It was the tenth installment of Dartcon Gaming Weekend, the College's only (un)official holiday honoring the full gamut of game recreation and the people who love it. This term's convention was a hearty source of post-midterms/pre-finals entertainment that saw a considerable turnout, with curious visitors dropping by in the wee hours of the morning to watch movies, enjoy refreshments, crumble to monopolizing topspins at Nintendo "Wi Tennis" and of course, show off their "Guitar Hero" skills (or lack thereof.)
"We typically have projectors set up in one of the living rooms for video games, board games in the other living room and scheduled role playing games going on in the other common rooms," said Nico Buhr '07, a member of Alpha Theta. "The board game library is borrowed from the [Council on Student Organizations'] Creative Gaming Club for the weekend."
Dartcon is held about once a term and runs nonstop for two to three days. As screens blared visibly from outside the house, within was a friendly, casual atmosphere that both nurtured the undeveloped talents of gamer-hopefuls and showcased the unmatchable skills of those who had long since surrendered their souls to the call of the console.
Simultaneously, one pair of gamers was quarreling about a questionable and deciding Wi Sports call, someone else was simulating the DJ club-mixing experience on a Japanese PlayStation and a crowd of people was studying the curiously CIA-like screen of an online world-domination game. For a gamer at heart, it was practically heaven.
Adding to the usual gaming allure was the fact that this term's installment of Dartcon boasted a wonderful incentive to attend: A professional game designer, Jared Sorenson, joined the festivities by play-testing a top-secret video game, "Donut," with certain members of the house.
"He will reveal no secrets about it," Robert Manning '07, another member of Alpha Theta, said. "And the players are sworn to secrecy, as the game is not yet released on the market."
Sorenson, who demoed other role-playing games of a less confidential nature over the weekend as well, was not the only guest to bring a spark to the convention. Randy Mulholland, the creator of the popular webcomic "Something Positive," also stopped by to partake in the entertainment.
"[I] want to thank the kids in Alpha Theta at Dartmouth College," Mulholland said on his website in a recent update. "Something Positive," operational since late 2001, is known for its offbeat dark humor in relation to gamers and geeks.
"[My friend] and I played in a gentleman's homebrew game that was a really impressive system as well as gaming world," he said.
"It [was] good to see everyone there again," Mulholland added. "It had been too long."
If you secretly long to succumb to your inner gamer and unwisely missed this term's Dartcon, fret not. To quell your basic human urge -- that is, the one that commands you to pwn n00bs -- you could head to Alpha Theta virtually any time, any day to try your hand at any of their vast array of addictive distractions. The house honestly welcomes your presence with open arms.
But to meet those cult celebrities that occasionally make appearances with their privy industry knowledge and otherwise unattainable games, take solace in knowing that the next Dartcon is but five months away. And that provides plenty of time for you to ruin your eyes, hands and wrists in preparation for the main event.
