My University has blocked online gaming

[Doc Theta Sigma]

Is it fair? Not really. But you're gonna have to either move or suck it up and deal with it. You're at university to learn after all. If you're spending all your free time playing World of Warcraft then you probably won't be there that long anyway.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Apparently Team Fortress and League of Legends, both being pretty average games in themselves, are what passes for top games that a "gaming club" plays? Exactly what type of "gaming club" only meets to play videogames? No funding would go to such a club from a university or college because it is just recreational with no purpose. You would need a bit more to actually call yourself a club even if you have the "title" without the benefits.

In any case, clubs are about networking and supporting the university in some means as well as educating in some manner. A gaming club should be there to introduce to people a diverse amount of games that they wouldn't otherwise have played (or might have) and then get people together that can play games together on off-hours or at OCCASIONAL meetings (else you're just getting together to be lazy on school grounds) while focusing on the aspect and creativity of such games.

In short, game clubs aren't just about playing games, especially "the most popular" games, which in this case are ironically free... heh. Popularity has never meant quality... thankfully.

---

This WHOLE THING is useless.

If we are going to argue it then you need to argue it to the university, bickering on this thread about it will DO NOTHING.

That said, gaming doesn't take that much, but people also DOWNLOAD things in games, or they DOWNLOAD games, or they just goof off. It's also probably true that they limit video usage.

What kind of sucky school do you go to that only allows service organizations? I'm a member of the gaming club, the TCG club, and the guitar club -- all three of which are registered clubs. Believe it or not, the main purpose of a club on campus is to allow for social interaction. The school just put in a nice game room complete with TVs, power outlets, and network jacks. As for the choice of games, that's just what most people wind up playing, because everyone has it. You'll see everything from Left 4 Dead to Borderlands to WoW being played at any given time, and we actually do plan things for more structured events -- for example, we had a launch party for Gears 3 on Tuesday.

What you're describing sounds more like a fraternity than a club -- which, interestingly enough, we actually have a fraternity aimed at gamers on campus. You jelly?

Any club that supplies funding to something that literally is just a way to distract people from classes and not actually learn anything (except be recreational) should not be a club or at the least should not receive funding, it is a waste to spend 5,000 + a year on such a club's funding requirements without any real positive value from it. Because we all know what gets people to have poor grades in college... slacking off like playing lots of games (not Halo all day) but LOTS OF GAMES or a game for TOO LONG without breaks and distractions and the social activity that comes OFF THE SCREEN.

It is a crappy university when they decide to blow away money that can be used in better ways.

It is not a "service" so much as it is the point of clubs in all universities, hell it is the point that college clubs were first created for, and they evolved from there.

Gears 3 is a POPULAR game, same as WoW, same as EVE same as all the other garbage crap. It is not "bad" it is not "quality" it is multiplayer-spam with idiots, or it is vulgar cursing with idiots or immature people and the propagation of such things while drinking "bawls", "monster", and eating pizza constantly. That is not a diverse playthrough. When your club shows the merits of an RPG, introduces people into RTS's and the tactical and analytical skills that can be gained from intelligent usage of it, and focuses on diversity rather than obsession and yes, addiction (yeah it exists, sue me)... then you are a club that deserves FUNDING. Also, clubs have to go on trips, it's a part of club social networking. So go to the GDC or some sort of thing with your club as an entirety.

Don't get me wrong though, I play those games, I just don't obsess over them, and if I like a game I make sure I don't take that "like" into "obsession" or "thing I have to do around others or with others because I am bored and have no life otherwise".

A guitar club for instance should be learning about the guitar, teaching the lessons, and doing that... not just playing music all day and the same song constantly because it's the newest rock album-hit.

Some clubs get away with being a hybrid-club in some ways... like cigar clubs, wine clubs (with better names than those) and the like because well... they learn about the art and the sophistication and it teaches them life skills... school funding for those is different though.

Fraternity... 90% of them are just being rowdy, 5% of them are life-skill, networking, and brotherhood bonding, and the other 5% are secret rule-the-world ones.

Wait a minute, excuse me, $5,000 a year? I wish we got funding like that. The clubs on campus are lucky if we get any funding at all -- not that most of them need it. It doesn't take a lot of external funding to enjoy stuff you would be enjoying anyway with a group of like minded people, instead of on your own. As for fraternities, they seem to be moving away from the drunken stereotype; at least around here, they're glorified service organizations.

Kid... fraternities have two sides.

The outside, and the inside. The inside doesn't change... most don't do hazing but SOME STILL DO even if it's illegal... ON THE INSIDE.

You're not a club officially if you're just listed on the web as being a "student organization" but don't receive funding.

Supporting organizations with funding is part of the process that allows students to build student organizations and put them on their resume (don't put the gaming club as the NAME of the organization BTW) as well as show examples of leadership.

Why do you think "clubs" have their own directors, registrants, and student body? Why does the TREASURER exist if no funding exists?

From fund raisers, for one thing. And it's not that clubs don't get any funding at all, it's that the funding they do get is pretty pathetic, to the point that most of them don't bother with the paperwork to actually get it. They certainly don't get $5,000 a semester. Also, "Kid"? How old are you? Because I'm a senior who will be graduating shortly. This is my last term living on campus; all I've got left after this term is an internship and one class I'm going to have to take online next Fall. If you've already received your degree, sure, call me kid, but I'm not as wet behind the ears as you seem to think.

Also, it's the videogame club -- a place for gamers to network, basically. It's not the videogame snob club, where we try to expand people's horizons on the definition of a good game.

As for the stuff about "having" to go on trips, now you're just pulling my leg. You and I are talking about two very, very different things. You seem to be talking about a student-taught game appreciation course, while I'm talking about a bloody social club.

Edit: Oh, by the way, most schools have sports clubs that exist solely as an intermural sports activity that is easier to get into than the actual school team. Where's the educational benefit to that?

Edit Edit: Okay, I just looked up the funding section in the Student Organization handbook. First of all, there is no distinction made between clubs and student organizations. Second, and more importantly, school funding is not part and parcel of being a recognized club. It's a separate application, and most of the social clubs don't bother with it, because they don't actually have much in the way of overhead; the individual members provide their own computers, guitars, food, or what have you. There's also the option of fund raising, which the handbook even has guidelines for. I don't know what you've been talking about, but it's not how clubs work at my university at all.

Oh, by the way, here's the actual requirements a club has to meet before applying for funding:

Must be open to all USF students regardless of major, age, marital status, national origin, disability, sex, race, religion or sexual orientation

Cannot charge dues of any kind
Cannot charge USF students to attend any A&S funded event
Must have at least 10 registered student members
Must be registered with the Center for Student Involvement for 14 weeks prior to submitting a Funding Request

The VGC actually qualifies under every box. The only reason we don't get funding is because it's a hassle and we don't need it. It doesn't make us any less recognized of a club.

Your application has some serious... lacking of requirements.

First off, does your club even have a faculty member in it? If not by all the club organizations from universities I know, including Harvard and top schools... it isn't a "real" club... after all that's the basic requirement of all of those. Second, "trips" are part of the networking tour outside of gaming in front of a screen with little social interaction or networking. Networking comes from reaching out and if you like games then going to networking events is the best way to either get a leg in that industry or if not, then to instead involve yourself in educating you about things or just meeting people and seeing how other businesses or what have you work.

The point is that in all cases your idea, vision, and concept of a 'club' is very different than what is seen at most prestige universities, and the reason isn't just "casual interaction while playing" but instead to build relationships for the future AND have some down time, but the building relationships and preparing for outside of college is pretty much the point of clubs, which is why they are used on resume's and thus why they are geared towards supporting the university in some means.

Alright, to clear this up a little better, I'm going to do some copypasta from the handbook.

Spoiler: First, a list of the different types of organization on campus

Academic (Pre-Professional): Organizations designed for students interested in a particular career or academic field of study who want to establish networks and further develop their skills in that area.
Campus Wide: Organizations which are university sponsored only such as the Campus Activities Board, Student Government, and Residence Hall Association.
Councils: These organizations are typically governing type organization for colleges or groups of organizations such as sports clubs or the College of Engineering.
Graduate: Organizations designed specifically to meet the needs of graduate students in their field of study or interest.
Fraternities/Sororities: Traditionally known as Greek-letter fraternities and sororities, these academic and service-oriented groups work to foster the ideals of friendship, leadership, service and integrity.
Honor Societies: Local and national honor societies that provide service and/or leadership opportunities and recognition for students with academic honors.

International: Focused on providing support, knowledge, and awareness, through interactions and discussions of international culture, language, and people in the global community.
Special Interest: Organizations that exist to enhance campus life and to provide support to students through a variety of programs and events.
Multicultural: Focused on providing support and fostering community within the various cultures, races, religions and orientations represented among the student body.
Political: Student groups that encourage expression, debate, and support of political issues, views, and/or candidates.
Religious (Spiritual): Groups that provide spiritual and/or religious development and support.
Service: Organizations that provide volunteer opportunities for civic-minded students eager to serve the campus and/or community.
Recreational: Groups that encourage participation in and promotion of physical fitness, health and wellness as well as leisure and special interest activities.
Sport: Groups compete as sports teams with other colleges and club teams in the area.
Social Justice: Representing a wide range of social issues, these organizations are geared toward creating social change in the world.

The videogame club falls squarely under the "recreational" section, whereas what you've been talking about fits under other categories. Just in case the definition is a little confusing, "Recreational" includes both fitness-based groups and groups aimed at any old recreational activity. It's worded a bit poorly, but in practice it's either/or, not necessarily both.

Hm. Looking at that, I'm taking up way too much space doing this. <link=http://involvement.usf.edu/pdf/sohandbook.pdf?v=811>Here's a link to the handbook. Look over it; things should make a bit more sense to you afterwards.

 

[Poser_]

VPN software should get round the block. Least that's what I used in my halls of residence. Took a few attempts but finally found one that worked.

ProXPN - Had to pay subscription for a decent speed but it's cheap and I could game online atleast.

 

[Korolev]

It's unpleasant, but those are the rules. You can try to fight them, but it probably won't end well. I know some older folks who continuously complain about "Kids" slowing down "their" internet with "them games", despite the fact that anyone who has broadband doesn't have to worry about that - but old suspicions die hard, and your university probably STILL thinks "Them Games" will slow down their network, because that was the case in the 90's, so they probably still think it's the case today.

 

[cookyy2k]

VPN software should get round the block. Least that's what I used in my halls of residence. Took a few attempts but finally found one that worked.

ProXPN - Had to pay subscription for a decent speed but it's cheap and I could game online atleast.

Wouldn't recommend without at least checking the exact t&cs, I know someone who got kicked out of uni for exactly this. They said he'd used it to get round the blocks, accused him of all sorts that just wasn't true about these systems but the person deciding the punishment is no expert and assums the IT people are telling the whole truth and nothing but.

 

[Sectan]

It'd be cool if the university could throttle online gaming when there was a higher demand academic use.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I actually agree with them here.

It's a shared broadband. How would you feel if you were madly trying to research something for a project and the internet was being beaten by a cripple snail? Then you find out it's because someone was playing CoD? I'd be fucking fuming.

No matter how fast you think their net is, when you start divvying it up for hundreds of people. All wanting to use it. Not surprised they don't allow it.

Although I'm not keen on them monitoring your activity. I know they have to. But I'd never feel comfortable knowing some git downstairs was looking at the website I was on.

I think you're severely overestimating how much bandwidth online gaming takes. Watching videos on youtube takes up a lot more, and I can guarantee you his school doesn't block those. With online gaming, all that's being transferred is some cartesian coordinates, information about hit detection, and numbers involving changes in things like health and ammo capacity. A one megabit connection is more than sufficient for gaming, and you can just about do it on 56K -- in fact, older games with better optimized netcode worked just fine on 56K, and the amount of data being transferred hasn't really increased all that much, the programmers have just gotten lazier about optimizing their netcode, because nearly universal broadband makes it less of an issue. Universities tend to have direct links to the internet backbone, so online gaming is going to take a laughably small amount of the available bandwidth.

That's why when my mate was in Halls, his net allowed him to watch all the youtube he desired, but as soon as he tried getting a game of CoD, he was lagging about all over place and getting kicked every single game?

Somehow, I don't believe it's that optimised.

CoD has terrible netcode, but the lag he was experiencing probably didn't have much to do with bandwidth; the game just has a tendency to connect you to people on the other side of the country from you, or barring that, to people with terrible connections on their end. Because it uses a matchmaking system instead of dedicated servers, the connection is only as strong as its weakest link, and it tends to be pretty weak. I've watched my roomate have similar lag problems in CoD, mostly related to hit detection. Also, even with dedicated servers, a fast connection on your end isn't a guarantee if there's someone on the server with a connection so bad that it lags everything else out; it happened to me on Battlefront II a couple of days ago; a server that I had a ping of about 75 on was lagging so badly that people were teleporting, and if you moved somewhere too quickly (which happened a lot, because it was a space map server) you would actually get moved back quite a bit once the server caught up with you. Note that it wasn't my connection; I logged out for a while, came back to it, and the gameplay was as smooth as it could have ever been, because the person who was lagging things up had either left or been kicked.

Going back to your CoD example, your school could have been doing something with their ports that would cause an Xbox 360 to react badly -- for example, if a major port that it used was closed, or if they just throttled what they saw as gaming traffic. For all I know, they may have even had an overzealous P2P detection system that mistook the matchmaking system for some variant of bit torrent, and throttled your connection over it.

Edit: Oh, also, I didn't say that current games were well optimized -- quite the opposite, in fact, since I said they were better optimized back when people gaming on Dial up was a serious concern. The reason it doesn't take up much bandwidth is that there just isn't much information being transferred. Like I said, the actual game data consists of cartesian coordinates, hit detection data, and statistical changes -- stuff that could be done in plain text, basically. Voice chat adds a fair bit to the bandwidth requirement, but it's heavily compressed, like a low-quality .mp3, and still not really comparable to the requirements of streaming video. By the way, you said your friend could watch all the youtube he wanted; could he do it in anything approaching real time? Because if he had to wait for the video to finish downloading before he could watch it, it's less surprising that he had lag issues with CoD.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I actually agree with them here.

It's a shared broadband. How would you feel if you were madly trying to research something for a project and the internet was being beaten by a cripple snail? Then you find out it's because someone was playing CoD? I'd be fucking fuming.

No matter how fast you think their net is, when you start divvying it up for hundreds of people. All wanting to use it. Not surprised they don't allow it.

Although I'm not keen on them monitoring your activity. I know they have to. But I'd never feel comfortable knowing some git downstairs was looking at the website I was on.

I think you're severely overestimating how much bandwidth online gaming takes. Watching videos on youtube takes up a lot more, and I can guarantee you his school doesn't block those. With online gaming, all that's being transferred is some cartesian coordinates, information about hit detection, and numbers involving changes in things like health and ammo capacity. A one megabit connection is more than sufficient for gaming, and you can just about do it on 56K -- in fact, older games with better optimized netcode worked just fine on 56K, and the amount of data being transferred hasn't really increased all that much, the programmers have just gotten lazier about optimizing their netcode, because nearly universal broadband makes it less of an issue. Universities tend to have direct links to the internet backbone, so online gaming is going to take a laughably small amount of the available bandwidth.

That's why when my mate was in Halls, his net allowed him to watch all the youtube he desired, but as soon as he tried getting a game of CoD, he was lagging about all over place and getting kicked every single game?

Somehow, I don't believe it's that optimised.

CoD has terrible netcode, but the lag he was experiencing probably didn't have much to do with bandwidth; the game just has a tendency to connect you to people on the other side of the country from you, or barring that, to people with terrible connections on their end. Because it uses a matchmaking system instead of dedicated servers, the connection is only as strong as its weakest link, and it tends to be pretty weak. I've watched my roomate have similar lag problems in CoD, mostly related to hit detection. Also, even with dedicated servers, a fast connection on your end isn't a guarantee if there's someone on the server with a connection so bad that it lags everything else out; it happened to me on Battlefront II a couple of days ago; a server that I had a ping of about 75 on was lagging so badly that people were teleporting, and if you moved somewhere too quickly (which happened a lot, because it was a space map server) you would actually get moved back quite a bit once the server caught up with you. Note that it wasn't my connection; I logged out for a while, came back to it, and the gameplay was as smooth as it could have ever been, because the person who was lagging things up had either left or been kicked.

Going back to your CoD example, your school could have been doing something with their ports that would cause an Xbox 360 to react badly -- for example, if a major port that it used was closed, or if they just throttled what they saw as gaming traffic. For all I know, they may have even had an overzealous P2P detection system that mistook the matchmaking system for some variant of bit torrent, and throttled your connection over it.

Edit: Oh, also, I didn't say that current games were well optimized -- quite the opposite, in fact, since I said they were better optimized back when people gaming on Dial up was a serious concern. The reason it doesn't take up much bandwidth is that there just isn't much information being transferred. Like I said, the actual game data consists of cartesian coordinates, hit detection data, and statistical changes -- stuff that could be done in plain text, basically. Voice chat adds a fair bit to the bandwidth requirement, but it's heavily compressed, like a low-quality .mp3, and still not really comparable to the requirements of streaming video. By the way, you said your friend could watch all the youtube he wanted; could he do it in anything approaching real time? Because if he had to wait for the video to finish downloading before he could watch it, it's less surprising that he had lag issues with CoD.

It's nothing to do with the average amount of lag you get in CoD from connecting to shitty hosts. The entire year he was in halls he never managed to finish one game. Most of the time he couldn't get into one.

It was his connection.

Whether or not they did something to the port is the only point I'll give you. IT's possible it was set up to clash with gaming networks. But I doubt it, if it actually took up so little bandwidth, they'd have no need to.

Also, modern games are what people will be playing. So whether a game that came out 10 years ago was well optimised is neither here nor there. The majority of what people would be playing online would be AAA game like CoD and Fifa.

The point about optimization was largely irrelevant -- what I was saying is that a solid 1 megabit up/down connection will get you going for gaming in this day and age, and that a 56K connection is just barely below what would be useable. I mentioned optimization because it's not really the data that has changed since the days of 56K gaming so much as the way games are optimized -- it was more of an anecdote than anything else. Anywhoo, like I said, there was almost definitely something fishy going on with that internet connection. I can think of quite a few reasons they might have ports blocked, not least of which is that closing them completely prevents any attacks going through them, and they aren't actually used for general web browsing, meaning some IT person may have decided to block them without realizing what else they were used for. If you were good for youtube, and by good I mean something close to real-time streaming, your friend should not have been getting lag like that.

 

[martin's a madman]

Mine doesn't block it, and it's rather fast.

So... you're unlucky. But at least it won't distract you from your studies.

 

[Iron Mal]

Good for them, that's not what its there for.

Good thing it's still there for access to Youtube, Facebook and other irrelevent reigons of the internet (places that probably aren't banned or given restricted access).

Hell, my college let students access Facebook during lunch breaks (colleges in the UK are different than in the US however).

And people who say that torrenting uses more bandwidth are correct, but its not like they condone that either. In fact, at my uni they would take away your internet if you were caught torrenting movies. Of course it was very hard for them to trace, but if they had it would have been ugly.

Isn't that how Youtube works? Speaking as someone who was a media student then I can tell you that not only is torrenting and downloading music and movies on occasion very important to our work (especially when it came to obtaining resources for our own films) but was something frequently done by the teachers themselves.

And don't try to get around it, if you get caught they may well take away your internet altogether.

This part I agree with, fair enough point there.

Its annoying, that's for sure, but I totally understand why its not only wise but necessary to block online gaming.

To be fair, as long as it's something that he only does in his free time in his dorm room then I fail to see what the big problem is (if he fired up WoW or his Xbox in the middle of a lecture then I'd understand the objection).

Overall it's not that nessercary (I'm sure a lot more students get distracted and drawn out of their studies by drinking and parties than they do by a WoW raid yet I don't see anyone calling for an end to that nonsense now).

edit: and it is not a violation of any of your consumer rights, don't be ridiculous.

Although to be fair the internet is for free use by anyone who is part of the student body and since you pay for admission not only to the campus but also it's facilities I'd say that means you have a certain amount of say in how it's used and by who (part of the change between highschool and college/university is the idea that you're given a lot more freedom and are treated as a responsable adult).

edit edit: also, how about you go out, meet people, have fun, get laid, you know, college stuff? Its probably a better way to spend your time than WoW

While I certainly do support the notion that WoW is the worst, most soul crushingly abysmal game that drains the very life force out of it's poor victims I disagree with your statement there that is basically just a 'get a life' retort.

Sneering at other people and jabbing fun at one of the little nerdy hobbies or habits they have doesn't make you better than them and it definately doesn't make your life more interesting by comparison.

Also, isn't 'college stuff' supposed to be taking notes in lectures and studying? Or are you referring to the teen movie version of 'college stuff' which is basically just 'get shit-faced and publicly humiliate myself because I have nothing better to do'.

If your idea of someone having a good time solely extends to going out to party, drink and get laid then I think you need to seriously re-evaluate your lifetime priorities.

 

[ecoho]

Apparently Team Fortress and League of Legends, both being pretty average games in themselves, are what passes for top games that a "gaming club" plays? Exactly what type of "gaming club" only meets to play videogames? No funding would go to such a club from a university or college because it is just recreational with no purpose. You would need a bit more to actually call yourself a club even if you have the "title" without the benefits.

In any case, clubs are about networking and supporting the university in some means as well as educating in some manner. A gaming club should be there to introduce to people a diverse amount of games that they wouldn't otherwise have played (or might have) and then get people together that can play games together on off-hours or at OCCASIONAL meetings (else you're just getting together to be lazy on school grounds) while focusing on the aspect and creativity of such games.

In short, game clubs aren't just about playing games, especially "the most popular" games, which in this case are ironically free... heh. Popularity has never meant quality... thankfully.

---

This WHOLE THING is useless.

If we are going to argue it then you need to argue it to the university, bickering on this thread about it will DO NOTHING.

That said, gaming doesn't take that much, but people also DOWNLOAD things in games, or they DOWNLOAD games, or they just goof off. It's also probably true that they limit video usage.

What kind of sucky school do you go to that only allows service organizations? I'm a member of the gaming club, the TCG club, and the guitar club -- all three of which are registered clubs. Believe it or not, the main purpose of a club on campus is to allow for social interaction. The school just put in a nice game room complete with TVs, power outlets, and network jacks. As for the choice of games, that's just what most people wind up playing, because everyone has it. You'll see everything from Left 4 Dead to Borderlands to WoW being played at any given time, and we actually do plan things for more structured events -- for example, we had a launch party for Gears 3 on Tuesday.

What you're describing sounds more like a fraternity than a club -- which, interestingly enough, we actually have a fraternity aimed at gamers on campus. You jelly?

Any club that supplies funding to something that literally is just a way to distract people from classes and not actually learn anything (except be recreational) should not be a club or at the least should not receive funding, it is a waste to spend 5,000 + a year on such a club's funding requirements without any real positive value from it. Because we all know what gets people to have poor grades in college... slacking off like playing lots of games (not Halo all day) but LOTS OF GAMES or a game for TOO LONG without breaks and distractions and the social activity that comes OFF THE SCREEN.

It is a crappy university when they decide to blow away money that can be used in better ways.

It is not a "service" so much as it is the point of clubs in all universities, hell it is the point that college clubs were first created for, and they evolved from there.

Gears 3 is a POPULAR game, same as WoW, same as EVE same as all the other garbage crap. It is not "bad" it is not "quality" it is multiplayer-spam with idiots, or it is vulgar cursing with idiots or immature people and the propagation of such things while drinking "bawls", "monster", and eating pizza constantly. That is not a diverse playthrough. When your club shows the merits of an RPG, introduces people into RTS's and the tactical and analytical skills that can be gained from intelligent usage of it, and focuses on diversity rather than obsession and yes, addiction (yeah it exists, sue me)... then you are a club that deserves FUNDING. Also, clubs have to go on trips, it's a part of club social networking. So go to the GDC or some sort of thing with your club as an entirety.

Don't get me wrong though, I play those games, I just don't obsess over them, and if I like a game I make sure I don't take that "like" into "obsession" or "thing I have to do around others or with others because I am bored and have no life otherwise".

A guitar club for instance should be learning about the guitar, teaching the lessons, and doing that... not just playing music all day and the same song constantly because it's the newest rock album-hit.

Some clubs get away with being a hybrid-club in some ways... like cigar clubs, wine clubs (with better names than those) and the like because well... they learn about the art and the sophistication and it teaches them life skills... school funding for those is different though.

Fraternity... 90% of them are just being rowdy, 5% of them are life-skill, networking, and brotherhood bonding, and the other 5% are secret rule-the-world ones.

Wait a minute, excuse me, $5,000 a year? I wish we got funding like that. The clubs on campus are lucky if we get any funding at all -- not that most of them need it. It doesn't take a lot of external funding to enjoy stuff you would be enjoying anyway with a group of like minded people, instead of on your own. As for fraternities, they seem to be moving away from the drunken stereotype; at least around here, they're glorified service organizations.

Kid... fraternities have two sides.

The outside, and the inside. The inside doesn't change... most don't do hazing but SOME STILL DO even if it's illegal... ON THE INSIDE.

You're not a club officially if you're just listed on the web as being a "student organization" but don't receive funding.

Supporting organizations with funding is part of the process that allows students to build student organizations and put them on their resume (don't put the gaming club as the NAME of the organization BTW) as well as show examples of leadership.

Why do you think "clubs" have their own directors, registrants, and student body? Why does the TREASURER exist if no funding exists?

hi first off thank you for catching my typo i have dyslexia so i sometimes get my words mixed up.

second your an idiot if you think you arnt considered a club if you dont get funding.

Last and by no means least this is how me and my friends set up a gaming club which is funded (quite well in fact) "our club is dedicated to the enjoyment of gaming as an art in all its forms. from the simple halo to the space opera that is mass effect we believe this art form should be enjoyed in all its aspects by everyone."
so yeah.....even by your standards we are a club and a hell of a lot more people respect us then they do drama(which is sad seeing as they are all nice guys and fellow members, band, the tennis,soccer,baseball and rugby teams.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Odd, but I wouldnt know. Not really sure if its fair since I dont know the whole details, but it shouldnt matter. In the end, you just have to deal, because it is the university, so its thier rules.

 

[Furious Styles]

Good thing it's still there for access to Youtube, Facebook and other irrelevent reigons of the internet (places that probably aren't banned or given restricted access).

Hell, my college let students access Facebook during lunch breaks (colleges in the UK are different than in the US however).

And in all honesty they probably should block them too, but its a delicate balancing act (you don't want a full scale revolt on your hands). I know first hand how much time can be eaten up by pointless areas of the internet such as, well, this website, and online gaming is the ultimate unnecessary luxury and time sink. They block it? Good, that's what they should do. Their internet is not there for your entertainment.

Isn't that how Youtube works? Speaking as someone who was a media student then I can tell you that not only is torrenting and downloading music and movies on occasion very important to our work (especially when it came to obtaining resources for our own films) but was something frequently done by the teachers themselves.

Not all students are media students, and your area of study is... somewhat unique. it requires video and music, and such things should be access under some sort of course materials thing (if you're at uni, you should know that most libraries have an area for such things). Besides, just because its done by teachers does not mean it should be done by students. Oh, and my uni took a very disapproving view of even youtube, iPlayer and 40D, let alone websites like Pirate Bay.

To be fair, as long as it's something that he only does in his free time in his dorm room then I fail to see what the big problem is (if he fired up WoW or his Xbox in the middle of a lecture then I'd understand the objection).

some people actually do that.... seriously. A guy on my course started playing fallout on his laptop during a lecture.

Overall it's not that nessercary (I'm sure a lot more students get distracted and drawn out of their studies by drinking and parties than they do by a WoW raid yet I don't see anyone calling for an end to that nonsense now).

One, the bandwidth issues which are real btw. I've experienced it firsthand, when the internet slows to a snail's pace because everyone, myself included, is watching TV or gaming online. I've also been in the position where I've been on the internet, trying to work, when its been slowed to a similar pace by other people doing other things and its truly fucking irritating. and yes, drinking and whatnot is just as big of an issue, but its not one that unis can possibly control outside of actually violating some actual human rights, i.e. freedom of movement etc. This is just one more niggling distraction taken away.

Although to be fair the internet is for free use by anyone who is part of the student body and since you pay for admission not only to the campus but also it's facilities I'd say that means you have a certain amount of say in how it's used and by who (part of the change between highschool and college/university is the idea that you're given a lot more freedom and are treated as a responsable adult).

I'm a law student, we did about consumer rights last year and I'm almost certain that the right to online gaming in university dorms is not a consumer right. If it is, it is superseded by the right of the university to have control over its internet.

While I certainly do support the notion that WoW is the worst, most soul crushingly abysmal game that drains the very life force out of it's poor victims I disagree with your statement there that is basically just a 'get a life' retort.
Sneering at other people and jabbing fun at one of the little nerdy hobbies or habits they have doesn't make you better than them and it definately doesn't make your life more interesting by comparison.
Also, isn't 'college stuff' supposed to be taking notes in lectures and studying? Or are you referring to the teen movie version of 'college stuff' which is basically just 'get shit-faced and publicly humiliate myself because I have nothing better to do'.
If your idea of someone having a good time solely extends to going out to party, drink and get laid then I think you need to seriously re-evaluate your lifetime priorities.

No, I meant join a club, audition for a play, go out with your friends to the pub and have a quiet pint, become active in a university society. This is a decent summary of my time at uni. yes, I did the things I mentioned too, but the point is that if you engage with university life you simply won't have the time for much online gaming. I had my xbox with me all year and xbox live, and internet that let me use it online, and I didn't go online at all from the middle of october until the end of the year. There is more than two things you can do at uni, it isn't just about either getting rendered or staying inside like a hermit. University is as much about growing as a person as it is about learning, and no one ever grew as a person by playing WoW and they certainly never learned anything useful either.

 

[SyphonX]

What a bunch of pushovers, cowards and idiots.

You join a gaming community site, and some of you can't even express or defend your own interests.

"That's life, deal with it." No, it's not.

If you think it's normal for a Uni to spy on you 24/7 and restrict your leisure time like you're in China, a Uni that you or your parents, or the government itself pays up to $30,000 a year for, then yea, you have more problems to deal with than being unable to game. I would not give my money to an organization that has these practices.

I can't wait for the college bubble to pop, and I hope it pops hard.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

That sort of internet usage is expensive. And like it or not, it's an expense that students will use. Excessively.

You're right. They should probably start charging people tens of thousands of dollars a year to help offset the cost.