So we had our semi-annual game night at work on Saturday.  It ran from 9pm to 1am and it seems that we attract a pretty good crowd.  We were able to setup the big projection screen ( 9′ x 12′) outside in the courtyard with StepMania.  We bought a couple of metal dance pads and it was really loud.  Inside the lab there was a group playing DOTA (a Warcraft III map) and we had Guitar Hero running in the lobby.  Eventually we got an X-box hooked up as well.  Looks like we got around 60 people through the lab.

During the night a few of us debated what Game Night means for the lab.  The Digital Media Center is around to foster the arts and promote the use of digital tools.  While Game Night gets a lot of students to come out and visit us, are we undercutting ourselves by having students think that we are a gaming location?  For the next few weeks we almost always get a string of students coming in to ask how to setup Warcraft.

But is that really a bad thing.  We get a lot of students who say, “Wow if only I knew about this place last year!”  It’s a shame seeing all these seniors graduating in two months and they never knew that the lab was there.  Does Game Night give us more in publicity than it does in difficulty promoting the arts?  Game Night does take us quite a bit of work.  We have at least 7 people working from 7pm – 2am, plus the cost of the prizes and food that we provide.  Each year we spend at least $200 to buy games and peripherals.  The night essentially runs us about $500 to run.  Could that $500 go to a better use?

This is the 4th time we’ve run some type of Game Night.  The first one paled in comparison to this in terms of effort and quality.  With all the projection screens and console games this is getting more extravagant each year.  Maybe next year we’ll have the entire courtyard filled out.  At some point we’ll have to spend some more effort evaluating if this is worth it, but for now the 60 students we got seems to be the best event we’ve had.  Maybe we can get our student staff to do more of the work, which would help with the cost.