Gaming in University - IS it even possible?

[Deleted]

How do you guys do it? I'm close to graduating and Uni is coming over the horizon so I was just thinking about how my life is going to change.

Most likely I will be living at home because I have a few siblings to help my mom take care of, and the City's uni is just a bus ride away. This means I'll have all my games at home if I need them, but what about at uni?

Some of my friends will probably have dorms, and I might want to move into a dorm for 1 year just to try it. Do people usually bring their games to dorm? How do you meet gamer friends? Seems kinda off that someone would bring their custom PC to school, I'm way too paranoid for that.

For those of you in university, how many gamer friends do you have? How many hours of games a day do you play, are they serious or casual gaming (rpgs and shooters vs puzzle and point and click for example). Do you play LAN with college-mates? How does it affect your grades?

 

[Amnestic]

I moved to university about two hours drive away from my home, in halls for the first year and have 'just' (2-3 weeks ago) moved into my new flat. I brought my 360, my PS2, my desktop PC (yes, custom), my DS and my portable TV with me to both places.

As for "gamer friends", I have a couple. My flatmate is a gamer for instance. I play games regularly. Couple of hours a day. I suppose you would call them "serious". No, don't play LAN though I would given the opportunity. Doesn't affect my grades at all. I got a First in my Statistics module last year and passed everything else safely.

 

[PolarBearClub]

I can only reply to so much of this, but like yourself I'm about to start my first year in university here in Ireland.

We just finished Fresher's Week, and while there's not an out-and-out "computer games society", there is the sci-fi society, which hosts gaming night and does tournaments in Halo, Smash Bros etc. There is also a gamers society, but that involves mostly board games from what I can tell.

Can't really say how my gaming will be affected by university, but from what I've heard about first year, it's the one year where social stuff, or gaming if you choose, can take precedent over the academic side, though I'm sure that depends on what type of course you're doing. I'm studying psychology, so I'll have on average only 13 hours of lectures and tutorials a week!

 

[Rawle Lucas]

I generally stuck to free online games -- they didn't cost money and they were easier to get through. I did play the occasional console or handheld title, though -- and it was quite distracting.

The trick is moderation.

As for gamers in university, yes, gamers are very common; fancy computer setups and game consoles are a dime a dozen. You would have no trouble at all finding someone who would want to play video games with you.

 

[auronvi]

Dorms are easy to break into and easy to steal from. If you value something greatly like it sounds like your PC, don't bring it. Word gets out that you have like 3 grand worth the electronics in your dorm, every fuck head piece of shit will want to bust in there and grab shit while no one is looking. I would say a DS or a sweet laptop would be ideal. You will probably bring your laptop most places, can hide it easy and still game on it if it's any sort of decent.

Up to you and I don't know if thievery is a problem in your school so, just things to think about.

 

[Icecoldcynic]

Dorms are easy to break into and easy to steal from. If you value something greatly like it sounds like your PC, don't bring it. Word gets out that you have like 3 grand worth the electronics in your dorm, every fuck head piece of shit will want to bust in there and grab shit while no one is looking. I would say a DS or a sweet laptop would be ideal. You will probably bring your laptop most places, can hide it easy and still game on it if it's any sort of decent.

Up to you and I don't know if thievery is a problem in your school so, just things to think about.

What kind of ghetto crime haven are your unis in? Bloody hell.

 

[Eduku]

Dorms are easy to break into and easy to steal from. If you value something greatly like it sounds like your PC, don't bring it. Word gets out that you have like 3 grand worth the electronics in your dorm, every fuck head piece of shit will want to bust in there and grab shit while no one is looking. I would say a DS or a sweet laptop would be ideal. You will probably bring your laptop most places, can hide it easy and still game on it if it's any sort of decent.

Up to you and I don't know if thievery is a problem in your school so, just things to think about.

What kind of ghetto crime haven are your unis in? Bloody hell.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

 

[ScRaT_the_destroyer]

my uni's halls are balls, excuse the alliteration; 3 main reasons, 1, an absolutely pathetic "UP TO 512kb/s line in with no option for upgrade (that was acceptable 8 years ago, not in the 2nd decade of the 21st century). 2, said line is incapable of running xbox live. 3, the internet firewall basically blocks any non-web application meaning steam, spotify and other such programs are blocked so having nice music and access to my rather substantial collection of digital downloads is utterly ruined.

on the work front a 512kb/s line means transferring large files from my schools online storage is next to impossible, eg i needed to download microsoft visual studio 2010(i am licensed to use it piracy nutters) this is a 2.2gb file, time quoted from my room; 4 days(!!!!!!!!!!!!) 10 minute walk later, @ uni, download said file in <20mins.

tldr: if moving to university halls do not think for even a moment that your internet will be fast and unrestricted, enquire beforehand or face cold turkey from your online friends and stuff

 

[hurfdurp]

Initially I brought my xbox with me, but I've since left it behind the last time I went home. There's just no time for it, and I haven't found any gamer friends, so it just takes up space at the moment. Somehow I've managed to amass three laptops in my dorm room though.

 

[Serenegoose]

...why did you emphasise IS in the thread title? Surely possible would be a better candidate?


All of my friends that have done the whole uni thing have managed to keep their gaming habits fairly strong, so I'm lead to believe it's not tough, even if you have to learn to prioritise more.

 

[GodsAndFishes]

Yeah, the uni that I'm in (University of East Anglia) has a gaming society (which if you are going to UEA you should totally join) and while my gaming has changed, video games to mostly tabletop, I still spend a lot of time gaming. I will have to cut down soon though as its my final year...

 

[shirin238]

I'm a second year college student now, and I think gaming and college can easily be combined if done right. I also live on my own and cook and clean and do everything room like stuff.
On that note I have a 3 year old laptop on which I can play a lot of games (even though newest games are being difficult (I am playing Starcraft 2 on lowest graph settings)), my PSP lies next to my books, and my PS2 rests next to my tv.
I don't have any gaming buddies though. My student society organises a lot LAN parties, but I never enter them.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

*snip*

I am at university..heck I am at university, on exchange, in another country and you know what? Gamers are everywhere, there is no shortage of our ilk so you don't have to worry about not finding a gamer somewhere near you. In fact in my first year I made friends faster because of a LAN party hosted in the dorm than I did for any other extracurricular activity..so yeah- you can game at uni! The only problem you may have is..will you be a console gamer or PC gamer because people do show up at dorms with 360s, PS3s, Wiis and the occasional N64

 

[ShakesZX]

Some of my friends will probably have dorms, and I might want to move into a dorm for 1 year just to try it. Do people usually bring their games to dorm? How do you meet gamer friends? Seems kinda off that someone would bring their custom PC to school, I'm way too paranoid for that.

My first year at college, I stayed in a dorm and brought all of my gaming stuff with me. (I was of course in another state than my house) but I still found plenty of people who also brought gaming setups with them ranging from Custom PCs to EVERY console possible. The only thing I would suggest is that you make sure your room is safe before bringing anything since you are that close.

For those of you in university, how many gamer friends do you have? How many hours of games a day do you play, are they serious or casual gaming (rpgs and shooters vs puzzle and point and click for example). Do you play LAN with college-mates?

I'm actually part of a Fraternity and everyone here is a gamer, some more so than others. An incident i remember from my freshman year was that our school had it's wifi locked so people couldn't play console games online. (The administrators said this was so that games wouldn't get in the way of learning, but it didn't prevent online PC games from working fine, and plenty of people I knew then were Hardcore WOW addicts... but whatever...) The whole hall i lived in got together, shut down our hall for 5 hours, locked all the hall's outside doors, ran cables between rooms and had a massive LAN party with Halo 3 and Madden. It was awesome.

How does it affect your grades?

As far as grades go, it's all a balancing act. You need to know what you have, when it's due, and how long it will take you to finish that work. Then fit in gaming if you can or even want. (Cause let's face it, there are other things you can do that might be more fun than gaming...) Right now, I'm on The Escapist forums, playing Halo: Reach, and drinking a beer after a grueling couple days of testing. It's all about fitting in what you need to do first. As a senior, I would suggest that you leave the games at home for a month or so and see how your schedule is working out first, then decide if you really need to bring the games with you.

 

[Deleted]

...why did you emphasise IS in the thread title? Surely possible would be a better candidate?


All of my friends that have done the whole uni thing have managed to keep their gaming habits fairly strong, so I'm lead to believe it's not tough, even if you have to learn to prioritise more.

typo that I'm too lazy to fix because I thought people would notice. Damn you!

As a senior, I would suggest that you leave the games at home for a month or so and see how your schedule is working out first, then decide if you really need to bring the games with you.

This sounds like good advice. Though leaving my games at home unprotected with all my siblings having access to it is a scary thought!

 

[ShakesZX]

As a senior, I would suggest that you leave the games at home for a month or so and see how your schedule is working out first, then decide if you really need to bring the games with you.

This sounds like good advice. Though leaving my games at home unprotected with all my siblings having access to it is a scary thought!

Agreed. I left my 360 at home one year, and my brother had broken it in the two months it took to have enough time to go back home.

 

[Shockolate]

A good friend of mine goes to an technology University, so gaming is a given. He tells me people play Starcraft 2 and Team Fortress 2 during breaks in class (everyone gets their own laptop). He also tells me that some guy asked "Who's Gordon Freeman?" and everyone just glared at him. He says that about 90% of the people in his classes are gamers.

Or so I'm told.

 

[Pingieking]

I'm in college, and I have much more free time to play games than I ever did in highschool. I always set my schedule so that I have fridays off. Also, most professors don't give homework, there's just exams and essays, so unless you're the type that has to study a lot to understand something, you get most of your nights free to do whatever you want. It's awesome.

Damn, I wish I was in whatever your major is.

I use to game quite a bit (2nd and 3rd year), 15 or so hours a week. It's a lot less now that honours projects have started, down to maybe 5~10 hours.
I recently asked one of my profs what graduate studies in my field was like, and his reply was "If you have a girlfriend or you don't game, then chances are good that you shouldn't go for it."

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

In my first year of uni it got to the point where me and my flatmates bought an old Megadrive (I couldn't find mine) and I brought up my N64 and we had extensive gaming sessions.

The best thing to do is to see how you get on without it. If you think class is easy then break out the games.

Or...just break out the games. What course are you taking?