Just uploadin this for bled so credit goes to him obviously.... :gwa: :gwa: :gwa:


Some Assembly Required:  The Art of the GW Meet

Okay guys, so I don't really care how many times you've won the Breakfast Club or collaborated with a group of developers on a new RPM3k2 game that made someone's eyes bleed or played a righteous pan flute solo for the GW Trumpeteers.  All of these activities are great in their own way, but it is the fabled and trendy GW MEET that reigns as the most personal, involving, and all around awesome experience available for the forum family.  There are no prerequisite skills other than the ones we all already have (video games and DRINKING),  and participants are afforded a rare opportunity to safely dabble in an otherwise taboo practice:  meeting random people from the internet!

Today we're going to talk about some happenings from previous GW Meets, who attended them, and fun stuff to ease the tension of hanging out with people you've never met.  We'll also cover some fundamental pointers for those of you who may be interested in starting a meet of your own.  To accomplish this I have turned to a seasoned meet veteran and tenacious young man - Izekeal!


Bled - I don't have any questions ready because I wasn't planning on interviewing anyone, so let's talk about your sexual orientation until I can think of some.

Izekeal - Well, I'm straight if that helps.  But fuck women.

Bled - I'm intrigued by the name.  Is it Jewish?  If so, have you ever had sex with a Jewish girl?

Izekeal - Nope.  I made it up in grade 6.  It's taken from a Weird Al song (Amish Paradise).  The line is "and even Ezekiel thinks my mind is gone."  I misinterpreted it as Izekeal and the name's stuck ever since.

Bled - Interesting!  That's a great song too, but one more intimate question before we get on with the meet stuff.  This is inspired by true events that I have personally experienced. 

So....have you ever broken the toilet paper while wiping and accidentally entered yourself?

Izekeal - Hmmm....nope.  Can't say that I have.

Bled - You should try it.  It's a very...altering experience.

Izekeal - Have you ever killed a moth by punching it into a wall?

Bled - No sir.  Apparently we have absolutely nothing in common.  Anyway, what's the biggest meet you've ever hosted?

Izekeal - The last one was pretty big.  Let's see:  me, one of my roommates, one of my friends, dragonx, dragonx's friend (Mellowchild I think), Bart, Bartbro, Mamamack, Mamamack's brother, Dudesoft, Dudesoft's friend (Cam), Sarevok, Jeff, and Hybridzero.  Everyone but HybridZero went to the beach.

Bled - Is he morbidly obese?

Izekeal - He weighs like 135 pounds...

Bled - Have you ever met anyone that you only knew from the internet previously?  (other than gw meets)  Was it strange to meet forum-goers from GW in real life?  What did you do to break the ice?

Izekeal - Nope, I never met anyone from the internet before a GW meet.  I went to the first meet with Hybridzero, and we know each other from high school so it wasn't so bad.  I brought over 200 video games for seven systems.  Maybe it was six.



Bled - Good Christmas!

Izekeal - We sort of played those games for a while to help break the ice.  Bart and I stayed up almost all night playing SNES, and we beat TMNT IV on hard.  Other than that we just sort of tried to act like nothing was out of the ordinary.  By the time we left for the Chinese buffet we were fairly comfortable and started chatting, making jokes, etc.  Also, I did something kind of weird at the buffet.  My throat really hurt but I didn't want to pay for tea or anything so I ordered some hot water.

Bled - Sounds disgusting.

Izekeal - The waiter did a double take and said "Hot - hot Water??"  (In a chinese accent)  It was pretty hilarious and was quoted quite a few times for the remainder of the meet.

Bled - What's your favorite experience from a GW meet?

Izekeal - Hmm, having our neighbors come by telling us we were being too loud (during a game of Kings) and then realizing, while I was half-drunk, that our house was under watch by the police for noise requests and that dx and someone else were underage.  That was pretty cool.



Bled - Hardcore.

Izekeal - Yeah, that was pretty awesome.  Especially because I didn't even answer the door.  Someone else from the meet did, and I'm pretty sure they were drunk.  Also, Bart walked Ash home at that meet.  It was a 40-minute walk and Bart didn't wear his shoes when he left.  That was probably the wildest meet.

Bled - I'll bet he was tender!  Did anyone ever show up to a meet that changed your view of them from when you only knew them from the internet?

Izekeal - Well, the first meet Mamamack came to she basically did everything she could to help out and I'm pretty sure that's when everyone realized she's GW's friendliest member.  I'd never really heard about her before that meet.  Also Moriason is a pretty big party animal, but most of the rest of us are fairly standard internet-nerds.  Ash is a pretty cool dude, even though he doesn't post on the forums very much.  He's got a great sense of humor and we started hanging out after the first meet.

Bled - What's the drunkest thing Mori has done in your presence?

Izekeal - Strangely enough, he doesn't really drink much.  The weirdest thing he did was when we had a meet at the same time as the 2007 Britmeat.  Sarevok gave me his cell number so we could have a meet to meet call.  We weren't sure about who should handle the phone so we gave it to Mori.  Our end of the conversation went something like "Hello?  Hello, who is this?  Is this dom?  No?  WELL FUCK YOU!!" and then he hung up.

Bled - He sounds...enigmatic and intriguing.  Is it hard to arrange a meet?  What advice would you give to someone who is interested in having a meet who has never done it before?

Izekeal - Well, the first step is to get a general feel from the forums; mainly the people that you're hoping to have show up.  Try and find a month that most people say they'd be free.  Next, pick a week/weekend from that month and see how many people would be able to make that week.  If it's enough people then settle on that week and start planning things to do, though we usually try to leave most events up in the air for our meets.  It helps if you make periodic topics on the forums.  I think I made three for the last meet: an interest check, a more detailed one listing the week it'd be, and then the topic that we used to send directions and post updates in. 



The hardest thing is getting people to actually show up.  For all the people that have, we've had people say they were going to show and then drop out (for various reasons) or just stop posting in the threads. 

Bled - Those people are cocks.

Izekeal - Well, some people have legit reasons.  But yeah, others look at the topic and I guess are interested so they post but then lose interest or something.

Bled - Which makes them cocks.

Izekeal - It's their loss, so oh well.

Bled - Alright, final question.  It's another sexy one but people need to know.  Have you ever been sexually attracted to/engaged in intercourse with a person from GW????

Izekeal - Well, Bart is a pretty sexy guy...........

.......

............

....but no, nothing has ever happened at a GW meet. 

Bled - Well, dude, thanks for your time!  I'm sure lots of people who may want to plan their own GW meet will definitely find this information useful.  Next time, though, try to have sex with someone!



Britmeat:  Return of the Carcass - People throwing up on one another!

Izekeal's Recent Meet - Pasty white sausage fest at the beach.  (with pics!)

Xanqui Meet - A lonely young man meats.....himself.

FinMeet - Strange people in a strange land.

WTF - Self titled.



Northeast USA GW Meet - Pick a concert!

Big Ol' Southeast USA GW Meet - I made a topic for this a while ago but it died.  I will, however, shamelessly plug it once more just to see if anyone's interested in hanging out in Tennessee.

What are you waiting for?  Set up your own GW meet today and enjoy the shenanigans that will surely follow!