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We had an opportunity to connect with Bullock prior to the conference. He talked about how Mech_Con came to be, the importance of eSports and online communities for a game like his, and why MechWarrior Online‘s players are so passionate.

Post Arcade: Tell us a bit about Mech_Con. How did it come about, and what does it achieve for your company, your game, and your fans?

Russ Bullock: I think the notion of an official MechWarrior/BattleTech Convention has been something long dreamed about by all fans, but is something that had previously just never happened. There’d always been a presence for the franchise at related conventions, but nothing solely dedicated just to MechWarrior and BattleTech.

Last year marked a major milestone for the studio and MechWarrior Online with our release on Steam, and we held a public event in our studio to celebrate. It was so successful and had such incredible interest that we decided to make it an official fan “convention.”

The greatest thing for us as a studio about that Steam launch party was that it allowed us to interact in-person with so many fans from around the world, fans that have been with us since our initial announcement. To us, that was invaluable. To shake the hands of folks in the community who have supported us through thick and thin and ups and downs was just awesome.

Another part of the inspiration for Mech_Con was the continued rise of eSports tournaments, which is something we’d wanted to pursue for MechWarrior Online for some time now. We launched the first ever MechWarrior Online World Championship tournament earlier this year, and our three regional finalists are going to be competing live at Mech_Con for the main event: the MechWarrior Online World Championship Finals.