On Saturday 26th January the Frag Dolls had our biggest forum meet up yet. I went along looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and a few new ones. Instead I found myself faced with huge bunch of people all of whom are avid gamers and part of our ever expanding community. There were some there who spend loads of time on the forum and in games with other community members. There were some who read the site but have never been to our forums. There were some who came a long with a friend to see what all the fuss was about. No matter why people were there though, all of us had one common goal – to do some gaming together and that’s just what we did.

We rocked the Trocadero, pasting each other at beat ‘em ups. driving games and DDR. We then decimated a nearby restaurant before heading on to catch up with our good friends the DS Meet Up group, who had commandeered a pub for us to spend the rest of the evening in. We had some excellent and very exciting games on the DS together. There’s nothing quite like the sight of 30 people all playing DS’s at the same time. What the pub’s other customers thought of it all I can only guess!

It seems to me that gamers are almost hardwired to think a certain way and it was funny to see how intensely we all got caught up in playing Darts. All our gaming styles and attitudes didn’t change a jot when faced with an age old game involving far less technology than we’re used to. Evil_Harb went in fast and won decisively. Blu obsessed and honed his skill till he won through and thiswayupUK claimed he’d strike just when it counted and did exactly that. I messed around and pretended not to care but, of course, made the most appalling fuss when I finally did win.

It’s not gaming that makes us who we are. Each of us has always been this way. It is gaming that’s brought us together though, and together we become somehow more ‘ourselves’ than ever. Here’s to another great meet up and many more to come.