We start off Season 5 with a mega-blast! It's all of our hosts favourites fandoms this season starting off with fans of the Blue Bomber: Mega Man! Why haven't there been any new games lately, and how have the fans adapted? How is a game from more than 25 years ago still relevant to fans today? Tune in and find out!
Next week, we'll be doing the things a particle can and talking about two rockin' musicians (John and John) and their fans as we talk about They Might Be Giants fandom!
## Episode outline
### Fandom Facts
**Origins:**
Rockman (also known as Mega Man, outside of Japan) is a video game franchise created by Akira Kitamura and designed by Keiji Inafune by (and owned by CAPCOM). Originally released for Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, the franchise has over 50 games on multiple systems, and, by March 2015, over thirty million copies have been sold worldwide.
The original game follows the story of Rock (Mega), an android created by Doctor Light and his assistant, Doctor Wily. Doctor Wily reprograms Doctor Lights other robots in an act of treachery, and Rock volunteers to defend the world from Wily's violent robotic threats.
Other main series within the game's history:
- Mega Man X
- Mega Man Legends
- Mega Man Battle Network
**Most Active and Fandom Trends:**
Based on [Google Trends data](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F016vdf), interest in the Mega Man series of games has been on a steady decline since Google has started tracking trend data (current interest is about one fifth of data back in 2004). The most popular point in this history is around July 2004, which likely corresponds to the release of Mega Man X: Command Mission, a turn-based RPG.
**Size of Fandom:**
It's especially challenging to try to get estimates on fandoms that have been on the decline for a while. To get a rough sense of scale and level of community:
- The [Mega Man Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/Megaman/) has over 10 000 subscribers
- Mighty No 9, a game developed a sort of spiritual successor to Mega Man (and directed by longtime Mega Man director, Keiji Inafune) [has over 67 000 backers](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightyno9/mighty-no-9)
- Over 30 million copies of the various games have been sold worldwide. A rough estimate taking the number of sales and dividing by the number of games (131) yields a rough estimate of over 220 000 game buyers
**Famous fan works:**
- [Mega Maker](https://mega-maker.com/), a fan game about creating your own Mega Man levels (like Mario maker)
- [Mega Man x Street Fighter](http://www.capcom-unity.com/mega_man), a fan game that puts Mega Man (circa Mega Man 2) in stages reminiscent of the characters in Street Fighter 2 and featuring them as bosses
- [Mega Man 2.5D](http://petersjostrand.com/), [20XX](http://store.steampowered.com/app/322110/20XX/), [Azure Striker Gunvolt](http://gunvolt.com/en/), [The Megas](http://www.themegas.com/), [BrentalFloss](https://www.brentalfloss.com/)... the list goes on
**Fanfics and Fanart**
- DeviantArt has almost 100 000 works for [Mega Man](https://www.deviantart.com/?section=&global=1&q=mega+man)
- FanFiction.net has over 5000 works for [Mega Man](https://www.fanfiction.net/game/Mega-Man/)
- Archive of Our Own has over 700 fan works for [Mega Man](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Rockman%20%7C%20Mega%20Man%20-%20All%20Media%20Types/works)
### The Verdict
**G is in. Would like to play more Mega Man games.**
**T is in. 100% in.**
**Z is out. Would try Battle Network or Command Mission.**
[// Modern Mega Man fandom is the millenial generation's response to intellectual property. CAPCOM has been slowly killing off Mega Man titles or releasing things that fans (and gamers don't like). So the fans take it upon themselves to take the formula, remix it, and make something new. ]: #
### This week's spotlight
**[Mega Man-athon](https://megamanathon.com/)**
What would happen if you took a bunch of Mega Man fa...
