#i2amru (I, Too, Am Reinhardt) Volume 1 Number 1 | Page 36

GAME ON!

Gamer Cultures on
Campus

by Jacob Howard

These bonds can become some
of the best friendships you may
ever find on campus. From
personal experience, I can
attest to this, thanks to a viral
video game: Five Nights at
Freddy’s.

In that moment, while we
were (and still are) strangers,
we were united in our common love for that game and in
our terror as an onscreen enemy dashed to seal the player’s
fate.

from home, where maybe
there weren’t that many active players, and on a campus
featuring a melting pot of
cultures and interests, brings
out the urge to find others like
them.

One day, I was in the commuter lounge showing the horror game off to a few of my
friends when an idea struck.
I should get someone who’s
never heard of this game to
play it! Picking a nearby friend
to be a victim, our little group
gathered around to watch.

Interestingly enough, I actually
gained a new friend because
of the same game roughly a
year later when she compared
a Chuck E. Cheese commercial
to the in-game animatronics,
which prompted quite the discussion on the game’s lore.

Regardless of why it happens,
the fact remains that gaming
has become engraved in the
hearts and minds of students
across campus.

Things were going smoothly,
until I noticed we were grabbing some attention. Students
who I had never talked to
before would hear the tell-tale
sounds of the game, and one
by one, they would ask,

“Everywhere I turn,

there’s at least one person who’s all about video
games,” noted Reinhardt
junior Abel Ramirez when
asked about the gamer
culture here on campus.
Sophomore David Schreck
was quick to echo this
remark and added a quick
anecdote about “battling
some guy in Pokémon
during Art History” to emphasize just how far gaming’s reach has spread over
the campus.

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There was a point in the
not-too-distant past when
statements like those
above were reserved for
elementary school playgrounds, or the smallest
groups in upper grades.

Students and faculty
from multiple backgrounds make up Reinhardt’s gamer community, yet these diverse
members don’t typically
have any form of ‘meetings’--and even if that
Nowadays, the opposite happened to be possible,
is true. You can find video it’s fairly unlikely that
game fans in just about
any area smaller than the
any classroom on campus, gym could fully contain
and said fans don’t nec- everyone, if you count
essarily fit your standard those who aren’t “out of
description of “some video the closet” yet about their
game nerd.”
favorite hobby.

While the fact the gaming community can’t
get together fully may
possibly come across as
a bit sad to some people, that’s what brings
these groups together in
the first place.

“Is that Five Nights
at Freddy’s?” and
would walk over to
watch the carnage.

Another key part of the connectivity of gamers lies within
those discussions. Whether it’s
deciding which character could
defeat whom, or just sharing
the latest news and updates
in the world of video games,
chances are that there won’t
be a quiet moment when video games are the topic.
But why exactly is that the
case? The answer is by no
means a simple one, but perhaps the fact that most students are away

Despite this common love for
all things gaming, the gaming
community is afflicted with a
persistent problem that has
plagued its members for years:
Some people conceal their
love for gaming.
“I think [the gaming community] is healthy, but its problem could be that some people
hide that they play games,
because they think people will
think playing games is lame,”
says sophomore Alex Arth, and
there is some anecdotal evidence to support his case.

When you find others
who play the same
games you do, who
also seem to be just as
passionate as you are,
bonds can be formed.

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