I was running incredibly late on the day of the inaugural DBNGamers meet-up on Saturday – the morning had flown by and I’d completely lost track of time.
Anyone who knows me wouldn’t be surprised I arrived at Whilson’s Wharf closer to 15:00 than the proposed 14:00, but I screeched into the parking lot and took a brisk walk to Zack’s, the designated eatery for the gathering.
Luckily, I recognised a few of the DBNGamers crowd at an outside table overlooking Durban harbour and after introducing myself properly to the group, chief event organiser Kordian barked:
“Oliver, you’re late.”
A tense split-second followed as I tried to suss out whether he was being serious or not, but a split-second later I got the answer as the table erupted in laughter and Kordian sat back in his chair wearing a massive grin.
Phew!
What followed was an excellently relaxed, chilled get-together with a bunch of friends in the local gaming community. While snacking on pizza, sandwiches, chips and steak, discussion over the next few hours flowed as we shared tales of our adventures in Battlefield and Gears of War, chatted about gaming peripherals and the challenge of Dark Souls, tried to predict overall games of the year, and discovered one another’s particular tastes in game genres and penchant (or not) for online gaming.
There were brief forays into the current selection of movies now showing and Noelle in particular introduced me to a bit of comic book knowledge with talk of Amalgam Comics, as well as trade paperbacks and graphic novels, while excitedly speaking about a record sale in the world of comics where a near-mint condition copy of Action Comics No. 1 (featuring the first appearance of Superman) was auctioned off for $2.1 million!
Two. Point. One. Million. Dollars.
The first DBNGamers meet-up was like our very own edition of the Geekbox, except with one hundred percent more (very loud) Adele and Paul Simon… and minus the recording equipment, hopefully!
The hours flew by, we all received some awesome swag (Halo shirts and DBNGamers stickers – yeah!) and we parted ways while a live band was setting up to entertain the evening patrons of Whilson’s Wharf – after experiencing the soundcheck, it seems we left just in time!
Big thanks to Kordian, Mat, Noelle, Morne, Henry and Pieter for the entertaining afternoon out – it was great to meet all of you and fun digging into some in-person gaming discussions! Hope to see you all again soon!
Will you be at the next DBNGamers’ meet-up? Join the Facebook page and keep an eye out for updates on future events!
Here’s where you can find everyone who attended the first DBNGamers gathering on Twitter and online:
- Kordian (@CtrlAltDelZA and XboxReel.com)
- Noelle (@pfangirl and pfangirl.blogspot.com)
- Pieter (@thepoizone and poi-zone.co.za)
- Mat (@MatSmurfClarke)
- Henry (@hffourie)
- Morne (@zerogreen)
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Comments:
It was really fun to meet everyone at DBNgamers. We had some real good fun, one stage we had to use signals to talk to each others. I can't wait for the next one and we invite everyone in the Durban area to join us. you won't be disappointed.
@Oliver If i still had my beard it would have been nine. If it was grey i would have been called Santa.
I'm actually wearing my Halo Reach shirt today and trying to convince my boss to put a DBNgamers sticker on his bakkie. I need to tweet the one i placed on my car. DBNgamers Unite.
Sat was an awesomesauce of a day, it was really relaxed and the atmosphere was perfect, the next meet up is going to be awesome.
Thanks guys for a good afternoon
Looks like you guys had an awesome afternoon - can't wait to meet everyone at the next event!
which one is kordian? he's my dark souls buddy...(_*)
Kordian is the one with the monster Energy shirt on, right in the back. Can't wait for the next event, hopefully we will get more gamers coming. but i believe we will. Its not to be missed. Can't believe only one el33t member showed up, the rest went to CPT, they could have made it back in time ;)
awesome :)
i am not proud of this, but i totally forgot about it! i blame Your Fitness on Kinect for being totally exhausting and making me over sleep in on Saturday and thus my entire day was out of sync. oh, and the dog ate my homework. and i had a flat tyre. and traffic was killer.
how lame :( i will be there for the next one, for sure!
@Oltman Its sad you that you missed it. but there is no excuses to miss DBNgamers if you live in Durban, even the excuse of being in Cape Town isn't accepted.
DBNGamers unite!! Follow the DBNGamers official Twitter account: @DBNGamers
Well done DBNgamers for taking the stand and uniting to get together over a bite to eat and some casual drinks...
Cannot tell you how much this makes me smile from ear to ear to see other cities pulling their gamers together and I can assure you this will grow and grow rapidly.
Since the time of this article, you can now also follow @DBNgamers on twitter as well as already mentioned Facebook page.
Well done to all who attended! Now I have more reasons to visit Durban :)
I was so upset about missing out after cancelling another outing with friends and then ending up without transport at the last minute because that's what you get for cancelling an outing with friends I suppose. But yeah.
I will definitely be at the next DBNGamers meet, something I think we're going to need a larger venue for. :P
Thanks for the write-up. It's cool to read about what went on and put some faces to names before I get to actually put those real faces to names, in person.
So yeah, till next time. :)
NICE GUYS, love the whole gaming things that are happening!!! OH and Oliver..............your hair...... looks .....uhm......SEXY......lol hahaha sorry Oliver, when i saw your hair im like bursting with laughter but with love hehehe.
It was a windy day... ;)
Not really, my hair has a life of its own sometimes and effectively became the eighth member of the meet-up. ;)