A new student-led club on campus allows its members to combine their love of gaming with a chance to socialize and learn life skills.
The ASU Gameineers club meets every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Palo Verde East Hub to discuss plans for the club and socialize. Members normally meet at a later time during the week to film for their YouTube channel.
Computer science freshman Michael Hadder, president of the Gameineers, said the main purpose of the club is to host a gaming channel on YouTube while learning skills essential to life both on- and off-campus.
“It’s sort of a way to combine video games ... with a way to build experience with working in teams, small group communications, leadership fundamentals and video editing,” he said.
Even though Hadder and his friend started the club this year, he had made plans to start the club long before even attending ASU.
“The club really has only been active this semester,” Hadder said. “Before I even picked the school I even wanted to go to, I knew I had a love for video games and I wanted to carry that into college as something that was a little bit more creative.”
Because the club is still essentially in its formative stages, the YouTube channel is also in its beginning stages with few viewers and even fewer videos. But that does not deter the 30 club members from meeting up, playing video games and filming for the channel.
“We’re not expecting the channel to blow up any time soon, because it just takes a long time before everyone gets noticed,” he said. “The channel is a way of saying that we are actually doing a project, rather than just playing video games.”
Members of the Gameineers not only gain filming and video editing skills, but also get the chance to socialize with other students who love to play video games.
“When you usually play video games, you’re very quiet,” he said. “When you’re recording for YouTube, it’s this huge social interaction between all these people, and that’s when you really get to know people is when you are actually forced to talk to each other.”
Fortunately for all the ASU video game aficionados, such as film studies junior Drew O'Connor, the club is open to anyone who wants to join and is easily accessible.
“The first week that I started here I looked up online just out of curiosity to see if there was any video gaming clubs that I could join just to game with people,” O'Connor said. “I found this and I said, ‘OK, I’ll check it out.’”
The club is always open to new members and for transfer students such as O'Connor, the chance to meet like-minded people was too good to pass up.
“The people are very nice, they’re open to ideas and we just have a lot of fun,” O'Connor said.
Computer systems engineering freshman Brandon Benich, the vice president of the club, said the Gameineers want to extend their hospitality and love of video games to the community as well as to the avid gamers not already in the club.
The Gameineers will host an open event on April 4 with free play for anyone who wants to come and tournament gaming for a small fee. Benich said it’s a great way to meet people of similar interest and have fun.
“We’re trying to get a projection screen and a Wii and we’re going to have video games going to where anyone could come in and play,” he said. “There’s going to be free play for anyone that wants to come and then (a) tournament so our club can gain some money so we can do things."
Benich hopes the club with eventually grow to the point where they can host video game competitions with other universities and post them on the channel. He said he hopes the event will get the word out about the club and help raise funds for future projects.
Contact the reporter at stewart.stewart@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @Melissa152163
