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On Friday, February 9th from 7-11pm, the Z. Smith Reynolds Library hosted its fourth Get Game@ZSR event. This open video game night drew a good crowd of students along with some University faculty and staff and their kids. It was our largest group thus far. We tried some new marketing tactics and the new game systems that came over the holidays increased interest in the event!

After two semesters in the Rhoda Channing Reading Room, we moved the event back to the atrium where we had 6 screens and projectors available. We also used the ITC Multimedia Lab and had the Screening Room and 204 available for overflow. On the left side of the atrium we had a Nintendo Wii, PS3 and Gamecube, and on the right side Xbox 360s reigned. Wii Sports, Guitar Hero, and Dance Dance Revolution were all new games to this event and kept everyone engaged all evening.

I want to thank everyone who helped set up for this event! Jim, Chris, Waits, Carolyn, and Chris, along with the RTAs, were instrumental in setup for the event! Caroline and Susan got all the players signed in as they arrived and Tim, Erik and I worked to get everyone connected and ready to play! Lynn made sure there was an ample supply of pizza, soda and candy to fuel the gamers (and the staff.) At 11pm, after a great evening of gaming, we waved goodbye to the gamers and by 11:20pm the RTAs and members of the ZSR staff had everything broken down and packed up.

We are old pros at hosting these events. We have learned to avoid the power blackouts we experienced back in September 2005, and we always have plenty of food and drinks to keep the players happy! Each time we do these events, we learn a little bit more! Now it is time to start planning our next gaming event here at ZSR! Time to get some other schools involved and “up the ante” with an event that involves gaming across several sites.