this happen. I don’t mean to champion a cause by any means; I merely think that, given the chance to build hype about it, given another chance at this, this could really be a force to be reckoned with one of these days, especially considering the number of gamers that there are out there today.
Maybe, just maybe, next year I’ll get my concert in Columbus, and I hope that you get the chance to attend one near you as well. Until then, we gamers have a lot of work to do to allow this to push ahead once more and make it a reality.