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game event :: brisbane gamers meetup 2
Brisbane Gamers Meetup 2
The 2nd Brisbane Gamers Meetup is held once again on Yug's balcony at his Valley apartment. Attended by forum members, local developers, and more, it was a fun and memorable event.
Parties are all about timing.
You can organise the most awesome party in the world, invite world class DJ's, import performing monkeys, hire out the U2 Zoo pyrotechnics display ... but at the end of the day, if the timing isn't right, it just won't work, no matter how much you want it to. The timing for this however, the 2nd Brisbane Gamers Meetup, turned out to be just right.
A quick reminder on what these meetups are about and why we throw them. I'm of the firm belief that not all gamers out there are stereotypical white pasty nerds with zero social skills. Some are, of course, and there's nothing wrong with it, but things have changed and that’s not a fair general representation anymore. Far from it, the majority of passionate gamers I hang out with are the exact same people you would find out at the local clubs or dingy dodgy pubs along with the types who would usually look down on 'gamers'.
The gamers meetups are social events where 'Social Gamers' can get together in a typically non-geeky environment, yet still feel completely comfortable talking about and being passionate about games.
So it was with great pleasure that I decided to open up my apartment in Fortitude Valley to the gaming masses, consisting of video game website forum members, local game developers, and other close friends. The setup consisted of a projector on the balcony with a Wii and Xbox 360, a TV downstairs with a PS2 and PS3, SingStar, Guitar Hero, and DDR, as well as a BBQ and a Ball Pit. Yes, a ball pit.
Lauren (THQ) showcases the ballpit
There is a surprising amount of preparation that goes into an event like this, and the week leading up to it involved borrowing all manner of equipment, from TV's to Marquees, as well as buying more balls for the ballpit, the inflatable pool, and even more liquid for the smoke machine.
Friday afternoon I arrived home to find Phil (our other Brisbane Team Member) waiting patiently for me on the steps. I quickly set him to work unlocking songs on the recently purchased Guitar Hero 3, and once WaLLy3K from the GameArena Forums turned up, we quickly set to work emptying the bins on the balcony (that hadn't been emptied since the last party - 3 months ago) and blowing up the inflatable pool for the ball pit.
People started to arrive just as the sun went down.
More and more people started to turn up, including my girlfriend Lauren (THQ Studios Australia), Gaute (Krome Studios), Tim (AG Forums), Matt (the other half of AG), Hinee (GameArena Forums) and a few friends from my work in the Valley. As the sun went down, the projector on the balcony was switched on, and from that moment pretty much permanently stuck on 4 player Wii Sports.
Pras, Kim and some other people from the Creative Assembly turned up, just in time to help Matt and his housemate Alex start the BBQ for the hungry masses. It was around this time that things started to get a little blurry for me, although I'll do my best to remember who was where.
MMMmmmmm, BBQ goodness.
A bunch of Auran people turned up of course: Ashwin, JB, Joseph, Chris, Grant, Lionel, and more. Also representing were Pandemic, with Gordon turning up early followed by new employee Michael and the rest of his crew. THQ had Lozza and Mick representing, and Half Brick had Mick and Simon turn up as well. A big crew of Krome people arrived later on, including Ben, Jared, Leah and Liz, and a bunch of others whose names escape me. It was also great to see an appearance by Alex, Travis and the Fuzzyeyes boys, who provided some hilarious moments throughout the night.
From the gaming forums, Hawk and a few others from the GameArena forums arrived eventually, although we got no photos of him fooling around with his girlfriend in the ballpit this time. ZNMS and nihilcreative were the only people from PALGN to turn up as far as I could tell, but then again, by that point I was well into my 2nd pack of bourbons so I could be mistaken. Of course, the AustralianGamer forums were well represented, with EdgeCrusher, Newsworthy, Celendil, and Coxster all putting in a stellar performance. Great to put some faces to the new nicknames, and excellent to see some of the older members again (even if I didn't recognise Edge because of the haircut).
Wii Sports on the balcony was a definite winner
Guitar Hero 3 received a good flogging on the TV downstairs, before some Krome-ites turned up and demanded to put on a bit of SingStar. The ballpit was alot less dangerous this time around, however much more spacious, making it the surprisingly chilled area for the night (unless Ashwin was there, then you'd keep getting balls to the face .............).
The ballpit, as taken over by Hinee, Hawk and WaLLy3K (all from GameArena forums) and Kim (Creative Assembly)
We also gave Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games a go on the projector upstairs, but it just didn't quite go down as well, seeming to use even LESS skill to play than Wii Sports, leading to some frustrated runner ups during the events. The Xbox 360 eventually got moved downstairs where some brave souls played some of Portal for a bit, before they realised it probably wasn't the most appropriate game for the evening.
At some point during the evening, I had the brilliant (see: not so brilliant) idea to do our podcast live from the event. As my room doubles as the walk through to the balcony, this proved to be slightly more difficult than expected, not helped by the small crowd of people who decided to stay in my room to contribute to it. It might be slightly disjointed and the noise levels vary, but see how you go and have a listen to it here. Be prepared for some candid opinions on Games, Gamespot and Auran from the local developers.
Yug, Phil and Matt during the live podcast!
Well after midnight the party was still kicking on, however, without hardly any warning at all, it began to rain. And I don't mean it started to sprinkle and then lead up to something, I mean all of a sudden it wasn't raining, and then suddenly it was pouring down. Luckily we got all the electronic equipment out of the rain in time, but the rest of the balcony and terrace were absolutely soaked - more than soaked, they actually started to fill up with water as the drains were no match for the torrents of water. You may think this would deter anyone from using the balcony, but on the contrary, quite a few people felt it was the perfect opportunity to try out a few powerslids, flying eagles, and general rock moves in the rain (see our YouTube coverage - explicit language warning).
Yeah, you could say it rained 'just a little bit'.
After the thrill of running around in the rain wore off, the final few people from the meetup collectively met downstairs to chill out, with Dave falling asleep holding a guitar hero guitar, and Chris falling down the stairs and tearing the tendons in his shoulder (took us awhile to realise he was LEGITIMATELY in pain as well, the bastards we are). Everyone eventually took off, leaving myself and Lauren to go to sleep and wake up the next morning to clean up the mess!
Thank you to everyone who came, I hope you had a fantastic night and will be keen to come along to future meetups next year! Feel free to post any of the photos from the event in the official forum, along with people's names and any descriptions.
You can organise the most awesome party in the world, invite world class DJ's, import performing monkeys, hire out the U2 Zoo pyrotechnics display ... but at the end of the day, if the timing isn't right, it just won't work, no matter how much you want it to. The timing for this however, the 2nd Brisbane Gamers Meetup, turned out to be just right.
A quick reminder on what these meetups are about and why we throw them. I'm of the firm belief that not all gamers out there are stereotypical white pasty nerds with zero social skills. Some are, of course, and there's nothing wrong with it, but things have changed and that’s not a fair general representation anymore. Far from it, the majority of passionate gamers I hang out with are the exact same people you would find out at the local clubs or dingy dodgy pubs along with the types who would usually look down on 'gamers'.
The gamers meetups are social events where 'Social Gamers' can get together in a typically non-geeky environment, yet still feel completely comfortable talking about and being passionate about games.
So it was with great pleasure that I decided to open up my apartment in Fortitude Valley to the gaming masses, consisting of video game website forum members, local game developers, and other close friends. The setup consisted of a projector on the balcony with a Wii and Xbox 360, a TV downstairs with a PS2 and PS3, SingStar, Guitar Hero, and DDR, as well as a BBQ and a Ball Pit. Yes, a ball pit.
Lauren (THQ) showcases the ballpit
There is a surprising amount of preparation that goes into an event like this, and the week leading up to it involved borrowing all manner of equipment, from TV's to Marquees, as well as buying more balls for the ballpit, the inflatable pool, and even more liquid for the smoke machine.
Friday afternoon I arrived home to find Phil (our other Brisbane Team Member) waiting patiently for me on the steps. I quickly set him to work unlocking songs on the recently purchased Guitar Hero 3, and once WaLLy3K from the GameArena Forums turned up, we quickly set to work emptying the bins on the balcony (that hadn't been emptied since the last party - 3 months ago) and blowing up the inflatable pool for the ball pit.
People started to arrive just as the sun went down.
More and more people started to turn up, including my girlfriend Lauren (THQ Studios Australia), Gaute (Krome Studios), Tim (AG Forums), Matt (the other half of AG), Hinee (GameArena Forums) and a few friends from my work in the Valley. As the sun went down, the projector on the balcony was switched on, and from that moment pretty much permanently stuck on 4 player Wii Sports.
Pras, Kim and some other people from the Creative Assembly turned up, just in time to help Matt and his housemate Alex start the BBQ for the hungry masses. It was around this time that things started to get a little blurry for me, although I'll do my best to remember who was where.
MMMmmmmm, BBQ goodness.
A bunch of Auran people turned up of course: Ashwin, JB, Joseph, Chris, Grant, Lionel, and more. Also representing were Pandemic, with Gordon turning up early followed by new employee Michael and the rest of his crew. THQ had Lozza and Mick representing, and Half Brick had Mick and Simon turn up as well. A big crew of Krome people arrived later on, including Ben, Jared, Leah and Liz, and a bunch of others whose names escape me. It was also great to see an appearance by Alex, Travis and the Fuzzyeyes boys, who provided some hilarious moments throughout the night.
From the gaming forums, Hawk and a few others from the GameArena forums arrived eventually, although we got no photos of him fooling around with his girlfriend in the ballpit this time. ZNMS and nihilcreative were the only people from PALGN to turn up as far as I could tell, but then again, by that point I was well into my 2nd pack of bourbons so I could be mistaken. Of course, the AustralianGamer forums were well represented, with EdgeCrusher, Newsworthy, Celendil, and Coxster all putting in a stellar performance. Great to put some faces to the new nicknames, and excellent to see some of the older members again (even if I didn't recognise Edge because of the haircut).
Wii Sports on the balcony was a definite winner
Guitar Hero 3 received a good flogging on the TV downstairs, before some Krome-ites turned up and demanded to put on a bit of SingStar. The ballpit was alot less dangerous this time around, however much more spacious, making it the surprisingly chilled area for the night (unless Ashwin was there, then you'd keep getting balls to the face .............).
The ballpit, as taken over by Hinee, Hawk and WaLLy3K (all from GameArena forums) and Kim (Creative Assembly)
We also gave Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games a go on the projector upstairs, but it just didn't quite go down as well, seeming to use even LESS skill to play than Wii Sports, leading to some frustrated runner ups during the events. The Xbox 360 eventually got moved downstairs where some brave souls played some of Portal for a bit, before they realised it probably wasn't the most appropriate game for the evening.
At some point during the evening, I had the brilliant (see: not so brilliant) idea to do our podcast live from the event. As my room doubles as the walk through to the balcony, this proved to be slightly more difficult than expected, not helped by the small crowd of people who decided to stay in my room to contribute to it. It might be slightly disjointed and the noise levels vary, but see how you go and have a listen to it here. Be prepared for some candid opinions on Games, Gamespot and Auran from the local developers.
Yug, Phil and Matt during the live podcast!
Well after midnight the party was still kicking on, however, without hardly any warning at all, it began to rain. And I don't mean it started to sprinkle and then lead up to something, I mean all of a sudden it wasn't raining, and then suddenly it was pouring down. Luckily we got all the electronic equipment out of the rain in time, but the rest of the balcony and terrace were absolutely soaked - more than soaked, they actually started to fill up with water as the drains were no match for the torrents of water. You may think this would deter anyone from using the balcony, but on the contrary, quite a few people felt it was the perfect opportunity to try out a few powerslids, flying eagles, and general rock moves in the rain (see our YouTube coverage - explicit language warning).
Yeah, you could say it rained 'just a little bit'.
After the thrill of running around in the rain wore off, the final few people from the meetup collectively met downstairs to chill out, with Dave falling asleep holding a guitar hero guitar, and Chris falling down the stairs and tearing the tendons in his shoulder (took us awhile to realise he was LEGITIMATELY in pain as well, the bastards we are). Everyone eventually took off, leaving myself and Lauren to go to sleep and wake up the next morning to clean up the mess!
Thank you to everyone who came, I hope you had a fantastic night and will be keen to come along to future meetups next year! Feel free to post any of the photos from the event in the official forum, along with people's names and any descriptions.