We are trying to start a video game club in my school
- Thread starter Kevon Huggins
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That'd be a sweet idea, keep me off the library computers playing stuff their. I dont have any ideas myself though. Good luck with that either way.
All depends on what your senior staff and/or headteacher is like. If their a person who cares about uniform and bans mobile phones and suspends any and all fun things you can do on a computer then no, there is no chance you will be able to do a game club. Whereas, if they are a bit laid back and you already have say a warhammer club or something then yes, you will definetly be able to run a game club as long as you dont play like manhunt or GTA.
dont call it the video game club or any title with the phrase 'video game'. the words have an unfortunate cultural connotation (which is the type of connotation that would not be in your favor), and i think that the choice of what you will call your group will be pretty important at least in the beginning when your demographic is exposed to little more than your group name. dont you think so? id go for something like 'modern media' or 'interactive media'. i know an overt euphemism might be kinda lame, but even so, you might not get alot of attention or interest (and you might not get alot of respect either) if ppl only just hear something like 'the video game club'. cuz 'video game club' just sounds like a club where ppl sit down and play video games, which im guessing is totally not the direction of your club.
if i were you i would approach it emphasizing the science of video games. if you think about all the technical fields that are employed in the making of a good game, for example programming, 3d art, sound choreography, 3d animation, writing for narratives and dialogue, motion capture, concept art, etc. making a game is pretty hardcore technology wise. i would emphasize that aspect of games, the areas of expertise that are all needed from start to finish in game production. so for example, one thing i would do is find ppl who can 3d animate in Blender or something, and then i would hold tutorials for the public. id put up posters like "do you wanna learn 3d animation? the modern interactive media club is hosting a 2hour long tutorial on the basics of 3d animation for total beginners using the free open source software package Blender. come learn how to animate in 3d and then add your animations to your games!"
"Digital Mediums" club.
If you just want somewhere to play halo during lunch, i can see this failing quickly, or immediately.
Get this as classy (haw haw) as posible. Things that could be interpreted as art, or have excellent story, make it a interactive Digital Book club, things people can watch.
or use it to try and expose people who HAVENT ever played a videogame to them. Throwing luddites into portal is amazing (and frustrating) to watch.
If you just want somewhere to play halo during lunch, i can see this failing quickly, or immediately.
Get this as classy (haw haw) as posible. Things that could be interpreted as art, or have excellent story, make it a interactive Digital Book club, things people can watch.
or use it to try and expose people who HAVENT ever played a videogame to them. Throwing luddites into portal is amazing (and frustrating) to watch.
there is alot of free open source software that a future game designer should familiarize himself/herself to as a general introduction to the art of game crafting. for example, Blender for 3d, GIMP for texturing, Unreal Engine as one game engine platform. id learn those myself, or find someone who knows how to use them, and have public tutorials. i think that would generate alot of interest and attention towards your club.
Make sure that it's well managed, duh.
For me, this means you can't give those Call of Gears: Halo Hero players power. Letting them have administrative power means that you will probably close off your club to anyone interested that isn't also a douchebag.
For me, this means you can't give those Call of Gears: Halo Hero players power. Letting them have administrative power means that you will probably close off your club to anyone interested that isn't also a douchebag.
just in the spirit of offering my thoughts on the subject, my last year at university some guy was doing his masters in some aspect of video game making in the compsci department and he was starting up a video game club from scratch. though this guy had worked for EA, so he was perfectly qualified to be making a video game club, he had some pretty good ideas that i had the chance to observe. first he had competitions where groups of ppl would submit games and the winning group was the one with the most fun/interesting game. he also had Q&A sessions with some of his friends still working in the business, but i dont think thats feasible for you at this point?
It's not really a club... but maybe this might help you in some way.Kevon Huggins said:
My high school required us to do Sophomore and Senior Projects. They are supposed to be these big, elaborate community service type endeavors that you had to devote a very large number of (documented and signed-off) hours accomplishing.
For my Senior Project my friend Tyler and I organized a Halo 2 tournament with various Halo themed merchandise for prizes (and a Halo 2 T-Shirt for everyone who played). The first place prize was an X-Box system with copies of Halo and Halo 2 and two controllers. We worked at our town's recycling center on the weekends to raise money for the prizes.
On the night of the tournament we system linked four X-Box systems (mine, Tyler's, and two of our friends' systems) in the library (since it had some extremely comfortable couches that we could move around) and hooked them all up to overhead projectors borrowed from the school's science department.
For parental supervision we even ended up with an all-teacher team volunteer to be in our tournament. They actually didn't do too badly, either. They came in fourth place!
We got the school to approve our Halo 2 tournament by convincing them that, like sports, video games promote comradarie among students, promote healthy competition, and enrich students' problem solving and teamwork skills.