Announcing VGHVI guest-hosted multiplayer gaming nights!

[Roger Travis]

One of the most important parts of the mission of VGHVI is to get our members playing video games together, to have something to talk about in our signature interdisciplinary way and, well, just to have a lot of fun. Over the past year or so we've done that on a pretty much weekly basis, and it's been really wonderful. We've played every kind of multiplayer game there is, from Castle Crashers to Carcassonne. Frankly, when I think of these Thursday nights, what comes instantly to mind is the raucous laughter: something about the contrast between our oh-so-highbrow and interdisciplinary pretensions and the difficulty of actually attaining proficiency at, say, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 Arcade Edition seems to do that.

With this year of experience at getting gaming going among VGHVI members, we've decided to introduce a wrinkle that we're really excited about. As a way of sharing the joy, and of getting us playing many different games across every conceivable platform, we've started inviting guest-hosts to choose a game and be the notional party leader of our merry Thursday (usually) band. The guest-host gets to choose the game and the platform, which we'll announce the weekend before, and ideally he or she will be able to write a blog-post here at VGHVI and wherever else s/he usually posts explaining his or her choice. We'll discuss the game--what we like or don't like, and above all what we think it contributes to the development of the form and of our culture in general--and then, on Thursday (usually--though we're also inviting our hosts to choose a time that might suit them better) at 9:30 Eastern, we'll play it, in company with our host.

I'm very pleased to announce that Alex Raymond of While !Finished and GameCritics.com has chosen Left 4 Dead on XBox 360 and over XBox Live as our inaugural game. We're hopeful that Alex will be able to post about her choice, but if she doesn't get to do so, I'll start a discussion of why I think the game represent a major contribution to the values and games conversation early in the coming week.

Most importantly, I hope to play with as many of you as can make it on Thursday! I would also love to hear from anyone who might be interested in guest-hosting a multiplayer night along these line, or who has a suggestion of someone we should invite to host. In the coming weeks, such VGHVI members as Michael Abbott (@brainygamer) and Jonathan Mills (@academyofdrx) are on our line-up, so stay tuned!