Back in 2009 a group of friends got together – their desire, to give something back to the community they so loved, all of them geeks. All of them loving everything about this world from video games to anime, from sci-fi to fantasy:They all brought something different to the table. Conor brought his Web design skills and obsessive nature; Desmond brought his journalistic skills and Philip brought the advertising know how.
As time went on the site grew and grew as did their community. Little more than a year out of high school they found themselves with a large audience that enjoyed their twisted perspective on the world of geek.
Soon the company’s of geek began to give our heroes free samples. With this our heroes realised that this could be a lot more than just a stepping stone to a real job. They began to chronicle their adventures in a new way and Geeks Drinks and Video Games was born.
Now entering their second year yet more adventures lay ahead of them. What will this year hold?…..With there first annual charity marathon and plans to return to a weekly video feature only time will tell.
My heart goes out to these heroes of geekdom. I hope you will join them and give them your support too.
Name:Conor Hughes
Age:21
DropDead Title:The Guild Master, His Puissant Eminence, Baron Conor. The Contentious Silencer of DropDead
Bio: Web Designer, PC gamer, Audiophile
Interests: Sci-fi, Doctor Who and post apocalyptic story’s
Name:Desmond O’Flaherty
Age:21
DropDead Title:The Chancellor, His Omnipotent Eminence, Lord Desmond. The Splendid Writer of DropDead
Bio:Writer, Programmer, Xbox Gamer
Interests:Warhammer 40k, Sci-fi, Guns
Name:Philip Manley
Age:20
DropDead Title:The Viceroy, His Matchless Honour, Philip Manley The Adroit PR Manager of DropDead
Bio: PR and Advertising, Playstation Gamer
Interests: Music, Movies, Zombies
Name: Katie Sheridan
Age:19
DropDead Title: The Governess, Her Splendid Illustriousness, Baroness Kate.
Bio: Writer, Fighter, God
Interests: Doctor Who, Airsoft, Singing
History
(Written by our first intern Angela Costales for her course)
The company was originally set-up by college students Conor Hughes and Ryan Commendador as a way to publish Ryan’s artwork. They bought the domain in May 2009. After two months, Nicky Caroll joined to be the Co-Editor. When the website started, it was all about comics, satire and gaming. Colm, Kevin, Desmond O’Flaherty and Philip Manley joined the company.
As time went on, DropDead Comedians realised that the market they were in was already occupied by the website penny-arcade.com and DropDead Comedians decided not to compete against them because they were college students and it was not possible to reach the standard to compete against them at the time. So, instead, they decided to expand.
In June, Conor Hughes created a complete website with different channels and pages for music, games and comics. They also started to put up video podcasts on YouTube. The video podcast was shot during the week and took a lot of time and resources. September 2009 saw a wave of changes in the company.
Colm left the company because of a difference in opinion with Conor on the direction that DropDead is going and to focus on college. Kevin also left DropDead Comedians to focus on his college work as well. September 2009 also saw the losses of the video podcast, retro section, comic section and the movies section of the website. Video Podcasts were stopped because producing them cost too much time and resources. Retro Section was the segment in the site which reviews the old PC games from the early age of video games up to the late 90’s. This section was taken down because it didn’t generate many views. The comic section was discontinued because it became difficult to communicate with publishers. The movies section closed because with DropDead Comedians being such a small company just didn’t have the time to review movies.With the changes, the site shut down in December 2009.
In January 2010, Conor Hughes decided to take on a new approach. DropDead Comedians went under a site redesign which saw the site take on a blog format, not a news resource like IGN.com. January also saw the company take on a new direction. The company decided to shift its focus to the video games section rather than the music section. From then on, DropDead started to review games from big name companies.
In the summer of 2010, the music section became subdued. Nicky Caroll, who was in charge of the music section, stopped working for DropDead Comedians all together. A week later, Ryan Commendador, who was in charge of drawing the comic strips, left the company citing the loss of enthusiasm to draw.
At this stage, Conor Hughes was concerned with DropDead’s future. However, Philip Manley, who unnoticeably went A.W.O.L., came back to the company and took over the Public Relations role. This proved to be a masterstroke as the site regained its audience, traffic came back and the site hits came back to its thousands. Philip proved to be an integral part of the company. However, with Philip taking over as the Public Relations role, the company had to yet again revise how it is run.
The DropDead Podcast evolved into a two-hour long podcast, with Phil establishing himself as a favourite character among the loyal DropDead followers. The company generates an average of five thousand hits per month.
DropDead Comedians is going to go through another redesigning process this year (2011). They will be organising a gaming marathon to raise money for the charity, Child’s Play early in the year, they will also start to host their own videos as part of the redesigning process and they are hopeful to resurrect the movies and comics section.
If all goes well, 2011 could prove to be a successful year for DropDead Comedians. The short history of DropDead Comedians can be best described by the quote taken from its website, “We are a Group of friends brought together by a love of all things geeky from video games to comic books. Some of us met each other through War Hammer 40k and through our comics and anime love. Together we are the DropDead Comedians.”
