meetup
Latest
First WoW Insider meetup at BlizzCon: join us!
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know we're going to be reprazenting at BlizzCon. While we're there we'd love to get a raid together to take down one of the local bars, have some fun meeting as many of you as can make it as possible, and give away some goodies as well. So we hope you'll be able to join us for the first ever WoW Insider meetup on Thursday night, August 2, before all the madness gets underway on Friday. We'll be at The Lost Bar in the Disneyland Hotel at 1150 W. Magic Way, Anaheim, CA from 8pm until we've cleared all the trash mobs. If you'll be able to come out and hang with us WoW Insider staffers and readers and have a chance to win some free stuff, can you let us know in the comments? We look forward to meeting you!
Engadget crashes the Joystiq Reader Meetup tonight in Santa Monica
It's the first ever Joystiq Reader Meetup tonight, and Engadget's going to be there to show some love and support. So if you're not opposed to spending quality time with some E3-addled crazies, we'd love to have you. Get there early for the free t-shirts, stick around for high tales of liveblogging misadventure. If you do plan on attending, be sure to head over to Joystiq and let them know in the comments.When: 6PM-9PM on Friday 13thWhere: Mahalo HQ, 902 Colorado Ave. Santa Monica 90401 (Google Maps link)And yes, this event is all ages!
It came from the Blog: Into the portals we go
Yup, as you can see, our little Zangarmarsh guild, It came from the Blog, is growing and growing-- we've made it to 188 members, and a good 90% of them are really fun people (the remaining 10% of them is me, and then some BigRedKitty haterz). If you'd like to find out personally who's who, just come over and roll a Horde character on Zangarmarsh, then whisper anyone in the guild for an invite. You can also come by our new forums and leave a note there, and we'll look for you ingame.We're trying to have one big guild event per week, and this week's event is going to be this Friday evening, June 15th, at 8pm server time. This time around, we're going to run some instances! Most of us are still fairly low, and all of us are Horde, so there'll probably be a lot of Ragefire Chasm and Wailing Caverns, but hopefully we'll also get a group into Deadmines, and maybe even try Blackfathom Deeps (one of my favorite instances) or Shadowfang Keep. Unfortunately I won't be there (I'll be off covering the Darkmoon Faire in Chicago, so look for pictures and reports from that this weekend), but if you join us, you'll have the chance to play alongside "Krystalle" Voecks, Robin "Robiness" Torres, and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Harper. You may also see Dan O'Halloran, Amanda Riviera, and Lisa Poisso there in some form as well. Not to mention that you'll get to play alongside up and coming IctfB superstars like Pingles, Hudson, Mogwai, and, if you're lucky, Zungaba. Shoutouts for the win! (Don't worry, rest of the guild, I'll get you in later.)So please come join us this Friday when we finally take the guild into some instances. Wipes for everyone, and loot for most!
PSP Fanboy interview: The PSP Nation
There are a lot of multiplayer PSP games out there. Unfortunately, not all of them support over-the-internet play (aka Infrastructure). For many games, players must find other gamers that not only own a PSP system, but a copy of the game as well. This is a problem for many, but not Hector Martinez and the team of gamers of The PSP Nation. They've created a community where people can meet up with fellow PSP gamers in their neighborhood, and get some serious multiplayer matches going on. We chatted with the man behind it all, to find out more about how it all got started.
Real life guild meetings
Over the years I've played a great many different MMOs. There have been communities as varied and interesting as the surrounding lore of the worlds involved. That said, the thing that has continued to keep me coming back for more in World of Warcraft after two and a half years is undoubtedly the absolutely fantastic people I'm honored to be guilded with. While there have been the occasional odd visits and meetings, this weekend marked the first concerted effort at a real life "guild meeting." While sadly not everyone was able to make it, I feel relatively certain that I am speaking for the livers and/or tummies of all the people involved when I say that it was a smashing success. From Thursday to Tuesday we grilled out, drank, sang, danced, invaded local nightclubs, eateries, shops, and even "raided" both the zoo and an art museum! Many truly bad inside jokes were born ("Philosophically, you have already eaten the cookie.") and many people were introduced to a drink that has been dubbed "the Smitey Paw." (This is due to it's noxious green color, it's reference to a certain evil cat, and especially the fact that it has a tendency to smite you with very little warning.) But the absolute most amazing thing that came out of this weekend was getting to spend real-life time with my guild mates in the picture above -- and those were just the ones willing to pose for WoW Insider!Over the last two years we've geared our mains, geared our alts, raided everything from AQ20 to Ragefire Chasm. (Yes, you can raid RFC.) But no matter what we've done, we've been focused on doing it together. Some folks have come and some have gone, but our core group has stuck together despite setbacks and guild drama and everything else that is no surprise to anyone who's ever been in a fairly large guild. This weekend was a celebration of that togetherness and those friendships that have been formed (or grown closer in some cases) thanks to World of Warcraft. So to my awesome guild mates -- and to all other guilds out there who have members that get together in real life to show that Gamers can party down too -- I raise my Smitey Paw in /salute to you!
Play DS for a good cause
Not that "enjoying yourself" isn't a good enough cause, but this is for a good social cause. DSMeetup.org.uk, a group that gets together in London for DS multiplayer sessions, is holding a charity tournament on March 10, to benefit Comic Relief, who we had no idea still existed, and who continues to raise money for various causes in Africa.The event is being held to coincide with Comic Relief's "Red Nose Day", which is kind of like Britain's version of the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, but with more comedians and novelty nosepieces. British readers, feel free to correct us.Participants pay £1 to get into the tournament, and all of the proceeds go to the charity. We admire the DSMeetup group for wanting to do something positive with their DS gaming sessions; the most charitable thing our Game Nights here do are keep us from debilitating, painful loneliness. And even then, only for a few hours.[Via Wonderland]
Macworld 2007 party roundup for Wednesday, January 10th
Macworld certainly isn't all work and no play, so I thought it would be handy to round up any parties and gatherings that are happening *off* the Macworld Expo grounds. For simplicity, I checked Upcoming's Macworld tag, though we have heard of at least one other non-listed event (and I would bet there are plenty more). If you have a gathering going on this week, let us know at tuaw.com/tips (use relevant subjects like: "Party at Macworld Wednesday!" and "Party at Macworld Thursday!" etc.) and we'll include them in our daily roundups, updating as we receive new tips through the day. For now, here is a list of Wednesday's gatherings: Spymac.com Annual Reader Meetup, 5:30-6:30 pm Macworld Expo Web Developers BoF 6-7:30 pm Mac small business dinner 6:30-8:30 pm DialyTechTalk's open Macworld party at 9 pm MyDreamApp/MacHeist party at 7-11 pm
Developer + User meetup at Macworld
Scott Stevenson has posted a clever idea at his blog, Theocacao, to help developers and users meet up at Macworld 07 this week. It seems that, as Apple's spotlight grows larger by the week, the number of independent developers that can snag an official booth at big events like Macworld shrinks. Scott's solution? If you're one of these developers, get in touch with him over at his blog and express your interest in arranging a collective meetup of your own (Scott, may I recommend Meetup and Upcoming.org to help automate things?). If you're a user, you might be asking yourself: "why meet developers? I don't speak Cocoa or C++!" Well, Scott answers: "Developers are much more likely to understand your feedback when you talk to them in person," and it can make the communication process a lot easier if you take this opportunity to break the ice in person. So drop by Scott's post (he also includes an email contact) to help the indie developers in the crowd meet up with their adoring fans.
Engadget Chinese parties it up, Taiwan style
In the grand Engadget tradition of nerds gathering together to ogle tech and consume alcohol -- well, we can only assume alcohol was involved, due to TMX Elmo's apparent popularity -- Engadget Chinese pulled off quite the party the other night, with appearances by all three new-gen consoles and plenty of other toys. Peep a few pictures after the break, or just hit up the read link for the party in all its machine-translated glory -- just like we know those EC kids best.
Video Games Live hits Philly tomorrow
The previously canceled but now resuscitated Video Games Live show is ready to play its third show to date at Philadelphia's Merriam Theater in Center City tomorrow night. Like their show at GDC in March, this one is tied to a popular event -- namely Wizard World Philadelphia -- giving them a built-in audience who've already traveled to the city. The GDC show in San Jose sold out, no doubt as a result of the hoards of gaming geeks and industry insiders around, but there are still tickets available in Philadelphia (comic book geeks, what's up?). In addition to the great music, the pre-show festival includes a costume event and a special meet and greet. Philadelphia attendees include Marty O'Donell (Halo), Jason Hayes (World of Warcraft), Martin Leung (Video Game Pianist) and me! Alright, maybe I'm not a celebrity, but I'll be there with a handful of Joystiq t-shirts so if you see me*, ask for one. If there's enough Philly readers going (c'mon guys!) it might even be fun to meet up before hand, play some Metroid Prime: Hunters, you know the deal.*I'll be the tall guy with a Joystiq shirt on!
Engadget Podcast 081 - 05.23.06
What a week for product launches! Seems like out of the gate past E3 everybody wanted to get theirs out the door: Apple loosed the MacBook, Motorola and Verizon launched the Q, Sprint and Verizon launched the Palm Treo 700p, and Sony launched their UX Micro PC. But it wasn't all rosy new toys for everyone to play with, Creative and Apple are heading to court to go toe to toe over some patents, as apparently is XM and Pioneer over the RIAA-contestable recording capabilities of the Inno. Tune in to find out how it all unfurls on this week's Engadget Podcast! Get the podcast [iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3). [RSS] Add the Engadget Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically (MP3). [MP3] Download the show (MP3). [AAC] Download the enhanced show (AAC). [OGG] Download the show (OGG). [Vote] Vote for us on Podcast Alley! Host Peter Rojas and Ryan Block Producer Randall Bennett Music J J J - 'Suits' in Japan Format 1:00:46, 27.8 MB, MP3 Program 01:00 - Motorola and Verizon announce Q: $199 04:44 - Treo 700p announced 08:48 - Apple's MacBook: 13-in, Core Duo, black and white 17:26 - Creative sues Apple, then Apple sues Creative 21:34 - Record labels sue XM over Inno recording 30:00 - Sony gets official on new Vaio UX Micro PC 36:28 - Xbox 360 hacks: Playing backup games, and backing up games 40:01 - Listener voicemail and email 59:00 - Engadget reader meetup in Merced LISTEN (MP3) LISTEN (AAC) LISTEN (OGG) Contact the podcast: 1-888-ENGADGET, Engadget (Gizmo Project) or podcast at engadget dawt com
