Gaming While in College? Impossible.

[Celestialum]

I recently moved to Portland to start my last two years of undergrad college, and thought it would be cool to live on campus so I could meet other students, have an easier commute, etc. How innocent and ignorant I was to think that this would be a sound idea, because once I settled in to my dorm room and booted up World of Warcraft, I got smacked in the face with reality and realized that Portland State's firewall has a hardon for crushing all things gaming.

I tried a few other games to make sure it wasn't -just- the title everyone knows and loathes before confirming that multiplayer gaming just isn't going to happen so long as I live on campus. Now, I understand why someone could come to the conclusion that making it impossible for students to game while on campus would be a good idea, but, I can also shoot down every one that comes to mind with a reason why I should be able to game.

Has anyone else ever struggled with this issue? Any suggestions or /points and /laughs?

 

[oplinger]

A lot of schools put out petitions for WoW to be unblocked ...because everyone plays WoW.

Also Internet gaming is usually really low on college campuses, LAN gaming however...

 

[justnotcricket]

Well, it's not really surprising that a university doesn't want people sucking up bandwidth playing games. It's not really course related, which is what the university is technically providing you with internet for...

I guess you could always buy your own internet connection and use that for your gaming... ;-) Either that or stick to single player games for the next little while.

And, hold on, if you decided to live on campus so that you could meet people, why are you playing online games? Go out and meet the people! No, I'm not suggesting that MMOs make you socially retarded (although some people do seem to fall victim), I just mean that if you can't *game* socially on campus, perhaps try to replace it with IRL socialising. Seems like the only option really.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Mine you just go to the technology office and they let your pc or xbox or DS through their firewall or whatever its called.

 

[Celestialum]

Yeah, the main reason I've always enjoyed multiplayer games-and why I still want to is because I'm able to play with friends and keep in contact with them. I understand the argument about bandwidth, but I don't think students spending hours on Facebook or porning their brains out is a more valuable use of the resource.

 

[DeepComet5581]

I could play Mount & Blade at my College .

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

Eugh, yet another reason I wouldn't want to live on-campus. If you have a laptop, you could try to find some sort of public wi-fi access, I guess.

 

[Risingblade]

That's why I don't live on-campus :3

 

[deonte9109]

Back at my college is was more that if u could play ur games during the day when ppl had class or really late at night otherwise the bandwidth was being put to use for school

 

[SantoUno]

I'm sorry to hear, especially since you moved far away from home.

 

[Jimson]

You should talk to who ever is in charge of the firewall, and see if theres some way to remove it for people who are living in the dorms, because that is pretty much a flagrant mis-use on there part as it is impossible for you to get your own internet, at my school they won't let you play games on there wi-fi but if your in the dorms you can. (You need a special password to access the dorm wi-fi

 

[Yureina]

This is part of the reason why I chose not to live on-campus, but it turned out the place I went was a smelly commuter campus anyway.

I recently moved to Portland

I'm right across the river.

 

[Fenring]

You should come down to Eugene and attend the U of O, every now and then we have giant LAN parties with OSU.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

Or you could just suck it up and pay for your own connection??

 

[Reliq]

Went with computerscience, we had control of the firewall

 

[Mr. Elemenopee]

Well I lived in the dorms my freshman year and gaming online wasn't a problem at all. You just had to go through hoops though. No paperwork, but they just had to tell you what to input on your xbox and ps3 so online would work. PC gaming was priceless though. I loved it so...

Also LAN parties were shown to me. I just wish I knew more people around where I live now to have LAN parties.

 

[Celestialum]

I'm right across the river.

*Waves* ^^

Yeah, the problem is that if I want to do something like an SC2 LAN party...I need internet. ;P I sent an email to my school's IT department, so we'll see how that goes. Might just have to find a few peeps to Minecraft with face-to-face or something along those lines.

 

[RandallJohn]

College is all about the LAN party... it'll save your sanity, Trust me.

 

[s0m3th1ng]

I recently moved to Portland to start my last two years of undergrad college, and thought it would be cool to live on campus so I could meet other students, have an easier commute, etc. How innocent and ignorant I was to think that this would be a sound idea, because once I settled in to my dorm room and booted up World of Warcraft, I got smacked in the face with reality and realized that Portland State's firewall has a hardon for crushing all things gaming.

I tried a few other games to make sure it wasn't -just- the title everyone knows and loathes before confirming that multiplayer gaming just isn't going to happen so long as I live on campus. Now, I understand why someone could come to the conclusion that making it impossible for students to game while on campus would be a good idea, but, I can also shoot down every one that comes to mind with a reason why I should be able to game.

Has anyone else ever struggled with this issue? Any suggestions or /points and /laughs?

Um...I went to PSU for four years, stayed in the dorm one, and neeeever had a problem with anything like that. I even torrented stuff constantly. This was 5 years ago however.
Your probably need to reset the ports or something. If nothing else, talk to your RA.
And welcome to P-Town...I'm in Beaverton now.

 

[SimuLord]

I live off campus (because let's face it, only in a Will Ferrell movie can a thirtysomething get away with living in a dorm without looking like a loser or a creeper) and that means...well, I still have shitty Internet (fuck you, AT&T) because I have to keep to a tight budget while I'm in school---it's like being 20 all over again.

But still, 5Mbit gets the job done, I just set Steam to download anything new before I go off to school for the day and it's usually done by the time I get home.

I don't play World of Warcraft, but I've seen groups playing it on their laptops in the student union so I don't think the University of Nevada is blocking it.