El Tigre's blog

Aside from the athletic and academic parts of college, which supply bulk amounts of social interactions for students, there are many people on campus that feel there is a certain group on campus that has been misrepresented for a long time now.  The aforementioned group of course is the Morningside campus gaming community.
There are many people on campus who play either strategy turn based games or Role Playing Games (RPG’s).  RPG’s are games in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting.  In these games players take on responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development.  Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines. [1]

            Local Gamer and Vice Chair of Magic and Gaming Entertainment Society (M.A.G.E.S) on campus, Sam Cunningham, chimed in on factors he feels affect the local gaming community.

“People on campus are too scared of the social stigma that revolves around being a gamer.  They are “closet gamers” mostly because they are afraid some football bro is going to come and make fun of them and call them stupid.”

It is very common for people to feel insecure about their own interests, especially when it involves something which is deemed as nerdy as RPG’s.   The complex rules, the 20-sided die, and the turn based play all make very appealing characteristics for intellectual people to be interested in.  On the flip side, some people might feel that all of the rules and complexities of the game might be too much to be worth getting into.  Others are just afraid of what people might think, though.
“There are people on campus, insecure about being into stuff like World of Warcraft, but if you talk to them on an individual basis they will tell you that they were into it once and ask would for help and opinions about certain points in the game and what your favorite part of the gameplay is,” Sam said.

When asked about this secret shame gamers have, local game store co-owner James King alluded to an easily overlooked concept concerning the social norms of gamers.   “Some people are just awkward.  Most gamers have an interest in gaming and RPG’s because it allows them to be different in their own unique way, to be a hero or villain or just a Bad Ass in general.  Only some people can aspire to be like that in real life, but in gaming, anyone can accomplish that.”

Sam also addressed problems between the interactions of athletics and gaming.  “Athletics creates a problem because they form social cliques, M.A.G.E.S fights against this by allowing everyone to come share a gaming experience and effectively shatter the social stigmas go along side gaming.”

If you are an aspiring gamer or you just want to make a judgment for yourselves, M.A.G.E.S. is an outlet which one might find inner Zen with the dormant gamer you might just very well be. “A great place to give gaming a chance and see what it’s all about is at our weekly M.A.G.E.S meeting right here on campus. We have a Facebook page. Otherwise, it isn’t hard to find a local game shop nearby by utilizing resources like the Internet,” Sam says.

~ by Jescy on .