Table Gaming Club to Host Biannual “Game Fest”
By Ashley Ward, Secretary and Assistant Editor
FARMINGTON 一 Table Gaming Club (TGC) is preparing to host their biannual Game Fest on Nov. 12, starting at 7p.m. and ending at 7a.m. the next day. Open to UMF students, TGC invites everyone to come by the South Dining Hall and enjoy games, food, and raffle prizes.
A club established in the 70s, TGC holds their meetings every Wednesday in Roberts 028 at 6:30pm. With an average attendance of 15-30 people per meeting, Table Gaming Club is riding the involvement high that several tabletop gaming communities have seen during the past 18 months.
“We think that part of it has something to do with the fact that tabletop games are very easy to translate into an online format. So, it’s not really just a phenomenon that our club has seen, it is tabletop gaming communities as a whole that have seen immense growth over the pandemic,” President of the Table Gaming Club Quinlan Boyle said.
Barring the last three semesters, TGC has hosted the Game Fest twice a year, once in the fall semester and once in the spring. Game Fest is a 12 hour-long table gaming marathon that runs from 7p.m.-7a.m. the following morning. UMF students are encouraged to stop by to play a wide variety of board games, participate in raffles, and have fun.
“We set them [board games] up so people can bop around playing whatever game they want with other people that have shown up. We have a raffle that goes on during Game Fest with prizes that we think people might enjoy. We usually bring out the Nintendo Switch and set up Smash Bros or Mario Kart for people to play together. It’s really just a bunch of the games that we have and take out of storage so that everyone can play them,” Boyle said.
Boyle said that Game Fest is always held on a Friday evening into a Saturday morning, so that waking up for classes the next day isn’t an issue.
Game Fest is TGC’s largest event, usually turning out an attendance number between 75 and 100 students. Another large event led by the TGC, Humans versus Zombies, hasn’t come close to the involvement that Game Fest pulls, not even with the record-high number of 57 participants this semester.
If you are unable to attend the Nov. 12 Game Fest, keep an eye out for the one next semester in Spring 2022. For more information about the TGC or Game Fest, contact club President Quinlan Boyle.
