What an excellent evening it was! Last night, The New York Videogame Critics Circle’s guest speaker was iNK Stories’ Navid Khonsari. who’s given the world deep media such as 1979 Revolution and most recently, Hero: A Verite VR Experience. We were hosted by the good people at Samsung. Samsung’s the newest partner for our non-profit and they kindly offered us their loft space for the evening.

The night brought together Circle members from Polygon, the Washington Post, Tom’s Guide, ESPN, the New Yorker and elsewhere. Educators from our partnership with the DreamYard Prep School also attended as did our Board Chair, Ted Houghton. The Game Awards’ Geoff Keighley was a guest as well.

Khonsari, who’ll speak at the United Nations today, talked about his work not only as a bastion of social justice, but as an adventurous, chance-taking endeavor. He said he was more about putting food on the table for his family than lining his pockets with cash.

Afterwards, we roamed the massive space. Some enjoyed Khonsari’s Fire Escape in VR. Some played ping ping or darts. Some checked out the Samsung QLED TVs on the wall. Some took pictures in a photo booth. Some chatted seriously and some gossiped. It was a casual night of collegiality, and yet we all learned a lot. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Thanks to everyone at Samsung who helped us put this together so quickly and for providing an excellent space to hang and to exchange knowledge!

Circle Founder Harold Goldberg, iNK Sstories’ Navid Khonsari and Samsung’s Jeff Castaneda.