nwizardblog

I’ve got a meeting in just a little while with the Operations Manager of the NC State Student Center. Why? Video games of course. See, NC State has this wonderful little game room tucked away in the basement of the student center, right next to a great food joint. The room area, next to a section of pool and ping-pong tables, consists of a GameCube, 2 PS2’s, and 2 pairs of connected Xbox’s. Their game selection is fairly limited, pretty much to Halo, Smash Bros, and some sports games.

I forget when they implemented the rental system, but I’d say it’s close to fair. $1/hour for a controller and game. Or, bring your own stuff and play for free. The gamers of course always bring their own stuff, but many times you’ll walk down there for some eats and find your friends playin’, so you’ll throw down a dollar since your stuff’s at home (or your like me and don’t have an Xbox and wanna game of Halo).

Apparently though, they weren’t making enough off the $1 an hour-really-a-day-because-the-workers-are-lazy-and-never-tell-you-times-up. As I sat down for some Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen 4 madness the other day, I was approached and asked if I had payed. Of course not, it’s my stuff. Well, your gonna have to pay anyway, new rule. I did not respond well to this. After the initial shock, I promptly cursed up a storm and watched as she informed the Halo players of the change. A couple flipped, we all started ranting and cursing.

The next day, I thought about it, and decided to see if maybe something could be done. So I created a Facebook group about it and invited about 150 gamers from the school. In under 24 hours the group was at well over 50 members, and in 48 hours the group hit 100+. It seems I got somebody’s attention.

Within a couple days of making the group, I got an email from the Operations Manager, aka the guy in charge of the game room. He corrected me on some of my allegations (i.e. that they are trying to profit from the fees, which they aren’t, and I knew that), and then invited me to perhaps set up a meeting.

So it’s the gamers vs. the college, with me as the gamer spokesperson. I’ve got some ideas, hopefully we’ll get some cool changes, and maybe even a Wii in the game room by the time I’m done…hehe…