Gamers Guild is more than campus club, community of interest

Bent over his "A Game of Thrones" playing cards, Steve Walters, 23, an SRU 2009 graduate of information systems and psychology, decides what card he'll play next. Battling just one opponent at the moment, he has cards laid out in front of him that are based on the book series by George R. R. Martin.

Walters is a member of the SRU Gamers Guild, a club that meets in the University Union lobby every Wednesday night from 6 p.m. to midnight for videogames and board games.

He said he joined in his first year at SRU in 2005.

"I saw the chalking on the ground," Walters said. "I've always liked board and videogames. I come here every week."

Claire Valburg, a 20-year-old creative writing sophomore, is also present every week after she first saw the chalking around campus.

Valburg is one of eight women involved in the club.

"Every week I get to hang out and play games I don't personally have," Valburg said.

"Magic the Gathering" is a popular game among the club that includes members swapping cards that detail on sorcery through casting spells or creatures at the opponents, she said.

The Gamers Guild isn't the only one of its kind in the area. There's a guild in Lawrence and at Butler County Community College, Valburg said.

Valburg, a transfer student from BC3, said she didn't participate in the guild at her old institution but came to the one at SRU.

Walters followed the same practice. He's currently a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University, majoring in information systems, but travels back to SRU on Wednesdays to play games with his friends.

Carnegie Mellon does have a gamers club, but it meets on Saturdays when Walters is usually doing his homework so he can spend Wednesdays here, he said.

Walters prefers the SRU Gamers Guild because his friends are here, he said.

"In grad school, you don't make friends," he said. "You're all competing against each other."

Gamers Guild president, junior physics major Nick Engel, 21, has been a member of the club since his freshman year. As president, Engel knows a little about the club's history.

"A couple of years ago, four or five guys decided they wanted to start a club and they advertised and got a few more guys," he said.

The Gamers Guild is open to the community, not just SRU students, Valburg said.

"We're more of a community than anything," she said.

All that's needed is an interest in games.

"If you bring [a game] and you mention it, someone will play [the game] with you," Engel said.

He said that Wednesday night club meetings act as a stress reliever for those who attend.

The club has a steady membership of about 15 to 20 people a week, though they float in and out during club meeting time.



"The club acts as a stress reliever," Engel said. "You get to come down and play games."

Club members do have to pay a $15 due, but it's optional, Engel said.

"I usually pay dues," Valburg said. "But I haven't because nobody has."

As an undergrad at SRU, Walters said he did pay dues but no longer does. Dues are collected in order to purchase club T-shirts and board game equipment such as dice, Engel said.

The club did have enough money to get neon green T-shirts last semester, Valburg said.