Dorm room gaming console option?

Student Lounge College Life
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When students fill out their housing questionnaire for their roommate/dorm assignment do you think there should be a question asking if you want a gaming console in the room? This would be similar to, “are you a smoker or non-smoker?”

It seems that gaming has become a lifestyle. It is something that is a huge time suck and many stay up late in the night doing it. Sometimes gaming goes on for hours on end. I am wondering if it isn’t time colleges include this as a lifestyle choice so that students/parents can make sure they get a room assignment that will not include gaming.

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I agree! We wouldn’t let our sons take one to college, why put temptation in the way?! Have heard of some of their friends holding up in their room and playing for hours, with the resultant terrible grades. We are not paying for our sons to have that experience!

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I believe it was a question on my daughter’s roommate match survey. Something like how many hours/day do you spend playing video games. The answer was 0 for my D. Interestingly that was the only thing she matched on with all of her roommates (she was in a quad). Not one was a gamer.

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On the flip side of this my junior son in engineering did bring up his ps4 with a monitor to school. It has not been an issue at all. We were concerned but he always used gaming as a stress reliever and always had stellar grades.

He also gets Hulu /Netflix on it and shares it with his roommates. Wears headphones when someone else is there and uses the set up to test augmented reality stuff that he is a leader in on campus.

Also he is back to teaching himself guitar, since last year he had this “need” to read for enjoyment, which he never really did. He works a few days a week and heavily involved in a club on campus that he helped start , putting on a second major conference and meeting with lawyers to make his club a non profit if possible. Plus in a hard engineering program. Not sure how much time he even has to game… Lol :watch:

Now in an apartment its just in his room.

Funny thing is he is the general manager of an online baseball team and player and they just won some international baseball world series!! :baseball:… He plays live with other college kids at set times. Would this be something to put as a fun thing on a resume? He has a lot of other things to put on one but just wondering. I think it shows leadership and management skills which is right up his alley.

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Ugh. I’m so worried about this with my kid. I kind of want to just tell him he can’t take his desktop with him, but it’s so much a part of his life that I really think he’d refuse to go to college without it. I’ve told him his roommate is probably going to hate him. He wears a headset, but is constantly talking (yelling) with the online people he’s playing with and it drives me nuts from the other room. I can’t imagine someone in the same room trying to study or sleep.

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Have a friend who wouldn’t let S take his to school. They weren’t concerned about time / grades but rather social integration. Pretty introverted kid, thought he would use it as a crutch. Good decision for them as he blossomed, joined clubs, etc. May of done that anyway but who knows.

Flip side is I imagine many schools have gaming clubs…

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My son “was” introverted as a freshman and started a major club on campus and has his gaming… He told us that this is what he does to relax and yes have fun. It is a social thing and he has met people on campus also. They just need to be respectful when at college with talking loud and or not doing it late at night etc. My son knew if grades dropped it was coming home. I think it depends on the kid not the gaming console

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My son loves his PS4. We let him take it to school - and they did ask about it on the housing form. I’m sure he spends time playing his games, but he’s also very social and has made tons of friends and kept his grades up. Like @Knowsstuff he also uses it to stream Netflix and the like. It hasn’t been the issue we feared it would be.

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I think @Knowsstuff hit the nail on the head – it really depends on the kid, not the console!

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Oh… We were very concerned also. My kid could lock the door and never socialize and come out. We think that happened a bit the first few weeks of college but it was his way of adjusting to college. He is on automatic and extremely active on campus. But sometimes you also have to chill for your own sanity also.

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I’m glad to hear some schools have started to ask if you want to live with a console in the room. I hope all ask that question soon.

My son has a single this year but last year he was in a built-up triple. (super tight) He is not a gamer and considers it a waste of time. He two roommates brought the gaming equipment and both gamed. My son loved his roomies but spent a lot of time studying and hanging out in the floor lounge due to their constant gaming. Even with headphones there is yelling, chairs shuffling, and the remote manipulation ends up making noise. My son was flexible and kind about it but he really was relinquished form normal room life when the gaming was going on which was very often.

Second semester he got to move next door so was able to have a normal bedroom/ study area while the first room remained “the gaming room.”

The funny thing was he used to talk about how pretty girls would stop by and his friends wouldn’t even look up from their video games! He thought it was hilarious how they missed out on so many social opportunities due to their video game glaze.

Of course there are gaming clubs and even video game design as a major but it seems that it has become a lifestyle, and unless all parties want it in the room, it shouldn’t be there. Hopefully more schools will start to recognize this.

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My daughter was not a gamer but met a guy her first week and his room was the big hang out for the games (same dorm, different floor). I think it was a big time waster for a lot of kids (including her) but she could walk away. Her friend was in engineering, played an instrument, and seemed to control it all pretty well but still an inconvenience to his study time.

Her roommate was very controlling and would never have allowed a game system in the room. She didn’t even allow male visitors! They didn’t have a TV (just their laptops).

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Gaming isn’t inherently different from any other hobby. It doesn’t have to be a huge time suck, and many students stay up late in the night playing music, reading books, watching TV or movies, socializing with friends, surfing the internet, or doing any number of other things people like to do for hobbies. Would we ban pleasure books or an mp3 player from the college dorm room?

It is certainly not comparable to smoking.

When I was in high school, I used to stay up really late at night…reading and writing fanfiction (and chatting on AIM, of course.) When I was in college, I went to many an 8 am class bleary-eyed because I couldn’t put a book down until I finished it (In my defense, the last two Harry Potter books came out when I was in college!). I foolishly did the same thing in graduate school. (In my defense, The Hunger Games movies came out the same week as my oral comprehensive examinations, and I wanted to finish the book series first!) I also discovered Netflix through binge-watching the first 13 seasons of Law and Order: SVU in my third year of graduate school, during written comps, I think. Somehow, I managed to successfully complete all of those phases of school with flying colors and find a job.

I am an avid gamer and I have been since I was a small child, but I was and still am far more likely to stay up late reading, writing, or watching TV than playing a video game (although don’t get me wrong…I stay up late doing that, too.) Somehow, I have managed not to explode, and even managed to find some measure of success.

Besides, young adults have to learn how to manage their own time.

As for socialization, some of my fondest memories in college are of Super Smash Bros. tournaments in friends’ dorm rooms. My closest friends now are people I’ve bonded with over video games. I work in the video games industry (surprise!) and have done extensive research on video game players and communities; many people meet lifelong friends, partners, and spouses through gaming communities.

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Julliet Oh, I’m not saying ban it but you should have the choice not to live with it or not. When someone stays up reading all night or with music in their ears it’s quiet. Video games, even with headsets, are not quiet. I think televisions on all night would be a problem between roommates (the glow of the light).

Agreed… there may be some positive benefits of gaming (friends) but living with it in a small space is pretty awful for the non-gamer. Nobody is saying people shouldn’t game. Just live with others who want to live like that.

Gaming has become such lifestyle, that does impact others, that I think it’s time to consider that when deciding who rooms with whom.

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@Empireapple… It’s called being considerate. My son’s roommates (junior and third roommate), all knew and approved him bringing up the gaming system up and until this year it was in a common area or living room /den of the apartment. Only this year it’s actually in his bedroom.

Funny thing is he would wear his headset for gaming and his roommate would wear his headset for listening to music while studying/ relaxing so neither roommates activity bothers the other. Plus my son enjoys more sports gaming like football and baseball (just won some world series tournament… Lol) so he can do that without sound. With sports gaming he doesn’t have the sound on loud at all. Not all gaming is loud. He is heavily involved in the augmented reality /mixed reality world also in school and again don’t need sound for that. When he needs to talk to people loudly he arranges an appropriate time to do so.

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I think it would just be easier to have the choice not to live with gaming. We find that even with the headset there is a certain amount of excitement that makes noise as well as the manipulation of the remote. So many gamers stay up all night. Honestly, its obnoxious.

Yes! It would be great to have it in the common area. As I said, my son was in a built-up triple. Imagine that with constant gaming going on. My son was a peach about it and practically lived in the lounge. It should have been the other way around.