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Everyone’s welcome at Game Jam

  • Gamers young and old, experienced and inexperienced participated at Game Jam at the library Saturday. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Gamers young and old, experienced and inexperienced participated at Game Jam at the library Saturday. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Gamers young and old, experienced and inexperienced participated at Game Jam at the library Saturday. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Gamers young and old, experienced and inexperienced participated at Game Jam at the library Saturday. (Press photo James Grob.)

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By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

From casual game players to intense competitors, intrigued rookies to old pros, from video geeks to board game enthusiasts — everyone’s welcome.

The only catch is a willingness to enjoy yourself.

“Honestly, people just come here to have fun,” said Caleb Williams. “They’ll drive several hours to participate in something fun that they believe in.”

Williams is one of the founders of “C2G2” — which stands for “Charles City Geeks and Gamers.” The group holds “Game Jam” gaming events every eight weeks or so, most recently on Saturday at the Zastrow River Room in the Charles City Public Library.

“This is a free-to-play area for people just to come down and have fun,” Williams said. “It’s family friendly, people of all ages come down. It’s people who like video games, people who like board games, whatever they like.”

Williams said they’ve had as many as 50 or 60 people participate in Game Jams, and in the past gamers have come from as far away as Ankeny, Des Moines, Iowa City and Minneapolis.

Andrew Chatfield, another C2G2 founder, said, “We are all about getting people to socialize and get to know other people that are near them. There is a feeling that people don’t really know their neighbors any more. We really wanted to get people to get out and socialize face to face.”

Tabletop games, screens and consoles are set up throughout the room, and individuals gather at the games they prefer. Some gamers just stop by for an hour or two. Others are in it for the long haul. Saturday the gaming began at about 10 a.m. and lasted through the afternoon and well into the night. Snacks and pizza are always made available at the events.

“We usually go pretty late,” Chatfield said. “We usually start to wrap up about 11 p.m. to midnight, and we’re out of here not too much later after that.”

Williams said there have been Game Jam summits where people have stuck around until 4 a.m. Williams also organizes paid Smash Brothers Tournaments at the events. There is an entry fee for those, and prizes will be awarded to winners. Super Smash Brothers is a crossover fighting game from Nintendo.

“We’ve got a lot of different types of groups of people,” Chatfield said. “In the afternoon, we start getting more board game people coming in. Later in the evening we get people who are more into the table-top role playing games.”

Chatfield said C2G2 is always looking for new faces to join the group and participate, regardless of age or experience.

“We’re always open, anybody can come down,” he said. “They’re welcome to play whatever they want. Our collections are open for people to take a look at stuff they’ve probably never seen before and try it out.”

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