As both the president and vice president of Video Game Club near graduation, a new wave of freshman members are joining. The club started in 2015, but only got revamped last year by current president Aidan Conant Guy. Now, with around 20 people attending regularly, the club has more recognition than ever. “I wasn’t expecting it to be as popular, but it’s pretty popular actually,” freshman Daniel Reynaldo said.

From the first meeting of the club, freshman Samuel Hill knew he wanted to join. “I love playing video games, and when I first went into the first club meeting at the start of the year, I saw the video game club and was immediately hooked… I wanted to go every week,” Hill said.

Having an older sibling as the president of the club is what pushed freshman Madeleine Conant Guy to join, but the games they were playing convinced her to stay. “At first I just went to support my brother, but then we were playing games that were fun,” Conant Guy said.

A main factor in joining for many of the freshman was the friends who were already in the club. “One of my friends was like … ‘Follow me, come join [Video Game Club]. You don’t even have to sign up.’ And I’m like, ‘Ok, sounds fun,’ ” freshman Aidon Suggett said.

Both the president and vice president have freshman siblings in the club, who will most likely be continuing to attend. “I’ve been told that I may or may not be a head member next year, like a vice president or president, so I definitely will be coming back next year,”  freshman Matthew Miller said.

Without the head members of the club, there is some worry that the same privileges will not be available next year. “We probably won’t have somebody to bring a switch or any games. And there will be no weekly quiz or anything. So sad,” Conant Guy said.

The freshmen are hoping for some changes in policies next year, as the increase in numbers caused the organization of the club to drop. “[I hope it’s] less chaotic, probably more chill. Also have a bit more strict role policy, [so] people can’t just walk in for no reason,” Miller said.

Organization is the main focus of complaints from the freshmen in the club, as the club can be a little wild sometimes. “[It should be] a little more official. I usually come in, and it’s all over the place. Everybody else is doing their own thing and I have no idea what’s going on,” freshman Abigail Lin said.  

The members also hope for some more variety in the games they play in the club. “I thought that maybe it would be a lot of different video games, but we seem to keep playing the same one because everyone keeps recommending the same game over and over,” Hill said.

All in all, the environment of the club and the games they play are what makes these freshmen keep coming back. “It’s fun having a lot of friends in there. We get to play games like Gamecube, [Super Smash Bros], Jackbox, it’s a lot of fun,” Miller said.