10 PM, Wednesday night. Some students stay home and finish up those pesky Calculus problems; others are out with their friends at local bars, enjoying a midweek break from their workloads.
But the scene in the gaming lounge at the Digital Media Center (DMC) is quite different — four or five students, clustered around computer screens, playing popular team-based games like Left 4 Dead or Starcraft 2.
Freshman Jed Estep, a competitive gamer, said that gaming is “pretty pervasive, a lot of times people will just relax by playing video games together” and that it is common for gamers to “stay up until 3 in the morning playing Starcraft.”
Another gamer, freshman Richie Herb, explained that the gaming culture at Hopkins is often underestimated.
“Most guys who take it seriously are closet gamers” he said, “they don’t want people to think that they are nerds.”
Herb himself spends about three hours a day playing Starcraft 2.
The university has many outlets for the student body’s thirst for video games. The Digital Media Center (DMC), the New Engineering Building (NEB), and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) are all equipped with expensive computers for intense gaming.
Louis Minsky, a sophomore who works at the DMC thought that the university does a great job of facilitating a good gaming environment for students.
“We have a pretty dedicated group of people who come here pretty often,” he said. Hopkins has a subscription to Steam, an extensive online library of games, in addition to the MSE library budget for games and movies.
Louis felt like the money Hopkins spends on gaming is entirely appropriate considering the student interest in gaming.
“It’s something that the students want, so it’s something that Hopkins tries to provide,” Minsky said.
The gaming lounge in the Digital Media Center has four high powered gaming computers and a large screen. LAN (local area network) parties happen in this room once a month. This facility offers gamers the opportunity to socialize with other gamers and plan social gaming events.
But these hardcore gamers who spend hours are only the tip of the figurative gaming iceberg at the university. For the most part, gaming takes place in the privacy of students homes on Xbox 360s or PS3s.
“I know a bunch of guys that I play first person shooters with, and we have the headsets and everything, and we strategize together,” senior Mike Porambo said. “I play with a lot of adults, too — my uncle is an investment manager and I play with him on the Playstation all the time.”
Traditionally, PC gamers have been considered more “hardcore” by the gaming community — with online games like Quake 3 or Counter Strike dominating the late 90s online scene — but in recent years, as home consoles have approached the power of their PC counterparts, it has become more difficult to differentiate hardcore gamers based on the type of system they prefer.
Although stereotyped as being mainly for children, most college students still play video games fairly frequently. A Pew Internet Research survey found that 70 percent of college students play video games “at least once in a while.”
Even students who don’t consider themselves gamers in any sense of the word often pick up a controller to play ever-popular sports games, like the FIFA or Madden franchises, which center around soccer and football respectively.
“I’m not a gamer, or anything — I’m a FIFA-er, that’s what I would say,” freshman David Silberstein, who plays every day, said. “There’s nothing else good [out there].”
Although hardcore and casual gamers alike use gaming as a social tool — either through LAN parties set up in the DMC or quick Madden matches before classes with friends — some gamers felt that some Hopkins gamers let it interfere too much with their social lives.
Alexander Hamm, a freshman who spent much of his high school career playing video games instead of socializing, thinks that gamers should give partying a chance.
“I used to miss all the parties at high school and stuff, and just sit around playing games,” he said. “People who spend their weekend nights playing video games are squandering social opportunities; they could really be doing that stuff during the day.”
At the same time, some students wonder whether video games are the direct cause of a select group’s lack of involvement with certain social aspects of the community.
“If there weren’t video games some people would still avoid the bars and frats,” Porambo said. “Some people are comfortable with that kind of thing, some people aren’t. “
Despite the growing gaming community at Hopkins, avid gamers point out that Hopkins has a less active gaming culture than other schools. Schools such as UC Berkley and Harvey Mudd are known for their gaming communities. In fact, at Harvey Mudd, there is even a dorm designated for gamers.
With the world becoming more and more aware of potential health hazards associated with video games, there is always a worry of gamers taking their hobby too far — but at Hopkins, a school which requires a dedicated, self motivated student, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of obsessive behaviour.
“Frankly I’ve yet to meet any video game addicts,” Porambo said. “It’s not a problem for me. If I have work to do I can put the controller down easily — just if I have any free time I spend 90 percent of my time on it.”
Most of the gamers at Hopkins play for recreation; there are very few gamers who go to competitions with any regularity. In fact, gaming is often a tool for students to take a break from the pressure cooker academic environment.
“I like to relieve stress when I play games,” freshman Stephen Seo said.
Most gamers here seem very satisfied with the gaming culture. Freshman Brian Vaughn, said that the “atmosphere is very inviting” at the Hopkins gaming facilities and among the gamers in general.
Although the hardcore gaming culture is vibrant at Hopkins, non-gamers tend to not know about it. Vaughn explained that this is largely because gamers aren’t as involved in the fraternity and bar scene.
“Gamers aren’t the most social, but they’re not exclusive,” Vaughn said. “You won’t find your average competitive gamer at Pike or Maxi’s on a Saturday night.”
Generally hardcore gamers who gather late night at the DMC at Hopkins are in the Whiting School of Engineering and they are almost exclusively male. Estep said that he “can think of one or two [girls]” who are gamers and the gamers that he knows are “pretty much all engineering majors.”
Not so, says freshman Biology major Alexandria Sousa, who has previously competed in tournaments for Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom and the notoriously difficult Dance Dance Revolution.
“I think people just don’t know about [girls gaming at Hopkins],” she said. “It’s not the first thing you talk about when you meet somebody.”
As for the lack of feminine involvement at places like the DMC, Sousa blames the atmosphere produced in the testosterone fuelled computer labs.
“I feel like girls are kind of not really included in those kind of things,” she said. “If a girl were to show up they’d think that she wasn’t serious — most girls would try to avoid that kind of thing.”
Sousa, who began playing games on her own after playing extensively with her brother during her childhood, does agree that there is still a massive gap between male and female gamers at both hardcore and casual levels.
“Generally guys do play a lot more video games than girls do,” she said. “I think that the prevalence of guy gamer population really gets a lot more guys involved than girls.
I’m sure there are girls out [in Hopkins] who do play them, but I’m also sure that there aren’t many.”
Most Hopkins students remain unplugged from the hardcore gaming culture and only marginally attached to more casual gaming. Freshman Oliver McNeely is largely unaware of the gaming community at Hopkins, and has few friends who are serious gamers.
“I didn’t know that there was that much of a gaming culture, but people who game are cool . . . I know one gamer — the others I don’t see, ever.”
