A game sign-up system that makes everybody happy may be the Holy Grail of a con, not only because it promises to cure the kingdom of all ills, but because it might be impossible to find. Literally mythical.
In previous years we had GMs/facilitators submit games they wanted to run early on. We posted that line-up and let anticipation simmer for a week or two, then on the appointed hour of the appointed day we opened the floodgates and let players sign up for the games they’d been drooling over.
That is a fairly standard game sign-up system, but it creates the illusion that the games listed when sign-up opens are the only games that will happen: people who aren’t fast enough throw up their hands in despair because (apparently) there aren’t any games left to play. On no, you’re screwed!
In reality more games got added as the days went on, but even more importantly, lots of what got played were pickup games thrown together during the con — by my rough calculation somewhere between a third or a half of the games at GPNW 2009 were not on the schedule beforehand.* The appearance of scarcity was an illusion, and even though the anticipation built excitement, it might not be good excitement.
So we’re trying something a little different this year.
There’s going to be no early submission for games, no gap between listing games you want to run and people signing up for them. We’ll have a forum where people who want to run/facilitate games can pick a slot and announce, and then other people can respond in those threads to say they want to play or ask questions. There won’t be a big list of games that looks like the schedule when the forum opens: it’ll accumulate over time.
There’ll also be an area where you can brainstorm without committing to a slot. Throw out ideas and see if people are interested, or even request for someone to facilitate a game you’ve already been interested in but don’t understand well enough to run yourself.
Will this be a better method? We’ll try it and see. Either way, our motto is “no gamer left behind,” so if you come to Go Play NW you will game if you step up.
* There were about 70 people at GPNW 2009, so if we assume 5 people per game there should be 14 games in the average slot, but only about 7-9 were listed online. After the event the pickup games were added to the online schedule to show what actually got played.

There’s enough territory at the Hugo House that we actually need a map. Not that we think anyone’s going to get lost, but we figure it’s just good to know where you’re going.
It’s still a work in progress, but here’s a sneak peek of what Map-Meister Tony (yes, that is his real title) has whipped up:

As of last Friday, Go Play NW 2010 was just thirteen weeks away. Which seems like a long time, but blink and you’ll be rolling dice, assuming you remembered to register…
Thirteen weeks also happens to be a quarter of a year, making this the last quarter of the year-long odyssey to bring hawt gaming to the table, yet again.
Were we napping during those other quarters? In a word, no. Okay there was some compulsory recovery-napping right after GPNW 2009 (you too, I’m guessing), but those pictures of the new venue were taken last July, remember? Team Go Play does not sleep.
Tony, Phil or Ping could walk you through the “four seasons of Go Play NW.” Your eyes would bug out. Spoiler: there is some rest and relaxation during season two, but also contracts to sign.

In addition to being an awesome gaming space, there’s another nice thing about our new venue which I’m sure everyone who helped with setup last year will be glad to hear: no table & chair load-in.
That’s right, no hauling splinter-spraying disks of rough hewn lumber up endless flights of stairs in the middle of summer. No fire brigades wrestling with racks and racks and racks of chairs under the cruel lash of Pharaoh.
Richard Hugo House has most of the rooms already set up. They’ve got extra tables and chairs that we’ll bring out as needed, so there will be some setup, but it will be a veritable cakewalk compared to last year.
Oh, and to my brothers & sisters from Table & Chair Deathmarch 2009: much love. Pour some liquor. Peace.

Hey, did we mention that this year’s Go Play NW will be held in the Richard Hugo House? Why yes, I believe we did, and we posted photos of it to boot. But where is this fantastic venue? Why, right in the heart of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Some of you may recognize the neighborhood from our first Go Play NW in 2007, as that year’s venue, Seattle University, is just a few blocks south. And of course some of you are from Seattle and know all about it. But for the rest of you, let me give you some idea.
First, right across the street from Hugo House is Cal Anderson Park, and if the weather’s nice, you should consider getting your lunch to go and eating in the park. It’s got a cool fountain and reflecting pool, some large chessboards along the pool, and plenty of places to just relax and enjoy the surroundings.
Hugo House is just a couple blocks away from the intersection of Capitol Hill’s two main commercial districts, the Pike-Pine Corridor running east and west, and Broadway running north and south. Both feature a mix of cool bars, restaurants, cafes, and funky shops. Just within a few blocks of Hugo House, there’s the Elysian Brewing Company (where we had our impromptu Friday night gathering for the first Go Play NW), Molly Moon’s Ice Cream, Boom Noodle, Via Tribunali pizzeria, Caffe Vita, Espresso Vivace, Annapurna Cafe Indian cuisine… and lots lots lots more.
Capitol Hill’s a cultural center as well as a commercial one. It’s generally viewed as the heart of Seattle’s LGBT community, and several bars in the area cater to that crowd. The pulse of Seattle’s music can be felt here too, at clubs such as Neumos, the Comet Tavern, and Chop Suey. Just around the corner from Hugo House is the Northwest Film Forum, and a couple blocks down E Pine Street, the Landmark Egyptian Theatre has midnight movies every Friday and Saturday night. There’s the Repertory Actors Theatre, there’s the art-and-alcohol combo of Grey Gallery & Lounge, there’s old-school dancing at the Century Ballroom and modern electronic music and DJ culture at the Electric Tea Garden… again, more stuff than I can reasonably list out here.
I really enjoyed being at the Freehold Theatre last year, I felt it was fun having our gathering right in Belltown, surrounded by some of Seattle’s nightlife. But I’m really excited to be back on Capitol Hill this year, with its own nighttime craziness like Belltown (though Hugo House is safely insulated from that noise) but a coziness too that Belltown just can’t match. Capitol Hill’s probably my favorite neighborhood in Seattle, and I hope you’ll love it too.

Hey, check out the pictures of the new venue with all the cool gaming spaces!
We took these pictures during our first scouting mission last July on what turned out to be the hottest day on record in Seattle. No kidding. 103°. I don’t know about the other guys, but I was positively dying on the vine! Even through the haze it was clear right away the space was a total winner.

Event registration for Go Play NW 2010 is up and running. Jump in now and reserve your place at the table.
The sooner you register, the sooner we’ll know you’re coming, and that will make us happy.

They said it couldn’t be done.
They said 2009 could not be topped, that we should quit while we were ahead and open up a donut shop. After stuffing ourselves with donuts (power of suggestion), we huddled and decided: screw that, we’re going to tempt fate, defy the odds, damn the torpedoes…
That’s right: Go Play NW 2010 is coming.
See that date at the top of the page? June 18-20. That’s when the fun is. Save that date. See all that stuff over on the left? That’s everything you want to know about Go Play NW 2010. Where it’s at, how to register, the works.
We’ve got an awesome new space. Yes, last year’s venue was excellent. This one is even better. Impossible, you say? The hell, we say.
We’ve got 26 solid hours of gaming scheduled. Does that much gaming packed into one weekend violate both State and Federal health regulations? Could it actually cause you serious bodily harm? Maybe. We’re not lawyers, and we don’t care! We want to game!
What’s missing? Just one thing: you. And you can fix that right now. Because it really won’t be the same without you, especially not for you.

Your eyes are not deceiving you. We have a shiny new website! In fact it’s so shiny and new that we can’t stare directly at it without our eyes burning.
Under the watchful eye of our totem sasquatch, we’ll be updating the site with news and maybe even some behind-the-scenes action so you can follow along as Go Play NW 2010 comes together.
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