Eric Drummond

“Honestly what we do here is play games,” explained Max Brancaccio, a sixth year Information Technology major and president of the Electronic Gaming Society (EGS). You can’t get a simpler description than that. Every Wednesday night, at the stroke of 8 p.m., gamers from all over campus gather together in the SAU cafeteria to hang out and play games. “We try to make it a very relaxed, social, and informal environment,” said Brancaccio.

The tradition began about eight years ago. Before EGS even existed, a group of friends used to meet at the Anime Club, and every so often they held video game tournaments. “The same few three or four people would always win and the people at the Anime Club got a little annoyed... and asked them to leave. So they formed their own club: EGS,” said Brancaccio.

Today, EGS stands stronger than ever. With approximately 140 paid members, EGS has one goal. “We’re here to break the stereotype of the gamer alone in his room because it’s not necessarily true [even though] it’s an easy thing to make fun of...[But it’s] really, really inaccurate,” said James Dewitt, a fourth year Information Technology major and webmaster of EGS.

How They Serve You

Anyone can participate in their events and show up to their weekly meetings, but paying the $10 membership fee can get you some pretty sweet benefits. You get discounted entry to events hosted and produced by EGS and a 10% discount on video game purchases at the Digital Den (the electronics store on the second floor of the SAU) — and you can order games if they don’t have them. In addition, you become eligible to win biweekly tournament prizes.

Biweekly tournament prizes can range from “really stupid stuff” to actual games. This year’s first biweekly tournament was for Boom Blox, a Wii puzzle game that closely resembles Jenga. “The prize we really wanted to give away was a Donkey Kong edition of Jenga. Unfortunately, Amazon was out of stock so we had to settle for something less creative,” explained Brancaccio.

With a Wii, an Xbox 360, a PS3, a PS2, two GameCubes, and at least two to four games per system, EGS has enough variety to keep members entertained. However, they would love to increase the number of titles in their video game library. With the money they receive from membership fees, EGS plans to purchase another Wii and another copy of Super Smash Bros., among many other titles. “We’re also planning on getting the club a pair of projectors and a little bit of new networking gear for our LAN party events because they’ve gotten so huge that we need professional-level enterprise gear to support all the people,” explained DeWitt.

In addition, EGS hosts a game server for Team Fortress 2 on RIT’s network. “We may only have LAN parties three times a year, but we want to keep our PC gamers connected,” said DeWitt. The server runs 24/7, has never crashed, and “runs ridiculously fast.” It has the capacity to hold 24 players and is full every single night, 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. “Once everyone from on-campus joins in, everyone from off campus sees that and they try to join in, and it snowballs,” explained Brancaccio.

If classic arcade games are more of your thing, then EGS has just the thing for you. “About four or five years ago, Andrew Durgin, [one of the e-board members at the time], had this idea to build a custom video game arcade cabinet that could run any game,” described Brancaccio. From Pac Man to Space Invaders, history is literally at your fingertips as you stand in front of this aluminum frame with its computer equipment exposed in all its glory. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a favorite, as is the old Simpsons game,” continued Brancaccio. They call this Frankenstein of sorts a MAME cabinet (MAME, which stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, refers to the software the cabinet runs).

Major Events

At least once a quarter, EGS tries to hold one major event of each type: PC and console. Last September, they held Fall Frag Fest, a LAN party that took place in the SAU cafeteria. EGS has already commenced planning for their next LAN party: LAN of the Frost, which will take place on January 24. However, the week after Brick City Weekend, they will be holding an Xbox 360 event in the Game Design and Development labs in the Golisano College. The event will probably be sponsored by Microsoft.

These events would most likely not take place without the help of EGS’s sponsors, who help pay for expenses and provide prizes for the tournaments. They include, but are not limited to, Microsoft, Bawls Guarana, NVIDIA, and Electronic Arts. “At our final LAN Party last year, we gave away about $13 000 in prizes,” said DeWitt.

Hosting a LAN party is no joke. Between advertising, soliciting sponsors, and “doing all the RIT bureaucracy,” things can get really hectic. One of the more difficult tasks is setting up a large and powerful enough network, but EGS has got that covered. “We’ve got the capacity to host 150 people in an event. We’ve got dedicated servers that have the capacity to run professional level tournaments and hosts networks that are entirely faster than any internet connection you’ll ever experience,” explained DeWitt. In fact, EGS boasts about their negative ping time.

So if you’ve ever got that itch to just stay in your room and play video games all night, the Electronic Gaming Society may be an alternative worth investigating.