Meeting Friends into Gaming

[arccos]

With things like sports or books and such, it seems like there are plenty of opportunities for adults to meet other adults with the same interests in person and make friends. That doesn't seem to happen as much with video games. Any suggestions on this? I would love to get a gaming group going, but living in the Northern suburbs of Chicago means there aren't any organized activities related to video gaming.

Any websites or such to set up video (or other types of) gaming groups?

[Patters]

BULLSHIT!!

https://twitter.com/ChicagoBarcraft

Barcrafts are great fun!

EDIT: There is also a *small* movement for pubstomp (Lords Managements) that is gaining a little traction.

[juv3nal]

Join the gamerswithjobs forums maybe? I've been to a couple Vancouver based meetups (which is not to say that I regularly game with those folks as I'm mostly a SP guy) and I'm sure Chicago does meetups too (look for threads titled S/T, S&T, or Slap & Tickle which is gwj slang for meetup).

Bonus: if you donate to the site during their annual fundraising, you can win fabulous prizes like me (at #4).

[Irishjohn]

Well, I guess because so much of gaming is online, people just "meet" that way? The only conversations I have about games are via e-mail with a close friend in Texas and here on the Idle Thumbs forums. Actually, I really need to take advantage of multiplayer networking more, but I'm kind of the worst. I play in short bursts and at extremely irregular intervals.

That being said, if you're ever attending a Barcraft event in Chicago or something like that, let me know. I live on the north side of the city.

[syntheticgerbil]

I've met a dude or two through online. It's a weird thing where there's suddenly an awkward barrier even though you've been talking in chat with this person a lot. It kind of goes away after some meet ups.

I also got a killer piece of contract work a couple of months ago because of a guy I met on the Sam and Max forums who referred me to some of his film buddies. Good things.

[dium]

If your personal definition of gaming includes board and other tabletop games (and you live in a decently populated city), you should look into finding a local game store that holds board game nights. Even if you only have a passing interest in physical games, you might give this a try anyway; a big percentage of the people who show up at store events like that play video games too.

[Sententia]

The social connections I've made through gaming tend to be online, but there are movements for specific games like Barcrafts that work well for making local-area friends.