LCCC Students Plan Friday's Gaming Event November 14, 2008

LCCC students have successfuly planned and implemented the last three gaming events, and the Library is overjoyed to hand the "controls" over again!

This year NEFLIN is loaning the library their new gaming equipment - XBox 360 and Wii consoles.

Gaming events are for Everyone! You do not need to be a gamer to attend.
Meet people
Enjoy the free food and drinks
Watch gamers on big screens
Check out a board or card game (chess, scrabble, Texas Hold'Em)
Bring your own games and friends

Gaming is the future...check out this September 2008 article "Advanced Immersive Media Technologies" from the Shift in Action journal about Virtual-Reality Healing:

Remember virtual reality? It’s back, and it’s turning out to be a powerful healing modality for the treatment of a wide range of disorders—including anxiety, addictions, eating disorders, phobias, PTSD, and ADHD—as well as an effective tool for pain management and conflict negotiation.

The Interactive Media Institute recently hosted its annual “cybertherapy” conference, “CyberTherapy 13: Changing the Face of Healthcare.” It also publishes the Annual Review of CyberTherapy and Telemedicine,, an indexed journal available at its website (www.interactivemediainstitute.com). Other virtual-reality resources include the Virtual Reality Medical Center (www.vrphobia.com) and the virtual com-
munity of Second Life which has a variety of support-group options.

Seventh Gaming Event Rocks! 4.26.08

Rock performers Josh Webster and Kyle Metz

Student organizers Josh Webster and Tyrone Samuels pulled off another successful gaming event, with a supporting team of eight students and community participants who shared their Wii's and XBoxes, and a library staff who manned the desk,
donated money for pizza (for console contributers and game workers only), and took care of all the many "party" details.

Parent Jan Smith brought her son, Suwannee high school student Kody to the event, and also generously donated a cooler full of drinks and a bushel of snacks! Kody brought his XBox 360 and challenged others to Halo3.


A Lake City father brought his two high school sons to play the Wii bowling game until the library closed at 11 p.m.

A gathering of adults and students giggled and went gaga over the Wii game "Cooking Mama Cook-off." You thought you could crack an egg, Josh? Virtual cooking is a totally different experience where you compete with others and use the remotes to chop, slice, fry, and stir to whip up international recipes with over 300 ingredients.

According to Frodo and Dr. Gillette, "Cooking Mama" may require both thinking skills and culinary talent. Observers kept their distance as Frodo and Dr. Gillette engaged in a serious debate about this topic.

Student Government officer D'iera Woodard operated the library's new MAC and took some "fun-house" photos of people surfing on a roller coaster and morphing into alien-looking beings.

The LCCC Chess Club organized what they claim is the first ever Wii Chess Tournament, complete with a "wee" award that was claimed by Ryan.

There were a few shooter games going on upstairs, but the crowd-pleaser was definitely "Rock Band" that prospective LCCC student Josh Power brought and set-up for the event. (Josh Power on the right)

In "Rock Band," gamers form their own band of guitar players, a drummer, and singers. The "real" band plays along with the virtual band, and according to how well they play and sing, the virtual audience either advises that they "give up their gig," or applauds. Even if you've never strummed a guitar, you can learn to appreciate what it takes to be a rock star. Just ask the Library Staffers Lynnda White and Terri Hochmuth.

Library Director Jim Morris and fiance Patty Hay visited the gaming event for old times sake. Patty is a librarian, too, and they started dating after a LCCC gaming event last year! They will be married in the LCCC Library May 10.

Even though we had a smaller turnout with a headcount of about 55, the fun factor rated five stars. Our thanks again to Student Activities for drinks and snacks, Audio-Visual for lugging all of those monitors around, and Technology Department for the essential techy-parts!

Thanks, Bubba (above), Ryan and Robert, Kody Smith, Josh Power, Demetri, Josh Horton, Josh Webster, and Natalie Wicklund for sharing your consoles and games!

Plans are churning for the next fall gaming event.

Student-Run Tournament a Grand Success!

The Wii games are very popular! Thanks to our students for sharing their consoles (Demetrius and )



Cash prizes for winners of the Halo and Madden tournaments.


This year the library staff did very little work in planning the gaming event...we just supervised. See how difficult this is? (Just as Dean Crowley anticipated!)


Ashley Barnes (left) stayed the entire day and night at the desk, and the Ambassadors (right) were a big help, too!


Unfortunately, the pizza was a major disappointment. Next time, we'll just take up a collection and order out. Bad pizza is worse than no pizza!


The Man can dance, too! Tyrone says that for the next event, "the gaming tournaments will probably be free."


It looks like Ibrahim is winning at Madden!

Halo and Madden Tournament Event

This event coming up on Friday, October 26th, 2007 is different for several reasons.
First, students have planned the event. Tyrone Samuals and Anthony Brown have been involved in all previous events, and when they heard that I did not have time to coordinate a fall event, they offered to take on the project.

The new leadership is super for several reasons. They have planned the event with an emphasis on tournaments, creating their own promotional fliers, contacting college departments like technology and audiovisual, detailing the tournament rules, involving other students and clubs, and marketing to community areas that we've never considered before.

Anthony and Tyrone feel very confident about organizing and managing tournaments...I would never have imagined a Halo tournament with 32 teams, or a Madden tournament with 32 participants! For the first time, they are asking people to pay to register, since this is also a club fund-raiser. First place tournament winners will win some of the cash, and they feel certain this will bring in some serious players.

We are looking forward to how this gaming event will work out. In any case, it has been an enjoyable experience for me to collaborate with these two young men. I'm hoping they will be inspired to take on the NEXT gaming event Spring 2008!

Students & Foot-Long Woody's Made This Event a Success!

AVI also sponsored our event!

The day before the gaming event, LCCC student Demetrius walked in and offered to bring his Wii console! Then a small troupe from Columbia High School walked in and offered to bring their xbox 360, organize a Halo tournament, and help clean up afterwards.

Thanks to co-organizers Tyrone Samuels, Anthony Brown and Ben English who promoted the gaming event, we had 76 registered gamers, plus a headcount of 25 more onlookers that included 9 librarians from NEFLIN, Alachua County Library District, Union County Public Library, and Sumpter County Public Library. Ben and Marc held an informal workshop for the librarians to demonstrate the PS3 console and games, and eloquently answered their questions.

We were very fortunate that the new Lake City Pizza establishment Foot-Long Woody's gave us an excellent deal on scrumptious pizzas! We hope they will sponsor us again.

For 13 hours, gamers played Madden, Dreamfall, Plasma Pong, Halo, PS3 games, DDR, SingStar Pop, Guitar Hero,
and a variety of Wii games. Gamers won T-shirts, Bawls drinks, posters, and then afterwards, bless their hearts, everyone helped to clean up.

Co-organizers Anthony and Tyrone have some good ideas for the next gaming event to draw more people, so if you want to help, please call Ms. Lepore at 386-754-4357.

Lucky 13-Hours!

Lucky you. On July Friday 13th, beginning at 10 AM - 11PM (that's 13 hours) at the Lake City Community College Library, you and your friends (16 years or older; if you are younger, see message at end of this post) can bring your controllers, consoles and games and set up for a marathon gaming event! You might even want to arrange a tournament. THIS IS YOUR EVENT!



Everyone is invited to participate in the Singstar, Guitar Hero or DDR games already set up!

• Every 13th person who walks in and registers will receive 2 bottles of Bawls energy drink!


• Beginning at 11 AM, we will draw a name every hour (that's 13 drawings!) and that person will receive 2 bottles of Bawls energy drink!



• There are other prizes, like a DDR game, SuperStar Ruby Doll and posters for which you can submit tickets for a drawing! (yes, you have to be present!)

For just trying out the Dreamfall game, you can receive a T-shirt (while supplies last).

There will be free beverages through-out the event, and the free pizza will start arriving beginning at 5:30 PM.

ABOUT THE AGE LIMITS: (bring some I.D.)

• IF YOU ARE 13 - 16, you can do three things: come with an adult (over 21 years); bring a note from your parent with their phone number; have your parent call the Librarian Ms. Lepore 386-754-4357.


• IF YOU ARE YOUNGER THAN 13, you need to be accompanied by an adult.


• We appreciate your cooperation with these guidelines. Our previous events have been very enjoyable because everyone has abided by these guidelines, and the atmosphere has been pleasant and FUN! Thank you!

What you said about the gaming event...

We had a headcount of nearly 100 people at the gaming event! From the survey of participants, it seemed that the gamers really enjoyed the live music (as background), but the musicians did not really like being just "background. So, in future programs, we will probably separate these two activities.

Gamers enjoyed Guitar Hero (needed better speakers), and the Wii games. We really needed more consoles and games, and that is what we are working on now as we plan OUR NEXT EVENT JULY FRIDAY 13TH!