By Jennifer Tan AKA Mrs Fett
Five semesters ago, Garrett Stevens saw a problem. As he looked around his College of the Desert campus, he saw gamers, just like himself, with nowhere to hang out, nowhere to play, and more importantly, nowhere to be social and develop friendships. “I used to have game nights at my house, and my sister would call us a nerd herd, each of us being of the nerd stock, and the name stuck. So, I created Nerdstock.” Garrett explained.
Nerdstock hosts anywhere from 50-100 people every other Friday, with around 60 active members in the CoD club. Being able to participate in their game night was an experience I hope more gaming students on every campus will have the opportunity to have. Indulge in everything from Nintendo 64 to Ps3 on TVs and computer emulators. Also board games, laptops running League of Legends, and of course, Magic the Gathering. It is truly a vibrant room of laughter and fun. Nobody judges, let alone cares, who you are. The only question anyone ever had for me was, “Wanna Play?”
Magic the Gathering seemed to be a strong presence in the club, with about 60% of its members active players, collectors, and deck builders. I took part in a few one-on-one games, that turned into an EXPLOSIVE 5v5 team brawl that lasted what seemed hours. I stood no chance, but my sides hurt from laughing. In my eyes, it was worth the loss, and 100 more after that. Nerdstock will begin hosting booster drafts in the future, as well as FPS tournaments, and bring a wider range of activities to their game nights. Gustavo, the next President in line, explained a game called Ninja. Apparently you strike odd ninja like poses, and your opposer has ONE shot to hit your hand…but you get to move it? I’m still learning, maybe next game night I will have the chance to try out my stealth moves in this new game.
Why wouldn’t CoD have something set up like this already? I asked Garrett. “The college has a “game room” as they like to call it. A few really old TVs, a few tables, but you aren’t allowed to use that room without staff present, and from my experiences, they usually aren’t willing to pay to staff a routine game night. Even if you could use it, the internet can’t handle us playing in there anyway.”
Garrett has high hopes for his club in the future. The ultimate goals being events every Friday, held in a larger facility, without the need for staff, more TVs for members to game on, and stronger internet to support the PC gaming members. And of course, more members. “We want every gamer on campus to know they can game with us, no matter what they play!” explained Garrett.
If you would like to join the gaming Nerdstock Club at college of the desert, you can reach Garrett Stevens on campus, or let me know @cvweekly on Facebook!
