Shouts of frustration and triumph echo through the Boca Student Union, as thumbs feverishly hammer plastic remote controls. “GET HIM! GET HIM! DIE, DIE! FUCK!” a student yells. They don’t even bother to look up, too immersed in their own game.
These students are not hard to miss. Anyone who has ever stepped foot into the Student Union has seen, heard, or smelled them. They are the gamers of FAU and they come to play.
Around the corner, the people you’ll meet:
Ales Soares, a sophomore film major, is loud, curses, and according to members of the corner, has become the best player of Dance Central, a wildly popular party game that’s become a fixture at game nights.
While one girl is cursing a storm and grabbing a high score dancing, sophomore new media major, Alex Pizza scurries around the corner with a bottle of Febreze. Known as the ‘mother of the Gaming League Club’ by her clubmates, she sprays the couches in the gaming corner in hopes to improve the smell quality.
But before Pizza even had a corner of the Student Union to spray Febreze, Ben Scaramuzzino, a senior economics major remembers the “game room,” now known better as the New Era Barbershop. With only an old projection-screen TV and a Gamecube, students used to fight over hooking up their gaming systems. “It was real simple stuff,” says Scaramuzzino.
With four TV’s available to play on students either bring their own consoles or use the ones provided by the Student Union to play all kinds of games. But it’s not just big gaming systems students play.
Xbox, laptops, and handhelds. It doesn’t matter what you play — all are welcome in the gaming corner.
“Coming here and seeing all these people that shared my common interest was really welcoming and I felt like I was part of something,” says Pizza. “It helped me get into the college atmosphere. Made me feel like I wasn’t alone.”
Soares was just a shy sophomore before Dance Central caught her eye last September.
“Freshman year, all I would do was wake up, go to class, get some food, bring my food to my room and just spent the whole day in my room,” Soares says. “They [students in the gaming corner] were playing Dance Central and it just seemed fun and one of those games you didn’t do too much on.”
Soares credits the gaming corner for getting her out of her comfort zone and meeting more friends. “I’ve played more games now,” she says. “But it’s more social than anything. You don’t have to play games to be in it.”
But to these students, the corner is a family. It’s not all about the games or the lingo, but a place to seek help in school or in their personal lives.
“People like Lou [Rosario] and Rashean [Graham], they help me out with actual homework and stuff,” says Soares. “If I have difficulties with anything, they’ll give me some advice on it.”
Senior Michael “Mickey” Williams, an international business major, loves the gaming group so much that he is now the vice president of FAU’s College Gaming League. According to their website, the league focuses on providing a friendly atmosphere for students to relax, and play games together. They also participate in state-wide competitive gaming.
“It helps [our members] practice their social skills,” says Rashean Graham, a senior biology major and current president of the College Gaming League. “Some might not have friends, some might be freshmen, they don’t know anybody, they don’t know anything about campus.”
In 2008, Charlie Park, an RA in Heritage Park Tower used the multipurpose room in HPT for Game Night every Friday. And for students who can’t make it on Friday nights, there are always members and players hanging out in the Student Union every day. He then took the gaming group to a whole new level and founded The College Gaming League.
“We don’t just play here, we go out on the weekends or over break, we all go to a restaurant or have a house party,” Graham says. “It builds friendships, not just club relationships.”
Girl Gamers:
“When people talk trash about Pokémon, I kick butt,” says Pizza.
Soares is proud to be one of the few females in the gaming corner. Pizza says gamers shouldn’t be put off like she was if they want to join the group. She hopes that seeing more girls play video games will encourage other girls to join the group.
“I really don’t mind,” says Soares. “The guys there are so sweet and they’ll help you out and stuff.”
At the start of the College Gaming League back in 2008-2009, there weren’t a lot of females. “When I first started there was me and another girl,” says Pizza. “But now we are starting to see more girls coming in and I’m really excited about that.”
Both Pizza and Soares have been known to shut up trash talk from the boys. Williams remembers when Soares first approached the corner during a game of Dance Central.
“She said ‘I don’t know if I’m really going to do that well, or whatever’ and I said, ‘you know what, that’s fine,’” recalls Williams. “Turns out she’s the best dancer. Turns out I get my booty stomped.”
Williams and Pizza, boyfriend and girlfriend, have fun playing melee, or close-fighting games, but they also enjoy card games like Pokemon The Trading Card Game.
“I told him never to me win and he never lets me win and never let him win,” says Pizza.
“I do kick their butts in games. Like in Tekken, oh my god,” says Soares when she plays against her fellow male gamers. “I wasn’t that good before, but now I practice and [the boys are] afraid and they have to really work for it. And there is a lot of cursing and stuff.”
