Jackson Kulacz
Equinox Staff
The typical marketed college experience often isn’t always as fun and relaxing as most of us wish it was. Even before COVID, it was almost physically impossible to tell our age group to narrow their minds onto academics and not much else. We young’uns need something to keep us occupied and ease the stress– to socialize and cope with being away from home.
The typical marketed college experience often isn’t as fun and relaxing as many wish it was. Even before COVID, that advertising made it almost physically impossible to tell incoming students to narrow their minds onto academics and not much else. Students need something to keep them occupied and ease the stress– to socialize and cope with being away from home.
For some, friends playing a game together does the trick. Enter the G2 Gamers Guild.
The guild has defined roots stemming from right around six years ago. It has seen an extensive plethora of personalities over time, complete with a broad library of games: card, board, and video games alike. “It’s a hub for gaming,” as described by the treasurer, Kevin Deamicis. In reminiscing, Deamicis explained that its ranks have numbered as high as 30 to 50 active members before COVID.
As such, managing them all demanded a reliable platform to communicate. In recent years, the E-Board declined Facebook in favor of Discord, a server-based communication network with smoother features geared towards gamers. Today, their server, created by Deamicis, continues to perform dependably to their benefit. Not only does it tether the current community together, but it allows for the retention of previous members who have come and gone over the years, including people not attending KSC.
However, with the advent of the pandemic, the script flipped. Trever Weimann, the Guild president, stressed the shortcomings of COVID; a member count slashed by over half, canceled events, board games being boxed up and quarantined and non-KSC members widely unable to participate.
Despite the hurdles the club survived despite the damage, chiefly through the resilience of the “skeleton crew” that was the E-Board. As Weimann described, “If this club doesn’t meet, it’s going to die.” And so they did, following COVID guidelines as they continued their weekly meetings in Rhodes. The addition of the club Discord remains a major communication lifeline keeping the club alive, especially with the recent emergency shutdown of gatherings campus-wide due to the rising COVID cases.
While physical card and board games are less commonplace with the struggle of the pandemic, the digital community continues to thrive, with gamers spanning consoles, Nintendo Switches, PCs and everything in between, with all the games the internet has to offer. As such, the Guild remains resilient and looks to be staying that way for the considerable future. There are still opportunities aplenty for anyone looking to dive in, but the community does show battle scars– the long-term dormancy wrought by the virus. Club member Ben Allard did not respond to request for comment.
However, while the battle against COVID rages on, the tide is slowly turning. As expected, patient hopes for a resurgence are rising. We humans don’t like prolonged isolation, and the Guild offers an outlet to break prolong isolation. It’s not just about playing games and entertaining oneself; as Deamicis stated, “it’s about bringing people together.” The Guild provides a wide-open door for anyone who feels detached. Have no fear, as G2 is, as described by Weimann, “the easiest club in the world” to join.
The simplest way to get involved is to either join their Discord server (link found on their OwlNet page) or by contacting Trever Weimann or Kevin Deamicis outright.
Attending their meetings works too, as they can be commonly found in Rhodes 210 (and other rooms) every Friday at 7 p.m..
However, due to the most recent COVID regulations, the pursuit of this route is… uncertain. Nevertheless, there is very little formality surrounding them. As Deamicis concluded, “We’re very loose in terms of formalities, but we still got rules.”
With all of that, the G2 Gamers Guild is, in essence, a free friend group– no long and arduous quest required. One shouldn’t be shy about it; it’s the easiest club in the world.
Jackson Kulacz can be contacted at:
jkulacz@kscequinox.com
