meetups
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Breakfast Topic: How well do you know your guildmates?
I used to have guildmates -- but now I just call them "friends." We abandoned the "guildmate" tag somewhere along the line a few years ago, after it became apparent that we all preferred adapting our gaming to our group size rather than our group size to our gaming. That's not to say we're not open to the idea of new people. But the people I play with on an ongoing basis across multiple games don't call each other "guildmates," even though we've never met in real life. We're on Facebook, in IM, and on TeamSpeak even when we're not gaming together. We're just "friends." I've known some pretty nice guildmates who made great "game friends," though. I learned all the details and odd little things about them that you do when you spend entire evenings with people on a regular basis: the nicknames they call their family members and pets, what they like on their pizza, what they studied in college, what time they get up for work. Even so, we never developed that crossover bond that leads to offline friendship. I removed their cell numbers from my contacts list once there was no longer a need to see if they could fill in on an off night or to let them know to come quick, the world boss was up RIGHT NOW! Still, I can't even imagine being in a guild where the only thing I knew about my guildmates was their character names. Simply unimaginable. How well do you know your guildmates? Are they merely nice people you game with, or have you built a toasty little internet friendship? Not a few guilds make a habit of annual or even more frequent real-world meetups (like The Incredibles, above). Have you ever met your guildmates? How well do you know most of the folks you play with?
Sony eyeing ways to get MMO players out of the house
Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, amirite? And other times, you want to get lost in an MMO and be (relatively) anonymous. The latter may become a bit more difficult, as Sony is looking to create a program "that would encourage gamers to head into the daylight for organized events," according to a posting at Engadget. The firm has even filed a patent for some sort of meet-up software. Speculation has it that it will incentivize real-life get-togethers, though how (or why) is anyone's guess at this point. Is this another personal information-harvesting ploy like Blizzard's RealID failboat, or is it something new? Time will tell, and we'll keep an eye on it for you.
Sony patent application aims to put names to faceless MMO players, organize real-world meetups
Dear MMO players, Sony's getting worried about your indoor tan. Really. The electronics giant's even gone so far as to file a patent application to get you out of your parent's basement and into the great outdoors. Alright, so the move isn't altogether altruistic -- it's more of a means to a promotional end -- but from the looks of this USPTO doc, the company's outlined a method to create a program that would encourage gamers to head into the daylight for organized events where everyone knows your online name. Of course, there'd be rewards and other incentives (trophies, perhaps?) on hand to coax you out of that Snuggie and help foster a sense of community. Not to worry, though, Bunim / Murray haven't got their MTV-friendly reality cams targeted on this concept, yet.
The Daily Grind: Have you met your online friends offline?
MMORPGs make for some mighty strange bedfellows. We all approach these games for different reasons and from many different backgrounds. For some players, MMORPGs are firmly in the fantasy-not-reality section of their daily planners, while others form lasting "real-world" friendships with their MMO compatriots -- and some folks even make the effort to hang out with their online buddies offline. Whether you've traveled to a guild get-together, attended a gaming convention, or happen to live in the same town as your groupmates, today's Daily Grind is all about real-world meetups. Have you ever hooked up with your MMO pals in person (and if not, would you want to)? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Hang out with Massively (and Joystiq) at the E3 2011 reader meetup
So E3 is coming up, and you what that means: games booze! If you've done the convention circuit before, you know that listening to PR reps and watching multiple presentations on the greatest-game-in-the-history-of-games pales in comparison to the opportunity to indulge in a bit of pub-crawling with industry types. If you're over 21 and a fan of Massively, Joystiq, or WoW Insider, you'll want to mark Friday, June 10th on your party-going calendar. The Joystiq crew will be taking over the La Cita bar in downtown Los Angeles for a swag-filled shindig sure to please the most discriminating gamer. And if not, hey, you can always drink with us. Massively's on the ground in Los Angeles during the week of June 6-9, bringing you all the best news from E3 2011. Whether you're dying to know more about Star Wars: The Old Republic, RIFT, or any MMO in between, you can bet we'll have it covered!
Talkcast tonight; 7 PM PT/10 PM ET: Happy Birthday iPad Edition!
Hippo, birdie, two ewes, Hippo, birdie, two ewes, Hippo, BIRDie, two ew-wes, Hippo, birdie, two ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwes! Here we go again! It's the first birthday of our own iPad, the little tablet that could. It's seems like that little guy has just been around forever, but really it's only been a year. Look how far we've come! In that time we've seen millions of stork deliveries make millions of people happy the world over. We even have a new sibling in the family, the iPad Mark II. Today we even celebrated with a slate of TUAW meetups worldwide to celebrate, and we'll (hopefully) get reports from attendees (aside from me, that is). Keep in mind that when you come for the show, you are invited to stay for the aftershow, and TUAWTF is never recorded for a very good reason. Your calls and questions help us make the show the best it can be, otherwise I'm just talking to myself! To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 PM EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (yay for free cell phone weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free X-Lite or Blink SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk to you tonight! Photo by extraketchup | flickr cc
Join up with the Massively.com community!
Hey there Massively.com readers! Have you ever wished to meet up with your fellow readers and go on adventures through strange lands? Have you ever wished to have a place where you can talk about MMO news and games with the other commenters on the site? Have you ever wished to yell at me in person rather than through the comment box? Then boy do we have a deal for you! Today we're launching a brand new page on our website, the Massively.com Community! The community page will be hosting all of our contact information, from Twitter to our Facebook Discussion board, as well as information on how to access our brand new chat room, the upcoming events we're hosting on your favorite games, and information on how to get involved with your game's community. Plus, we'll be hosting contests, live chats with some of your favorite developers, and more events down the road! So please, drop by our community page (or just click the link on the right hand side of the page, under game columns), follow our Facebook or Twitter accounts, or dust off your IRC program and log into irc.quakenet.org and jump into #massively (or use QuakeNet's webchat.) We look forward to meeting you guys!
Reminder: Come meet WoW Insider at the midnight launch
Today's the day! After years of speculation and months of waiting, Blizzard is finally officially releasing Wrath of the Lich King. More than a few people have grabbed their copies already, but the vast majority of us are heading out to midnight launches all over the country (and indeed, the world) to pick up the game's second expansion.Blizzard has their own launches planned (there's a rumor going around that the NYC event is canceled, but we've confirmed that's not true -- everything is still on as planned), and so do we here at WoW Insider -- in all the places that we're going out to take pictures and grab our own copies, we're inviting you to come along with us and say hi. We've reprinted all the meetups after the break -- I'll be in Chicago, we'll have people at the Blizzard events in Anaheim and Austin, and in North Carolina, California, Maryland, Minnesota and Florida, and our own Jennie Lees is hosting an event in Scotland. Take a look after the break, and if you happen to be in the area, definitely come out and meet us.No matter where you are, good luck getting the game, and have a terrific time. We'll be around tonight with coverage of the event as it happens, interviews with devs on the scene, and of course in-depth coverage of our (and your) first steps into Northrend. Today is the day!
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
