Gaming on campus - the Rowdy

by Charles Teoh

Like probably most of you who are reading this, my daily life in a boring semester is usually just between my house and the uni, with occasional trips to the internet cafe every now and then to play some games and probably rage at that one dumb team mate, yell all about and let everyone in the cafe know. But did you know there is just that one place on campus where you can actually play your favourite esport games?

Meet the Rowdy - a very ironic short for the Rowden White Library on the 2nd floor of Union House. It is the only place where gaming PCs are available and you can actually use them as you like!

The Rowdy is itself very uncharacteristic of a typical on-campus library like Bailleu, Brownless or ERC. You can immediately tell that this is not exactly a place for studying - the library features movies, comics, manga and ebooks for hire. Sure, this place still has a lot of books like any library should, but there are many resting spaces, places for board games, and signs that tell you that if you're looking for rest and relaxation, you've come to the right place. Especially when this is one of said signs that greet you in there:

However, the best thing about the Rowdy is that there are four gaming PCs ready for hire just for students to play games! In other words, Rowdy is like a mini internet cafe in itself!

Now you might be thinking that being a uni library means that the admins are probably giving a half-assed effort in introducing gaming to the Rowdy. But as someone who's gamed there several times I could say that it's quite the contrary - sure, the mice, keyboards and headphones don't belong in a high-end gaming setup, but the PCs actually run most games at a decent 60FPS, and with a decent internet too, which means lag is minimal.

And speaking of games, there's a wide variety of them: I usually play Dota 2, but there's also League of Legends, Overwatch, Hearthstone, HotS, SC2, Bioshock, Mortal Kombat X and more! There are even VR headsets available for hire, with a bunch of VR games to go with it! Oh, and then there's this:

Gaming PCs in the Rowdy are very easy to locate - when you enter the library, look left to a corner for computers and there's your four gaming PCs! And it's even easier to hire them: go to the counter, tell them that you want to use one of the gaming PCs (remember your student card, and also be sure to tell them you want a GAMING PC, else you might find yourself with a computer with all the boring stuff and no games!) and you're all set!

So next time you find yourself tired after a day of lectures and workshops and tutes and just want to chill in the uni for a bit before heading home, try spending an hour or so gaming in the Rowdy! Just remember: this is after all still a library, so it's a pretty good place if you wanna practise zen in gaming and not rage like a typical toxic player in net cafes.

Check out the Rowdy on UMSU's website and more about what games they provide at https://umsu.unimelb.edu.au/studentlife/library/computers/.