Post-PAX get together (DC area)

Ballatik

Since we're not all lucky enough to live less than a damn long flight away from PAX, I was wondering if we've got enough in the Baltimore/DC area that would be interested in some sort of a post-PAX get together. It might just be the post-pax blues talking, but I think even a smallish dinner/gaming/frolic in the park type thing could be nice if we've got others that are interested.

SWATJester

I know there are some of you out here, cause when I took the red-eye back on Sunday night, I saw at least a dozen PAX bags at JFK, and a good many of those got on the plane with me to Reagan, and I saw at least one getting on the plane to Dulles.

NotASenator

Can you guys just let me know where it is going on?

scharf

I'm game. It would be a lot of fun to have a get together. Any ideas? Only thing on the top of my head would be rock band 2 at someone's place.

SWATJester

Thats it? We could Rock Band/GH at someone's house, we could play football on the national mall, we could LAN party somewhere, we could tabletop, we could have a crazy dinner + drinks, we could go to a movie at the Uptown and be completely obnoxious, etc.

GenXer

Yeah man, actually that would be very cool. I'm just 30 minutes outside of downtown DC, so I'd be game. It'd be cool to meet some more gamers in the area who went to / are going back to PAX! Something like Rock Band could be fun to break the ice, or maybe oldschool NES games or something. Tabletop games are also a great way, I agree with SwatJester.

Myself and 3 other NoVA friends are repeat PAX attenders, I think we'd all be interested!

SWATJester

TBH, As long as we can get 3 or 4 people to do this, I'm game. A huge crowd would be awesome but even just 3 or 4 people would be awesome, as long as we get it going and get a jump on.

GenXer, if you can get your NoVA friends up here, that'd be awesome.

So there's 4 major things that need to be done to make this happen.

1. Pick a date.
2. Pick a location.
3. Pick what we're doing.
4. Confirm attendees, and then rock the fuck out.

My suggestions include some football on the mall (always fun), or ESPN Zone (too bad we don't have anything like gameworks as far as I know), rock band (can be done at someone's place...I'd offer mine but it's a basement which means too cluttered to set up stuff), and tabletopping (can be done pretty much anywhere, though obviously indoors is preferred.)

Lets here y'alls thoughts?

Ballatik

I would vote for dinner and drinks and/or some sort of tabletop. As much as I love the mall, my football skills are...lacking. I think the closest thing to an actual sport that I am functional in is frisbee. I am in the restaurant biz so the scheduling is a bit wacky, but if we can get some dates together I can see what's doable.

SWATJester

To get the ball rolling, lets aim for last week of September or First week of October.

PeasantDave

I'm from Jersey, but depending on where this ended up being I might make the trip. Don't count me as definite though.

Sigma2

I'd love to go- especially to keep that PAX flame alive, but unless it takes place in the first week of October- and even then probably in the first days of that week, I doubt I'd be able to make it.

I'm only in DC for a day or so, so far, in my planned road trip.

GenXer

Lessee, thoughts.

We do have something that's at least similar to GameWorks - Dave & Busters! I know there's one at White Flint mall, that's the one I've been to most recently. There's another one at Arundel Mills actually, I think. Can be pretty crazy and hard to get into on weekends, but if people would be up for tues-thurs night, those are usually the least busy (which means more games open!).

This might be a good place for a first gathering so no one person has to play host right off the bat. First week in October would work for me as far as I know. Baltimore ComicCon is coming up on the 27th and 28th, so the week leading up to that's a little busy on my calendar.

mentok1982

I live in teh Baltimore. I am interested in this.

If we can't do Dave and Busters, here is what I got in my apartment:

Full size black and red ping pong table. Ready for 4 player matches.
Xbox 360 Elite with Rock Band 1 and 2 (Rock Band 1 instruments, 1 guitar)
PS3 20GB
Powerful Quad Core gaming PC
Living room has a 37" 1080p Sharp LCD with Yamaha 5.1 sound
My bed room has an old 20" SD tube TV (classic gaming?)
Mountain Dew, Pepsi and Cherry Pepsi (Grenadine and cherries) on tap!
Kitchen table seats 4 for table top gaming.

I have a toaster oven that I can use to make appetizers like chicken wings, mozzarella sticks,
poppers of various types and fried mushrooms.

I don't drink but you guys can drink as much as you want (if you are 21) if you can get home
safely. Smoking can be done on my porch only.

I could probably host up to 20 people.

Does that sound interesting?

mentok1982

I am busy on Sunday September the 28th (Six Flags!!) but I am free on:

September 20th and 21st
September 27th
Any weekend in October except for October 10-13 (Cedar Point PAX forum meet-up!).

Those dates also work if we do something at my place (see previous post).

SWATJester

Dave and Busters is perfect (I didn't know there was one in White Flint) since not only is it near enough to the metro for DC people, but it lets us figure out the hosting thing later once we're more familiar with each other, and we can do everything all at the same time.

I'm more than willing to go make the reservations there for something like a party room so our stuff is secure, (I'll throw down if theres a fee, and take voluntary donations to recoup) so lets figure out a time.

Ballatik

Dave and Busters sounds good to me, and google says that white flint is only 40 minutes from here which works. Arundel mills has one, and that's closer to me but sounds like further for the majority. Besides, I work in that mall, I am happy to go to a different one on my days off.

I see two votes for the first week in october. I'll have to consult my wife, but I'm pretty sure we're free then. Some time tues-thurs would be good, I can probably get myself off of work one of those.

mentok1982

The "Bethesda" (White Flint Mall 11301 Rockville Pike, Suite 300 Kensington , MD 20895) location is 57 minutes
or 47.40 miles away from me.

The Hanover (7000 Arundel Mills Circle Suite D-1 Hanover , MD 21076) location is 35 minutes or 24.77 miles
away from me.

I will show up at either location.

SWATJester

I'd suggest the White Flint location, due to proximity to the metro.

mentok1982

SWATJester wrote: »

I'd suggest the White Flint location, due to proximity to the metro.

There are 7 people posting in the thread and three of us can go to the White Flint location. What about the other 4?

SWATJester

Have they said anything yet?

Sigma2

Location isn't a problem for me, so I can make it to the White Flint location.

But I'm more hampered by date- if it's early in the week, say Sunday/Monday/Tuesday (2008/9/28-30), I can definitely make it, but later than that and I'll have to be moving on to the next locale on the Road Trip, probably.

With a confirmed date I can make a proper risk/reward assessment.

Ballatik

Sounds like tuesday would be the overlap between your schedule and the avoid-the-busy-times concern. Any issues with that, or should we trying to firm it up?

Sigma2

Yeah, that sounds good to me.

On a somewhat related topic- does anyone have any recommendations for things to see in the DC area- beyond all the obvious tourist stuff?

mentok1982

Sigma2 wrote: »

Yeah, that sounds good to me.

On a somewhat related topic- does anyone have any recommendations for things to see in the DC area- beyond all the obvious tourist stuff?

Every hour on the hour local performers stab, rob and rape people. Be sure to get plenty of pictures of that.
They love it when you take photos of their "crimes".

SWATJester

Sigma2 wrote: »

Yeah, that sounds good to me.

On a somewhat related topic- does anyone have any recommendations for things to see in the DC area- beyond all the obvious tourist stuff?

Homeless people playing chess in Dupont Circle is always a trip.

SWATJester

Ballatik wrote: »

Sounds like tuesday would be the overlap between your schedule and the avoid-the-busy-times concern. Any issues with that, or should we trying to firm it up?

Yeah issue on my end, Tuesday at that time does not work for me. Why are we doing it on a weekday anyway, why wouldn't we be trying for a weekend? Sundays would seem like a good day, since sunday evenings are not usually crowded.

mentok1982

SWATJester wrote: »

Ballatik wrote: »

Sounds like tuesday would be the overlap between your schedule and the avoid-the-busy-times concern. Any issues with that, or should we trying to firm it up?

Yeah issue on my end, Tuesday at that time does not work for me. Why are we doing it on a weekday anyway, why wouldn't we be trying for a weekend? Sundays would seem like a good day, since sunday evenings are not usually crowded.

A Sunday that is not 9-28 or 10-12 will work for me.

SWATJester

mentok1982 wrote: »

SWATJester wrote: »

Ballatik wrote: »

Sounds like tuesday would be the overlap between your schedule and the avoid-the-busy-times concern. Any issues with that, or should we trying to firm it up?

Yeah issue on my end, Tuesday at that time does not work for me. Why are we doing it on a weekday anyway, why wouldn't we be trying for a weekend? Sundays would seem like a good day, since sunday evenings are not usually crowded.

A Sunday that is not 9-28 or 10-12 will work for me.

Would Sunday 10-5 at 6pm work for anyone?

Sigma2

It wouldn't work for me, but in fairness, you can't please all the people all the time- so it's probably for the best that I be excluded from the discussion from this point on.

Have a good time though guys- and give a report back on here after it's done!

SWATJester

Well there's not that many of us, so potentially we can please everybody.

mentok1982

SWATJester wrote: »

Would Sunday 10-5 at 6pm work for anyone?

Yes that would. I reserve the right to be there before 6pm though.

SWATJester

Does Sunday the 5th at 6pm (ish) work for Ballatik, scharf, and GenXer?

Ballatik

I work that night so it won't work for me, but it works for everyone else just make sure you send me pictures.

GenXer

See what happens when I forget to check the forums for a few days? All sorts of awesome ideas. Yep, Sunday the 5th at 6ish at D&B in White Flint works fine for me, I should be able to be there. I'll try to rally my friends that went to PAX this year as well, since they are in the area. 8-)

GenXer

Just a quick check to see if we're on for tonight, or if we're gonna pick a different day?

mentok1982

GenXer wrote: »

Just a quick check to see if we're on for tonight, or if we're gonna pick a different day?

I will be there near a main entrance (I think there are two on opposite sides of the building) with jeans and my
Black Mantle hoodie on. Should I print out a sign that says PAX on it as well?

I am bringing 55 tickets with me leftover from my last Dave and Busters visit. Maybe at the end of the night we
can pool all of our tickets and get something sweet.

Remember guys. We are going to the White Flint location.

GenXer

Got some bad news for tonight, looks like it'd be just me, as my friends have other plans or aren't available. Also, the GF is ill, so I am gonna stick around here for tonight. Hopefully you'll get a chance to read this before you leave mentok. Also, maybe we can find another night soon that'll work?

mentok1982

You guys suck at this whole meeting in a place at a time thing.

I can see that GenXer had a late cancelation, but what about the rest of you? I wanted in front of the main
entrance to Dave and Busters inside the mall from 5:45 to 6:30PM with a sign next to me that said PAX, and
no one approached me.

I had a delicious dinner and I played 2 super fun gun games. I played all the way through a Star Trek Voyager
gun game in which the sprites were comprised of maybe 30 to 40 polygons. And I made it half way through a
newer Aliens gun game. That was cool. The guns kick when you shoot and there are buttons for grenades and
for your flame thrower.

Also ski ball.

You should have been there. It would have been fun shooting our way through one of those games together.

SWATJester

Ah, sorry, we went so long without any confirmations on the new date that I assumed it was off.