Gamers With Jobs Community by Scott Benson

UPDATE: International Gamers With Jobs Day October 19th, 2019!

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International Gamers With Jobs Day October 19th, 2019

***NEW Update***

Streaming on Twitch:
If you are interested in being a hosted streamer on the GWJ Twitch channel, please contact me at [email protected], and take a look at the schedule so far to request a time slot! We have two RPG's already scheduled, so we're hoping to see more video games.

Chimalli's IGWJ's Day 2019 - Tabletop Simulator sign-up thread **NEW**

Planning Threads for the following in-person locations!
If you would like to start a meetup in your area, create a forum thread and link it in the comments below and we'll add it to the original post.

Portland, Oregon
Minneapolis/st Paul, Minnesota
Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas
LA/Orange County, California
Indianapolis Area, Indiana
Chicago, Illinois
Vancouver, British Columbia **NEW**
London, United Kingdom**NEW**
Toronto, Ontario**NEW**
Washington, DC/Metro Area**NEW**
Boston, Massachusetts**NEW**

Areas of Interest:
Many of you noted cities or areas you'd be interested in attending. If anyone from these areas is encouraged to start a meetup of your own, there are folks hoping to hear from you!

Canburra
Seattle
Mazatlan
Germany

Update: Thank you so much for taking the survey! October 19th was noticeably in the lead. I was also informed that EGX (EuroGamer Expo) is happening the weekend of the 19th, so it seems like an excellent opportunity if folks decide they want to meet up that day.

Regarding international time zones: We'll be hosting and playing games throughout the entire day and night of the 19th to give people some flexibility with planning and allowing for time zones. I'm going to -try- for a 18-hour stream that will likely be 12am to 11:59pm PST, with an assortment of folks at the helm so we can plan events in shifts.

Please feel free to start breaking off into your own planning threads. If folks are coordinating live meets, please have the contact person reach out to me if you're interested in having a phone chat with the GWJ twitch stream stream via Discord!

International Gamers With Jobs Day 2019 Survey

What is International Gamers With Jobs Day? It started with a Slap & Tickle! Two, actually.

Inspired by Rabbit-cons of years past, two gatherings of GWJers sprung forth in California and Ohio in 2010 to hang out and play games. More quickly followed and it snowballed into a worldwide celebration! Thus, International Gamers With Jobs day was born.

There were gatherings in multiple continents in October celebrating the members of this wonderful community. Some folks traveled long distances and spent many nights so they could hunker down to play games together!

It eventually grew out of practice and fell by the wayside as life came at us. We all got a little more busy, and little less connected on the forums. Things changed.

If you’ve looked at previous threads for IGWJD (International Gamers With Jobs Day), you may notice that there seems to be folks who had spent several months planning and organizing. You may also have noticed that I just proposed IGWJD this August about a date during the following October.

Revivals can sometimes be risky, and fraught with the shade of former expectations. It’s often trying to bring back lightning in a bottle. This isn’t an attempt to try and chase what it used to be. That seems a difficult road to travel.

I want to leave expectations at the door and take this opportunity to get together and celebrate the fellow GWJers we spend time with. Just a special moment on a special day that we can share in our appreciation of one another.

I’m fond of small things and new beginnings, and this is no exception! It could just be two people, getting together briefly on that day to snap a picture together to share with us on Twitter or Instagram. It could be a dozen or so people hanging out in the comfort of their own homes for 30 minutes in the Gamers With Jobs Twitch Channel that I'll be hosting! It could be several folks who manage to wrangle together some snacks and games for an evening. It could even be a slumber party in an airBnB!

I’d like a little feedback to help facilitate this process.

Here's a link to a survey that I hope can help in organizing and planning this year. If you're so inclined, please feel free to give it a spin and let me know what you think.

International Gamers With Jobs Day 2019 Survey

If you're interested in being a local GWJ organizer or host in your area, please say something in this thread to gauge interest. If one or more people answer - you’ve got a chance for a meetup! From there, create a forum thread with “IGWJD2019: City name Here” in it, and see if there’s something you can come up with together!

A few ideas if you would like to organize IGWJD activities:

-Geeky Boardgame Restaurants/Pubs
-Arcades, Barcades, Carnivals, Amusement Parks in the area
-Escape Rooms
-attend a movie or live event
-picnic in a local park (bonus points if someone busts out a hackey sack at some point)
-meet someone for tea or coffee in a public place, bring your handhelds or a quick little card game!

And PLEASE take lots of pictures! I want to see all your beautiful faces!

Comments

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I live in Southern California. Orange County to be more precise. I am very open to the idea of meeting up with GWJers for some games or drinks.

I love escape rooms and there’s no shortage of them these days. Barcade is a portmanteaus that sounds nice in my ears. Let’s get this ball rolling!

I live in the Salt Lake Valley, Utah and would love to host something. I know there’s a handful of Goodjers around.

I live in Greensboro, NC and would love to host something.

Are there enough Goodjers in Central Europe (Brussels here) to get something going? To be brutally honest though, with two small kids it might prove difficult to organize something. Even attending might be a challenge.

I live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area and volunteer to coordinate a regional gathering. Anyone in neighboring cities, states, or provinces that have an interest chime in and we'll get started.

I might be interested in attending any Salt Lake GWJer meetups if I'm not busy then. I live in Utah county but that's pretty close by.

I am in Kingston, ON and would be willing to travel up to ~3 hours (Toronto/Ottawa/Montreal/Syracuse) to attend!

There is an amazing pinball museum and great bar across the street in Alameda, CA. (SF bay area accessible)

A new Pinball Musuem - The Pinball Arcade Museum - has opened in St Petersburg, FL with a good arcade/brewery - Right Around the Corner - right across the street. Seems like this could be a great location for a GWJer meetup in SW/Central Florida, if there's interest.

Heh, didn’t realize there were a handful of Utah goodjers. I’d join a SL area meet up.

If only I were still traveling to Utah on the regular!

I'd be interested in some Goodjer activities in the D.C. metro area, though October will be kind of crazy for me (new job will have started by then, hopefully, plus a side gig too).

This is excellent.

I'm in NYC and potentially up for hosting or meeting someplace!

RawkGWJ wrote:

I live in Southern California. Orange County to be more precise. I am very open to the idea of meeting up with GWJers for some games or drinks.

I am also in Orange County, well southern OC, would definitely be into meeting up with fellow GWJers for activities.

Survey filled. Obviously i can't do anything with a physical presence. Also...timezones. But I'll see if i can wrangle up a stream of either our D&D game, or maybe a one-shot on whatever day is decided (maybe including others, Schedules & timezones permitting). I dunno. I'll give it some thought and see what the others think.

I am South of DC (about 40 minutes - 15 minutes from the Harry Nice Bridge to VA)

I’ve intended for years to work to plan some form of event, even if it’s a small darn food and coffee fest at our house. Maybe?

Are we doing anything in the SF bay area? Can ya hook a brother up? Haven't seen you guys in years. I don't smell THAT bad

Filled out the survey. Don't know if I could host, but there are a smattering of GWJers in the DFW metroplex, so we might be able to get some sort of meetup going.

I filled out the survey. I'm in Chicago, or at least the northern suburbs thereof.

When the date is finalized, I guess many of us will post it in various meet-up threads?

Survey filled......
Alguien mas de Mexico?? Aqui estoy listo, vivo en Culiacan, Sinaloa(close to Mazatlan), pero pudiera moverme si alguien mas vive por aqui cerca.... (anybody else from Mexico??. Im ready for a meetup, I live in Culiacan, Sinaloa(close to Mazatan) and are willing to travel for GWJ meetup)

It would be great if this could run on the 19th October as that's one of the 4 days of EGX here in London, UK. Granted it's dangerously close as to when we crash out of the EU and the UK turns into a massive Mad Max LARP experiment, but we're going to need cheering up as we head into oblivion.

jrralls wrote:

When the date is finalized, I guess many of us will post it in various meet-up threads?

yes! Let me look at the responses so far and see which date comes up with the most results. Maybe we'll give a few days for a final date? I'll put out a few feelers on social media as well later tonight.

Love the new avatar, by the way!

Australia, NSW GWJers? Y'all out there? Coffee? Arcade/Pinball? Games? Would love to put some plans together for a Sydney meetup.

gorilla wrote:

I live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area and volunteer to coordinate a regional gathering. Anyone in neighboring cities, states, or provinces that have an interest chime in and we'll get started.

I am in the southwest metro area of Minnesota. If the date works out I would be up for something.

I'm in the greater Seattle area. Once PAX is over and I have 12 seconds to think I most definitely want to participate!

Posting from the LAX area of Los Angeles I'd be down for digital or in-person meets - there are a handful of comic shop/board gaming spaces across the LA basin that could be good potential meet-up areas.

EDIT: btw the art in the banner for this thread is super cute!

seconded! I miss Bombsfall around here

(Too busy being a high falutin' game developin' genius)

(also seconding the cool new avatar, A')!

Forbes wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

I live in Southern California. Orange County to be more precise. I am very open to the idea of meeting up with GWJers for some games or drinks.

I am also in Orange County, well southern OC, would definitely be into meeting up with fellow GWJers for activities.

raevenote wrote:

Posting from the LAX area of Los Angeles I'd be down for digital or in-person meets - there are a handful of comic shop/board gaming spaces across the LA basin that could be good potential meet-up areas.

EDIT: btw the art in the banner for this thread is super cute!

I think we have some potential here. Also I have to agree that the banner art is amazing.

YE GODS IT HAS BEEN TOOOOOOO LONG!

Would love to host some humans (@demiurge, @fangblackbone, anyone else) at my place and/or join in on some online shenanigans! Hosting depends on the date, so I will wait to hear before throwing up a coordination thread.

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