Publication Date: Friday, February 20, 2004
New venue for game boys (and girls)
New venue for game boys (and girls)
(February 20, 2004) Locals form 'Cyberathlete' league
by Rachel Metz
A new sports organization is in town. Half man, half machine, it is the Cyberathlete Scholastic League.
The brainchild of Jim Thrall, a former Gunn High School computer teacher, the Gunn league began this fall in an effort to give credibility to gaming as a serious sport and change the way people think of gamers.
"You gotta believe it. We're setting up to knock down a lot of stereotypes about games and the gamers," Thrall said.
The club promotes competitive video game play, where several people play against each other, instead of just against a computer. Interactive gaming is a good way to socialize and work with other people, and gamers have to use problem-solving and team-building skills, Thrall said.
The club is also invested in performing community service, learning about careers available to kids interested in video games, and doing well in school.
Playing video games is on the rise at Gunn, club president Sam Wood and club secretary Michael Parikh said. But Wood said most of the school's gamers don't know each other.
"That's why a lot of students are coming to CSL. Because we all share a common interest in gaming," Wood said.
The name of the club -- which, curiously, contains the word "athlete" -- is tongue-in-cheek, Thrall said.
" ... (Gaming's) not physically engaging for the most part and if it does get physically engaging something is probably going wrong," he said.
But Wood and Parikh do think of gaming as athletic.
"Why wouldn't it be considered a sport, really? It takes teamwork, you have to practice," Wood said, adding he doesn't think a "sport" necessarily entails physical activity.
So far about 15 students are regular attendees at weekly meetings. They've also organized two local area network parties so far, where they set up tournaments on networked computers. Members want to look more at the business side of gaming as well -- they're trying to organize a trip to the 2004 Game Developer's Conference in San Jose this spring.
They're also hoping other schools in the area will set up their own versions of the league, so they can organize game tournaments with local students. The club is trying to get Menlo-Atherton High School to organize a chapter, and has contacted Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, Parikh said.
Right now the Gunn chapter is all-male, but Thrall hopes girls will join in.
"I'd like to see a good mix of gamers that are both male and female because I know there's a good mix of gamers that are both male and female," he said.
Girls tend to gravitate more toward social and role playing games and graphic-driven games, he said, while guys might be more interested in shoot-'em-ups and war-oriented games.
But despite all the talk of gaming and gaming activities, "we really aren't just about gaming," Wood said.
They are also hoping to be a community service group. They've been collecting video consoles and games -- both new and old, working or broken -- for kids at a local hospital. The club will try to fix any non-working donations, Wood said.
They thought collecting video game systems would be useful because it could keep hospitalized kids' minds off their setting.
"Video games can kind of act as an escape," Parikh said.
Rachel Metz can be e-mailed at rmetz@paweekly.com
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