By Matt Brown
Published on October 24, 2007
Is there a troll inside of you just waiting to get out? Do you feel that your friends completely lack the skills to put you in “checkmate”? Are you ready to pass “Go” and collect $200? If this sounds like you, then you’re ideal for the PJC Gaming Club.
The PJC Gaming Club is a new society that hopes to bring together players of board and card games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. Other games such as Chess, Monopoly, Dominoes, Hearts, even Yahtzee are all welcomed within this club.
The first meeting of the PJC Gaming Club will be at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 19 in Building 5 Room 511.
Sidney Kuhn, an adjunct math professor/evening coordinator at PJC Adult High, is credited with being the founder of the PJC Gaming Club. After doing some research, Kuhn discovered that PJC did not have a Chess Club. Eager to establish a place where students could come together and meet face to face over games, Kuhn began taking steps toward launching the club.
One PJC student interested in attending a Gaming Club meeting is Josh Cox.
“Most people think only nerds or dorks are interested in gaming, and this cannot be further from the truth.” Cox said. “A friend of mine who I game with is a [former] Green Beret who is majoring in physics and speaks several different languages. Even my parents play role-playing games; I come from a family of gamers.”
Unaware of what games the students might currently play, Kuhn decided to cast a wide net by incorporating many types of board games into the club. If there is a certain card or board game a student wishes to include, the student is encouraged to bring it along to a club meeting.
However there is one type of game that is not included within this club: the video game. Kuhn is of the opinion that electronic games through game systems or computers remove the person-to-person contact he is hoping to achieve.
“There is very little personal interaction though a computer,” Kuhn said, “but just think how much conversation and interacting takes place across a table during a game.”
A frequent player of the games Rifts and Dungeons & Dragons, Cox is looking to meet people with common interests, and some who might introduce him to new role-playing games such as Warhammer.
“I think people would enjoy getting together as a group to play different games and be exposed to new games,” he said.
Cox is hopeful that enough students will show interest in gaming to join the PJC club.
“I think people will trickle in at first,” Cox said, “but word of mouth will grow.”
Should the club thrive, it will offer many opportunities to its members, not the least of which would be a free place to gather in public. Currently, the major hotspots for gaming include bookstores, comic shops, and people’s homes.
The success of the PJC Gaming Club lies on the shoulders of the student body. Meetings and activities concerning the club will be designated by its members, including how often to meet. If you are looking for someone to play a board game with, or want to learn chess, be sure to check out the PJC Gaming Club.