Gaming has come a long way since its early days, and the culture has found a home here on campus.
Much of that is through the Gamers Guild, of which JB Von Preysing is the supervisor.
“To me it’s about building a community, because I was doing research, and it said about 90% of high school students play some form of video game,” said Von Preysing. “Whether that’s on console, computer, or their phone, everybody’s doing it. This is a way for people to come together and be themselves as they meet people and play games they’ve never played before.”
The gamers guild is an oasis for any and all interested in gaming culture. Gaming serves to bring people together and connect. With the societal perspective on gaming becoming a more commonplace hobby, Von Preysing hopes gamers can openly avoid the hushed tones and gatekeeping of the older days.
“I’m 40, so I’ve watched gaming go from only nerd culture, to accepted, to everyone playing it,” he said. “Now as we move into a more digital age where it’s not about LAN parties anymore, you’re playing with people across the country. There is a connection in it but also a disconnect so this is a physical space.”
Changes within the cultural mindset tie into the Gamers Guild itself due to how old, yet young, the club is.
The club began recruiting around January of 2013 under the name Major League Gaming Club, or MLG Club due to the initial focus on competitive eSports. This led to the finalization around February 2014 with the first president being Corey Glessner.
By 2016, however, the discussion on the name being a poor fit was addressed. The name needed to change as the club’s functions expanded.
”We discussed the idea of changing the club’s name for next semester,” Glessner said. “We have grown larger than we expected, and the MLG club doesn’t cover everything we do. The name submitted has intimidated people because they believe we only compete, and they do not want to compete.”
This revelation led to the name being changed to the Ferrum College Gaming Club or FCGC the following year under the next president. This shift in the name has made the guild more inclusive to multiple forms of gaming. The current iteration of the Gamers Guild is only two years old at this point with 32 members.
“It’s a good sense and source of community finding like-minded gamers,” said Vice President Philip “Philly” Turner, Sophomore. “Spending most of my childhood on consoles, I’ve recently been able to explore PC a lot more. I never had a lot of board games as a kid, anyway, so (I enjoy) being able to explore other platforms that are unfamiliar to me.”
From cooperative to competitive, the modern iteration of the Guild has abundant options for curious gamers. The Guild also offers a lot of experiences, including the involved nature of setting up tabletop games.
“I would like to add that starting these tabletop campaigns like DnD that at first, it’s hard to fathom,” said Turner. “How do you create all that? I don’t see anything happening, but then you’re in the gameplay and the whole experience explained by the dungeon master with that interaction.”
Students are welcome to check the Gamers Guild meetings every Thursday from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in the LEaP studio within Stanley Library.
