Well I had a lovely weekend: played some Rock Band, tried out the free demo of American McGee's Grimm, and enjoyed the pleasantly cool weather of San Francisco; however, the highlight of the weekend was heading down to the Castro,but not to see the normal gay bar scene, this weekend it was for a gamer meet-up. Turns out site visitors Sketch Raven and posse from San Diego, along with a number of pleasant gay gamers from the sites Gaymers.org and Gaymers.ning.org, setup a gamer get together at the Cove Cafe on Castro. After the place closed at 9pm, we had the whole Cafe to ourselves, along with the 3 or 4 large screen LCDs that occupy the walls of the cafe. Thanks to the staff at The Cove, and Luis (LatinGayPlayer) we had a number of systems hooked up to the different TVs and people were playing games ranging from Guitar Hero, to Sonic, to Super Smash Bros., to Soul Calibur.
I was also happy to meet the numerous GayGamers that were at the event along with all the people that came from the two Gaymers sites; overall it seemed there were well over 30 people there. I even met our own SgtSausagePants at the event for the first time since he's moved out to the bay area. I especially enjoyed whipping out my Nintendo DS and playing some Elite Beat Agents with three other people that had the foresight to bring their DSes to the event. There were goodies, there were drinks, and there were plenty of gay gaming men (all of them quite handsome as you can see from the pictures). I was hoping at some point Singstar would be whipped out, cause we all know how great it is to hear drunken gay men try and sing It's Raining Men, but sadly it didn't happen. I had to leave a bit early to meet up with some friends, but I heard they went out to a few of the clubs in the Castro after the gaming wore down. Good times were had by all and hopefully we can do plenty more in the future. A big thanks to the all the guys that put it together and that helped put up the money to use the Cove.
This event has me even more pumped up for PAX happening at the end of the month. There will be a GayGamer.net meet-up at PAX and we'll be sure to let you know more about it as we get more definite plans.
Once again, Gay Gamer's own Julie McCoy, NYDan83, threw together another bitchin' meetup, this time out at Coney Island in Brooklyn! It was initially scheduled for Saturday, but when the heavens decided to open up and rain like there was no tomorrow, we rescheduled for, well, tomorrow! Of course, as you can see from the photo above, you can take the Gay Gamers away from their video game consoles, but you can't take the gaming out of their hearts!
We met by the famous Nathans, and some even braved their hot dogs and french fries. Then it was off for a walk on the boardwalk where we took in the sights and stopped for a ride on the Wonder Wheel. Well, for some of us. Those too chicken to go on a ferris wheel opted to hang out in the arcade. Then it was off to the Cyclone, where again, only half the group were brave enough to risk their lives on the world's scariest, most ricketiest wooden roller coaster. (Just because there's no loops, don't think it's not one of the scariest coasters you'll ever ride!) Then there was another split as some opted to stay on the boardwalk and even ride a couple more rides (that seemed more crazily dangerous than the Cyclone) while the others went to relax on the beach and soak up some rays. Eventually everyone hung out on the sand enjoying the scenery (and I'm not talking about the sand, surf or women) while chatting away into the evening. Ultimately, the day was capped off by stopping off for dinner. Of course, the pizza place that came so highly recommended was full up and not really able to accommodate all 13 of us, so we ended up at a Chinese buffet. And after having so much fun, as we were all getting ready to go our separate ways, there was already talk about organizing another one! Poor Dan...
Jonostarsmore here from sister site Pink Kryptonite!
If you will be in the San Diego area, the official Pink Kryptonite meet up has been organized and set! Co-hosting will be our good friends from Prism Comics.
The original PK posting is below
Pink Kryptonite and Prism Comics will be co-hosting the official evening LGBT geek meet up on Saturday night at 10:00PM at Flicks!
Come and mingle with both creators and fans!
Who: Prism, PK and anyone else who's into all things Comic-Con!
What: A social gathering!
When: Saturday, July 26th @ 10:00PM
Where: Flicks in San Diego! 1017 University Ave, San Diego, CA 92103 (take a cab!)
Jonostarsmore and Sgt. Sausagepants will be on hand as representatives of PK!
Be sure to be there Saturday night!
I received an email on Friday from Richard Taylor of the ESA alerting me to further game-related legal shenanigans going on in New York state. State senator Andrew Lanza has put forward a bill to use public tax money to investigate video games - specifically, to investigate statistics that we've already got, and also to mandate parental controls on all game consoles (which current-gen systems already implement, making the point moot) and requiring rated games to have a rating label on the package. Don't we already do that?
But of course we've already got these answers from the recent FTC report that proved that game retailers have an 80% success rate in preventing the sale of M-rated games to minors - far better than movie theatres do on R-rated films (65%) or retailers selling R-rated DVDs (53%).
So not only does Senator Lanza's bill needlessly stoke the flames of the violence-in-games debate, it's also redundant and wasteful. Which is why the Video Game Voters Network is mobilizing gamers and the rational-minded to write leaders in the state's assembly and senate.
Check out the VGVN site, where taking action against Lanza's wasteful self-promotion is as easy as a few keystrokes.
In the past we've only publicized meet-ups that writers will be attending, but there are a healthy number of reader organized meet-ups that are coordinated in our forum. I've been intending to highlight some of these meet-ups for sometime now, but I'm going to finally take some time away from my work behind the scenes to do so.
I've been asked to relay information about two meet-ups coming up, one in Chicago and the other in San Jose.
From MuddBstrd:
The Video Games Live! concert is coming to San Jose on Aug 26. I was thinking this might make a great event to have a SF Bay Area meet-up.
Tickets can be purchased here: http://www.nvision2008.com/Professionals/nvision-concert.cfm
The event is part of the Nvision 08 conference, but you don't need to attend the conference to buy a ticket. Also, seating is first-come, first-served, so if we meet up beforehand we can sit together as a group.
If you're interested, post a reply. I've already bought a ticket, so I'm going regardless.
Philippe writes:
I'm writing to say that we in Chicago are having our next monthly meetup, coinciding with Chicago Pride, on Sunday 29 June at 5:00 p.m. at Guthrie's Tavern, 1300 W. Addison St. It's our eighteenth meetup.
These notices and related discussion can be found on our forum. Click here for Chicago and San Jose.
