My barnes and Noble has Wifi. I see some gamers there from time to time.

I dont know of one WiFi enabled MD's anywhere in Cali. We have a very wealthy McDonalds down the street complete with a fountain and HD, but even they dont have WiFi.

I saw a gang of guys hanging around the public toilets in the park. Don't think theirs Wifi around there though so who knows what they were up to.

At Cal State Long Beach, theres a room full of a bunch of WOW players. They bring in Wiis 360s and ps2s from time to time, and hook it up to a tv the university provided. i was playing FF:CC on my DS the other day with one of those guys. i think ts pretty fantastic to play co-op with some doods i just met. everyone there is super nice and as far as i can tell, the only thing we have in common is that we play video games. its a pretty amazing comunity.

My MH community is rather spread out here in Vegas and we havent met up just yet. But I hear the community in California is much more active, and I will be moving back into that area sometime this year.
But, since I got my WiFi Max about a week ago, I have less a need to go out to a meet to get my MHing going on now, but I would still rather play face to face. So, I've been trying to set up a few small meets at a local Comic Book shop.

@PJK: No WiFi there, so they have to use physical connections.

@PJK: Must... resist... They were playing Wii. *sobs* Why am I so weak? ; ;

This is actually popular in Korea as well. If you go to McDonalds in the evening there are usually a gaggle of kids playing PSP. I'm not sure if they are playing MH, I think most of them are playing tekken... But its not only PSP you'll see just as many people playing DSlite, lots of mario cart DS going on.

I live in Toronto, and on four separate occasions, I've found groups of 4-8 people with their DSes/PSPs found at Second Cup franchises throughout the city and surrounding area.. Never at Starbucks, though.

In the Philippines, Burger King is a popular hangout for PSP gamers because of the free Wi-Fi! ;p

The only instances of portable gaming hang-outs I have seen were at the library. On weekend mornings I've seen high schoolers reserve some of the medium-sized study/meeting rooms. The librarians are totally chill about it though and sometimes the YPL librarians have Wii parties, or whatever they call them. Cool stuff! I just don't bother though, I don't like being around little kids.

At my college there are always a bunch of guys who bring their laptops and play Battle for Middle Earth. Every college probably has those guys though.

In Guangzhou, China. There is a small club thingy inside a trendy teenager mall in Ximenkou area. They have this banner of MHP 2nd G and there is always a group of 8-12 ppl in there playing MHP together. Kinda cool, I'm not sure how much they charge for the entry, or is it just one of the mall special service.

北京有这种的地方吗？ 好想我在鼓楼的麦当劳看到了几个高中学生一起玩儿PSP，但是他们总是要玩足球游戏，真无聊。有北京的朋友看kotaku吗？

Only me and my room mate is playing MHP 2G that I know of. If anyone do play at LA please let me know. The asian in LA know nth but cars... sad indeed

4月20日 中关村有怪物猎人P2G比赛。

[www.tgbus.com]

In England I host my own Meetup for DS players in Birmingham

www.nintendods.meetup.com/10/

I also regularly attend the DS: London meetup as well

www.nintendods.meetup.com/7/

For Taipei, the underground City Mall just north of Taipei Main Station (along Civic) from Exit 4-6 usually has small huddles of gamers playing PSP stuff at any given time, and Monster Hunter's usually in there. I haven't joined them due to poor language skills, and I think they probably use the JPN version instead of the ENG version I have, which are incompatible, and 2G doesn't have an ENG version yet either to my knowledge.

Chef,

I was just going to post the exact same spot (City Mall under Taipei Main Station), but now I don't need to, I suppose. As far as MacDonalds goes, I think the WiFi here is run by ChungHwa Telecom, and is a subscription service. Of course, it seems to me that the MH players were connecting locally as opposed to over WiFi. So, not sure if it really matters whether or not there is an access point nearby or not.

Well my local strip joint has alot of man gathering in a corner? While I'm pretty sure I didn't see anyone with a PSP, I know they were playing SOME kind of portable pocket game.

Already saw a couple notes on Taipei, but I have a good Taipei county spot. I always see a good number of gamers at the Mos Burger in San Cheong.

Also, when I visited Japan, there were always tons of people hanging out at Wendy's and playing DS and PSP. I actually had an older Japanese man insult a group of teenagers who were sharing a single pop until they got up and the older man ushered my wife and I into the vacated booth. At least I assume he was insulting them, since I don't speak any Japanese. It could have been more along the lines of, "Look at these Americans, they are so fat. Please move so they can sit down before they decide to destroy our precious Wendy's with a typical American wave of destruction!"

@muteaid: Where is this place? in Guangzhou?

What? People in HK too cheap to buy USB wifi adapters? I thought their internet was crazy fast at reasonable prices.

Does MK still have that free Wi-Fi connection for DSes here in the States?

I remember the big deal about it when the first DS Wi-Fi game came out.

But seeing as, back then, there were like only 2 DS wi-fi games you didn't hear much beyond the initial annoucement.

No idea... as an adult you just don't find gamers, at least in my experience.

I played some EBA with a girl on the bus once a year ago, much to the confusion of nearby passengers.

Before that, uh... hmm... um... I had a link game of Tetris with a friend of mine on the original GameBoy?

No wait, I had a couple Pokemon battles in high school around 10 years ago, and saw a few friends who played the original Digimon handhelds.

But I practically never see anyone play handheld game systems outside a couple people I know personally. If it's actually popular it must be well concealed.

Round here in Texas, alotta people goto Denny's for free wifi and lotsa cofee :D

The reason why there is a "need" for meet-up places, especially for Monster Hunter, is that multiplayer is through Ad-hoc mode meaning people have to be physically close to you. There isn't any infrastructure mode. I hope that the next iteration of the game will though.

Is not like HK ppl can not afford a wifi USB finger at home. The reason is the atmosphere playing with more than 30 to 40 people is awesome. I attend to quite alot of monster hunter meeting when I went back to HK last year and it is awesome. I always wish there is more people playing in LA so I can meet up with them.

@urbanbuddha: there isn't any "offical" infrastructure...but there is "infrastructure" if you use Xlink/Xkai

I played monster hunter for over two years with a friend of mine. There was nothing we couldn't kill in the first Freedom and Freedom2. Then my other friend "Mel" started playing. Between the 3 of us...it's death to whatever we face. But "Mel" is playing 2G import while me and my other bud wait for the american release. But it's all good. We're all going to be on Xkai since our schedules don't allow for meetups like we used to.

If Monster Hunter on Wii isn't gimped to holy hell, we'll be on that too. Damn Capcom for no making that for PS3 or PSN....bastids...

yeah, all the mcdonalds here have wifi; borders and barnes and noble have it too.
here's the thing, when i went to try it out at these places, the browser is redirected.
"wtf?" it loads a page basically asking me to pay for the wifi access.

i have a big problem with that, considering how all the taco bells and krystals,
which probably make far less money, have free wifi in their locations.
judging by your average public wifi, the crap is worth zero dollars ($0.)

also, i've been the only one with a gaming device every time i've ever been.

as a matter o' fact, i live in west palm florida. any players here? im willing to travel XD

I tried once to make the downloads for MHP2nd, but no efforts...
Maybe i was a little to far...