Gamers go to war, hit the field and rock out

By James Hill III

"Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock and roll." Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary creative mind behind such seminal video game series as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, said this when asked about the sentiment that gaming was detrimental. Clearly, most Santa Clara students would agree with that statement; the popularity of video games is at an all time high, as evidenced by the $310 Million Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- one of the most prevalent games on campus -- sold in its first 24 hours of release.

Santa Clara's Association for Computing Machinery took note of this popularity and, led by freshman Kurt Jurgens, organized a video game tournament last Sunday. Jurgens said that the tournament was meant to show who was "a true gamer and not just really good at one game in particular." Sixteen of the most skilled gamers on campus signed up to compete across seven games of various genres: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, FIFA Soccer 10, Guitar Hero 5, Halo 3, Madden NFL 10, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. The winner received an XBOX 360, while second through eighth won a copy of Halo 3: ODST.

In order for the competition to cover a wide range of games, each head-to-head matchup went as follows: each gamer could ban two games that they didn't like -- or that their competitor was proficient in. From the remaining three games, one was randomly chosen for the match.

The sixteen gamers were divided into four even groups and played a round robin, with the top two players advancing. They then played a single elimination tournament under the same format, with the two finalists playing all three remaining games.

Sophomore Stephen Cauterucio competed in the tournament and won a copy of Halo 3: ODST. He liked the multiple-games format, saying that the "tournament was cool because you had to be good at multiple games."

He talked about scoping out his competitors during pre-tournament practice and wishing Super Smash Bros. Brawl or Guitar Hero 5 would come up.

"(I was) pretty confident I was better than most people in those games," he said.

Ultimately the tournament was won by its organizer, Jurgens -- who next year plans to hold the tournament, called April Apocalypse in tribute to March Madness, with 64 competitors. He toppled Cauterucio on the way to the final where he faced another freshman, Carlo Ronaldo. After trading victories in Halo 3 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it all came down to a tense final in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Tied with a few minutes left, both competitors stalled, waiting for one to make a move. Finally, Ronaldo decided to go on the attack, and suffered the consequences as Jurgens got the last kill with ten seconds remaining in the championship.

Both Jurgens and Cauterucio agreed that gaming is popular on campus as a fun thing to do with your friends. They assessed that the amount of time people play video games changes based on a given day or week's workload. In fact, in the week leading up to the tournament, Jurgens admitted that, due to four midterms, he hadn't played any video games at all.

Modern Warfare 2 is one of the most popular games on campus. Sports games, such as Madden, FIFA and NBA 2K10 have also been cited as popular and, though their popularity seems to be diminishing, music games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band still have their niche. Plus, there are many anxiously awaited games on the horizon.

Jurgens cited Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty as a game he was waiting for, though its release date is still up in the air. As for the immediate future, a few games deserve a special spotlight.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction is the next installment in the vastly popular spy series, and this time it places agent Sam Fisher in a more action-oriented environment as he rebels against the government that used him one too many times.

Split/Second looks to be a blistering racing title in the vein of Burnout, except with ridiculous amounts of level destruction.

Alan Wake, a psychological thriller, has been in development for the XBOX 360 since 2005 and is finally scheduled for release this May.

Ever since Electronic Arts bought the official license to the NFL, other companies have tried and failed to make a competitor to their football juggernaut without the real teams. Backbreaker, running a technologically impressive new engine, is the next notable effort to topple EA Sports' long-running series.

Meanwhile, Nintendo plans on adding another installment to the famous Mario series with Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Alpha Protocol looks to combine the best of spy games such as the James Bond series and open world masterpieces like Grand Theft Auto.

Finally, the Rock Band series is releasing another band exclusive entry, and this time they're covering Berkeley natives Green Day. I personally have been waiting to play their nine-minute opus "Jesus of Suburbia" since I first heard of Guitar Hero, and am very excited for this game. But I'm most excited for the next entry in the renowned Metal Gear Solid series: the PSP's Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

Gaming is going strong, both on campus and on a global scale.

The video game industry was one of the few to continue success during the recession, and looks to continue to rise, both economically and in popularity.

Santa Clara students will surely end up playing almost all of these new titles, competing in more tournaments and finding new chances to game with themselves and with friends.

Contact James Hill III at jhill@scu.edu or at (408)554-1918.