Sonoma State students filled The Hub Wednesday night as they gathered to play Overwatch and talk about leadership skills. Students at the event talked about leadership skills they can obtain through video games and also had the chance to show their skills off.

This was The Hub’s first video game event that they put on to reach gamers at Sonoma State. Overwatch was released in 2016 and is a team-based multiplayer shooter game that requires the players to have good communication as well as be able to work as a team to succeed. It is a very popular game amongst college students. According to an article from Fortune, about 40 million people play around the world, so Overwatch is well known. 

The event began with Rob Smith and  Kristen Reynolds program cordinator at The Hub talking about the skills and traits that gamers obtain when playing video games that they might not even know they have. Since video games require a lot of skill and concentration, it can help players gain certain skills you can use in everyday life like having good communication skills or knowing how to be a good leader. 

During the event, Smith and Reynolds also discussed stereotypes of gamers that people have and how those are not always true. It was a good and welcoming environment for people that enjoy gaming to be in as well as a great opportunity for them to meet other people with the same interests. 

Smith and Reynolds wanted to create an environment for like-minded people to hang out and show their skills playing Overwatch, but also learn about skills and traits that are useful. “I thought it was a good turnout, we had people come since it started and they all stayed until the end,” Reynolds said. 

The goal of this event was to highlight skills and traits that you can pull from being a gamer such as communication, understanding team roles and critical thinking and show how people can use them in the real world. 

When asked why they chose Overwatch, Smith replied, “You can’t win these types of games by yourself, you have to have a group around you that understands their role and you really have to work together so I believe this game highlights leadership skills I talked about.”

Daniel Downey, a freshman, who was amongst many students present at the event, enjoyed the event and was excited for future events like these. Downey was informed about the event through advertisements and posters on campus and felt like it was something that interested him, so he decided to come out. “It was pretty entertaining, I enjoyed my time here and would recommend others to come out because it was really fun,” Downey said. 

The Hub will have another video game night Oct. 31 where the theme will be horror games.

While this was the first event like this that the HUB has put on, they plan to have more events throughout the year. For information about events like these on campus, look up The Hub and Seawolf Living to stay up to date on the latest events.