So, another end-of-the-semester Game Night was held by the Computer Science Student Union, and I went, after my essay research adventure through Robarts (and Toronto, I guess). I was expecting to see a whole bunch of people I knew from the U of T Game Design and Development Club.
I DID NOT.
Well, that’s not true. The few recognizable peeps I did run into, I made sure to stand near, very awkwardly, for long periods of time. This allowed me to observe a blue Scout in Team Fortress 2 running around countless times like he’d wet his pants, which was interesting. I stood awkwardly in front of the Tekken 6 screen. I stood awkwardly next to the Rock Band area. I stood awkwardly next to a lonely laptop with Starcraft on it.
I stood.
Then I finally ran into someone and played Modern Warfare 2 and stuff.
Overall, the experience was not that bad. There were fewer people, but the set-up was the same: giant screens with games that are good for tournaments (Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Street Fighter, Mario Kart, and I think there was Marvel vs Capcom at some point), various first-person shooters, (whether or not you turn into a zombie in front of them, you look like one from far away) and new stuff! Like Tekken 6 and Super Mario Bros. Wii, or New Super Mario Bros. Wii, or whatever they decided to call it*. Dare I betray Nintendo and say I cared more for Tekken 6?
I didn’t enter any tournaments, as I wasn’t able to stay for the entire 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. event. That, and one now has to have a CDF account to join (i.e., you have to be a computer science student **). In that respect, the set-up was … not the same. Anyway.
Tekken 6 is as wonderful and hilarious as the last six games (since Tekken Tag is like … 3.5). I can now decide whether I’m going to pay $60 this Christmas to make super-steroid character archetypes pummel each other. Rock Band continues to be a phenomenon I wish I did not understand, but do. I got to play the drums once on the medium-difficulty setting, which was a terrible idea. I felt less shame in squealing with fear than I did in not being able to play the drums.
In characteristic, unnecessary reflection, I realized something crucial while waiting to play the psuedo-drums. One of those things everyone else realizes in high school:
When you go to a school event that will undoubtedly be crowded, and you know you’ll wind up standing awkwardly alone …
take a friend with you.
Benefits of this:
- If the friend is your guest, you get to drag him or her where you want to go.
- You won’t interrupt other acquaintances already enveloped in FPS intensity, or the equivalent at an event with another theme (e.g., a super-intense conversation with the guest speaker, or something).
- If you try to chat with a stranger and are snubbed (which doesn’t happen often, by the way), you can turn to your friend and pull a “Psshht! What crawled in his speakeasy moonshine?”
Haha I remember meeting you at Game Night last year. It’s really not that bad going alone because a lot of people there are in a similar situation as you.