Couch Warriors is a non-profit community of gamers who come together who strive to bring gaming outside of the house and back into the public at gaming events. At current we hold monthly gaming sessions in the city, with a large competitive focus. We also occasionally have social dinner nights and go to various other events. Feel free to check out the annoucements on our front page.
Our History
Couch Warriors was formed in December 2006, and we ran our ranking battle events at Latrobe during 2007 and halfway through 2008. The first ranbats our very first three ranbats included Guilty Gear XX: Slash, Street Fighter 3: Third Strike and Smash Bros Melee.
Below is the original page we wrote up about ourselves, which was basically a mission statement. I'm throwing it on here with our history as a constant reminder of where we started and what we wanted as we grow up, and become big and strong.
The Past - A Call to Arms!
Gamers are getting older, no longer is gaming considered the domain of pasty kids with glasses. The average video game consumer these days is increasingly likely to fall within the 18-35 age bracket and well, sure we still might still be pasty and wear glasses, but we're all now a little wiser. We wear witty tshirts, drive cars and speak better english on web forums. As a hobby, video games has grown up with us and we have LAN parties, and even professional gamers, who play games and make money from them, who would've thought!?
PC games and genres such as first person shooters and real time strategy have had momentous support from competitive groups and both are represented in arenas like the World Cyber Games. Added to that, the recent growth of the MMO genre with the success of World of Warcraft shows that gamers have become used to the idea of paying subscription fees and spending large chunks of their week on their hobby building up and improving their toons. While thats great for those genres, these games are played online most or all of the time.
This begs the question, what ever happened to the gaming we used to do in our loungerooms with our friends while growing up? What ever happened to those arcade machines we used to bash around with at our local milkbars? Did they not grow up with us?
Consoles make up a large chunk of the games that we play in Australia, and everywhere there are a couple of mates challenging each other to 'just another match', there is a small dedicated group of people somewhere out there that wishes that they had more competition. There are arcades around our Austalian capital cities and universities, always with just a small following, slowly faltering and growing extinct.
This is where Couch Warriors comes in. Not content with simply belonging to the online phenomenon, we aim to try and help these competitive gaming communities around Melbourne, help raise awareness for them and in the meantime have fun doing more social things offline, whether it be movies, drinks, dinners, gaming events, whatever.
Understand that Couch Warriors itself does not want to dedicate itself wholly to one game or one type of game. Though we may start out playing one or two different games it's simply because we were started by a small group of people brought together with similiar taste in gaming. We are aimed at the social aspect of gathering a whole bunch of gamers to one place and having fun. We welcome any and all sort of gamers as long as they are willing come out and have a good time.
This is where you come in, help us grow, expand, and become the gaming community you want to see and participate in. Couch Warriors is brand spanking new, and we need people based in Melbourne interested in helping us run it, or even just members coming to events we organise. You can register your interest by joining the mailing list or signing up to the forums and introducing yourself. We are very interested in knowing exactly what you guys want out of a club and a community like this, so come and join the couch!
If you're interested in helping out with our little group, or just want to show your interest then introduce yourself on the forum.
Our Future
In the near future we are looking at moving our events to a larger location in Collingwood, that will be able to grow by increasing the venue space and time we have our venues for. We're always looking to take on one or two more communities, whether they be more fighting games, or other console games of different genres. Head over here for more details if you're interested in joining.
Couch Warriors is always considering other types of events, however we are working toward our main goal, which is an annual event to host our ranbat finals. Stay tuned!
Last updated on the 1st of March, 2009 by Zan.
