The Anime Club’s bi-monthly Game Night was held in SU- 003 on the evening of Jan. 21; the selection of games included BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, Halo Reach, as well as card games like Dragon Shield, Magic, and UNO.

“Game night is one of the events [that’s] free for NEIU students—everybody is welcome and students can bring their friends too,” said Anime Club president Jovan Ebio. “It’s a stress-free environment for students to hang out and socialize with other people; if you are a freshman, it’s an especially great place to start…”

The club has also hosted specific tournaments, and is eager to bring back a fad from the past.

“We try to do more current games—whatever is hot, we’ll buy them as soon as they come out and probably [include them] in game nights,” said Ebio. “We have Halo Reach tournaments, and pretty soon we will have a Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Tournament, which we are looking forward to and will be fantastic. Some of our club members will be having Dungeons & Dragons tournament, which was a big thing back in 80s and is still popular among both boys and girls [because] it’s one of those games in which you have to use your imagination.”

But don’t assume that these expenses are paid for by the school—the club members buy games on their own.

“I am really proud to say that the club likes to share most of the games,” said Ebio. “It’s great that we all are collaborating and organizing our resources; we try to be as much cost effective as we can with our resources.”

According to Ebio, staying in and playing a video or board game is underrated as a way to enjoy yourself.

“You don’t need to have lavish parties to have fun at campus, game night is something you can look forward to [attending] to release stress, relax and meet other people,” he said.

The participating students said that they wait for the game night every semester because it’s something that they can relate to, and that it’s also a chance to share their love and passion of video games with each other.