[OT] Where Do I Go To From Now?

[Argent Silvermage]

Come to Philly! We have gaming cons and lots of gamers. Jobs are a bit easier to find here and the trucking industry is booming.
Wizardru and the gang would be happy to show you around.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I am dead...Same reasons as you stated BUT I never left Columbia, South Carolina. Job market is not good, at least in the tech fields. Gaming is good to fair. Social life, if I was younger it would be damn good but now feel like a dirty old man.

 

[diaglo]

i'll second the Atlanta suggestion.

you could even include Columbus....Columbus, GA home of the School of the Americas, training ground for South and Central America's assassins.

 

[Rel]

If you want to stay in the south, I'll put in a plug for my home state of North Carolina.

I live in the "Triangle" area (an area in the central part of the state defined by the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill). I was born here and I love it here.

I'm a 2-3 hour drive from the mountains and the beach. The cities around here are large enought to support most types of interests (nightclubs and all manner of hobbies) but by driving 20 minutes in almost any direction, you are out "in the country" again. We get a couple of good snows most winters, but rarely enough to shut things down for more than a day. The summers are hot, but not hellishly so.

The job market here is about as good as anywhere in the country with lots of jobs in the technology field.

And there are plenty of nice gamers around here, many of whom post at ENWorld. You can drive down and meet them at one of the NC Game Days if you want to "dip your toe in the pool".

I freely admit to being biased, but I've never really wanted to leave this place for more than a couple weeks or so.

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

I'm a Kentucky (Lexington) native but have lived in Tokyo for 10 years now... Lots of gamers but very few English speaking gamers.

Oh and the trucks here are pretty crazy:
http://homepage2.nifty.com/ztath/starthp/subpage11.html

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Really, from about Richmond, VA to Baltimore, MD you can hardly spit without hitting a gamer. Add in the large number of high-population universities in the area, and you have a large concentration of nerdery in our nation's capital.

I'll second Richmond, VA. (I'd really like to push Charlottesville, VA, but I'm not sure how much work there would be here for you). Richmonds a nice city, with easy access to the DC area right up I-95 and C'ville an hour west on I-64.

Also, Albany, NY is a nice city, if you don't mind a bit of snow.

 

[der_kluge]

I'd have to think that Kansas City is probably pretty good for truck-driving, considering it's in the middle of the country and all. Not a bad place to live; plenty of gaming, large size, and decent amount of activities going on all the time. Plus great barbecue, which is definitely a plus! Only 8 hours from Indy.

I did a huge evaluation of where to live, and this book I bought that rated all the major metropolitan areas ranked Salt Lake City as the #1 city. I don't know about that, but according to my own standards, Austin, TX, and Raleigh, NC both ranked really high. Also, northern Virginia (suburbs to D.C.) also is a highly-rated (though exceptionally expensive) area to live in.

Ultimately, what matters is your own personal preference.

Try this:
http://www.findyourspot.com/

Where do your parents live? Maybe you should just consider moving closer to where they are?

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Cali, baby! Specifically, the Bay Area, baby!

We got gorgeous weather, hot chicks, PLENTY of freight jobs, gamers up the wazoo (helps to have two huge universities in the area), crazy hippies, and future governor Gary Coleman! What's not to love?

 

[Emirikol]

Move to Colorado. We could use some people from places other than California and Texas (nice people, generally, but the inbreeding is killing us).

Jh
from MN