When punctuality matters …

During the workweek, I attend a meetup.com gaming group. If you’re not familiar with meetup.com, it’s a website where a group host will post an event, and people can join a group and RSVP if they’re attending or not.

It’s a great way to meet people who share similar interests. I’ve been attending this gaming group for over a year now, and through this group was how I’ve met even more gamers and friends who now I do weekend gaming with.

So back to the meetup group, it’s very important to show up on time. When people show up for an event, the group splits up into their respective board games, and then the stragglers end up waiting until a group finishes a game. If you’re late, sometimes you get lucky and another straggler or two shows up, and then you can play a 2- or 3-player game. But more often than not, you’re waiting …

This happened to me this past week. I always try to get out on time at work, but sometimes last-minute items arrive at your desk. So I finish up, exit the building late, and then drive furiously (but safely) to  where we’re all meeting, only to get there late and see everybody has already started playing. One group is playing a long game that runs about 2 hours; the other group started a 1-hour game. Gahhhhh.

So I sit down, order dinner and wait for about 30 minutes until people are free again. I totally, totally get it though. One of the worst things about gaming meetups is the “dead time” — either from people being indecisive about which game to play, people waiting to reach a minimum number of players for a particular board game, or waiting for somebody who said they were going to get there at a specific time. On that day I was the latecomer. And I patiently waited until the next board game to open up.

Folks, let this be a reminder — show up on time if you don’t want to wait for a board game to open up. And don’t be that rude guy who keeps everybody waiting. Plus, if you’re on time, you can suggest a game that you want to play!

Gamers, how do you handle latecomers to your events?