Friends and videogames

It was neck and neck–one knockout to one knockout. I was about to beat a videogame fanatic at his own game, but then, in an instant, a frightening metal-faced monster man destroyed my tiny girl-fighter with the short skirt and ubiquitous white panties. In a flurry of kicks and button tapping, I was dead.

To use videogame speak, “I was pwned.” I guess I’m not much of a geek, but the members of Random Select are. That’s not an insult these days; it’s a badge of honor and a license to do things others may be ashamed of, such as start a college student group based solely around playing videogames.

Random Select, formerly known as Mega Gamers, was started four years ago by a small group of friends who shared a common love for the uber-geeky role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons and the videogame Counter-Strike. Random gaming sessions in the old Smith basement arcade turned into monthly, and later weekly, meetings.

Now the group meets every Wednesday in random locations in the Smith Memorial Student Union. Multiple televisions are set up, and dozens of club members play videogames on student-fee-bought gaming systems. Most of the games played are of the multiplayer variety, like Street Fighter or Nintendo Wii party games.

Random Select co-president Mark Webb (who also kicked my ass at the fighting game) said the club is about adding a social interaction to an activity that is generally more of a single-person hobby.

“If we didn’t have the club, we might just be sitting at home and playing video games there,” Webb said.

I’m reminded of the Breakfast Club quote where the burnout stands up for the dork and his science club by saying, “So it’s sorta social, demented and sad, but social.”

Only it’s not really demented or sad. Videogames seem to be getting more and more social: Families play simulated bowling together, and frat guys get drunk and jam on fake plastic guitars. The Random Select meetings are based on the same idea: people getting together for a few hours (or eight) and enjoying themselves.

Some of the group members even take their videogame passion to a new level. Webb and others sometimes travel to videogame competitions, such as a recent trip to Las Vegas for the EVO 2007 World Finals.

But it’s not all fun and games for the club. Members sometimes argue about which games or systems are superior. Webb prefers fighting games, while Erik Harris, another club leader, prefers the Wii because of its childlike games (he prefers it in a non-pedophile way, he clarified).

The virtue of the club is simple to Harris, who said, “It just is that students need a place where they can go and relax.”

Apart from in-club arguing, they have recently had to be more cautious with whom they let use their equipment. One man went to a meeting, hung out for a few minutes and stole Webb’s heavily modified Playstation 2 when no one was looking. Apart from that and a few unsavory locals who occasionally storm the club, Random Select meetings are a good time for all, Webb said.

If students are interested in the club, they can stop by and pay a $5 club membership fee to play games with a group of their peers, Webb said.

“The club is, to me, my group of friends. And my group of friends keeps expanding every year.”

This December the club will hold a few special videogame events, including a LAN party on Dec. 7. Search for Random Select on Facebook to check out upcoming meetings and events.