Video games, school, and stress

By Marco Shum

Langara College brought in a trailer full of video games to help students fight stress this week. 

The Battle Box is a seven-metre-long gaming trailer, which contains gaming computers and consoles for people to game on the go. The trailer was parked at the front of campus for five hours on Tuesday afternoon as part of De-stress Fest. 

Student engagement officer Anthony Virdo said bringing the trailer in for De-stress Fest was a collaboration between the Langara Esports Association and The Gaming Stadium. Based in Richmond, The Gaming Stadium is an esports-oriented event production company, which focuses on preparing both casual and competitive esports. 

“It’s a one-time activation. So, something fun, something new, something that we don’t normally have on campus,” Virdo said. “Hopefully, [the event will] make students just appreciate a little bit and feel less stress just to start.” 

Langara computer science student Piero Soares Friedrich Gasaire said he is under a lot of stress recently, as he had to balance work, projects and exams.  

Virdo said the college is working to bring mental health wellness initiatives to campus. The long-term goal is to help students find healthier behaviors for handling stress. The goal is to capture different kinds of activities, long-term and short.  

“We’re designing some resources and activities that are a little bit more in depth,” Virdo said. 

The Gaming Stadium’s assistant producer, Tao Jorgensen said, “Our main goal is to allow people not only to have easy access to esports, but also to bring it to community and people who are familiar with the sports in general.” 

Krishna Sharma, a first-year business student, was first to try out the Battle Box. Sharma said he and his friend enjoyed a lot of games in the trailer.  

“When we arrived, we saw that, we didn’t go to class,” Sharma said. 

Sharma said he would like to see the college support more gaming events to help students manage stress from working and studying.