The renovations have
moved office and department
hither and yon, but the new
lounge in upstairs Rollins
doesn’t seem to be the hangout
it was intended to be.
The lounge is filled with
chairs and tables and several
arcade machines. These
machines range from the
“Terminator 3” pinball
machine to the “Big Buck
Hunter” arcade game.
Why aren’t students playing
them?
“They need to replace the
broken cabinets with Pac-
Man, Battletoads or
Asteroids,” said Kyle
Ciminera, a 19-year-old liberal
arts major.
Some people think the
games are out-of-date and
ignore them. When people
are playing they seem to be
drawn to “Street Fighter vs.
X-Men” and “Big Buck
Safari.”
“They should halve a few of
the current prices; more people
will play if the prices
were lower,” said Ciminera.
The least-expensive game is
“World Class Bowling” and
“Die Hard Arcade.”
“Big Buck Safari” is $1 per
game and the player goes on
several “hunting trips.” It
costs an additional $1 to continue
play.
“Dropping the prices would
draw more people in, especially
since the lower the
price the more inclined [students]
to play multiple
times,” said Steve Young, 19,
a computer information science
major.
Perhaps with these changes
the new arcade will get more
student traffic to go up and
play.
Even when both the broken
machines were working, students
ignored the games completely
and played the more
current games.
Jesse Speidel, a 22-year-old
humanities major from
Levittown said, “I haven’t
even played the games up
there and even I know they
need to have better games.”
Bright lights and fast play is
the big pull of “X-Men vs.
Street Fighter” and “Big Buck
Safari.” The bland and faded
cabinets of the bowling and
“Die Hard” games do not
draw students in.
Replacements for the older
games would be preferable to
the students. If they were
replaced with retro games
like “Asteroids” or even
“Donkey Kong” several student
stated they would probably
go up and spend the
money. “They’re awful
games up there and they
don’t work half the time,”
stated Brian Weibley, 27, a
member of the custodial staff.
Another problem might be
just that the arcade is new
and students aren’t used to it
being there yet. Many students
just seem to walk right
past it. Some students going
past use the doorway down
the hall as a shortcut to get to
class or the cafeteria.
The previous lounge area
was used by a lot of students
for a quiet relaxation area and
they still migrate to that area
thinking the same.
Since the arcade machines
have appeared, students have
disappeared looking for a
new area in which to to study
quietly.
“A different location would
have been better, everyone
just walks on by in order to
get to the cafeteria or go outside,”
said Mardilyn
McClellan, 19, a psychology
major from Levittown. That
seems to be a major theme
among those who know that
the arcade is even there.