The club formerly known as the Super Smash Brothers Club has reinvented itself into the more inclusive Button Mashers Anonymous. The video-game club meets every Friday from 6-11 p.m.in the Student Center game room to show off expertise and hone new moves on console, online and handheld video games.
"Last year, we decided to no longer just focus on Super Smash Brothers and try to expand into other games," said Button Mashers President Ben Stewart, senior in business administration. "That way we don't get bored of Smash all the time and just do other stuff and get more people in the club."
Button Mashers meetings begin with hanging out over Chick-fil-a and Papa John's. Brief announcements are made and then the real fun begins.
Gamers grab their controllers for multiplayer or solo action. Laptops flip open for online gaming. The game room becomes a pool of tip-swapping and game-based socialization.
"It's literally couch-gaming the way it used to be," said Button Mashers Treasurer Jay Whaley, sophomore in software engineering. "It's not the online stuff where you're in your house all alone on a headset. You're actually beside somebody playing games, the way it used to be."
Members are encouraged to bring their own consoles and games to meetings. Fans of classic Nintendo games such as Mario Kart, Pokemon and The Legend of Zelda, as well as popular online RPGs such as League of Legends and Dark Souls, have flocked to join the club.
"If you play video games, come," Whaley said. "You will make friends."
Lauren Moore, freshman in professional flight management, hopes Button Mashers' expansion will encourage more female gamers to join in.
"It's really fun to play games you've never played before," Moore said. "I know a lot of people on campus play games, but I don't think they know club is happening or maybe they'd come by here, but if they were to know this club was happening, maybe they'd come by here there'd be more females."
Moore is one of the Button Mashers competing Saturday in AUSOM 10: The Banishment of Ganondorf. The gaming tournament has been presented every semester for the past five years by the video-game aficionados of Auburn University.
This semester, gamers from across the southeast will contend in a variety of multiplayer games including Super Smash Brothers: Melee, Brawl and the popular fan-made hack, Super Smash Brothers: Project M.
"[Project M] is basically taking Brawl and making it more like Melee, taking the cast of Brawl but a lot of the little nuances of the game have been changed," said Whaley. "It's more technical."
Intra-club tournaments have helped prepare the Button Mashers for the upcoming AUSOM 10.
Other main events at AUSOM 10 are Pokemon X and Y, Street Fighter IV, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom. The competition begins at 10 a.m. and is open to nonstudents as well as students. There is a $10 fee per event. Inquiries about AUSOM 10 and Button Mashers Anonymous may be directed to Ben Stewart at bes0012@tigermail.auburn.edu.
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.
