If you’re in Pittsburgh, and want to check out the store @vjwyatt was mentioning, go to The Game Masters.

If you’re not in Pittsburgh, why not go to your local store, take a picture and link it up on Facebook or Twitter, G+ or a blog. Link it here, if you like!

Fees
* $5 for the venue
* $5 per game

You asked for a time change and we delivered!

Games Being Played:
* Mortal Kombat 9: Registration 4:00-5:30 PM; Play 5:30-7:30 PM
* BlazBlue Continuum Shift 2 and Street Fighter 3rd Strike: Registration 7:30-8:00 PM; Play 8:00-9:30 PM
* Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Registration 6:30-10:00 PM; Play 10:00 PM – Midnight
* Super Street Fighter 4 AE: Registration 12:30-1:00 AM; Play 1:00 AM-?

The Street Fighter 3rd Strike competition constitutes one of the first official tournaments since its release on XBLA.

Rules
* Double Elimination
* Winners must keep character, losers can switch
* May counter pick ultras between matches
* Winners keep same team in Marvel, losers may switc

Related Links:
Gamerati Tour 2011: http://tour.gamerati.com/
Grand Rapids Street Fighter: http://grapsf.com/
GrandLAN Gaming Center: http://www.grandlan.info/

So, if you’re in the Cincinnati-Dayton area, drop by.

Photos from the Meetup

From August 10, 2011

From August 10, 2011

From August 10, 2011

From August 10, 2011

From August 10, 2011

I’m now estimating that I’ll only need $2,100 in order to cover the cost of putting dead animals into my HHR. Which means I’m 46.70% of the way there.

Month two of the Tour just started, so I’m half-way into this adventure. To celebrate the lower cost of gas, I’ve decided to start a new policy:

I will give advertising on the Gamerati network to anyone that donates to the Gamerati Tour Gas Fund.

NOTE: If you’ve already donated, I will honor this new policy for you as well (for past donations).

The Details
For every $5.00 you donate, I will give you $1.00 in advertising for any site you want. You just need to give me the URL and a banner and I’ll take care of the rest. Choose any site you want. It can be a publisher you like, a blog or podcast. Anything. And if you choose your local game store, I’ll target the ads to people who live in the area.

- Ed

Dice, Food, Lodging was started in 2010 after Tim had established himself as a sort of Podcast Groupie during the prior two years. Inspired by Luke Crane and Jared Sorenson’s game FreeMarket (and fnally tired of dreaming about playing second-fiddle), Tim started Dice, Food, Lodging to talk about gaming, travel, and keeping oneself actively being creative and contributing to a wider community.

In the worst of all worlds, the podcast will grow and prosper through quality content and good relationships with other community members. In the best of all worlds, there is some Bill and Ted style future where Dice, Food, Lodging brings about world peace and cures AIDS. Watson and Crick didn’t win the Nobel prize by aiming for something clearly attainable; and there is no good reason why anyone else should not aim just as high.

At 2 PM, urban fantasy writer Justin Gustainis will be on hand, signing books. His most recent works include Hard Spell (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation) and Sympathy for the Devil (Morris and Chastain Investigations).

Critical Hits is the Journal of Gamer Culture, covering everything of importance to role playing (and other) gamers everywhere. New updates come every weekday and primarily cover rpgs, but also board games, video games, comic books, movies, Science Fiction & Fantasy novels, and more.

Critical Hits is also a member of the Gamerati network of websites.

Confirmed Critical Hits Staff:
Dave ‘TheGame’ Chalker is a lifelong gamer, freelance game designer, Master of Arts, and son of Jack L. Chalker. Dave is the Editor-in-Chief of Critical Hits and so runs the place. (Visit Dave’s blog or follow him on Twitter).

If you live in the area, we hope you’ll join us for some fun and games. Know someone in who lives nearby? Help us get the word out by sharing this post.

- Ed

Click this link to find out where else we’re stopping.

Leighton Connor from Hex Games will be joining us, and will be running a demo for anyone interesting in checking out what Hex Games has to offer.

Leighton is the Hex Games creative director, which means he’s in charge of deciding what they want to publish, and overseeing the process, and editing, and making sure everything gets done so product can be released on time. He’s also a writer. He co-wrote QAGS, Weird Times at Charles Fort High, and Leopard Women of Venus, and he was the sole author of Laser Ponies, a game about magical ponies who shoot lasers from their eyes.

Hex Games developed a roleplaying system that models the rules of fiction, not the physics and statistics of reality, called QAGS, the Quick Ass Game System. Since then, QAGS (pronounced “kwags”) has been updated with a Second Edition, and Hex has continued to release games dedicated to shared storytelling, limited rules, and maximum fun.

Right now Hex focuses mainly on selling PDFs. All Hex games use QAGS, which is available in print and PDF, and the Qik Start Rules are available for free.

You can learn more about Hex Games at http://www.hexgames.com/

At both locations, we’ll be joined by Yellow Menace, a blog about Asian pop culture and gaming. They cover anime, manga, film, food, and music from all corners of the Pacific Rim as well as tabletop gaming / roleplaying games. The bi-weekly YM podcast feed alternates between film reviews and indie RPG’s.

Jeff Grubb works at ArenaNet.

10 AM: Manchester, NH
4 PM: Salem, NH

If you live in the area, we hope you’ll join us for some fun and games. Know someone in who lives nearby? Help us get the word out by sharing this post.

- Ed

Click this link to find out where else we’re stopping.

From 9 AM to 7 PM, we’ll be at Labyrinth Games & Puzzles.

If you live in the DC area, we hope you’ll join us for some fun and games. Know someone in Washington? Help us get the word out by sharing this post.

- Ed

Click this link to find out where else we’re stopping.

* The game days are designed to introduce new customers to the great game stores in each town. So goal #1 is to get gamers into game stores so they can play and buy games.

* The pictures and videos and blog/vlog content is meant to affect a sense of community, not just at the local level but across the country. By celebrating gamers and games our goal is to reinforce the positive view gamers should have of themselves and their hobby, and to bring that positive light before those outside the hobby as much as possible.

* Part of the goal of the events is also to give local gamers an opportunity to meet local industry people and media (podcasters and bloggers). On the flip side, it gives these local industry people a chance to promote their games to customers – who I hope will them buy them from the store.

* I also hope to learn from each retailer. On my ‘test Tour’ from Seattle to LA two months ago, it became clear to me that all retailers are not the same (no shock there), but also that they can learn from each other. A store in one state may be doing something that could help a store on the other side of the country. One of my goals is to document these ‘good ideas’ and share them with participating retailers.

What kind of games?: I personally enjoy board games and tabletop RPGs the most, but am game agnostic in general. I don’t know much about wargames, for instance, but hope to visit some heavy wargaming communities as well. I don’t play a lot of video games, but plan to visit some LAN centers on my Tour.

Are they my games?: No. I don’t publish or manufacture any product of my own. That said, 60 days on the road is not a cheap endeavor, so I’ve enlisted a few companies to help me shoulder that cost. A couple of them have really stepped up and I would love a chance to personally show each store owner their products, so they can decide if they are a good fit for the local gamerati.

- Ed

15,000 miles / 25 miles per gallon = 600 gallons of gas

600 gallons of gas x $4.00 per gallon = $2,400

Wow! That’s a lot of gas!

We’d love your help filling up…

In the morning, starting at 10 AM, we’ll be at Yottaquest. In the evening, starting at 5 PM, we’ll be at Gateway Games & More.

If you live in the Cincinnati area, we hope you’ll join us for some fun and games. Know someone in Cincinnati? Help us get the word out by sharing this post.

- Ed

Click this link to find out where else we’re stopping.

A lot of people have been asking how they can get involved, so I thought I’d mention a few ways here:

Help us reach out to game stores: If you would like us to come by your local store – whether you’re the owner of a customer – send me an email.

Help us reach out to local media: As we announce each date and location, we’ll need help getting the word out. Bloggers, podcasters… even the local radio and TV stations… all can help. If you know them, we’d like to as well. Help us make contact.

Help us reach out to the local Gamerati: There are gamers in your area that might not know about the Tour. Tell them. Show them this site. Share a link to the Gamerati Facebook page. Talk about the Tour on Twitter using the #gamerati tag.

I hope to post the first couple dates today, so check back as you have time.

- Ed