Everybody has an opinion. This is mine.

Let me tell you a story.

Several years ago, I was part of a local alliance of gamers, who aimed to evangelize the glories of tabletop role-playing games to as many people as possible. Debates raged about bringing RPGs into the mainstream, what events to hold to reach a wider audience.

I did not agree with any of these initiatives. And I still don’t today. Because tabletop RPGs are a niche hobby, and they always will be.

The current conventions, whether they’re ostensibly comic or cosplay or anime or toy conventions, are all fine for what they really are — platforms for mainstream marketing. That’s right. They aren’t for the otaku, the hardcore fans of whatever genre we specialize in. Cosplay contests are for the non-otakus, who invariably vote for the flashiest costume or the ones they recognize from whatever movie-remake-of-an-80s-cartoon-they-never-actually-watched-religiously just came out. Comic cons focus on superheroes that have Hollywood blockbusters under their belt. Anime conventions focus on whatever is on network TV. And why not? The sponsors all want to market to as many people as possible, and the organizers want to sell as many tickets as they can. Well-known scene celebrities become shills for commercial purposes, and the disgruntled hardcore fans usually do nothing but sputter furiously from the dark moldy corners.

I repeat: Local conventions aren’t for Otaku.

Think about Akiba itself for a moment. Every Sunday, they close off the main street and people who want to show up in costume simply do so. No contests, no shows for the pointing-and-laughing public, just people who like dressing up hanging out with other people who like dressing up.

The indie comic creators were marginalized at the Metro Comic Con 2009 because it wasn’t for them. It was for the general public. They, bless their otaku hearts, are people passionate enough to create something they want to share with other people — and they want to share with people who care about the craft as much as they do. Real fanatics. Real otaku. These people want a Comiket, not a marketing platform for cellphones and bland remakes.

Someday we’ll be brave enough to have really focused cons, like a Star Trek Con for real Trekkies, or a Firefly Con for real Browncoats, or even a Cosplay Con where people who aren’t in costume aren’t allowed to come in and make fun of the real cosplay otaku. Real conventions where people who aren’t ‘with it’ simply have no place. Someday we won’t pander to the monoculture, hoping that one day drawing comics for a living or dressing up as anime characters or rolling polyhedrons will be as socially acceptable as knowing which celebrity is pregnant with so-and-so baby. You know, stuff that matters to the mainstream, to the people who worry about ‘common sense’ and ‘appealing to a broader audience’. To the NOT US.

But until then, we’ll be like gourmets who have nowhere to eat except fast food joints. We’ll be at conventions that bear the names of our hobbies but have no place for us, that don’t want us there. We’ll be coming to events that are supposed to foster the sense of community with people who share our interests, and wonder why we don’t know anyone there.

So. What are we going to do about it?