Written By: Divya Mehta
This November, Kimberly, James and I got “Gamified #2” with the Digital Media Students Association (DMSA)! “Gamified” is a monthly themed game night that, this month, was held in the evening in Accolade West, room 103. This event is specifically designed for those of us who are video game and/or board game lovers, or just for anyone who is looking for a fun and casual environment where you can unwind and de-stress with some of your fellow students. The classic, 2D-styled video game that was featured was “Death Road To Canada,” which is an online Role-Playing Game (RPG) that allows users to customize their own characters and (attempt to) survive a zombie apocalypse. The theme of Gamified was, appropriately, “Movember”, which required attendees to personalize their characters with beards and moustaches, then get ready for battle! It was both quite interesting and entertaining to see the creativity demonstrated by the attendees using those two main requirements for the character developments.
You can play the game yourself with a Steam account, or learn more about the game by seeing its trailer here!
DMSA did a really fantastic job on the setup of the gaming environment, by having the visuals of the game projected onto the wall and implementing surround sound to elevate the overall immersive experience. This made the experience super interactive and enveloping, giving the players a chance to do something different from just playing the game individually on a laptop.
The board games that were featured included “Ticket To Ride” and “Sea of Clouds.” It was really cool to have these specific games chosen, since they are games that a lot of people might not necessarily know about and it gives them a chance to try something new. The board game segment also really provided everyone with the chance to mingle and get to know one another a bit more, so it was an awesome way to make new friends!
Ticket to Ride is an adventure-type board game that involves a cross-country train journey, involving 2-5 players. The object of the game is for the players to collect and play matching train cards in order to obtain railway routes. These railway routes provide a connection among the cities throughout North America, and the player that has the longest route wins the game.
Sea of Clouds we found to be one of those board games where, like “Monopoly,” you can either become great friends with your fellow competitors or become sworn enemies in five minutes. Fortunately for us, our friendships all remained intact! “Sea of Clouds” involved each player becoming the captain of a flying pirate ship. The object of this game is to recruit the strongest pirates through picking up cards (referred to as the 3 loot stacks). We were also required to collect relics, money, rum cards and other objects during each round of the game. The more of these types of cards a player collects, the more points they obtain. Our favourite segment of each round was battling with our pirates. The player that has the pirate with the most points on its card wins rewards such as money. Lucky James won this game with 60 points, but it was fun for everyone nonetheless!
Overall, this was a really great night that we got to make new friends, have some fun, and get some much needed time to decompress from the stresses of school and life. I definitely recommend joining the DMSA in the next “Gamified” event — hopefully we will see each other, and get a chance to battle one another in a new and exciting game!