If you’ve read some of my blog posts before, you’d know that I love video games, and still actively play them on campus when I have the time. But I don’t lug my Xbox from home to and from campus; I use resources already built into the school to satisfy every gaming need I could possibly have.
On the fourth floor of our new Bloomberg Student Center, you’ll find the Creative Media Center (CMC). It’s a place where you can book just about anything for any reason. They offer cameras of all kinds, projectors, poster printing, guitars and bass, speakers, and so much more. Not even counting the audio and project studio so you can record or sew whatever projects you have in mind. But in my opinion, the most important things they have are games. There’s PlayStation 5s, both Nintendo Switch one and two, a VR Headset, and Apple Vision Pros, all available to book! Also run by the CMC, the third floor of the Student Center is the dedicated gaming lounge, with gaming PCs back-to-back in the center of the room, and two TVs that’ll have new additional PS5s permanently hooked up to them soon. And as an employee, I got rewarded with the opportunity to pick out new games for all our patrons to book out!
Last year, before learning about the CMC, I was stuck with my laptop. Which isn’t bad by any means, but you get tired of playing the same couple of games over and over again. And I got to admit; I prefer gaming on a console. Now, it’s my tradition to book out the PS5 anytime I have free time and go through their array of games to see if I want to try something new or beat Batman: Arkham Knight for the third time in a row. And as someone who’s really invested in trying popular games from years past, their selection doesn’t disappoint with games like Mirror’s Edge Catalyst—which I never got the chance to beat yet—and InFAMOUS: Second Son, which I’ve only heard good things about.
The gaming lounge on the third floor is pivotal every time I want to recreate the feeling of playing games on my desktop computer at home. All the computers down there are high-end gaming PCs that can run anything from Fortnite to Valorant. Personally, I love Marvel Rivals, and every time I get sick of playing on my laptop, I go there to really amp up my experience.
Even though gaming is usually a hobby I enjoy alone, campus life reconnected me with how fun couch multiplayer (multiple people playing on the same screen) can be instead of interacting through headsets.
When the stars align and my roommates and I are all free, I book out the switch so we can all play party games. Our favorites are Mario Kart and Mario Party, but now that the CMC just got a Switch 2, Mario Party Jamboree and Mario Kart World have been our new go-tos. Or sometimes I book out Splatoon 3 or the Steam Deck so that I can play solo games with one of my roommates, who’s also big into games, and admire each other’s skills (although his are much better than mine)!
If you’re a current or incoming student worried or upset about leaving gaming behind, don’t sweat it. Not only do I get to advance my passion of computer science at Hopkins, but due to the fact I only have an Xbox at home, the CMC allows me the pleasure of elevating and adapting the way I game in ways I never had the chance to before, right here on campus.
