The arcade is long gone, ‘social’ gaming mostly happens via headset or Facebook, and there are fewer and fewer reasons to even go to a brick-and-mortar store to get new games. Yet, contrary to popular opinion, gamers do want to get out of their houses from time to time.

“There is an incredible amount of talent and an unending supply of passion in this industry,” says Game Design grad Brian Vidovic. “But somehow there is still a perceived gap between a gamer and a social being.”

That’s why Brian’s starting a new venture, EXP Entertainment, with the aim of putting the “party” back into “party game.” The first big event happened last week – we were happy to be a sponsor – at the VFS Café here in Vancouver. It was called the Gaming Night of Awesome, and it lived up to its name. The night featured tournaments, a Rock Band competition, and good, old-fashioned grown-up fun (meaning there was a bar).

Photo by Miko Wilson (noobvancity.blogspot.com)

We’ve written about Brian a few times, mostly because he parlayed his year at VFS (and his role as one-fifth of the student team behind the game Bloom) into a job as a mission designer at Radical, where he worked on last year’s Prototype. But now EXP Entertainment is his full-time gig – the Gaming Night of Awesome was just the first salvo.

“EXP Entertainment is about building a community of awesomeness,” he told us after the first event. “It was created to appeal to the social tastes of the gamer. We’ve grown up with games and love to share our experiences with others. EXP aims to give gamers the social scene they want.”

“The average age of the gamer in Canada is 35 and EXP understands this. We are looking to cater to the tastes of mature gamers that have grown up with games and selected them as their medium of choice.”

All right. But it begs the question – what happened to the whole game design thing? Brian’s career just began less than three years ago.

“I haven’t lost my passion for game design in the slightest,” he explains. “In a way, crafting these events is much like creating a game. Initial concept, finding the ‘X’ of what makes it cool, reward systems, replayability… The reason I chose to pursue this full-time is that I believe in the power of the community that I see in Vancouver and beyond.”

Photo by Sander Dijk

It’s a lot smaller than, say, a PAX, but the purpose is the same – to bring people together. ”There are movie theaters where you can go and watch a movie with hundreds of other people. There is no place where you can go and enjoy a social environment while gaming with hundreds of other people. There are tournaments that go on for fighting games sometimes, but why not other games? There are industry mixers happening, but why are they without the gaming component?”

So, with the Gaming Night of Awesome behind us (check out this Village Gamer writeup), Brian’s looking ahead. But not before some shoutouts: “I want to thank the entire EXP team of volunteers. It wouldn’t have worked without your assistance and dedication. Also a big thanks to all of our sponsors who gave us the prizes, the TVs, and the venue to make it all come together as nicely as it did.”

“Keep an eye out for future EXP events – they’ll be spreading like wildfire,” he promises. “A fire that happens to originate from a dragon. That is, a dragon that is part of an intergalactic race of Space-Dragons sent to Earth to show us the true meaning of laser-powered awesome!”

EXP – official site
EXP – Facebook