The Lost Muse
First Post
I'm thinking of starting a meetup group to try and find some gamers in Kelowna, but would like to know if anyone else has tried, and whether or not the experience was a positive one?
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Meetup.com
- Thread starter The Lost Muse
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HeapThaumaturgist
First Post
Tried starting a Meetup or tried starting a Meetup in Kelowna? 
I tried to start a Meetup in one town, but I never formalized it as such because I found a group before many people had expressed interest. I didn't formally start the meet-up, just joined in the "looking for a meetup" for my town and THOUGHT real hard about it.
My wife and I recently attended a meetup for D&D gamers in our town, even though I'm already in a group ... mostly looking for another group that would fit her schedule so we could both get in on a game, look to see if people were interested in me starting a game under such a time slot, and meeting people (since we have few friends in town, and all of them are "my" friends, and most of them are considerably older and/or not interested in the kinds of things my wife and I like to do).
It was ... okay. Apparently we caught the group right after they had to switch meeting venues and it went from 12-15 people showing up for the meetup to ... six ... including us.
It was ... average. One of the people was seriously distracted the entire time by his PhD thesis, and left early. One guy was a bit socially shy and retired early. Everybody was about what you'd expect for gamer geeks: Rather varied, essentially okay, a tad dorky. We met a nice couple that we thought we hit it off with alright, who invited us to a game, but after trading a few emails they suddenly dropped off the planet. I'm going to send a polite "Hi." today or tomorrow to see if they merely forgot to respond to my last message (a week ago), or if we got the blow-off for some reason.
So nothing big. One meeting, we'll attend the next meeting. Nothing has come of it yet but I would have been surprised if a lower-than-expected turn-out meeting turned into everything we ever wanted from Meetup.com instantly.
People are people are people. We're thinking of starting a meetup and joining a few other meetups. We're signed up for a board game meetup this weekend, and we're going to crash a wiccan meetup tonight even though neither of us are wiccan because the book-store they're meeting up sounds cool and we have a few wiccan friends.
If there's one problem I have with Meetup is it seems TOO focused. You can start a d20 Meetup, a D&D Meetup, a SWRPG Saga Edition Meetup ... so people can get fractured into extremely focused meetups, it seems.
So it seems valuable for meeting people who are interested in one thing you're interested in, but for general meet-n-greet it might be less so, unless you meet the same person at your Inuyasha Fans Meetup your Anime Meetup and your Asian Furries Meetup or whatnot (which is to say you might be friends outside of one interest if you're seeing the same person at multiple functions).
--fje
I tried to start a Meetup in one town, but I never formalized it as such because I found a group before many people had expressed interest. I didn't formally start the meet-up, just joined in the "looking for a meetup" for my town and THOUGHT real hard about it.
My wife and I recently attended a meetup for D&D gamers in our town, even though I'm already in a group ... mostly looking for another group that would fit her schedule so we could both get in on a game, look to see if people were interested in me starting a game under such a time slot, and meeting people (since we have few friends in town, and all of them are "my" friends, and most of them are considerably older and/or not interested in the kinds of things my wife and I like to do).
It was ... okay. Apparently we caught the group right after they had to switch meeting venues and it went from 12-15 people showing up for the meetup to ... six ... including us.
It was ... average. One of the people was seriously distracted the entire time by his PhD thesis, and left early. One guy was a bit socially shy and retired early. Everybody was about what you'd expect for gamer geeks: Rather varied, essentially okay, a tad dorky. We met a nice couple that we thought we hit it off with alright, who invited us to a game, but after trading a few emails they suddenly dropped off the planet. I'm going to send a polite "Hi." today or tomorrow to see if they merely forgot to respond to my last message (a week ago), or if we got the blow-off for some reason.
So nothing big. One meeting, we'll attend the next meeting. Nothing has come of it yet but I would have been surprised if a lower-than-expected turn-out meeting turned into everything we ever wanted from Meetup.com instantly.
People are people are people. We're thinking of starting a meetup and joining a few other meetups. We're signed up for a board game meetup this weekend, and we're going to crash a wiccan meetup tonight even though neither of us are wiccan because the book-store they're meeting up sounds cool and we have a few wiccan friends.
If there's one problem I have with Meetup is it seems TOO focused. You can start a d20 Meetup, a D&D Meetup, a SWRPG Saga Edition Meetup ... so people can get fractured into extremely focused meetups, it seems.
So it seems valuable for meeting people who are interested in one thing you're interested in, but for general meet-n-greet it might be less so, unless you meet the same person at your Inuyasha Fans Meetup your Anime Meetup and your Asian Furries Meetup or whatnot (which is to say you might be friends outside of one interest if you're seeing the same person at multiple functions).
--fje
Last edited:
freebfrost
Explorer
My experience was.. slightly less than ok.
I actually took over as organizer of a local D&D Meetup. I was in a phase where I wanted to expand the game to others, and thought that by joining up with this group, we'd be able to spread the hobby to new people, raise some enthusiasm in the area, and maybe even get a game store sponsor...
So much for idealism. We met once.
The people were on the extreme side of dorkiness with a lot of shyness, not much participation, and little communication. I tried changing venues, but couldn't get anyone to even agree on a location, and dropped out when Meetup started charging the organizer fees. I had more success in finding new gamers through the Gamers Seeking Gamers here on ENWorld.
In the end it wasn't a very good experience for me. YMMV.
I actually took over as organizer of a local D&D Meetup. I was in a phase where I wanted to expand the game to others, and thought that by joining up with this group, we'd be able to spread the hobby to new people, raise some enthusiasm in the area, and maybe even get a game store sponsor...
So much for idealism. We met once.
The people were on the extreme side of dorkiness with a lot of shyness, not much participation, and little communication. I tried changing venues, but couldn't get anyone to even agree on a location, and dropped out when Meetup started charging the organizer fees. I had more success in finding new gamers through the Gamers Seeking Gamers here on ENWorld.
In the end it wasn't a very good experience for me. YMMV.
bento
Explorer
I was a regular at the North Dallas RPG Meet.up and that went well - usually 10 to 20 people per session. When I moved across town I co-chaired the Fort Worth RPGers and we had maybe four to seven show up, ranging from "I played five years ago and looking to get back in" to "let me tell you about my oWoD character." After four months MeetUp went from a free service to a paid one, and neither I nor the other co-chair wanted to pony up the funds. I've since discovered a Yahoo! group for D&Ders in Fort Worth and joined a gaming group through that.
I would recommend starting up a Meetup.com group IF you have a long standing interest in helping others learn more about the hobby and you're willing to put up the funds. I'd also recommend either going with D&D or RPGers to appeal to the widest base possible.
I would not recommend starting a group IF you're looking for a new gaming group. A group like this is a committment from you to something wider than going once or twice and then quitting after you found a group to play with.
I would recommend starting up a Meetup.com group IF you have a long standing interest in helping others learn more about the hobby and you're willing to put up the funds. I'd also recommend either going with D&D or RPGers to appeal to the widest base possible.
I would not recommend starting a group IF you're looking for a new gaming group. A group like this is a committment from you to something wider than going once or twice and then quitting after you found a group to play with.
ScardPtori
First Post
I've had a relatively good experience using MeetUp.com. I have found my last 3 gaming groups going to Meet Ups and many of my friends that I regularly hang out with are people that I met at the Meet Ups and then started gaming with.
My main problem with MeetUp.com is the cost they charge if you want to be the organizer. It seems like for just a set of messageboards, the price is a bit steep; fortunately for me, the local organizer doesn't mind covering the costs. 8P
But as others have said, your local success can vary wildly. I know that I still attend the monthly meet up just to see what might be available if we need new players, (and I never mind sitting around eating pizza, drinking beer, and chatting about RPG's), but our regular turn out is only 4 to 6 people including myself and the organizer. So I guess it depends on if you consider that a good turn out or not . . .
But the main advantage to the Meet Up is you can meet the local gamers in a non gaming setting and find out if these are people you really want to game with on a weekly basis or not. So you take the names, phone numbers and e-mails of everyone who showed up and are looking for a game, and then you call the ones that you think might make a good fit. That's a much better way than inviting someone blindly to your house, find out they are loud, rude and smell bad, and then have to try to figure out how to uninvite them . . .
My main problem with MeetUp.com is the cost they charge if you want to be the organizer. It seems like for just a set of messageboards, the price is a bit steep; fortunately for me, the local organizer doesn't mind covering the costs. 8P
But as others have said, your local success can vary wildly. I know that I still attend the monthly meet up just to see what might be available if we need new players, (and I never mind sitting around eating pizza, drinking beer, and chatting about RPG's), but our regular turn out is only 4 to 6 people including myself and the organizer. So I guess it depends on if you consider that a good turn out or not . . .
But the main advantage to the Meet Up is you can meet the local gamers in a non gaming setting and find out if these are people you really want to game with on a weekly basis or not. So you take the names, phone numbers and e-mails of everyone who showed up and are looking for a game, and then you call the ones that you think might make a good fit. That's a much better way than inviting someone blindly to your house, find out they are loud, rude and smell bad, and then have to try to figure out how to uninvite them . . .
HeapThaumaturgist
First Post
Huh, when I was thinking of starting up, it didn't cost to be an organizer.
Weird. I'm surprised they're still in business. Is it a nominal fee? They don't seem to have the fee schedule on the website in an obvious place.
EDIT: Found it, $19 a month per month or $12/mo if paid in a 6mo. block.
--fje
Weird. I'm surprised they're still in business. Is it a nominal fee? They don't seem to have the fee schedule on the website in an obvious place.
EDIT: Found it, $19 a month per month or $12/mo if paid in a 6mo. block.
--fje
Last edited:
The Lost Muse
First Post
They charge a monthly fee, and you get a break for committing to 3 or 6 months.
EyeontheMountain
First Post
HeapThaumaturgist said:
Wow, that is a big chunk of change
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