There are a variety of sayings we have in the RCM staff room to denote an acquiescence to calm. Varyar, for example, is a swimmer, so he favors the allegory of the problems being like water going over a duck. Hax reminds us of the Sith Code. Killer has a particular sigh. But my personal favorite is the phrase ‘Zinger’s in the cup.’ The ‘Zinger’ is in reference to my favorite tea, which I tend to consume while I’m working and serves as an anchor to my well-being. To have Zinger in the cup means remembering that in spite of whatever crazy is going on in the world around you, there are still tiny bits of comfort to get you through; a physical reminder of “don’t worry, you got this.”
Saturday afternoon, I went through about five cups.
This weekend we held the first RivalCon, a two-day festival of friendship and gaming that saw community members of Rivalcastia come in from all over the country (and Sweden!) to play in person with friends they’ve known for years, but in many cases had never met face to face. It’s a good time, to be sure.
It’s also a hell of a lot of work, especially for the first few years when you’re building on shoestring budget and all of the grunt work is by necessity kept in-house. Much like a wedding, there are an insane amount of details to work out and put into place, not to mention trying to come up with on-the-spot backup plans when something goes awry, and through it all absolutely everybody is trying to converse with you at the same time. You get caught in this catch-22 of you have to stop and do the things in order for the gathering to work, but you also have to stop and interact with your people (the entire point of the gathering). Trying to make both happen leads to a crazy weekend where you see everyone but don’t feel like you’ve seen anyone. It’s a lot, and it is stressful.
As this was our first run at a big event we were putting together from scratch, I had to be involved in all aspects because I was the only one with a fair amount of event planning experience (it’s one of the things I do for my day job) and also the one who would be asked the questions when things came up, anyway. A big chunk of that is, admittedly, my own fault. There are certain little things I could have delegated out to make certain areas run more smoothly; I didn’t because I didn’t think of them until after we got to the point of “hmm, this is something we could have done better.” Hindsight is 20-20, as the saying goes, and that’s what we use to learn.
But overall, our first RivalCon was by all counts a success. Among the scheduled events were our pizza party, Smash Brothers tournament, panel discussions with voice actors and musicians who work on video games, and a massive D&D game which cast me in the role of a slave trader, so I spent a good portion of time in between rolls taping Dee and Mrs. Sayo to their chairs and brooding bloodthirsty thoughts (IT WAS IN MY CHARACTER SHEET!). Among the unscheduled events were a group outing to Culver’s for dinner and mocking Legends of Tomorrow, a field trip to create Marshalltown nightlife, and an after hours pool party complete with water volleyball game.
Throughout it all, I was continually reminded of why we do this in the first place: our community. We talked in our panel discussions and in various past articles on this site about how games are the great unifier in modern culture, and the people of Rivalcastia serve as a prime example of this. Our population spans multiple generations from all over the planet and in all walks of life. Many of them frequent our shows each week, interact in social media, and pitch in to help when we run charity streams. Both times we’ve opened events to our community, we had people not just from all over the country, but flying over from foreign countries to be a part of them. There’s a strong push from our friends across the Atlantic to have a RivalCon Europe (might be a while, but we’re open to it). But more than any of that, it’s a very diverse and colorful group who look out for one another. We have fun, but we also serve as sounding boards or helping hands when people need it. I see the friendships that start and grow that wouldn’t have happened without RivalCast being there to get it started, and I’m damned proud to have played even a small part in making those opportunities happen.
That’s what I was thinking about on Saturday as I looked out over that conference room filled with my friends, sipping my tea while the guys worked through getting the tech set up for our panel talks. Yeah, it can be overwhelming sometimes. But the rewards are huge, the impact clearly seen. Not to mention we’ve got the best people on our governance council and oh my God I can’t wait to talk about what we’ve got in the works for our next steps.
For now, though, it’s time to take a deep breath, cradle the mug, and enjoy the moment.There’s a lot of work to be done, but we’ve got this. Zinger’s in the cup.
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