My, quite a number of gay gamer meetups here in San Francisco this week. (Presumably because of the Game Developer Conference.) The boys and girls at Gamers Experimentations are meeting up at the Pilsner Inn on Thursday; then Saturday night there's an identical meetup at the Pilsner happening with the folks who bring you GayGamer.net. (Back when I first moved to San Francisco, I knew and went to the same clubs as the editor there. Sweet guy. Who knew we'd both come out as gamers?)

Thankfully I live within convenient stumbling distance of the Pilsner, which is also a nice place to hang out. Has an outside patio; isn't pretentious; isn't a total pickup joint; clean; and quiet enough to talk and be heard. I realize most of the Gamespot audience probably doesn't have these images in their minds when they think of gay bars" but let me tell you...most of them are pretty ordinary, just like straight bars.

There's something delightfully geeky about standing in the back patio of a gay bar (playing whatever dreadful music is on the jukebox--Cher, Madonna...you know the stereotype) and getting wireless games of Mario Kart on with your friends. The looks on the faces of the other patrons is priceless--from "who let these kids in here?" to "OMG, is that Mario Kart? Blue Shells FTW!" (We prefer the latter.)

Now I just have to figure out if the Boyfriend will come to either event (or if I'm going to be over my cold enough to go.) Or if I can make it to three other cocktail events this week as well without checking in to rehab.