Every Friday night about 20 students meet in Haley 3223/3233 to kick back, relax and play video games.
"People do give a lot of flack to these kinds of clubs just because they feel like it's not important or anything, but honestly this is one of the greatest ways to unwind," said Stephen Dufrene, junior in actuarial science and president of the Computer Gaming Club.
Open to all, the club's weekly meetings involve playing video games through the night with a short break around 9 p.m. reserved for announcements.
"It's a place for people to come in and relax at the end of the week," said Kathleen Smith, graduate student in technical and professional communications. "Nothing is a better catharsis than shooting people in the head."
Members of the club meet at 7 p.m. each Friday, and many stay as late as 3 a.m.
"We actually have the room reserved all weekend," Smith said. "There was one time where everybody went to get breakfast and came back to the room and continued to play video games."
Because meetings are located in a computer lab, members do not have to bring any equipment. A portion of the club's funds also goes towards buying games that can be accessed by each member.
"All of the computers are connected, and we have Steam accounts," Smith said. "Steam is basically this program that lets you download copies of games. All the computers have this program on them, and the club has paid for all of the games we have available."
Members of the group can play any game they want, either individually or with larger groups.
With a laid back, fun atmosphere, there is no agenda when the group meets. They just go with the flow.
"We play all night and all morning," said Chris Erb, junior in electrical engineering. "Someone picks a game, and if there's enough laughter and excitement, then people just start gravitating toward that one."
But the club's focus is not restricted to computer games.
"Sometimes we have a person bring in a console and put it in the projector," Erb said.
Members said they play anything from brand new Xbox games to old-school Nintendo 64.
"I think that's one of our specialties," Smith said. "We do a lot of classic games."
The club also sponsors a number of campus-wide events throughout the year.
The largest, TigerLAN, will be held in early April in the Student Center Ballroom.
"TigerLAN is our big LAN party we have every semester," Smith said. "People bring in their computers, and they have LAN where they all hook up together. We have a ton of consoles so we can have tournaments."
Another tournament with a focus on fighting games is in the works.
"There are a lot of people who play not necessarily computer games, but fighting games on consoles," said Luke Rester, freshman in math. "So I figured it would be a good thing for the Computer Gaming Club to do a fighting game tournament to show that we do all kinds of things, not just PC games."
Rester said the tournament games include Super Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
The tournament will be held in early March.
"It's a good way for people to start getting into fighting games in general," Rester said. "New fighting games are coming out this year. That way people can jump into them and be able to get good at them without being totally outclassed because people have been playing them for 10 years."
Besides the passion they have for gaming, the social aspects of the club are what many members said drew them in.
"It's a social activity," Rester said. "That's the thing--you're pretty much coming here to hang out with people."
As the public relations chair, Smith said she wants to promote a more positive image of the club.
"With the advent of the Internet, gaming has become so socialized, but there's still that stigma of people playing in their basements sitting alone or that stigma of if you play a violent video game, you're going to be a violent person," Smith said. "I want to bring people in and let them see how great this program really is."
By promoting a more positive image of the group, Dufrene said he hopes others will set aside the negative stereotypes many people may have of "gamers" and be encouraged to come see what the club is really like.
"We're all a very close-knit group, and we all know each other very well," Dufrene said. "We all share a common interest, and this is a great place to enjoy it. This is one of the most social clubs you're going to find."
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
