The group huddles over the red and green Apples to Apples cards and stares intently at the judge, who compares answers. The judge gives the deliberation, "Duct tape definitely goes best with quiet" and the losers down their drinks.
With football season over, many students are taking advantage of a calmer semester by playing "grown up" versions of childhood games.
Matt Morgan, games specialist at Hobbytown USA, said the colder months lead more students to buy games to play inside.
"Throughout the holidays, like the winter months, there is a lot more time to be inside and play games because in warm weather everyone goes outside," said Bryan Randall, customer at Hobbytown USA.
Morgan listed Settlers of Catan, Munchkin and Magic: The Gathering among the most popular adult games sold at Hobbytown USA aside from role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons.
"Settlers of Catan or Apples to Apples, which comes in an adult or kid variety, are big sellers among college students," said David Hampton, manager at Hastings.
Thom Pennington, senior in English, said he loves Settlers of Catan because he can interact with others while playing and the game changes each time.
Hampton and Morgan said many of the games chosen were "party games," requiring large groups of people and with the flexibility of becoming drinking games.
Hobbytown USA supplied games such as Cranium, Scattergories, poker and Risk. In addition to games specifically aimed toward adults, such as Sex and the City Trivia Game or Seinfeld Scene It?, Hampton said there are some children games that often resonate with adults.
"Around the Super Bowl, there were large, rubber bouncing balls which were hugely popular," Hampton said. "Kids could only bounce them once or twice, but with the college market it was really popular because you could bounce those things really far."
Hampton listed lightup and wind-up toys as impulse choices among children's games students enjoyed.
"Some things meant for kids just click with adults too," Hampton said.
However, Morgan said most chose age appropriate games, which could not be played by children, such as Settlers of Catan, which can be complicated to play.
Both Hampton and Morgan listed collectibles such as collector sports, movie action figures or cars as a large part of the inventory for adults.
Randall also mentioned Dungeons and Dragons is still a popular game among college students.
So no matter what students like to play indoors, they are sure to stay entertained throughout the colder months as well as the summer.
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