The following is a very rough draft of a recurring write-up I'm hoping to develop over the next few weeks. Giant Bomb has a lot of recurring game nights that could use a continuous amount of exposure to thrive. There's also a bunch of game night forum threads that aren't active anymore, which makes it confusing to figure out if the events are still alive and kicking, especially to users that don't often dig deep into our forum content. I've wanted to highlight our community's gaming get-togethers for a few months now, and with a recent uptick in events, I think now's the best time to start pulling the trigger.

The schedule below is not an exhaustive list of all the recurring community game events on Giant Bomb. Rather, it is presented mainly so that the format can be criticized and improved. My plan is to begin communicating with the users that run these game nights and community events, so I can learn if they're still happening, how the turnout is, and if there's anything cool going on that might entice newcomers. Obviously, it'll take a little time to get that ball rolling.

Additional sections planned but not shown here include an introduction discussing new events for the week, a featured event write-up by a fellow mod, and a clubs/guilds/groups thread listing at the end of each outlook. Most descriptions in the outlook will likely be rewritten each week, based on what I've learned about the ongoing statuses and happenings of all this wonderful noise.

Feedback, as you might imagine, is welcome and encouraged.

Friday

Battlefield 3 Bombing Runs

Battlefield 3 (PC), 12:00 PM PST for Europe, 6:30 PM PST for North America

Details here – The Battlefield community on Giant Bomb's pretty massive right now on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. I have no current knowledge on their turnout, but given how the community's doing, I'm leaning towards "quite good." You should join them and shoot things. I imagine it's quite good fun.

Saturday

Team Fortress 2 Game Night

Team Fortress 2 (PC), 12:00 PM PST for Europe, 6:30 PM PST for North America

Details here – NEW EVENT! This is part of AhmadMetallic's PC Gaming Hub Initiative. If the Tested/Giant Bomb TF2 server isn't available, it sounds like they'll be using their Steam group to find and broadcast a suitable server to jump into for fun times, so if you want to take part, grab your hat and pay attention to the various Steam communities.

Counter-Strike: Source Game Night

Counter-Strike: Source (PC), 2:00 PM PST

Details here – NEW EVENT! Another PC Gaming Hub initiative newbie, the CS:S fans of the community say they'll gather to find a good server for letting loose with their AWP jollies, or whatever the Counter-Strike fans do these days. I'd pay close attention to Steam for this event; while the PC Hub's calendar says this takes place Saturday, the Giant Bomb thread claims it's a Sunday gathering, so be aware of that potential scheduling mishap.

Monday

SSFIV: AE Game Night

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (PC), 12:00 PM PST for Europe, 6:30 PM PST for North America

Details here – NEW EVENT! This appears to be yet another new event from the PC Gaming Hub initiative. I assume it'll be a bunch of fights organized through Games For Windows Live invites and the such, but I'm not sure how the organizers are planning to work this out. The crowd for this appears to be rather small starting off, so it'd be a good idea to jump in as soon as possible and make yourself known if you want a fight night for the PC SSFIV.

Tuesday

Battlefield 3 Bombing Runs

Battlefield 3 (PC), 12:00 PM PST for Europe, 6:30 PM PST for North America

Details here – Much like the Friday Bombing Run, except more Tuesday-ier. I'm not aware if these are more or less popular than their Friday counterparts, or if the players are any different.

Wednesday

Trackmania 2 Race Night

Trackmania 2: Canyon (PC), 6:00 PM PST

Details here, server details here – With the holiday game rush dying down, the Giant Bomb Trackmania 2 server continues to thrive. Even if you don't join the loose race night festivities, there's a good chance at least ten to twenty random players will be on this server during prime time and late night hours.

Thursday

Red Orchestra 2 Game Night

Red Orchestra 2 (PC), 12:00 PM PST for Europe, 6:30 PM PST for North America

Details here – Another scheduled event from the PC Gaming Hub initiative. Unsure of its status or how it performed last week.

Thursday Night Throwdown

NFL Blitz (360/PS3?), 4:00 PM PST

Live on Giant Bomb – Undoubtedly, this will involve Jeff wrecking fools. You would be wise to check yourself before this most wriggety event occurs.

Giant Bomb Forza Race Night

Forza Motorsport 4 (360), 7:30 PM PST

Details here – Race Night continues to run at just over half capacity, which is basically unchanged from our Forza 3 days, save for the fact there's plenty of room in the lobby now. We're trying to put more time into non-racing activities like tag and car soccer, so we'd really like more of you to join us. These modes are so much more fun with sixteen people, rather than ten.

Haha, "wriggety"

Is there a MW3 community game night?

@Hargreaves93: I'm not aware of any current MW3 game nights, unfortunately. A recurring event might come together for the PC version, but I have my doubts.

Aah ok, cheers for the reply. Unfortunately, even if there was a PC version I couldn't play it as I only have the 360 copy of the game.

This is terrible and I think you should give up while you can.*

*False statement is false.

I think the titles of all of these should be "Test Entry # ".

Does @X19 still run an Uncharted Game Night?

The Giant Bomb Uncharted 3 Hub

@mosespippy: @X19: I can list the UC3 game night next week, no problem, but I'd like to avoid listing events that are dead or have no attendance, since that'd hurt the purpose of this schedule.

As much as I hate to say it given what X19 said, one of the keys I've found to keeping a game night alive is having one or two people that are basically anchors. By that, I mean people who are almost certain to attend on a recurring basis, and can be relied upon to be there, host lobbies, and provide fun times when new people want to show up. If you lose those people or never had them in the first place, it makes it harder for the community event to thrive.

...of course, that's more for lobby-based multiplayer games. Games with stand-alone servers can typically run on there own, and that's a case of just getting enough people to initially show up and attract a crowd.

Is there enough support for a Super Street Fighter IV AE Fight Night for 360 that mirrors the PC version? I dunno if the worry would be that it divides the community, but the 360 version is still quite nice.

@PsEG: We got screwed because the game released with a bug which prevented parties. That's fixed but it still needs work and there's a patch apparently at the end of the month. Next two Saturdays I wont be here so I wont be there for game night :/

Fuck idk I put some work into the thread and am happy setting these events up but can't promise i will be there sitting in the lobby. Like I said I might try an approach to get groups of three bombers doing co op runs. Will do a mass PM to those who already put there names down and see what the crack is.

Put the game night down for Saturday 2.00 pm and I will let you know how it goes.

Also shame the Wipeout HD Wednesday died because I love that game :(

@Little_Socrates: I've no clue if there's enough support for a 360 fight night, but since the PC SSFIVAE event's part of the whole PC gaming initiative, I doubt it's taking the 360 community into consideration. Like any game night here, I'll gladly list/promote another fight night if someone sets up and schedules one.

@X19: I'll have the UC3 night on this Friday's post. Don't take my advice re: attendance for game nights as personal criticism, it's just basically what I've found works. I've had quite a few game nights die off, and while lack of interest in the game might be to blame, it didn't help when we hit numbers low enough to create awkward two or three-person lobbies. Those situations rarely feel comfortable unless it's all friends.

@PsEG: Alright man so this is how it's going at the moment. I set up a massive PM with all the details of the situation with bombers who signed up originally for game night. There are co op sessions which can and are now be set up on the fly within the PM. It's been interesting reading bombers opinions on the topic but I think this game night could be brought back from the dead after all.

As far as full meet ups every week this will come with time I think. The best thing to do is instead of saying Saturday 2.00pm, just say message X19. Once they are added to the PM then it will be easier to fit them in or let them know when events will happen.

Thanks for promoting these game nights it's a cool idea which takes work and commitment.

If you want me to add you to our UC3 PM let me know.

Actually shit they should add their names to the player list in the hub and I will add them to the PM from there.

Nice! This easily helps me find more bombers to play with!

Awesome work!