Most college students find themselves awake at the most peculiar hours. Some are trying to finish a last minute paper while others are distracted by the addicting, popular video game, "Halo 2."
Oddly enough, it was The Rock Student Christian Organization that was hosting one of those evening gaming sessions on Wednesday night.
The group hosted a "Halo 2" tournament for several ASU students and local community members inside Murdock Hall.
One doesn't often hear of a church group sponsoring events that involve games with a mature rating, but Jake Lefavour of The Rock said the tournament was intended to bring people together and introduce them to the group.
The church wanted to, "create an environment where people can come and have a good time, and also, we wanted to give an opportunity for people to hear about our organization and invite them to come along," Lafavour said.
The violence of the game wasn't contradictory to The Rock's mission, Lafavour said.
"Men will be men," Lafavour said. "If you read the Bible, the Bible isn't exactly rated 'G' either. There's war in the Bible."
In addition to the tournament, the players were also entertained by the music of a band called CitySeven. Prizes including an X-box microphone, The Rock T-shirts, and GameStop gift certificates were distributed at the end of the tournament.
An addicting game
"Halo 2" is a game on the X-box console system that can be set up for multiplayer gaming.
One of the most critical networking features of "Halo 2" is the system's ability to have several X-box consoles hooked up to play up to 16 players on a single game. These games go on for hours.
Jason Hartline, an ASU student, said the longest game he's ever played was "only seven hours straight."
This means that an entire dormitory floor can spend the entire night playing the game together. Additionally, one version of the game allows players to scream into a microphone at each other.
Julie Wagoner is a freelance writer for the Web Devil. Reach her at julie.wagoner@asu.edu.
