The AU Gaming Club consists of people who share a common interest in playing games, whether that be video games, card games or board games. The club started in 2020 as a way to get more students around campus to come together and play different types of games. It now has about 254 members, which includes some online and alumni participants.
Brendan Syto (senior, mathematics) initially joined the club because he felt like it would be a great way to meet new people. He saw that the club was free to join and jumped at the chance to participate. He shares, “I wanted to be part of the club because I enjoy games a lot, specifically board games and card games, and also tabletop role-playing games.”
Brendan has been a part of the club since his freshman year, and this year serves as a Discord moderator. “My favorite memories have been finding people to play games with that I would not have otherwise found on my own. And the club makes it easy to do that because of our Discord server, where you can actually meet people who are into specific things, like a particular video game or a certain genre of games.” Some of Brendan’s favorite games include Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. Currently, Brendan is running a game for students called Call of Cthulhu, a mystery tabletop game. He also hopes to run a game called Lancer in the near future.
The AU Gaming Club mostly meets over the weekends for about two to three hours. During the school year, they try to host either a Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros. tournament. They also like to do fun holiday-themed game nights for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Brendan shares, “People should join this club because it’s a club where a lot of people can find something to participate in, whether it's simply phone games or playing chess.For me personally, I made many friends through the gaming club that I might not have met otherwise, and I think people like to connect over games.”
JJ Nixon (freshman, graphic design) joined the AU Gaming Club this year. She says, “I joined because I learned that they had a D&D campaign going on so I was like, ‘let me join,’ and then Brendan came up to me and said, ‘Hey, we're also playing Call of Cthulhu. Do you want to play?’ and then I said, ‘of course!’ so now I'm in two games.”
Reily Truman (sophomore, communications and graphic design) is also a recent member of the AU Gaming Club. She had been hoping to find some type of gaming activity to participate in and didn’t realize that Andrews actually had a gaming club to join. So far, she has attended the club’s activities for the past three weeks and has had a blast. “It has been an amazing avenue to meet people and something to look forward to at the end of the week. Everyone has been super welcoming and understanding,” Truman states.
The AU Gaming Club provides many gaming activities for people to participate in, whether they have nothing to do over a holiday or they just need a break from their homework. If someone is interested in joining The AU Gaming Club, they can message the club directly on their Instagram page.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.