Club Profile: Association of Reed Gamers

The Association of Reed Gamers, or ARG for short, is a large and sprawling club on campus, with a history stretching many decades and, at the same time, just a few years. Currently, the club consists of many different branches, the most prevalent ones being frequent Magic the Gathering nights, and their most-attended events: video game nights, where things like Mario Kart, Smash Bros, and Jackbox are played. These events can be found on the Reed Events Calendar, with the next game night scheduled for November 4. In addition to these, ARG also has wargames nights, Tabletop Role Playing Game (TTRPG) groups, a Minecraft server, and an expansive library of board games for the community to use. 

This is a vast array of activities, but all under the heading of “games” – whether they be video, board, or another medium, it is a place to go for any type of game. In order to organize such a range of people and interests, the club has a Discord server which is its hub of activity, and where students should go if they would like to get involved with it in any way, which at the time of writing has 308 members.

While events happen in various locations around campus, the heart of ARG is its closet, the student space dedicated to the club. It’s a small room, with walls filled from floor to ceiling with games and warhammer miniatures, and in the center a large wooden table. Art from various games covers the remaining wall space, and every corner is filled with the club’s history, which is a very good thing. Current ARG President William Clouse revived the club with a group of students during their first semester freshman year, in Fall of 2021, but its been going in some shape for much longer. In an interview with the Quest, Clouse said that while the current Council doesn’t know how the original club was founded, the “Earliest record we have of the club is a picture from the 1960s, which has the table we have in the current ARG closet, and it was being used to display a wargame called Empire which was developed at Reed.” To learn more about Empire and see this picture, visit its website at empire-game.org. 

The other main clue ARG has of its history lies in its game library, which consistently has titles from every decade since the 1960s, indicating club activity. Before it’s current re-founding, ARG was most recently revived in 2018, a reboot that fell apart during the pandemic. The current leaders of the club are now in their Junior year, so their main goal is bringing in new students to take over the club, so that it won’t fall apart again anytime soon. 

With so many branches, ARG takes on a large role, and requires a team to keep running, as well as having events and items of interest to a variety of students on campus. The club offers many events and resources, but its president, junior William Clouse, highlights the board game library as his favorite, saying “I love board games, that’s why I got into this, and the board game library is our most impressive asset.” To check out a game from the library, students should email the club at arg@reed.edu, or reach out to a current signator directly. Clouse also stressed the importance of community within ARG, mentioning the work that has been done by others in the council to create different events, and the culture that they have been able to foster in the club. While the Association of Reed Gamers may not have access to its complete history, it is certainly making moves to enjoy its present and preserve its future.