The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.

Pittsburgh PrePostPAX - (GASP games days posted for 2014)

RaughnRaughn Registered User regular
edited February 2014 in PAX General Discussion
Updated 2014-02-08 by zerzhul

Be sure to check out GASP here. It's a regular thing you can plan to attend, and this thread can serve as a place to find out if other forumers are going.

GASP game days for 2014:
  • January 11th
  • February 8th
  • March 8th and 22nd (special bonus game day)
  • April 12th - during pax east, boo
  • May 10th
  • June 14th
  • July 12th
  • August 9th
  • September 13th
  • October 11th
  • November - GASPcon (dates and location to be announced)
  • December 13th

We're not planning anything other than GASP meetups at the moment, but ideas are welcome.

zerzhul on
«1345

Posts

  • psychopezpsychopez Registered User regular
    Yay. Pittsburgh.

    “Myth is the hidden part of every story, the buried part, the region that is still unexplored because there are as yet no words to enable us to get there."

    -Italo Calvino
  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    There's definitely a fair number of PAX folks in the Pittsburgh area. From what I can tell, there's also some number of gaming communities in the area as well. Not sure what the best method is to mesh these things into a good meetup though.

  • Menolly07Menolly07 Registered User regular
    Pittsburgh is a pretty serious gaming hub. Wizards of the East Coast, so many colleges, lots of positive relocation, we definitely have our share of PAXers for sure as well.

    If we would really like to try for a meet-up I would highly suggest skipping a standard restaurant atmosphere. You will give yourself ALL THE HEADACHES trying to pin down commitments for an exact head count for tables, and mingling will be a bitch.

    A better bar or similar with food may be better. The idea is that folks can come in, go, tab up, order food if they like, nobody is stuck to a seat and you won't have a headache trying to count up and arrange anything short of a date. Because, like as not...... This is your baby now, Raughn! You'll probably have to make it happen! :-3

    Still PAXing strong. [E] for lyfe. ELand forever.
    twitter.com/Menolly07
  • RaughnRaughn Registered User regular
    Good call on the bar with food. If anyone knows of an ideal place, please post. I only go into the city for sporting events, concerts, etc., so I don't have a lot of experience with the types of locations that might work best.

    And remember, something just outside the city could work just as well, possibly even better for those of us without a lot of driving experience in and around Pittsburgh.

  • That_Spoony_BardThat_Spoony_Bard Registered User regular
    I'm down for this. I'm moving from Seattle to Pittsburgh in December, would love to meet some new people.

  • melzwaymelzway Registered User regular
    I don't know what anyone thinks about the Robinson/Settlers Ridge area. There's a lot of restaurants in that area. I'm pretty familiar with PGH so I'm really open to anywhere.

  • TurnedtoGoldTurnedtoGold PittsburghRegistered User regular
    We should stay away from the South Side. There's nowhere that would be good to hang out. The Waterfront might be an option.

  • RaughnRaughn Registered User regular
    The Waterfront even has a Dave and Busters, if I'm remembering correctly. That could be ideal. I've never been in one, but if it's anything like a Gameworks, I'm guessing it's pretty open and loosely structured in regards to drink and food orders.

    Melzway, I'm not familiar with the Robinson/Settlers Ridge area. Do you think any particular place there would be a good fit?

    And yeah, definitely no South Side. Every place is small, plus odds are this will be happening on a weekend, and the last time I was on Carson St on a weekend, it was kind of a giant mess, to put it mildly.

  • melzwaymelzway Registered User regular
    edited November 2012
    Most of the restaurants in the Robinson area are the sit-down restaurant/bar type. There is a restaurant in Robinson called Lattitude 40 opening next week. It supposed to have interactive video games, a bowling alley, a small movie theater, and dance floor.

    Dave & Busters could be good cause they have games and activities as well. It's been a while since I've been there but it's a fun place.

    melzway on
  • RaughnRaughn Registered User regular
    melzway wrote: »
    Most of the restaurants in the Robinson area are the sit-down restaurant/bar type. There is a restaurant in Robinson called Lattitude 40 opening next week. It supposed to have interactive video games, a bowling alley, a small movie theater, and dance floor.

    That sounds promising, though I'm afraid all I would have for the dance floor is about 8 seconds of doing the robot. If you get to check it out or hear about it once it opens, let us know if it seems like a good fit.

    It looks like Dave and Busters has contacts specifically to help plan gatherings, I'm going to reach out to them and see if I can get a feel for the best way to do something there.

    I'm also thinking that a faraway weeknight, giving everyone time to plan, might be better than a weekend date when we might have to squeeze in on a busy night. I find that few people work traditional Mon-Fri shifts these days, anyway (myself included). Let me know if anyone has thoughts on that.

    Also, I'm interested in Zerzhul's idea to potentially blend this in with another gaming culture gathering, and once I can make some time to do homework on nearby organizations and what they're doing, I'll post if something seems like a good fit.

  • TurnedtoGoldTurnedtoGold PittsburghRegistered User regular
    @Melzway Lattitude 40 sounds awesome. I think that's our best option. (Dave and Busters is kind of lame.) Is it all ages though? I'm 21, but I don't know how old other people are that would be interested in attending. I'd feel bad excluding people based on age.

    @Raughn If this is a pre-PAX meet-up should we worry about other communities from the get-go? There can always be more than one meet-up. Based on the success and turnout of the first one, the PA PAX community can begin to incorporate other gaming communities. I just think it would be odd to initially incorporate a PAX meet-up with another community, because the point of this is to meet people who are going to PAX.

    Another suggestion for something to do is make a run to the very cool ToonSeum downtown. It's one of three museums in the country solely dedicated to cartoon art.

  • RaughnRaughn Registered User regular
    Just looked-up the Latitude 40 web site (a common sense step you'd think I would have done hours ago), and it does look pretty awesome. I have not yet found any age limit on the site. I'll contact them to confirm, but I'm guessing only the dance club section has an age requirement.

    I have no problems giving it front runner status, unless someone wants to debate the alleged lameness of Dave and Busters. ;)

    TurnedtoGold, you have a good point about keeping it just a PAX thing to start. I also love the ToonSeum idea, I had no idea that existed. To me, the bar/restaurant thing seems more appropriately social for an initial meet-up, then maybe the museum as a sequel? Of course, if there's support to do the museum to start, I can get behind that.

  • Menolly07Menolly07 Registered User regular
    I kind of loathe D&B personally. They barely have games anymore, aside from of the 'gambling' and ticket pay-out variety. For me, at least personally, it'll be more about the meet and greet, so I'm not completely closed minded to D&B.

    Still PAXing strong. [E] for lyfe. ELand forever.
    twitter.com/Menolly07
  • Menolly07Menolly07 Registered User regular
    I know it's short notice, guys, my hubby, may God rest his soul after I get my hands on him (ChaoticMuse), was meant to have post a link but did not apparently. This weekend (Nov 9, 10 & 11th 2012) is GASPCon, not to far from Downtown Pittsburgh. Have a look at it if you like. You may be interested. PreReg is closed, obviously, but On Site is available.

    The short of it: Very table top games-centric. Including RPGs and board games. They have an on-site library but also are cool with folks bringing their own. Something worth considering, as well, they have a monthly Saturday 10AM-10PM GASP gaming day as well. Another great thing the 'Burgh offers the gaming community.

    Still PAXing strong. [E] for lyfe. ELand forever.
    twitter.com/Menolly07
  • RaughnRaughn Registered User regular
    Yeah, that's not enough notice for me to make that event, but it's great to know that this exists, and I might be able to make one of the monthly game days sometime. Thanks!

  • TurnedtoGoldTurnedtoGold PittsburghRegistered User regular
    What time are we planning on doing this? I think the end of December/beginning of January would be good. But I know a lot of people travel during this time for the holidays. Any other ideas?

  • RaughnRaughn Registered User regular
    I was thinking sometime from the middle of January through the middle of February. Let things settle after the holidays, but still have some room between this and PAX East in case we want to plan something else.

    Also, I don't know for sure, but early January is looking like I'll need to have oral surgery. Impacted wisdom teeth. :?

  • Menolly07Menolly07 Registered User regular
    Just not the 18-19-20 of January or around there!! Pleasepleasepleaseplease!!!

    Still PAXing strong. [E] for lyfe. ELand forever.
    twitter.com/Menolly07
  • RaughnRaughn Registered User regular
    No worries Menolly, we can avoid those dates. If anyone else knows of dates in that time-frame that absolutely will not work for them, please speak up, because once I learn more about the venue, narrowing down some dates will be the next step.

  • TurnedtoGoldTurnedtoGold PittsburghRegistered User regular
    I'm a full time student, so I'll only be available on weekends.

  • RaughnRaughn Registered User regular
    I got in touch with someone from Latitude 40, and I think it will work just fine.

    We don't have to worry about any age gates for those under 21, except for the upstairs club area after 10 PM, something I'm sure we can live with.

    Depending on the size of our group, they would be willing to reserve a table in the dining area and have a server assigned to us, with no particular commitment to orders, in case not everyone was in the mood to eat. If the group ends up being pretty small, they think we could probably grab a table in the sports bar.

    So, I'm going to call the location officially locked down. I will update the OP sometime soon, and get notifications out for the Pittsburgh area forumers from the "where you're from" discussion that I haven't seen here yet, then we will work on the date and time.

  • RaughnRaughn Registered User regular
    @melzway, @Zerzhul, @TurnedtoGold, @Psychopez, @Swae, @Unzipped Zebra, @Menolly07, @That_Spoony_Bard, @ChaoticMuse:

    OP is updated with some options, time to decide on a date. Please post your thoughts.

  • That_Spoony_BardThat_Spoony_Bard Registered User regular
    I don't have any input yet, as I don't have work nailed down.

    The 12th is the monthly meetup of GASP, so if anything, I'd say I'm busy that day.

  • Menolly07Menolly07 Registered User regular

    for myself and ChaoticMuse (who is my Mister so I get voting rights for as can be confirmed by multiple other posters because he is useless on the forums and cannot be trusted to show up to vote because he is horrible at remembering this place exists but WILL show up when I tell him to because he is my DD and will want to be there :-3) we would love to toss a preference toward Jan 26th!

    Still PAXing strong. [E] for lyfe. ELand forever.
    twitter.com/Menolly07
  • That_Spoony_BardThat_Spoony_Bard Registered User regular
    I can confirm the above statement. Also, that could have benefited from a TL;DR.

  • Menolly07Menolly07 Registered User regular
    TL;DR Spoony is a silly-goose

    Still PAXing strong. [E] for lyfe. ELand forever.
    twitter.com/Menolly07
  • That_Spoony_BardThat_Spoony_Bard Registered User regular
    My apologies to all silly-gooses and their supporters.

  • TurnedtoGoldTurnedtoGold PittsburghRegistered User regular
    I won't be able to go if it's on a weeknight. I have to do homework throughout the week and have class in the morning, so the 26th is out for me. I can make it that weekend though.

  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited November 2012
    I won't be able to go if it's on a weeknight. I have to do homework throughout the week and have class in the morning, so the 26th is out for me. I can make it that weekend though.

    The 26th of January is a Saturday. I believe all the days listed are Saturdays, in fact.

    zerzhul on
  • blAAAm!!!blAAAm!!! Cleveland, OhioRegistered User regular
    I would love to come to this, it would be even better it I could crash at someones place for the night since my friend no longer goes to Pitt.

  • TurnedtoGoldTurnedtoGold PittsburghRegistered User regular
    Whoops. Accidentally looked at a 2012 calendar. I should be fine for the 26th then!

  • SwaeSwae Registered User regular
    Count me in for this! I might not be able to make February 9, but the other dates are all fine with me.

  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    Since my schedule is always fluctuating, I'll try to make whenever it is, and not vote on a specific date.

  • RaughnRaughn Registered User regular
    January 26th has some support and no objections, so let's call that the date. Also no objections to a 5:30 start, I take it? I'll update the OP.

    Judging by posts so far, it looks safe to assume Menolly07, ChaoticMuse, TurnedtoGold, and Swae are "definites," with Blaaam, zerzhul, and Spoony Bard as "maybes." Please post if your status changes, or if you want to join in and haven't spoken up yet. We're almost at 6 confirmed, which is where Latitude 40 recommended reserving a table.

    And zerzhul, I think I may have accidentally clicked "report" on your post when I went to type this one. Sorry if that actually went through somehow - that would be kind of a funny mistake to make with a mod.

  • psychopezpsychopez Registered User regular
    Sure, that should be doable.

    “Myth is the hidden part of every story, the buried part, the region that is still unexplored because there are as yet no words to enable us to get there."

    -Italo Calvino
  • TurnedtoGoldTurnedtoGold PittsburghRegistered User regular
    I might have a couple larger-ish groups who are interested in coming. All are going to PAX. They're not on the forums, so if the 26th of January is our set date I'll ask them if they're interested in coming. I'll get you a head count as soon as I know numbers.

  • melzwaymelzway Registered User regular
    I'll will try to be there and bring my son since he'll be coming to pax with me. Sounds like it will be fun!

  • ChaoticmuseChaoticmuse Registered User regular
    apparently Menolly is right. forgot the place existed. getting together sounds great though! see you all Saturday! :-)

  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    @chaoticmuse is fantastic at these sorts of things... when they are put in front of him :)

  • RaughnRaughn Registered User regular
    Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and/or staying sane throughout. Looks like we're past six confirmed, including myself, so we will reserve a table.

    Please confirm by Sunday, 1/13/13 if you will be attending, because I plan to make the reservation that week.

Sign In or Register to comment.