Welcome to Video Game Club. The first rule of Video Game Club is…

Zaynah AkeelStaff Writer

Patrons of Strange Matter on Sunday afternoon may have noticed the looming group of people lining the walls of the back hallway, where the arcade games are located. The Video Game Club of VCU held the VA Fighting Game Monthly Tournament, where gamers competed in Super Street Fighter IV for a monetary prize. The group was quiet as they concentrated on the games and who was moving on to the next round.

“Organizing gamers is like herding cats,” said founder and president of the club Robin Palm, who is a grad student in the Wilder School at VCU. While new or prospective members come and go, Palm said attendance at regular meetings holds at around 20.

Initially known as the “Fight Club,” Video Game Club has branched out a great deal since the early days when it only focused on fighting games. Palm hopes to institute a classics game night (for games like Pong), a casual game night (for games such as Mario Kart and Rockband, which as Palm puts it, “everyone and their mother plays”), a group dedicated to Starcraft and even a group dedicated to appreciation as video games as art, which Palm described as a kind of book club for games where members would be able to discuss the particulars of games.

Palm has been running tournaments since 2001, although the club’s partnership with Strange Matter began in March of last year. The club comes to Strange Matter every Tuesday for half price burger night and to play games — “which,” Palm said, “is beneficial and tasty.”

The club even has input on which new arcade games Strange Matter acquires.

Tournaments are often held every month during the school year, the last being held in July. Tournaments don’t just attract students, however; people have been known to come from as far as Washington D.C. and Maryland.

Palm hopes that one day the club will be able to send participants to The Evolution, the national tournament held in Las Vegas, NV.

“It’s mainly for people to come out and meet real people, play the games that they love, and network … and the money’s nice too,” said VCU Computer Science major Matt Jordan.

Palm also emphasized the ability to interact with other people while playing fighting games. “[Fighting games are the games] that benefit the most from human to human contact,” Palm said. “Playing online just sucks because you can get laggy connections — other games like Halo you can play great online because you can chat with people online, you can play in your underwear, but fighting games are different.”

Palm asks that anyone interested in the Video Games Club sign up through their myORGS@VCU page. Anyone interested in the club or tournaments can check them out on Facebook, by searching either “VCU Starcraft” or “VCU Fight Club” — they also post events on their myORGS page.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply