“Look around you, the people here would never have met otherwise”, says the treasurer of Boosted Gryffins, a gaming association at Uilenstede for students from VU, UvA and HvA. On a Friday evening in September, eighteen people are playing games such as Mario Kart, FIFA and Tekken on PlayStations and a VR set. There is also a goat simulator, in which you can live the life of a goat, but there seems to be little interest in it.
Virtual relaxation
You don’t have to be a gamer to fit in. In the corner of the office-like room, five people decide to play board games all evening. The spectrum is broad, ranging from the most inexperienced gamers asking how to move their vehicle forward in Mario Kart to serious esports players. Morgan Leushuis (22) explains that Boosted Gryffins is part of the Dutch College Esports Series (DCES). That means the association gets to select a team for a number of tournaments, such as Rocket League and League of Legends, where the top prizes are 1,000 euros and 1,500 euros, respectively.
The GeoGuessr contest is almost soothing: participants are dropped in a random location on Google Street View and have to indicate on a map where in the world they think they are. Relaxation for those who want it to be relaxing, and a contest for those who feel like competing.
Cat videos
Even though the association – which has thirty paying members – is active on social media such as Instagram and Discord, the members prefer to meet in person and do not talk much online. Discord is mainly used to announce events and tournaments; a bot recommends games members might like. Users mostly share cat videos in the channel.
The Boosted Gryffins WhatsApp group, on the other hand, is quite active and contains nine separate groups for the individual teams in the tournaments. In the general group, a handful of people share memes, messages about politics, racism and relationship crises, and a forty-minute video about where Nazis got their gold. It’s like a conversation in a café, but with more than two hundred people.
Internet language
The game night takes place well over a week after the shooting of far-right American activist Charlie Kirk, whose killer has since been arrested: Tyler Robinson, an avid gamer himself. The casings of Robinson’s bullets contained game references. Robinson told his housemate: “It was basically one big meme.” “Every utterance is a joke, piled on top of even more jokes and mainly intended to amuse insiders. From which political direction such an utterance comes from is often hard to find out – if there is any political intention behind it at all”, writes NRC gaming editor Len Maessen about this type of ‘internet language’.
It doesn’t really keep the Boosted Gryffins members busy. “It’s such nonsense to frame gamers based on the texts on those bullet casings”, explains the treasurer. He does not want his name in Ad Valvas because he is speaking on behalf of the association. “Playing a violent game does not make you violent.” Ironically, as he says this, three gamers trying to shoot each other end up losing because a fourth throws a grenade between them. They laugh about it and continue gaming together as friends.
In her VU research, media psychologist Ewa Wiedzobrodzka looked at the relationship between aggression and games. She found no evidence that playing violent games affects empathy or emotion recognition. Any short-term effects disappear quickly.
Soft drinks
While there is heated debate in the media about possible radicalisation among gamers, the association itself tries to remain apolitical in order to be open to everyone, and therefore does not talk much about Charlie Kirk. “We’re just a bunch of nerds who play video games”, says student Kabir Mallok (25).
“At other associations, you meet up in a bar to talk with friends. If you don’t drink, you quickly feel left out”, the treasurer continues. “Our association is accessible; you walk in here and do what you want.” Soft drinks are more popular than beer. The association has become more cautious with alcohol anyway, following a noise complaint and since someone tripped over the rather expensive Wii.