After almost five years of shut doors, the Chamberlain Student Center saw its game room reopen on Friday, Oct. 4.

The Game Room closed during Rowan’s spring break on March 16, 2020 due to COVID-19, and even after restrictions were lifted, construction on the Student Center’s expansion kept it closed until renovation began in June.

“I think it’s a terrific space that students have enjoyed [before the 2020 closing],” said Drew Tinnin, associate vice president for student life. “It fits that casual community space where anyone can come and play all sorts of games from console to board games to arcade games at all skill levels. We’re hoping it really builds that sense of community amongst students and gamers.”

The doors swung open to lines of students checking in by swiping their cards at the Lego brick-like reception desk that greeted them.

Students began to play ping-pong and billiards while they waited for the consoles to open. After a 30-minute delay, 10 televisions, radio pop music, and billiard balls clacking filled the neon orange, green, and blue room.

“The Game Room already existed, so [the work] pretty much was just updating what we had to make it more modern,” said Matea Gray-Segers, graduate coordinator of the Center for Esports. “We got new furniture, some new consoles, a new paint job. Also a PlayStation 5, I know that wasn’t even a thing in 2020.”

The updated neon space had dozens of new chairs added, four new televisions, and gaming consoles from the N64 to the PlayStation 5, with every console in between. The space even offers what staff called “barroom” games like billiards, ping pong, shuffleboard, and foosball. All that’s required to play is an updated Rowan ID. The space is open to students, staff, and faculty and up to two adult guests per person.

“I think it’s a lot more than I expected,” said JD DeCaro, sophomore computer systems technology major. “At [Montclair Univeristy] they only had current consoles, but in here there’s a wide catalog of things to choose from. Montclair’s room was boring compared to this.”

The console stations began to fill up, as groups played “Wii Sports,” “Call of Duty,” and“Just Dance”– only three of the over 400 games the space offers. Groups with Nintendo Wiis spent 30 minutes creating Miis (Nintendo gaming avatars) before playing digital bowling and tennis.

Others played billiards and ping-pong, challenging people they never met before to matches, like Troy Malone, a freshman computer science major. Malone saw the Game Room open, called a friend then went immediately inside.

“I’m competitive, and it’s kind of like a friendly competitive area to have fun,” said Malone. “It just seems like a place to make new friends, so far I’ve been here an hour and I already made a couple of new friends.”

Aiden Salerno, a marketing major, is one of 17 game room attendants. Salerno worked the entrance check-in, and he began to see things he didn’t expect: kindness, and students making friends.

“I was surprised with how many students are asking me how my day has been, talking to random people,” said Salerno. “People are exchanging socials and joining the Game Rooms Discord, slowly growing a community here. We’ve already built a small community. I like it.”

The opening weekend saw 125 attendees. It’ll hold events in the future like a “Spades,” “Madden,” and a late “Super Smash Bros” tournament in December for “Cram Jam.” The Game Room encourages students to join their Discord to keep up with more events, talk, and even make suggestions for additions.

The Game Room is located on the ground floor of the Student Center.

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