The ground floor of the library, usually quiet with students studying, echoes on a fall Wednesday with cheers of students encouraging one another while playing games. In one room, tables are scattered with chess boards and board games, while the screen at the front of the room displays four players battling in Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo Switch.
International Games Day happens annually in November, this year on Nov. 4. Libraries around the world choose a day this week to play games and organize programs around gaming. City College has participated for the past four years.
Judy Howe, the City College librarian who organized the event, brought her own Sushi Go Party! game to play with other librarians and students. While shuffling through cards, she proudly recounted the first year City College’s Learning Resource Center hosted the event, and how there had been such a successful turnout that students decided to form the Games Club.
“I just like that it brings people together,” said Howe. “People found out that they have this in common. There’s no other place that you can just go and play these games and have fun on campus, and find people that you didn’t realize you had this interest in common with them.”
This year the room was filled with experienced gamers, who welcomed those less knowledgeable. A table in the back was stocked with basic board games that most people know how to play, such as Monopoly and Othello, while books such as “The Chess Player’s Bible” and “Queer Game Studies” sat perked up offering advice for those who needed it.
Jasper Absher, a student double-majoring in philosophy and psychology, said they stumbled upon the event.
“I just kind of saw this outside through the window and we were like, ‘Oh, my God, what’s happening?’ And we just came in,” Absher said. “I’m a casual gamer. I play Minecraft and stuff. But I like watching [games] like this.”
Rakim Tenner, an art major who is also a part of the Games Club, is one of the many students who found a community and serenity in gaming.
“It’s a way of me relaxing my mind just on connecting with other people,” said Tenner. “A lot of people would see Game Club as just for video games, but it’s actually both—board games and video games. Just any genre within games.”
Though the library won’t host another Game Day until next November, gamers interested in connecting with other game enthusiasts can join the Games Club.
According to the City College website the Games Club meets weekly on Tuesdays 11:20 a.m.–1 p.m. in BUS 203.
