IGWJD2019: Minneapolis/St. Paul Regional Gathering

Following Amoebic's lead, inspired by interest from lunchbox12682 and Blisters, here is a thread to figure out who wants to come out and play. This discussion and gathering is open to anyone in the Minneapolis/St. Paul/Surrounding Region that's interested in participating in the International GWJ Day on October 19, 2019.

I'm wide open to options and locations, so feel free to brainstorm with me and we'll see what appeals to the crew. Some ideas off the top of my head:

  • LAN Party
  • Board/card games at a coffee shop/tap room
  • Axe Throwing (Bad Axe, others)
  • Escape Room (several around the area)
  • VR Lounge (Rem5)

Other ideas? Feedback on these?

Thanks for making the thread.
I can look at hosting a board game thing, but I am down in Prior Lake.
However, I am open to other options too.

Hey! I’m new to the community and I’m in Minneapolis myself! Personally, I’m a big fan of Up-Down in Uptown, but I really only go during off-hours otherwise it’s too crazy. There’s also supposed to be a decent pinball bar near Eat Street (Tilt!) that could be worth checking out?

I’m up for whatever, and I’ve got a Switch I’d be happy to bring if that’s needed! Is there any sort of meta-event happening (like a livestream or something)?

Cheers!

Hey, waves!

Thanks for posting. Now we've got 3.

waves wrote:

Hey! I’m new to the community and I’m in Minneapolis myself!

Welcome to a great community. I'm glad you're jumping in and stepping up!

waves wrote:

Personally, I’m a big fan of Up-Down in Uptown, but I really only go during off-hours otherwise it’s too crazy. There’s also supposed to be a decent pinball bar near Eat Street (Tilt!) that could be worth checking out?

I’m up for whatever, and I’ve got a Switch I’d be happy to bring if that’s needed! Is there any sort of meta-event happening (like a livestream or something)?

All of that sounds like fun, as does lunchbox12682's gracious offer to host. I'd be up for any of that. Let's see if we get a few more replies before making any final decisions.

Yes, something meta will be happening but that's still shaping up over in the main IGWJD2019 thread.

There's Fallout Shelter Arcade, Battletech pods in NorthEast Minneapolis, owned by friends of mine.

Long time podcast listener, but first time participant.

If like to attend this gathering to test the waters, but I may not have availability.

I'm down for boardgames.

Put me down as tentative!

Tilt is a must for pinball fans. It is four blocks from the Minneapolis Institute of Art museum.

I'm good with Tilt since it is more centrally located.

I know at first I was interested in joining everyone, but I had something come up so unfortunately I will be unable to attend with all of you. Hopefully we do this again in the future and I can join everyone!

Great input from great people - Up-Down, Tilt, Fallout Shelter Arcade, etc. Thanks, everyone, for making suggestions!

How about we plan to vote at the end of September to finalize our time and place? I'm hoping a few more gamers will join the conversation in the next week or two.

Thanks to all who have posted, so far!

I like RawkGWJ's plan for the LA/Orange County gathering to meet in the afternoon from noon to 4 p.m. There will be smaller crowds making it easier to play, chat, eat, and drink. Anyone have strong feelings for an alternate time slot?

We have several good suggestions, but I'm going to pare it down to three options with some pros and cons associated with each. Everyone that plans to attend please state your preference. You can vote for your top pick or rank your preferences 1, 2, and 3.

Tilt: http://www.tiltpinballbar.com/
Pros: Centrally Located, Food Drink Options
Cons: Exclusively pinball, ages 21 and over

Up-Down Arcade: https://www.updownarcadebar.com/minn...
Pros: Centrally Located, Food Drink Options, Pinball, Video Games
Cons: Ages 21 and over

Fallout Shelter Arcade: https://www.falloutshelterarcade.com/
Pros: Battle Pods! No age restrictions. Some board/arcade games available, for those not playing.
Cons: More expensive than the other options. Opens at 1 p.m. Saturday so we'd need to shift our start time a bit.

So far we have interest from gorilla, lunchbox12682, waves, Rainsmercy, and Sowelu (tentative). Is everybody over 21? That's a requirement for both Tilt and Up-Down.

fledermaus since you list Seattle as home, am I correct to leave you off the list of attendees?

Blisters, thanks for letting us know about your conflict. Sorry you won't be able to make it, but understand that life happens. Maybe next time.

Any lurkers following along at home, please know you are welcome to join us. No RSVP required. The more the merrier!

Thanks for taking charge, gorilla!

If 21+ isn't a problem (I'm over 21), I'd rank my votes as

1 - Up-Down
2 - Fallout Shelter
3 - Tilt

Also it seems that due to a road closure, Fallout Shelter is offering 1/2 price 4 and 8 mission packs! (I don't know what a 'mission' is, but that might help bring the cost down to a more reasonable level). Up-Down is token based, and has a huge variety of brews (and pretty tasty pizza)!

Noon-4 (or 1-? if Fallout Shelter) works well for me!

I think I lean more towards updown or tilt over shelter, but I can be flexible.

For Fallout Shelter:
One mission is 10 minutes of all you can kill others/all you can die.....once you die, you just respawn somewhere else on the map. Games are usually free for all, everybody vs everybody but occasionally they do a team match or something like a king of the hill/hold the flag the longest.

They also have Groupons sometimes as well.

Unfortunately I think I have to bow out due to a family conflict.
If you guys are still going later in the evening, I may be able to catch up.

Edit: Nevermind

Let's plan to meet at Up-Down Arcade noon-ish on Saturday, October 19. Looking forward to it!

Friends and SOs are welcome to join us. We're looking to be inclusive and show off how awesome GWJ people are. Feel free to extend invitations to those that might enjoy some fun with us.

I'll be moving to the metro area this weekend, and hope to be settled enough to attend the 19th.

Up/Down sounds fun. How are we identifying our group? Are reservations needed for our gathering?

Might want to call ahead, I don't know if they allow people to book the whole place, but just in case, make sure they will be open. Also apparently Saturday's are 2 for 1 on tokens till 9pm. I can't commit to making it at this point, my c# class is killing me and I have a project due on the 22nd. We'll see how close I am to completing it at that point.

Looking forward to it!

Looks like they open at 11am on Saturday, so it shouldn't be too crowded at noon! I don't think they take reservations (there aren't really tables), but I can give them a call and let them know we'll have a handful of people coming around noon.

I was just looking into getting custom wrist sweatbands or something like that, but I didn't spend too much time on it. Any other thoughts for identification?

The Up-Down web site mentions allowing private bookings before 3 p.m. on weekdays, but no mention of something similar on weekends. We're a small contingent and it's early in the day so we shouldn't have too much trouble carving out some space.

waves, thanks for the offer to call. Let us know what you find out.

waves wrote:

I was just looking into getting custom wrist sweatbands or something like that, but I didn't spend too much time on it. Any other thoughts for identification?

"Hi, my name is Stan" stickers? I'll bring the blank stickers and a Sharpie if people want to go that route. Cheap, simple, visible. It's even a thing.

Along other planning topics - how do we want to connect to the larger event? Tweet a photo? Record a greeting? Stream a multi-player arcade session? Other ideas?

Hi! if you want to share photos or record video and share on twitter or instagram, include #gamerswithjobs #igwjd2019 and #gwj and I can pick it up and share it around with the official twitter and instagram accounts for others to see. We will be streaming a podcast to twitch at 8pm est, so if groups are gathered at that time they can hop in the channel and chat with each other! <3

If there are folk who wants their streams to be hosted during an available time on the broadcasting list here, let me know

Hi, first post, although I've been listening to the podcast for over a year.

Just wanted to thank Gorilla for the shout out on this week's podcast welcoming Minneapolis/St. Paul GWJers to join in this thread. Unfortunately, I'm unavailable (scheduled the same time as MEA weekend, so I'm out of town, and doubly busy because it's my son's birthday!), but it did inspire me to finally register and post on the forums. Hopefully I can meet up with you all some other time.

Oh my gosh, hi!

Sasu wrote:

Hi, first post, although I've been listening to the podcast for over a year.

Just wanted to thank Gorilla for the shout out on this week's podcast welcoming Minneapolis/St. Paul GWJers to join in this thread. Unfortunately, I'm unavailable (scheduled the same time as MEA weekend, so I'm out of town, and doubly busy because it's my son's birthday!), but it did inspire me to finally register and post on the forums. Hopefully I can meet up with you all some other time.

Super cool! Welcome!

Sorry we'll miss you next Saturday, but totally understand heading out of town over the long weekend. Have a great time and hopefully we'll connect somewhere down the road.

I'm sorry, but I'll not be able to attend this time. Moving into the new house has been overwhelming. Too much to do and not enough hours in the day.

Sowelu wrote:

I'm sorry, but I'll not be able to attend this time. Moving into the new house has been overwhelming. Too much to do and not enough hours in the day.

Sorry to hear it, but I know how stressful moving can be. We'll put a 1981 quarter on the Pac-Man machine for you, just in case.

For those that will be attending look for my "Hi, my name is Stan" sticker. I'll have enough for everyone.

waves, if you've pursued another identifier, please bring those along, too. It's fine if that didn't happen, though.

Looking forward to seeing a few local Gamers on Saturday!

I like the "Hi, my name is Stan" idea--no need for more work on my end there

I haven't been able to get a hold of anyone at Up-Down over the past few days, but I'm sure they won't mind a handful of folks, especially early in the day. I'll keep trying regardless, but I think we'll be alright. Looking forward to it too!

We had a fun gathering at Up-Down Arcade. We had special Stan-themed name tags and took full advantage of the arcade's 2-for-1 token special on Saturdays.

We tried our hand at Donkey Kong (waves owned the leader board), Joust, Tron, Super Smash Brothers (N64), Battletoads, and probably a few others I've forgotten. Thanks, waves, for coming out and inviting your friend, Sam. It was a fun afternoon and I'm glad we got to meet!

While we were gaming, I left the Stan tags on the bar. When we came back two additional stickers were peeled from the sheet. I regret not walking the bar to meet the adventurous souls that unwittingly joined the GWJ community that day. On my way home I the thought, "What if the Game King stopped by, grabbed a tag, but left without connecting!?" My heart sank at the idea of missing that chance. Then I heard GWJ CC #680 and breathed easier when, near the end of the show, Sean indicated he did not make it to the event.

Here are some photos from our local celebration of IGWJD2019. Enjoy!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/s7zWnys.jpg)
IMAGE(https://imgur.com/daVqyZq.jpg)
IMAGE(https://imgur.com/EPN9dXf.jpg)
IMAGE(https://imgur.com/mLBrbpG.jpg)

Looks like a great time was had. I'll try to catch a future event. Nice to see so many MN folks on GWJ.

gorilla wrote:

We had a fun gathering at Up-Down Arcade. We had special Stan-themed name tags and took full advantage of the arcade's 2-for-1 token special on Saturdays.

We tried our hand at Donkey Kong (waves owned the leader board), Joust, Tron, Super Smash Brothers (N64), Battletoads, and probably a few others I've forgotten. Thanks, waves, for coming out and inviting your friend, Sam. It was a fun afternoon and I'm glad we got to meet!

While we were gaming, I left the Stan tags on the bar. When we came back two additional stickers were peeled from the sheet. I regret not walking the bar to meet the adventurous souls that unwittingly joined the GWJ community that day. On my way home I the thought, "What if the Game King stopped by, grabbed a tag, but left without connecting!?" My heart sank at the idea of missing that chance. Then I heard GWJ CC #680 and breathed easier when, near the end of the show, Sean indicated he did not make it to the event.

Here are some photos from our local celebration of IGWJD2019. Enjoy!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/s7zWnys.jpg)
IMAGE(https://imgur.com/daVqyZq.jpg)
IMAGE(https://imgur.com/EPN9dXf.jpg)
IMAGE(https://imgur.com/mLBrbpG.jpg)

Glad you guys had such a good time. Hopefully, I can get in there too next time.
As for the Game King, do not hope him as your hopes will be crushed on the mountainside.