From Candy Crush to Skyrim, gaming is a staple in many lives, including those at California State University, Northridge. In the third spring issue, we explore people’s relationships with games from childhood hobbies to prospective careers. My grandmother got me an Xbox for Christmas when she deemed me old enough, and I played the Cars video game for hours on end. The game offered safe driving bonus points, which my grandmother encouraged and noted as training for my future on the road. Eventually, my uncle gifted me Grand Theft Auto IV, which my grandmother did not enjoy as much. From carefully steering in my grandparent’s living room after dinner to grinding for experience in my room after soccer practice, I am a religious controller user.

Everyone’s experiences are different, and some may take umbrage with my allegiance to consoles, as opposed to custom-built PCs. In the various sections of the magazine, we highlight people’s gaming stories, with some playing on CSUN’s esports team and others decorating islands in Animal Crossing.

Gaming fosters communities, and a single sentence or collection of adjectives cannot properly encompass its diversity. To put it into perspective, fighting games have an umbrella community who enjoy the genre. Mortal Kombat is a prevalent game within the genre and has its own community. Amidst the broad roster, each character has a fanbase full of people who advocate for buffs and better treatment. Not everyone who likes Mortal Kombat likes Sub Zero, and not everyone who likes fighting games likes Mortal Kombat, as they would happily share.

The game development club at CSUN highlighted in Campus Talk brings together students who aim to work in the gaming industry and create landscapes and stories to explore. As mentioned by Trisha Anas in Too Close for Comfort, gaming offers escapism, which is a concept explored by Indira Burklin in her piece for From the Sol.

The many social aspects of gaming create a world for people of all backgrounds to enjoy. Whether someone has worn out joysticks or W, A, S and D keys, they have a story. The following are some of CSUN’s stories.

Thank you,
Sasha Alikhanov