Bring on the Haters

by Crazy Ivan

As we draw nearer and nearer to the debut of our new commercial, I find myself steeling my nerves for the inevitable onslaught of haters that will no doubt appear from the woodwork as soon as it airs.  This is pretty much a universal.  Whenever something new comes out it seems like half the country just arbitrarily decides that they hate it.

I'm older than I care to admit so I still remember when half or more of the kids I knew thought skateboarding was "stupid".  The same thing happens with every new concept that comes down the pipe.  I knew Tech-Deck had hit the big time not when I saw a bunch of cats playing with them, but rather when I started hearing hundreds of cats talking about how much they hated them.

I've never understood that mentality.  I think pretty much everything is cool.  Alright, so I'll admit that I don't get the attraction to Silly Bandz, but I'm not about to waste my energy "hating" them.  I'm not going to minimize the kids I see wearing them.  It's not my thing, but I respect the fact that it's somebody else's thing and who am I to say it's dumb?

Unfortunately, most minds are not quite so enlightened about new stuff.

I've been dealing with this for almost a decade now so I think I'm prepared.  Most people think Myachi is pretty awesome the first time they come across it.  Others have that instinctual hatred for anything they're not already good at.

A perfect example comes from the world of skateboarding.  Back in the day we used to go to a lot of extreme sports shows so we had the chance to meet a lot of famous extreme athletes.  I've personally played Myachi with Tony Hawk (on 3 separate occasions and in 3 separate states), Bucky Lasek, Andy McDonald, Travis Pastrana and Dave Mirra, among others.

In all of those cases, they thought Myachi was sick.  Andy Mac was (by a wide margin) the best at it, but that's to be expected.  That dude is a pretty talented juggler and skill toy enthusiast so stuff like Myachi is second nature to him.  Pastrana was the worst, but I think there's something about that line of work that leaves your nerves all but shot.  Still, he dug the concept.

I do remember one skateboarder who thought it was (his words) "the dumbest thing I've ever seen".  I had to wonder what other dumb stuff he'd seen in the past.  I mean, surely Myachi wasn't dumber than the Fantastic Four movie, but maybe he hadn't seen that.

I have a theory about those folks.  I think that some people are afraid that if something else gets more popular, they will get less popular.  If they got good at, to use the example above, skateboarding, then anything other than skateboarding that gets cool knocks them down a rung on the cool ladder.

Like I say, most people embrace the game even if they aren't good at it.  They might not dig it right away, but they can see that other people are having fun and showing off mad skill and to most people that's enough.  To the others I don't think anything can be considered cool until their friends tell them it's cool.

But the truth is that I'm looking forward to the venom.  You haven't really made it in this business until a lot of people hate you.  I mean, being hated seems to be working out fine for Justin Bieber.  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not comparing Myachi to Justin Bieber.  We're way cooler and he's way richer, but the analogy is still valid.

So get ready for it one and all.  You'll be called upon to defend Myachi at some point or another.  People will see you playing and 99 in a row will say, "Man (or woman), that's awesome!"  And then there will be that 100th dude.  He will call it whatever derogatory names he can think of and probably call you a name or two as well.  You can get bent out of shape about it, but life's easier when you have tough skin.

One of my favorites is the "It's just a..." line.  You know the one I'm talking about right?  "It's just a flat hackey-sack" they'll say.  Of course, a diamond's just a shiny rock, a video game is just ones and zeros and a basketball is just a bag of air.  That doesn't stop any of them from being cool.

There are a lot more so I have a feeling we'll be revisiting this subject on a future date.  If you have a favorite Myachi dis that you've heard before, by all means share it.  Send it to me in an e-mail (crazyivan@myachi.com) or just leave it in the comments section below.