Go Play NW is getting closer! I want to take a few minutes to introduce our team for this year. One thing you may notice is that our team is a lot bigger than in past years (a little more on that later).
John Powell, Philip LaRose, and Tony Dowler (me) will be continuing in our roles on the Go Play NW team this year.
We’ve also added three new members:
ET: ET will be joining us as volunteer coordinator this year. In the past, the volunteer coordinator has typically been brought into planning late in the process. With the growth that Go Play NW has been experiencing, we realized it was far past time to make the volunteer coordinator part of the core team from the start. ET has worked with Narrative Games Northwest, Games on Demand, and other organizations, in addition to being a stalwart volunteer and donut organizer for us in recent years. We’re happy to have ET on board!
Eric Levanduski: Eric ran our very successful streaming room last year and has agreed to come on again this year as streaming coordinator. He’s going to be very active in recruiting a group of streamers and helping them to showcase their craft at Go Play NW. Streaming is playing a huge role in expanding the hobby and extending the positive impact it can have on people’s lives. Eric has had amazing success streaming Indie and other RPGs on his Twitch channel, EricVulgaris. We’re very happy to be able to have him on our team.
Isaac Thummel: Isaac was instrumental in helping us coordinate opening day last year, which is only one of the reasons we’ve asked him to join us as the hospitality bard for Go Play NW. Isaac has rich experience working in the hospitality industry and is an all-around great person. Isaac and his team will be helping us make Go Play NW a friendly, safe place for gaming.
Go Play NW has been growing steadily since it began in 2007. And as it has grown, its membership has changed. On average, nearly half of the people at Go Play NW each year are attending for the first time. Not only that, but more and more of our members are new to gaming, new to story games, and even new to the Seattle area. We believe that growing the team is an essential step to improving and evolving the convention for everybody’s benefit.
This year will also feature an expanded team of volunteers. As we sifted through the feedback from last year, it became very clear to us that the key to improving Go Play NW and making it a convention that can continue to grow was to get more help. Growing the core team and recruiting more volunteers is the first essential step to improving everything else about Go Play NW.
We’re really excited for this year. We hope this will be the best year yet. See you in July!

One of the things we’ve been hearing from our community is that the cost of attending Go Play NW is significant expense for many people. While there are a lot of things we can do to keep the cost low, we’re also limited by the expenses we have to meet to hold the convention. That’s why we have introduced a sponsorship option alongside our ticket sales for this year.
Now, when you purchase your tickets to Go Play NW, you can also choose to sponsor someone for one or three days at Go Play NW. We will use all of these funds to provide Go Play NW passes to members of the community who might otherwise find it difficult or impossible to attend. Several people have already donated memberships!
Our goal with this program is to make our community more accessible and diverse. If you know someone who you think would make a great addition to our community, or who you know faces financial barriers to attending, please email us at info@goplaynw.org. Let us know who the person is, how we can reach them, and why you would like them to receive a sponsorship. We cannot guarantee that everyone will get a sponsorship, but we will do our best.
We believe that a larger, more inclusive community, wither fewer barriers to participation makes Go Play NW better for everyone!
You can register for Go Play NW and sponsor another attendee by going to the registration page.
EDIT: Just wanted to add that we will hand out all sponsorships for this year’s Go Play by June 7. Any sponsorships we get after that day will be saved and used to sponsor someone next year.

Great news, everybody! Registration for Go Play NW 2019 is now open at our Eventbee page.
The event begins on Friday afternoon, with check-in and rooms available starting at 1 PM, and an afternoon game slot at 2 PM. We’re also working on plans for a Friday evening social gathering to help welcome newcomers and give returning members a chance to catch up. As previously mentioned, we have decided to retire the Friday/Saturday Feast this year to better manage expenses and explore new options to improve the event.
Dorm rooms are available for overnight stays on the Seattle U campus for a very reasonable price, with options for an additional evening’s stay if you’re traveling out on Monday. An important note: once again this year, Seattle U has informed us they have limitations on available rooms, but it’s a little more complicated—we are expecting:

• no more than 48 double-occupancy rooms (possibly slightly fewer) available in Campion Hall for stays checking out by Monday.
• up to 30 double-occupancy rooms in the nearby Bellarmine Hall for stays checking out on Sunday.

Unfortunately we don’t yet have the exact number of rooms available in Campion Hall, so early registration is advised if you want to stay through Sunday night to check out Monday. Of course we can and will use double-occupancy rooms for single occupancy reservations, but consider finding a roommate if you want to be sure of a bed on site.
All attendance options include a meal card for lunch in the campus cafeteria; overnight reservations include breakfast as well as lunch.
You can also order the official Go Play NW 2019 shirt, designed as always by John Harper, on the registration page. All shirts must be picked up at the event; we do not ship shirts.
So go register now! We’ll see you in July!

As we get ready to open registration for this year’s Go Play NW, we want to let you know about some changes!
First, we are expanding our staff. Look for an announcement soon about our new volunteer coordinator. In past years, the volunteer coordinator has been added to staff late in the process and has been largely autonomous from the rest of the planning process. This year, we’re getting the coordinator–and some select volunteers–involved earlier to help us better organize the con.
Secondly, we’ve made some changes that will enable us to have a larger volunteer staff and to comp ticket prices for volunteers. We think this will have a big impact to making a better Go Play.
Sadly, this change comes at a price. We have decided to forgo the Friday feast this year. Over the years, the cost of the feast has only gone up steadily—so much so that covering the cost of the convention has become difficult! Cancelling the feast means that we can improve Go Play NW and even grow without having to raise prices again.
Even with the feast gone, we still want a chance for everyone to socialize, reconnect, and meet new people. To that end, we’re working on an off-campus gathering for Friday night at a location near the convention. We will have more news on this as we work out the details.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. You can always contact us at info@goplaynw.org or via twitter @goplaynw.

Go Play NW 2019 will be held July 5-7, 2019. Mark it on your calendars!