Myachi HQ: What Would They Do There?

by Crazy Ivan

I've gotten a bunch of phone calls today with the same question.  Any time I hear the same Myachi question a couple of times in a day, I'll make it the subject of a blog.  So today I keep having these moms call me and say something like:

"My kids are bugging me to take them out to your office so... what do they do there?"

They're clearly perplexed as they call because when they think office they think boring place full of copy machines and stationary.  What would be fun about that?  Now we do have a copy machine and we do have stationary, but we also have a lot more than that.

Unfortunately we've got a unique operation here so it's tough to explain it to the parents.  I'll tell them, "We have a retail location as well so if they want to get any Myachi gear like hats, T-Shirts or rare sacks we can hook them up here."

The Myachis here are so mouth watering we have to sell drinks as well.

"So it's just a store?" they'll ask.

"The store is part of it, but of course we also have a few Myachi Masters here to teach them new tricks.  We do contests and lessons and play Myachi games all day."

This throws them for a loop because their kids already have Myachis and they're probably thinking "well, can't they just play Myachi here at the house?"

Before they get to this question, I'll throw out something like: "We also have a gameroom."

They'll respond with "What kind of office has a game room?"

I'll come back with "One that's run by a bunch of overgrown kids.  Everything's free though so you won't need to bring any quarters."

Because if the option is to either have a gameroom or not have a gameroom, there's only one right choice.

Now that I've explained why their kids would have fun at the HQ they're actually more confused than before.  I can't blame them.  It's pretty weird.  Why have a gameroom if you're not going to charge people for it?

Of course, we have several reasons.  One of the big ones is that we just like to play games and it's pretty cool to have an air hockey table in your office.  Part of it is that we do parties here and parties are more fun when there's free pinball.  Another big part of it, though, is that we like having our target audience hanging out at the office.

See, when you're in the toy business there's a real danger of losing the connection you have to your customers.  You spend all day dealing with store owners, manufacturers, PR people and logistics and it's pretty easy to lose sight of the fact that your industry is supposed to be all about having fun.  A lot easier to keep in mind when you spend at least part of everyday playing your game with your primary audience.

To be honest I've had this conversation about half a dozen times this weekend and I don't think I've really gotten anyone to understand what Myachi HQ is over the phone.  A lot of these moms come in and still seem to be scratching their heads over what the place is all about.  All they know is that their kids are driving them nuts to get there.

It's not until they actually get here and we get to jamming that they start to see what we're all about and why we do what we do.

We just had a family come in and when they got there mom and dad were both scratching their heads about the whole thing.  They bought a couple of Myachis but before they could even finish picking them out Maverick had starting teaching the two guys a few new tricks and they're just jamming away.

Mom and dad are staring in awe at how much fun their kids are having.  They shrug, decide that it was worth the trip and occupy themselves for a good half hour on the ping pong table.

Yeah, that ping pong table.

By the time they left they were checking to see what would be the best time to come next weekend.  Mom and dad both bought Myachis for themselves and by the time it was all over we'd gotten them all into a big game of Myachi Golf (mom won, btw).  Everybody had a blast and I dare say that on the way out the parents felt as much like a couple of kids as their kids did.

I suppose I'll still be getting this question a lot and hopefully one of these days I can come up with a short answer that actually explains things.  Between now and then I guess I'll just have to get used to the confusion.