Finding a place in the world is not the easiest thing for anyone, but the existence of different campus clubs makes it easier to meet new people and share interests with one another.
The Wyvern Gaming Club, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is a club that focuses on socializing and sharing interests in gaming and anime. Its goal is to help its members meet new people and de-stress amid all the schoolwork and other responsibilities they may have.
The club is year-round, so members can attend meetings during any semester throughout the entire year.
“I use it as a way to keep myself going,” Sebastian Williams, club president, said. He also said that if he had nothing but classes all the time, “that would get really annoying really fast.”
Previously, the club would meet every Wednesday and Thursday from 6 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. On Wednesdays, club members played games, and on Thursdays, they watched anime.
However, the anime-watching part of the club will be discontinued. Due to Weber State’s new understanding of copyright rules, the club is no longer allowed to host anime-watching parties on campus.
Members are still able to play games together as they used to. Gaming nights consist of a wide variety of tabletop role-playing games, board games and even video games that the members themselves bring in. Attendees can feel free to either bring their own or join other members’ games.
For now, it is still unclear how meetings will be organized without anime nights, but they will still be planned for either Wednesday or Thursday nights. The fall semester meeting schedule updates will be posted on the Weber State Wyvern Anime and Gaming Club Facebook page.
With the club’s longevity, life-long connections will inevitably be made. Daniel Arnold, event director for the club, mentioned members— including himself — had started relationships and even families through the club.
“Even if you don’t stick to the club much, you still make connections with people that could persist past college,” Williams said.
An example of this would be the club members coming together to cosplay and attend conventions together, such as FanX and Anime Banzai.
People interested in joining can either join their Facebook page or drop by during their scheduled meeting times.
The club also has a Discord server where members can connect with the rest of the club outside of in-person meetings.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the club, unfortunately, had to close and was unable to receive new members, but thanks to the Discord server, the current members were still able to keep in touch over the past year and a half.
The club will have a booth at the block party on Sept. 3 where people can stop by and join as well.