Dallas/Ft. Worth Area Meetups and Coordination

There’s been interest in an International GWJ Day meetup for the DFW area, so I’m creating a thread for coordination and so others can express interest. Based on conversations, it sounds like the official IGWJ day on 10/19 probably won’t work for many of us, so we may punt it back a week to 10/26 (the following Saturday).

I want to do a bit of a brainstorming session to figure out places we could meet and things people want to do. Since DFW runs pretty wide, I think meeting in somewhere centrally located would make it easy for more people to attend, maybe like Grapevine, Irving, Bedford, etc. But I’m sure we’re all used to driving long distances around here.

So far, here's what I've come up with:

There’s a few escape rooms in Grapevine we could do. We could do Escape the Room which has some fun looking themes, or we could go to Corky’s Gaming Bistro, which has escape rooms, a large arcade, and axe throwing. (I’ve already done the Alcatraz escape room there)
https://theescapegame.com/dallas/esc...
https://corkysgamingbistro.com/

If we want to do board games, Madness in Plano is probably the best place, but it’ll be a hike for anyone on the west side of the metroplex. Generation X Comics and Games in Bedford looks like an alright option that’s more in the middle.
http://www.madnessgames.com/
https://geekandsundry.com/table-top-...

And for food, Hard 8 BBQ in Coppell is good. Just throwing it out there.

What do the rest of you think?

I'm definitely good with Corky's and I'd be willing to drive up from Keller over to Madness to hang out with ya'll. GenX is a good option as well. Sorta depends on where everyone is coming from.

As for food...can't go wrong with Hard Eight.

I’ll have to get a hall pass from the wife, but I’ll be back from work travel by then. Looking forward to it.

I’m out on the east side of Dallas, just past Rockwall.

I'm in Richardson, so kinda in the middle of you two. I shouldn't have an issue getting a day on the calendar, just need to give enough heads up.

Bumping to give others a chance to see the thread and chime in, and throwing out a couple more ideas.

Corky's is still a really good all-in-one place where we could spend a few hours, but since Vypre is way, way over there we may slide it a bit more towards the east, depending on who else wants to join in.

To that end, there's a few escape rooms in Plano near Madness that we could go to.
https://www.escapeexpert.com/
https://breakoutgames.com/dallas

There's also a few escape rooms near 635 and the turnpike that might be easier for everyone to get to. We would probably have to find other stuff to do afterwards, depending on everyone's interests and availability.
https://ultimateescapegame.com/dallas/
https://canyouescapethis.com/
https://escapetheroom.com/dallas-for...

We could always just spend an hour playing Space Team on our phones.

Have fun with DFW iGWJ Day!
Wish I'd looked y'all up when Beldera and I were in Dallas for six months back in...2011'ish?
Glad to have made the connection with Scottish via PAX South shenanigans tho'!

Couldn't agree more, PewPew. If you and Beldera are ever back down this way, be sure to give me a call. Lots of new board games that need some table time! (that extends to the rest of ya'll in DFW, too!)

I’m a maybe at the moment. I might be working that day, but I’m on the far west side of Fort Worth so if anything is in Plano, that’s a bit of a haul for me.

With that, I think it makes sense to meet at Corky's in Grapevine, since that's the most centralized option for everyone on the far sides of the metroplex. So we're still shooting for 10/26 (the week after the official IGWJ day). Does anyone have a preference on time to meet? Maybe early afternoon like 2pm, and then if we run long and want to eat somewhere we can do so. Or if we need to eat with our families instead, we can be done with time to do that too.

If there's any lurkers out there, now's a great time to hop into the thread for coordination.

Update: So to get a bit more information, if we want to do escape rooms at Corky's, it's $29 per person. Axe throwing is $29 per person for a 75 minute session, and if people want to do that we would probably get our own bay. The arcade area is $10 for 1 hour, and $12 for 4 hours. The way the arcade works is you just get a card and can play as much as you want for the time period, so me and a coworker brute forced through House of the Dead 2 that way.

There are also tables there, so if someone wanted to bring a board game or two, we could probably do that as well. I saw no rules against it, and as long as we're paying customers I doubt they would say anything.

Let me know what everyone might be interested in doing.

Alright, so no one has confirmed that they can make it tomorrow yet. If we don't get any confirmations, we can still circle back and do a meetup another weekend that works for everyone.

Sundown wrote:

Alright, so no one has confirmed that they can make it tomorrow yet. If we don't get any confirmations, we can still circle back and do a meetup another weekend that works for everyone.

I’m out of town after all. Like I feared. Sorry :/

This past weekend was a complete blur. Too many kid activities, and not nearly enough free time. At some point, my life might slow down enough that we can all get together.

I ended up getting back from my UK work trip later than expected to be able to make this weekend. Even if it’s not as part of the IGWJD, I’d be happy meeting up with some fellow Goojers whenever we can manage a get-together.

Virtually, I’m mainly working on Ghost Recon: BreakPoint at the moment (Epic username: Vypre_), but I’m always more than happy to jump in to another game or platform (PC or PS4) for some social gaming. More and more, I’m becoming a social gamer in my old age.

So it goes with gamers with jobs and families. I'm still down for meeting up when people know they have availability. I just need about a week heads up to make sure there are no conflicts, and I can generally make sure the time is blocked out for now.

Barring that, I'm also interested in some sort of social gaming with those nearby like Vypre. My only problem is timing; I have maybe an hour of gaming time between 8:00 and 10:00pm weeknights after bedtimes but before prepping for the next day and winding down for going to sleep myself, so I can't really promise on a specific time, which is why I usually play single player games now. Thinking constructively, if we just set aside a night from 9:00 - 9:30, agreeing that it can't run too long, that seems doable.

Weekends I can stay up and play a bit later. I'm on Steam, Epic, and the Switch, and my info should be on my profile.

I could do something like Dauntless or Destiny 2 on PC, neither of which I have put much time into.

I'm also going to rename the thread to be more general to DFW meetups, and move it to Everything Else, since that seems more appropriate now.

I haven't played Dauntless in a while, but definitely enjoyed it and had even more fun playing it with a few other members from GWJ. I'm interested in the new weapon they added in the last update, but haven't had time to check it out yet with other games I'm currently working on and real-life obligations.

Wednesday is my 9th anniversary and the wife and I are going out, but if anyone wants to do an online get-together this evening or some other time this week, I'm usually available 6:30 until whenever I decide to go to bed - usually sometime between 11 and 12.

Here's a quick list of games that may suit the bill for me... (I tend to be more of a co-op PVE sort of gamer, but if I have a group of friends to play with, I may be able to manage some human PVP).

Here's some possibilities for me (I'll add more when I can get home and look through my library):

Ace Combat 7 (PS4/PSVR)
Borderlands 2/Presequel (PC/PS4)
Borderlands 3 (PC)
Conan Exiles (PC)
Creativerse (PC)
Dauntless (PC/PS4)
Destiny (PS4)
Destiny 2 (PC/PS4)
The Division (PS4)
The Division 2 (PS4)
Dungeon Defenders 2 (PC)
Ghost Recon: BreakPoint (PC)
Left 4 Dead (PC)
Left 4 Dead 2 (PC)
Magicka (PC/PS4)
Magicka 2 (PC/PS4)
Neverwinter (PC/PS4)
No Man's Sky (PS4/PSVR)
Orcs Must Die (PC)
Orcs Must Die Unchained (PC/PS4?)
Path of Exile (PC/PS4)
Star Trek Online (PC/PS4)
Team Fortress Classic (PC)
Terraria (PC)
Titanfall 2 (PS4)
Torchlight II (PC)
Trove (PC/PS4)
Warframe (PC/PS4)
Warhammer: Vermintide (PC)

Congrats on your anniversary, Vypre!

Agreed on PVE being preferable at this point, although there are some I’ll still dip in on PVP, but those are usually just casual fun and chaos.

I’ve ginned up a list of what I have or could get for free.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch)
Splatoon 2 (Switch)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)

Battlefield 1 (PC)
Battlefront 2 (2005 and 2017) (PC)
Borderlands 2 (PC)
Dauntless (PC)
Destiny 2 (PC) (haven’t played but it’s free)
The Division 2 (PC) (Haven’t played, but I got it for free awhile back)
Left 4 Dead (PC)
Left 4 Dead 2 (PC)
Magicka (PC)
No Man’s Sky (PC) (only played a little of this, I do want to get back to it sometime)
Offworld Trading Company (PC) (has co-op skirmishes)
Orcs Must Die 2 (PC)
Overcooked (PC) (since steam is now doing that online mode for couch co-op, this might work)
Path of Exile (PC) (haven’t played but it’s free)
Risk of Rain (PC)
Rocket League (PC)
Terraria (PC)
Torchlight 2 (PC)
Warframe (PC/Switch) (haven’t played but it’s free)

And there’s always a comp stomp in strategy games like Stellaris or something, with the difficulty down and the game speed up.

And I just realized that Overcooked 2 has built in online multiplayer, and it’s on sale right now at Fanatical, and will also definitely go on sale again during the coming months. I only played Overcooked 1 for about 2 hours, but it was an absolute blast. This might be a good one to target.