Bringing Your Console to College...

[Hylian Pants]

So, I'm off to higher learning come late August, but there's the ever-present nagging thought of how to manage the video game situation. I'll be living in a dorm, of course, one roommate, and I may or may not be getting dorm insurance. I'm torn between bringing my N64 (two controllers, 8 games) and my Wii (two 'motes, one nunchuk, two GC controllers and about 12 games so far, including the GC ones.) I had been leaning toward my trusty N64 until I considered the fact that I will soon be acquiring a large amount of Wii games due to recent birthday money and all of the recent releases... I don't want to buy them, and then have them gather dust until I visit home :hmm:

Is anyone in, or have been in this same predicament? How comfortable or safe would you guys feel about transplanting a newer system like Wii or one of personal and vintage value, at least in my case, N64? What do you think is the smartest option?

 

[Jesper]

I would go for the Wii and just buy some N64 games on the VC. Of course having a Nintendo 64 is awesome, especially at college, but I would go for the Wii... Like, you dont need a N64 to play OoT, MM and so on.

 

[PureLocke]

I just brought my N64 so I could focus and until I got to know my roomates.

 

[Xinnamin]

I would bring the Wii for sure. My plan was to leave it at home at first, get to know my roommate and work out a system for videogaming with her, figure out some safety precautions after getting to know the dorm security a bit better, and then pick up the Wii from home during Thanksgiving/Winter/Spring Break or something like that.

 

[Austin]

I've been thinking the exact same thing recently. If I'm not able to get a single dorm (which is the most probable scenario, unfortunately), I think I'd do something along the lines of what Xinnamin said. If you must, bring a portable system until the first break when you feel like you know both the college and your roommate well enough to risk leaving the more expensive consoles in your dorm. Also, I don't know if your college does this, or if you've already filled it out, but I've had several colleges tell me that there's a dorm questionairre of sorts; where you explain things like how social you are, or how loud you like music to be playing while you're studying, etc. I'd make a mention of your hobbies on this as well, as that'd increase your chances of getting a roommate who games as well.

 

[Hylian Pants]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I'll do what Xinnamin suggested and bring the N64 first and then determine if I want to bring the Wii. I just realized another factor to consider is that I'm going to college in New York City, and my dorm is the least expensive, crappiest, and oldest apartment building on campus The primitive locks could become an issue and I feel like people may not have as much respect for others' belongings there as they might in nicer living conditions. But then again, who knows?

Yea, PJDEP I'm pretty sure they have roommate surveys. I won't be filling one out until housing assignments in early May and I'm not sure how detailed they are. Hopefully they actually take hobbies into good consideration, cause I'm going to art school, and not many serious artsy chicks that I know of besides myself are into gaming lol

 

[Zeruda]

I'd say bring something you don't care about losing. Living in a dorm can be (and usually is) hell. You and your roommate(s) and friends might get along, but guaranteed somebody you don't know will be in there at some point, and there will be a risk of your things being stolen or broken. Dorm security can only do so much, and often, the school just doesn't care if your things wind up missing or broken.

My honey had a lot of really expensive and collectible items when he was living in dorms, and his roommate's friends would screw around with them and break them. People would party and get drunk and break or steal things.

Really, I think it's a very bad idea to bring something worth a lot of monetary or personal value to a place like a dorm. You may as well leave it in a high school hallway. The only way I would recommend bringing something like a gaming system to school is if your dorm room has a security feature like metal closet doors than can be locked or built in lockable cabinets. Otherwise, don't be surprised if your stuff ends up broken or missing.

 

[Austin]

You shouldn't worry too much about it being stolen. Especially if you live in a floor/building that has female housing. They're generally a lot more protective and stricter with security. I would think twice about bringing the N64 over the Wii. The Wii is fairly smaller and when you're in a small room with lots of appliances and cords, you'll want all the free space you can get. As much I hate to admit, but power bars/strips (an electrical plugin with multiple plugin slots) will be your best friend. You'll be surprised how few outlets a dorm room will have and how many electrical appliances you'll have. Rarely, did I ever know someone with less the 2 power bars in their dorm room.

Depending on what you plan to major and how many credits, you may have little to no video game time during the week days. I am going for two degrees, so I'm lucky to have any free time during the week. Weekends are a vacation for me! I'm sorry of bummed summer vacation is coming because I have no job lined up, and I don't how to re-adjust to not doing homework./studying. Just remember power bars, small appliances, and to always lock your door, and living in a college dorm will be mostly a breeze.

 

[Hylian Pants]

Oh tell me about it, I'm an incoming Graphic Design major doing a foundation year, so I'm aware of the full-nighters ahead of me D: However, I'm sure there'll be some cool dudes from the animation or cartooning departments ready for a round of Smash Bros when we have free time lol You do make a good point about space and cords though... I haven't seen my room with furniture, so I'm not sure how I'll feng shui the gaming nook yet.

One thing I'm super excited for about my school is that the electives I can choose from next year are INSANE. I'll be first in line for the class, "Video Game Culture"

 

[Smitie]

I brought my gamecube and cd-i to my little student room. I left my wii at my parents house because I don't have the room to swing my wii mote around like crazy (and most of my games are gamecube games anyway)

I also have the problem with an entire collection of powerbars, cables, adapters and plug thingies....for example my desk has cables and plugs for a coffee machine, printer (with adapter), tv, gamecube (with adapter), cd-i (with huge adapter), lamp, radio, laptop with adapter, fan and another lamp in one 6 plug-in powerbar (which has its plug into another powerbar)...which means I have more electronics on just my desk than in the entire house . Anyways, just bring the gaming system you use the most to your dorm, since you probably are there more than your parents house. And don't worry about security too much. Just lock your door when you are not there and when you go to sleep and enjoy your college time

I'm not sure what the american version of a dorm is though. Do you have to share one room with other people or does each person have a seperate room and share the kitchen/living room and bathroom?

 

[Austin]

@Smitie
For my college, most cases no! You share one single bedroom with two beds. Then you share a bathroom with several other people. Each corner of a square building has 3 bedrooms, and a shower. No kitchen, but if you live in dorms, you're required to have a meal plan because you wouldn't have many options to eat. They're higher, more expensive, dorms that do have kitchens. They're practically the same as an apartment, and don't require meal plans. I'm not sure about HP's college

@HylianPants
Video Game Culture!? I'm incredible curious what a course like that would offer. I personally wouldn't take it! I'm sticking to pure Mathematics and Computer Sciences courses till now and Graduate school. I haven't decided what I wanna do for Graduate School yet, but I have three options. One of them is video game programming, which I already do as a hobby.

I have to tip my hat to you because I'm epic fail when it comes to graphics and art! I wasn't blessed with any art skill at all! In my couple of years of school, I've had one full nighter and that's because it was a group project. My other members were procrastinators and I had to stay up late helping. I literally can't afford to procrastinate or at least my Science and Mathematics courses, but the other general-eds I usually do because they're really easy, but annoying/boring to take.

I bet it'll be fun being a graphics major or any liberal art major. I've been trained my by professors to love and live in the Science & Mathematics Department of my school. It's practically forbidden to wonder out of the safety of the S&M Department, lol! If you're on a meal plan and get most of your school paid for, you're lucky and college will be fun. If you're not, when your parents take you grocery shopping and they pay, its like Christmas for you! If you have any other questions about college, computer science/general, math, etc, you can ask me. If its about biology and/or anatomy, I'm not the guy you want to ask at all! I haven't had a class dealing with that in over 5 years now.

 

[Hylian Pants]

Ha, yeah okay, the dorms at my school that have a kitchen are suites and are like, $3000 more than the one I'm living in. My building only has single and double rooms, I'll be in a double. Our kitchen is communal on the top floor, but we have our own private bathrooms and can have fridges I think.

Cooldogs, it looks like we're polar opposites, my friend! I abhor math, and my next favorite subject after art is biology! XD Not to mention I procrastinate quite a bit lol. But that's okay, I have so much respect for math-oriented people, I could never deal with it!

 

[hsb39]

If it were me I wouldn't take anything initially, although I'm always a bit overly careful. It would help to know how safe it is first, and you can also try to slip it into a conversation to see what the others think. For example, you could get someone like my sister who believes that video games are evil, you would not be allowed to have the console anyway (without large amounts of fuss being made about it). It would be more likely broken than stolen. You could also get the guy who thinks that anything retro is "gay" and automatically terrible "because it's old and the graphics aren't realistic enough". With that kind of person I would keep the N64, or maybe even the Wii away from. And as a final situation there is the extreme-retro gamer that hates anything after Super Mario 64 (you're lucky if it goes that far), so the Wii is a no-no there.

Well I just went on a complete tangent, sorry about that.

 

[Y2K3]

While I've never lived on Campus, so I've never had any problems, but I've known people that have brought their N64s with them to school. From what I can tell, the N64 was pretty popular too. Honestly, don't care about what others think, and just bring whatever you want. Although I don't always follow this thinking, it's something I should do.
A couple of months ago, I met a girl who had her wall in res covered with things including Majora's Mask.

 

[DisappearingMist]

One thing could be to see if it is possible to contact your roommate in advance. Some colleges provide phone numbers and email addresses to roommates. If you could talk to that person, and feel them out as far as video games go, it might be helpful. If they seem to love gaming, and seem like they would respect your stuff, it might be fun to bring the N64. Who knows, she might bring her Wii!

Is the college anywhere near your home? If it's close, you could leave your systems at home at first and pick them up when you go on a break, or even on a weekend. If it's a ways away, that might not be the best answer.