All over the world, Dtoid community members gather to hold NARPs (No Apparent Reason Parties) to get to know each other outside of the internet. Well, the community team here at Destructoid wants to make it a bit easier for everyone to gather and have made a page at Meetup.destructoid.com! On this site, you can make a profile and keep track of the major community gatherings planned by Destructoid. Events such as PAX, Magfest, and the EuroNARP will be planned on this site that has features such as a calendar allowing for an easy way to see what’s going on.
As part of this experience, we have also opened up a Meetup Everywhere page. This aspect of the Meetup experience is community focused and exists to make it easier for you to plan your own meetups. Always jealous of the NARPs you read about on the front page? With this part of the site its now even easier to throw your own gatherings!
So check out those two sites, and if you have any questions read below for our constantly updated FAQ!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a City Group and what do they do?
– Destructoid’s community is one of the most awesome gaming communities – now worldwide! Not only do we hang out on the chat, forums, Twitch.tv channel, and c-blogs, but we also make a point to meet up in real life. Our love of community is what brought about the Destructoid City Groups. These groups are run by the community in areas such as San Francisco, New York, Austraila and the Midwest.
These groups gather together whenever possible to hold NARPs, also known as No Apparent Reason Parties, as seen here, or get together to go to events such as Magfest, PAX, or the famous EuroNARP.
Sounds great, but there doesn’t seem to be a City Group near me. What now, brown cow?
– That’s part of the joy of our Meetup Everywhere page. If a city group doesn’t exists that you want to join, feel free to start your own and invite your friends! You can use Meetup Everywhere to plan your events and spread the word to those who would be interested in joining! Let people know in the forums, c-blogs, and spread the word on Twitter/Facebook/Google+! You’ll be surprised how easy it is to meet people once you sign up, and we’ll be writing about events worldwide to help people find your events. Tag your group as #destructoid and it will appear on the map.
I’m thinking about holding a NARP at home….what should I do?
– First of all, we recommend you start small. Don’t throw a 100 person spontaneous house party for strangers. That is definitely not the point of a NARP. We want to help people find like-minded people and bring them together: the purpose is small, tight groups where everyone knows and trusts each other. Less is definitely more. If you work up your way to hundreds of people, great! We’ll likely fly Mr. Destructoid out to meet you all someday!
Many of the Destrutoid city group started out as a house parties, and those are great ways to have a good time with out too much planning. But there are definitely things to consider when deciding on holding a house gathering. Make sure to use common sense with your belongings and always remember to be mindful of things such as noise complaints. Just because our community is awesome doesn’t mean a raging psychopath can’t show up and murder your family (tee hee). Use common sense, silly. If you have any doubts just meet at public places first.
With that said, have a great time! Open up a forum and ask your meetup members what games they like most. At our meetups in San Francisco food and drinks are always a good way to keep the party going strong, and crowd inclusive games like Rock Band and Dance Central are usually a hit. Knowing our community, nothing beats bringing out a retro gaming system and playing games such as Mario Kart or Power Stone. Also, you’re going to want to include games where guys can beat each other’s faces in and shoot each other in the face. Family entertainment!
Where do I upload my NARP photos?
– You did take photos, right? We want to hear about it! There are plenty of ways you can share them with us: when you create a Group you can upload photos. To post them on our site just write up a c-blog/forum post about your event, take lots of pictures and add them to Picasa tagged as “Destructoid”, or even upload some videos to youtube and let us know about them! We love seeing how the community gets together and might even talk about it on the front page!
How do I get my NARP promoted?
– Every month we try to let the community at large know what NARPs are going on around the world. This means we’ll be checking our WorldWide page where you’ll be posting your own events. If you are planning a NARP, and want to promote it to all of Destructoid, post about it on the Meetup Everywhere page, and let us know at community@destructoid.com. That way we can try to make sure that the greater Dtoid community is aware of what is being planned.
I already have a gaming Meetup.com group. Can I just call it a Destructoid group?
– Fine by us! Just tag it #destructoid and it will show up on our map.
Is this for singles? OMG what should I wear?
– Romances have been the byproduct of these meetups, yes. We don’t make any guarantees though. More importantly, unlike your co-workers most people present will understand your obscure Penny Arcade references. Though, as pictured above, it will most likely be a bunch of unpretentious dudes. Just shower before arriving, plz!
What can Destructoid do for my group? Do I get free shit?
– We’re definitely wanting to send the most active groups some love packages in the future. Look for group competitions and challenges in the coming weeks as we get this party started. For now all we can offer is to give your group awareness and bring awesome people your way. We definitely want to get feedback from our group leaders on what their needs are after their first NARPS, so be in touch! community@destructoid.com.
Thanks for reading, and if you have any other questions, feel free to ask in the comments and we can keep this post updated with answers to your questions!
