Gaming in college. What's it like?

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boarder542

CAG Veteran
All my friends in high school are into gaming, though to them, "gaming" is defined as Grand Theft Auto and Madden.

I'm just curious if gaming is different in college. Is there even time to try to beat an RPG during college? Or are you simply too busy? I'm sure that a lot of people play multiplayer stuff--is it still just Halo and Madden?

College students, I'm curious what gaming's like where you go to school.
 
I used to play WoW during the start of my first and second years at uni (would play for 3 months, then quit, then do it again the next year), and yes, I'm one of those fools that let it nearly kill my chance at a degree :p After that I didn't put much time into video games.

But now that I've secured a great job and taking uni slow (no longer a full-time student), I'll probably have more time to at least go on a gaming binge during weekends.
 
pc gaming is better since everyone is connected on a LAN... console gaming was alright..but if you want to include a lot of people then you bring your console down to the lounge. the problem with that is you got keep a close eye on things....
 
Yeah, I recall finishing stuff like Xenosaga III and Final Fantasy VIII in like... a week to a week and a half last year because I had so much damn time.
 
you really do have a lot of free time on your hands. during my freshman year (last year, I attend A&M) I had a lot of time where I could just sit in my room and game. but always be sure to get your studies done first, then game, that's what hurt me the first semester. online gaming is great for college, but you'll always find a group of college kids that are into hardcore gaming too.
 
You have as much time as you want, let's say that. Classes are generally less than 20 hours of your time each week, so video game time will be whatever you don't spend socializing or doing homework.

I didn't have a console in college, so it was just PC gaming for us. So I never had the need to sit down and finish a 20-40 hour RPG, can't help ya there.
 
Depends upon where you are, what classes you take, and the friends you make. My Freshman year was full of free time but I ended up going out and about Pittsburgh and getting ahead in my work rather than play most games. My Sophomore year was a bit more work-intensive but I played a lot more games and, since we had a PS1 and a DC in the lounge, we ended up all playing on Tony Hawk 2 and whatnot until Smash Bros. Melee came out.

Then afterwards I ended up in a dorm where our entire floor was about gaming. Simply put, we stuffed our lounge with 7 TV's (13" to 46"), a computer, and 23 different systems and well over 800 games. Needless to say we did a ~lot~ of gaming on the old and new, common and rare title alike. Of course, my workload also doubled within that time so I just eschewed sleep in order to get everything I wanted in.

Considering I was still able to tackle 50% more credits than most people were allowed to take and still come out with stupid things like 120 hours in Suikoden 4, 330 hours in Disgaea, 110 hours in Dark Cloud 2, 40 hours in GTA: San Andreas, and 100+ hours in Melee...well, I guess there was some time for a few games. ;)
 
Out of curiosity, for those who have said there's a ton of time in college, did/do you guys have many other hobbies other than games? It's not a nock against anyone, but I play tennis, I weightlift, and I of course like to party. I'm sure my video gaming time will have to be split up among those things.
 
I have less time for gaming in college, but that's because I'm a workaholic who will do homework for 16 hours a day if I need to.

Anyway, at my college, I mostly hear about two games:
It's either Halo LAN multi-player or Super Smash Bros. (Melee or N64 version). Those are the two games you always here people wanting to play. Oh course, NCAA Football is quite popular too.

As for PC Gaming, it's all WoW or CS. There was a short time period where CoD on PC was a huge hit, but it mostly comes down to WoW and CS. My college is one of the top in the country with WoW subscribers, lol.

As for me, all I do in college is play games and do homework (never had a girlfriend in my way). I rarely if ever hung out with friends to see a movie, go to the Co-Rec, etc. If I did something with friends, it was go to DDR Club or fighter events (some are Shoryuken go there).
 
Yeah, I had plenty of gaming time. Even used to bring a console to the lounge and we'd all play Soul Calibur, or some other fighting game. I remember a teacher even praising me for it since it let people relax during exam time.
 
At Purdue, all I ever saw anyone play is Halo 2 and Guitar Hero 2. It was nice being able to play Halo 2 with people who through out hall's LAN. Halo 2 was the one game pretty much everyone had so it was easy to get big games going. A lot of sports games were played too.

Guitar Hero 2 was sort of a 'popular' thing. All the non-gamers played it and always told me about this 'guitar game' and it really got on my nerves actually. Their heads almost exploded when I asked them if they played the first one.:roll:
 
[quote name='Vinny']At Purdue, all I ever saw anyone play is Halo 2 and Guitar Hero 2. It was nice being able to play Halo 2 with people who through out hall's LAN. Halo 2 was the one game pretty much everyone had so it was easy to get big games going. A lot of sports games were played too.

Guitar Hero 2 was sort of a 'popular' thing. All the non-gamers played it and always told me about this 'guitar game' and it really got on my nerves actually. Their heads almost exploded when I asked them if they played the first one.:roll:[/QUOTE]Yeah, that's Purdue for you, since I'm also a student at Purdue (I knew you were quite a while and even saw your Facebook profile, but that's another story). Yeah, that's why a few friends of mine there who are big into games like me, are extremely sick of Halo 2.

Yeah, when walking home to my apartment, I'd see people play Guitar Hero II through their windows constantly. The DDR Club would play Guitar Hero II every time I'd stop by.

There were a few good fighting events at Tarkington Residence Hall, but they eventually just went to people's apartments.
 
I maybe play games for like 2-5 hours a week, depending on your work load. It all depends on your major and your priorities. I'm an engineering major, so I just about always have homework or studying that could be done. After that, I have priorities. School > socializing > gym > games. Just doesn't leave me too much time to game anymore.
 
I'm a solitary gamer, so I just play the RPGs and stuff that I used to play before college. I would say I have LESS time than I did in high school, but that's because I'm a perfectionist student and strive to get a 4.0 every quarter. I can't stand SSBM and I'm not interested in Guitar Hero, so that limits my social gaming severely.
 
Oh college how I miss you so.

You will have more time to do whatever you want more than any other time in your life.
 
[quote name='afedock']I maybe play games for like 2-5 hours a week, depending on your work load. It all depends on your major and your priorities. I'm an engineering major, so I just about always have homework or studying that could be done. After that, I have priorities. School > socializing > gym > games. Just doesn't leave me too much time to game anymore.[/QUOTE]Naw, it went for me: School > Work (as in working for a Prof. or being a lab TA) > Gaming > socializing > Gym (never went to the Gym, which is why I'm in horrible shape, but still only weigh around 130lbs).

But let me say, that was the old me in college.
 
[quote name='boarder542']Out of curiosity, for those who have said there's a ton of time in college, did/do you guys have many other hobbies other than games? It's not a nock against anyone, but I play tennis, I weightlift, and I of course like to party. I'm sure my video gaming time will have to be split up among those things.[/quote]

Like I said, I didn't sleep. I literally slept around 3 to 4 hours on average a night, but I hung out with all of my friends every day whether it was gaming, getting something to eat, running around all areas of Pittsburgh, and everything else. I did all of my schoolwork, did my 25+ hours a week of practicing the clarinet for my major, and also spent a great amount of time practicing on other instruments (basically...all of them) and doing composition/arranging work as well (mostly video games, movie themes, anime stuff).

I also read quite a great deal, swam great amounts in my off-time, went to various concerts and parties both on- and off-campus, and reawakened my love for cooking and baking.

So...yeah, there was plenty of free time. My last few years I spent almost 60% of my waking time with my friends just doing anything, although some of that included gaming. The other 40% were mostly either in-class or doing work on-campus but that was with other groups of friends as well. So, all in all...it was ~all~ good.
 
[quote name='Kapwanil']Like I said, I didn't sleep. I literally slept around 3 to 4 hours on average a night, but I hung out with all of my friends every day whether it was gaming, getting something to eat, running around all areas of Pittsburgh, and everything else. I did all of my schoolwork, did my 25+ hours a week of practicing the clarinet for my major, and also spent a great amount of time practicing on other instruments (basically...all of them) and doing composition/arranging work as well (mostly video games, movie themes, anime stuff).

I also read quite a great deal, swam great amounts in my off-time, went to various concerts and parties both on- and off-campus, and reawakened my love for cooking and baking.

So...yeah, there was plenty of free time. My last few years I spent almost 60% of my waking time with my friends just doing anything, although some of that included gaming. The other 40% were mostly either in-class or doing work on-campus but that was with other groups of friends as well. So, all in all...it was ~all~ good.[/QUOTE]That sounds incredibly awesome.:D I really wish I could have done that all these years. :(

I seriously wonder, how do you all have all that time for gaming?? My college schedule was having around 2-6 hours of classes a day. Outside of class, I'd have to write lengthy lab reports for 2-3 classes, daily homework assignments (or weekly, but longer), weekly quizzes, a test every 3-4 weeks, pre-labs for just about all my labs. Projects every once in a while (or entire semester). I did 10-15 hours of work every week for a Professor (grading his papers, putting grades together, and testing future assignments). I was lucky to have an hour to play games on a weekday. On a weekend (usually when I did the most work for a Professor), I was lucky to get 3 hours of gaming in.
 
you will have time since girls and getting fucked up will most likely not be of your concern since you are getting a stiffy thinking of the highspeed internet at college and whether playing a friendless game of some strategy fiction bullshit or playing football with your buddies in the basement.

if you buds like GTA, more power to them, I still cant kill the gang on top of the train while riding a motorcycle in SA.
 
[quote name='The Mana Knight']That sounds incredibly awesome.:D I really wish I could have done that all these years. :([/quote]

Oh, it was a severe blast and I miss those days but since most of my friends still live in the NY area or still in Pittsburgh, getting together isn't that hard. But man, does it ever take a toll on your body. My undergrad experiences at sleep deprivation has helped me immensely in grad school (just as much sleep but 15x the work!) but once the summer hits you just collapse for a good week!

Too bad IU isn't huge on games like it was at CMU, but then again it is like comparing apples to oranges in that regard!
 
I went to a Digital Arts College, so pretty much everyone played games. For the first about, year and a half I played games all the time. After that my workload picked up a lot so I didn't have much time to game. We did however play Smash Brothers pretty much every day at lunch. Good times.
 
[quote name='munch']You will have more time than ever to play videogames.[/QUOTE]


QFT. I sold off my original collection before I left because I thought I wouldn't have time...but even between crunch time, going out, and with work, I still usually work in an hour or so in. I've managed to keep my new collection small, but I'm definitely still heavily into gaming, maybe more so :)

as for gaming in college, there are a lot of different groups who game on different levels here (because UW is huge.) The people I work with love WoW and Gamecube games, Nintendo 64 is still really popular (and I still suck because the controller is ridiculous), there are Halo junkies who barely scrape in class by because they sit in their rooms playing Halo all day (though Gears has replaced a lot of that.) Then there are the "hardcore" guys who play RPGs and japanese music games...and I haven't met one that I enjoy playing games with yet because then tend to take shit way too seriously and bitch about how various gaming rags are biased :lol: I just play whatever others are playing since my apt is too small to have people over.
 
Hmm... Illinois Wesleyan has a pretty weak community for games. There's people who play Halo and Smash, but that's all I've ever seen. Sadly, we don't even have an arcade at our school. :cry:
 
That reminds me that the year I left school, they decided to put in a "gaming lab," complete with three networked Xboxes hooked up to three projection screens, with nice comfy leather chairs. Yeah, I was bitter.

To be fair, I think it had some goal of providing resources for some introductory game design, since it was just connected to a new computer lab stocked full of Alienware computers.
 
I went to a small school with a tiny Computer Science program but we still had like 10+ kids for a gaming night once a week where we played Call of Duty or RTS games. There are gamers everywhere (especially among people of the college age), you just have to find them.
 
I joined a fraternity so i was pretty busy with that. But we did play a lot of GoldenEye and Smash Brothers. Guitar Hero was also very popular. We even built our own arcade machine and played a lot of metal slug.

I would say generally WOW and CS seem to be played the most.

Nothing like getting blasted and trying to play Mario Kart, Guitar Her, or Track and Field.

A few of my friends spent a lot of thier 4-5 yrs in college locked in the rooms banging out the RPGs or cutting class to play Halo 2. Well I admit i did play WoW at work and sometimes I cut class to play smash brothers.
 
With the exception of Smash Bros, Halo 2, and Guitar Hero, there was absolutely no one on my floor who was into gaming at the beginning of my freshman year(aside from one WOW kid). A bunch of us came back from a party one night, and I had this strong urge to throw in Katamari Damacy. It was an instant drunkard success.

[quote name='"Drunk Friend"']Get the giraffe! No, no. Not the lamp post...fuck the lamp post. Get the...NO. I WANT THE fuckIN' GIRAFFE.[/QUOTE]

I guess the point is that there is no sure shot way to tell how people are going to take to your interests. You'll probably have a completely different experience than anyone else here.
 
Im just getting ready to start college in the fall, hopefully i will have a large amount of time to play games, i also have a part time job working in a large companies IT department. With all the games coming out and the large backlog that i currently have, hopefully i will be able to get some gaming in.
 
I personally never had any time to play many games at college, aside from freshman year...every freshman has plenty of free time no matter what the college. But I also made some new friends that weren't gamers. I had time to play Halo with people from time to time and play more quicker games (usually classic games like SMB). It just is sort of dependent on how you balance social life, homework, class, and gaming time, and where you put your emphasis. I put mine on class, social life, gaming with a bit of homework thrown in late at night :D
 
If you join a fraternity like I did there will copious amounts of Halo and SSBM. Copious.

Beyond that, I'll just echo everyone's statements and say that you'll have loads of free time, and if you choose to fill it up with gaming you easily can.
 
I've actually found that as I get busier, I play more games.

When I have nothing to do, I tend to just waste all my time doing nothing. But as my workload as increased through college, grad school, and now my intern year that is finishing up right now, I just budget my time better, and I look forward to it as something to do to unwind a bit rather than just something to fill a void. There's quite a difference between the two.

The advice given before had was great, though. Work, then play. Guilt free gaming is great, and if you underestimate the time it takes to get an assignment done, it's far easier on life to forego a night gaming session than it is to struggle to get that assignment done.

Last year at the seminary we would have between 4 and 8 people playing Mario Kart DS locally at a time. That was so much fun. "WHAT?! HOW COULD I LOSE TO A CPU PLAYER!?!" Blue Shells FTW. ;)
 
[quote name='daroga']I've actually found that as I get busier, I play more games.

When I have nothing to do, I tend to just waste all my time doing nothing. But as my workload as increased through college, grad school, and now my intern year that is finishing up right now, I just budget my time better, and I look forward to it as something to do to unwind a bit rather than just something to fill a void. There's quite a difference between the two.

The advice given before had was great, though. Work, then play. Guilt free gaming is great, and if you underestimate the time it takes to get an assignment done, it's far easier on life to forego a night gaming session than it is to struggle to get that assignment done.

Last year at the seminary we would have between 4 and 8 people playing Mario Kart DS locally at a time. That was so much fun. "WHAT?! HOW COULD I LOSE TO A CPU PLAYER!?!" Blue Shells FTW. ;)[/QUOTE]

Yeah, when you've got work out of the way, then you can really enjoy playing games a lot more. Ah, nothing beats speeding through a dreadful chapter of intermediate macro and then playing 6 hours of a good RPG.
 
Over at the Evergreen State College we started a pretty kickass student activities group called the Student Video Gamer Alliance. The group has really prospered with our LAN parties and because of high attendance and participation in our forums the school gave us funding for a Xbox 360 on launch, and this year we have funding for more equipment.
Outside of our weekly meetings on Tuesday night, gaming is really on the DL.
I'd say in college there's much more PC gaming than in HS. Console gaming does vary from dorm to dorm. ALOT of gamers here don't even own consoles so its really about going over to a friends and enjoying whatever game is already in the tray, or what console is hooked up.
 
[quote name='daroga']I've actually found that as I get busier, I play more games.

When I have nothing to do, I tend to just waste all my time doing nothing. But as my workload as increased through college, grad school, and now my intern year that is finishing up right now, I just budget my time better, and I look forward to it as something to do to unwind a bit rather than just something to fill a void. There's quite a difference between the two.

The advice given before had was great, though. Work, then play. Guilt free gaming is great, and if you underestimate the time it takes to get an assignment done, it's far easier on life to forego a night gaming session than it is to struggle to get that assignment done.

Last year at the seminary we would have between 4 and 8 people playing Mario Kart DS locally at a time. That was so much fun. "WHAT?! HOW COULD I LOSE TO A CPU PLAYER!?!" Blue Shells FTW. ;)[/QUOTE]I wonder if that's why I'm having trouble wanting to play video games right now. I'm not working or going to college over the summer, so I have the entire day with nothing to do. Each day, I basically feel like getting rid of more games since I'm not playing them. To an extent, it feels like I'm no longer appreciating the time I have to play a video game. When I'm quite busy, I'm usually very happy to play a video game. However, I have some of the poorest time management skills on earth (despite being super organized), so I still don't play enough.
[quote name='hhhdx4']What about when dorming? is bringing your consoles a bad idea?[/QUOTE]
I brought all game consoles with me and over 100 games. I lived by myself and always kept my door shut, so no one was able to steal my stuff. :lol: Only one who knew what I had was my suitemate, but he wasn't into games.
 
It depends on your time management skills. Freshman year I had no time to game due to the various social activities I was involved with. Come to think of it I didn't start spending copious amounts of time gaming until Jr year (You can thank CAG for that).

If gaming is important to you than by all means you'll find the time for it. I would suggest you spend your time socializing (college can be blast).
 
I play games so much in college. I mean at home I need to get chores done around the house. At school, I get to be a lazy-ass all day.
 
I actually play less at college; I can't seem to finish really long RPG's anymore. At times my biggest hobby seems to be napping, since I often wait until the last minute to get work/studying done. It's a habit I still can't break out of after three years of college, probably because it's yet to really hurt me academically. You'll have lots of time for gaming in college though, if you decide to use your free time for it.

My roommates that game regularly are WoW addicts, a game I refuse to play. They can play for pretty much the entire day sometimes, even skipping classes once in a while to play it. It isn't a pretty sight.

I have a few awesome friends into fighters as much as I am, and a few others really into the NBA2K games, which I also enjoy a lot. That, some random GC multiplayer games (Smash, Mario Tennis, etc.), Guitar Hero, and a little CS: Source are probably what makes up most of the multiplayer gaming I do at college.
 
[quote name='The Mana Knight']That sounds incredibly awesome.:D I really wish I could have done that all these years. :(

I seriously wonder, how do you all have all that time for gaming?? My college schedule was having around 2-6 hours of classes a day. Outside of class, I'd have to write lengthy lab reports for 2-3 classes, daily homework assignments (or weekly, but longer), weekly quizzes, a test every 3-4 weeks, pre-labs for just about all my labs. Projects every once in a while (or entire semester). I did 10-15 hours of work every week for a Professor (grading his papers, putting grades together, and testing future assignments). I was lucky to have an hour to play games on a weekday. On a weekend (usually when I did the most work for a Professor), I was lucky to get 3 hours of gaming in.[/quote]

I'm gonna bet my left nut that you are asian.
 
[quote name='hhhdx4']lucky, Im a freshman so were forced to dorm, im kinda nervous bringing a console.[/QUOTE]

Don't be. I brought three consoles and a 37" LCD, and nothing happened to 'em. Most people respect other people's shit- especially when they're forced to live together for 7 months.
 
[quote name='Greetard']Don't be. I brought three consoles and a 37" LCD, and nothing happened to 'em. Most people respect other people's shit- especially when they're forced to live together for 7 months.[/quote]That said, don't rush to bring it up on day 1. You never know who your roommate might be or how your room will be set up. Chances are slim anything would be stolen/intentionally broken, but I wouldn't have wanted to have a console near the TV in my freshman dorm room when my drunk ass roommate fell/stumbled out of his bunked bed numerous times during the year.
 
[quote name='Sexbomb']I'm gonna bet my left nut that you are asian.[/QUOTE]I may have an Asian soul, but I'm not Asian. I'm the last race anyone would expect me to be. ;)
[quote name='botticus']That said, don't rush to bring it up on day 1. You never know who your roommate might be or how your room will be set up. Chances are slim anything would be stolen/intentionally broken, but I wouldn't have wanted to have a console near the TV in my freshman dorm room when my drunk ass roommate fell/stumbled out of his bunked bed numerous times during the year.[/QUOTE]Lol, I'd have to bring my gaming down on day 1. Going a day without playing a video game would be kill me. :(

I tried very hard to not get a roommate, because I'd hate it if my stuff got broken, stolen, etc. (I'd also get on someones nerves, due to playing tons of games and watching a lot of anime. Also, I listen to JPop, so I'm quite weird to most).
 
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