This weekend, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present Academy Awards to outstanding members of the movie industry. In keeping with this week's Oscar theme on the A&E page, this column recognizes outstanding achievements by departing from the Gamer's standard news format to honor a few of the many notable gamers around Grounds. Each individual profiled below has contributed to the gaming environment on Grounds or has a unique story to tell. U.Va. is fortunate to have these dedicated gamers.
A Melee a Day...
Ryan Dickey has been the President of The Society of Tournament Players for the past two years. Ryan and several close friends founded the Society last year with the aim of hosting an ambitious Warcraft 3 tournament that eventually fell through due to logistical difficulties. But the Society is looking to make up for last year's shortcomings with this year's Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament, a 64-player, single-elimination, one-on-one, best-of-three contest with cash prizes going down this Saturday, Feb. 28 (www.uvasmash.com).
Ryan is a fourth-year Computer Engineering major hoping to attend law school to study intellectual property and patent law. He plays Smash Bros. almost daily (it was his sole GameCube game for more than a year) and has put in "easily a thousand hours" over the course of his college gaming career. An aggressive, but balanced player, Ryan's favorite characters include Sheik and Dr. Mario.
For his efforts to coalesce the incongruent gamers of U.Va. into a competitive whole, the Gamer commends Ryan Dickey. Good luck with the tournament and thanks for all you've done to advance tournament play on Grounds.
Gaming is an Entity Sui Generis
With his masters thesis on "communities in the virtual world," second-year Sociology graduate student Michael Dimino has become a part of the growing academic recognition of gaming's social and cultural relevance. Michael's thesis research includes the development of online communities through instant messengers, e-mail and games such as Star Wars: Galaxies for the PC. He spent last weekend in New York City presenting his abstract at the Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting.
Michael is recently married to his wife Eileen, and they enjoy gaming together. Puzzle games are always a favorite, but they currently are working through Simpsons: Hit and Run.s
Michael's research is a definite step in the right direction for contemporary sociological study in the field of non-physical worlds.
The Gamer thanks Michael for contributing to the legitimization of videogames as a social and cultural tool and wishes him the best in his future academic career, wherever it may lead.
It Takes Two to Make a Dream Come True
Jason Ford and Bobby Schweizer are the founders and co-presidents of The Gamers (of which the Gamer is a member), the University's only regularly active gaming CIO. Weekly meetings encompass current events, historical and anecdotal presentations on specific game genres, time periods and systems and a healthy dose of game-playing.
Bobby, a hopeful Media Studies major, and Jason, an American Studies major, are second years in the College and make up two parts of the four-man online operation known as virtualfools.com, which regularly puts out offbeat features on gaming and pop culture.
For their immense contribution of time, energy and leadership to the cause of gaming, the Gamer applauds the selfless efforts of Jason and Bobby.
A-School Eye for the E-School Guy
Back in middle school, William Cole entered an Internet competition for SimCity 2000 sponsored by Maxis, which Electronics Arts bought out for $125 million in 1997. The contest challenged entrants to take a flooded, on-fire, generally devastated city and resurrect it within 50 game years. William was up to the challenge and devoted four entire days to revamping the destroyed city. Two weeks after submitting his reconstituted metropolis, William received an e-mail stating that he had won first place.
William received a congratulatory letter from Maxis, the game's publisher and developer, as well as Windows copies of Sim games including SimCopter, SimGolf and SimTunes.
Now a fourth-year Computer Science major, William once played SimCity almost every day for a year and has been devoted ever since.
"The only regret I have about the contest is that, since I was in sixth or seventh grade, I named my city 'CoolCity,'" Cole said. "It was so bad."
If you have contributed to the gaming community at U.Va. or have a great gaming story to tell, let the Gamer hear it at Gamer@cavalierdaily.com.
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