by Abigail Ramirez
Daily Lobo
The SUB's game room is going in a new direction - toward an older model of entertainment, said Walt Miller, associate vice president for student development.
The room will focus on pool instead of video games, he said.
TechSmith managed the room from August 2005 to July 2006. The company removed arcade games and an air hockey table and replaced them with Xboxes and computers.
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"We thought it was a new direction, but from the activity there during the year, it was very limited," Miller said.
It might be hard to get the old games back, he said.
"That component of games area has been declining for many years, so there is not as many companies willing to come back in and make that investment on equipment, because participation just isn't there," he said.
Student Joshua Vallejos, a supervisor in the game room, said he liked the video games.
"That's the one thing I didn't like about it (the change)," he said. "I wish they left those."
Because students can use technology in many different places, it does not need to be in one central area, Miller said.
Pool costs $2 an hour per table, rather than TechSmith's $3 an hour per person.
Student Jugnu Ahluwalia, who has been playing pool in the room for about a year, said he is happy with the new prices.
"It's 66 percent of what it used to be," he said. "It's much cheaper to play pool now."
He doesn't mind that the electronics are gone, he said.
"I come here for pool," he said. "But people who came for computers and games won't be in here."
The room is still meant to give students a place to relax, Miller said.
"It gives students a break from the academic activities," he said. "It's just a little change of pace, kind of to unwind a little bit, because people need to have some diverse time and use whatever free time they have, which is always limited."
The game room will get a new name sometime this semester to give students a clearer idea what it is for, he said.
-Sunnie Redhouse contributed to this report.
