I set up a public game night for a non profit organization. The event space has a bar on one side and Pizza and snacks are available. All ages are welcome as the bar side is segregated from where the gaming area is. We posted it in some FB local groups and I found some local subreddits and discord servers. I even made an Instagram account but it flagged my flyer as spam. It’s a smallish town with about 14k people but near a much bigger college town by about 30 minutes. I’m at a loss as what to do since I’m going to give it a go this week too. We discussed having a vintage video game competition such as an old arcade game. Am I missing something or are game nights just not that popular?

  • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
    10·
    6 hours ago

    Old-school paper flyers seem appropriate for a vintage game competition, see if you’re allowed to post any on campus.

    Add public-transit directions if they aren’t already there.

    You said it’s for a nonprofit, it might make a difference what that nonprofit is.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.worldOP
      5·
      6 hours ago

      It’s a large veterans organization. Also sadly there’s is no public transportation off of campus, especially not out here. I will try to get some flyers printed and see if I can get them put up in town. I think campus is too far out there for students to come.

        • PriorityMotif@lemmy.worldOP
          2·
          2 hours ago

          It’s the American Legion and yeah the commander helped me set it all up. Unfortunately there’s not a lot of very active members. The only thing they really have going on is bingo, which draws a pretty big crowd. Unfortunately the other nights are completely dead in there.

          • Gerudo@lemmy.zip
            2·
            1 hour ago

            See if you can pair up with bingo night to start some traction. Bring some easy to pick up party games, as a pre/post bingo activity. And make sure to let them know you are hosting a full event too.

            • PriorityMotif@lemmy.worldOP
              1·
              54 minutes ago

              For the past 2 weeks I actually have been bringing in my laptop and setting up trivia from crowdparty.app and putting it on the big tv before bingo since people get there about 2 hours early to claim their spots. I usually hangout for an hour or so and get a few people to play but not a lot. They did announce the game night at the last bingo night. I also have jackbox survey scramble that I haven’t tried with them yet but I think a few of them might like. The issue with bingo night is that they also sell raffle tickets and go several rounds of doing that so people are more focused on dealing with that and socializing.

          • SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            2 hours ago

            Bingo night is serious business, never fails to amaze me.

            There’s a VFW that they like to use as basecamp for filming tv/movies in the area, but they always have to work around bingo night. They’ve tried outbidding it, but bingo just rakes that much in.