GoCrossCampus back for more virtual battles

By Rachel Carlson     9/18/08 7:00pm

This Monday, the residential colleges will form armies and the campus itself will become a battlefield as GoCrossCampus, a virtual war game analogous to the board game Risk, launches into its second year at Rice. In GXC, student players log on to a Web site and acquire virtual armies, which they build and direct strategically in a campus-wide war lasting several months. Founded by Yale University students and piloted at Rice last year, the game serves as a new channel for college system rivalries. The game's Web site includes a detailed map of the Rice campus, upon which students place armies in accordance with instructions from college commanders. Each day, players read a posted battle plan from their commanders and are granted one turn for deploying armies. Colleges compete for campus territories and alternatively form alliances and mobilize against each other, stoking inter-college competition.

Rice GXC director Eastman Landry said the game gained high popularity last year. Of the 40 universities nationwide that participated in the game, Rice was the second-smallest school but achieved the second-highest percentage of students participating. Around 1,000 students created accounts, and 800-900 players were regular participants, Landry, a Will Rice College senior, said. Wiess College counted the most participants.

Landry said GXC taps into the competitive spirit of the college system and appeals to people who don't normally engage in inter-college contests like intramural sports.

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"Within the college system, there's more to it," Landry said. "It brings out rivalries; last year, Will Rice and Jones were against each other from the very start [.] An online game is one of those things where reputation in the college, or whether someone is an athlete or not, doesn't really matter. If you're enthusiastic about it and want to make a commitment, anyone can become a commander."

However, he said the average participant does not need to dedicate substantial time to the game.

"If you normally go to Facebook and waste two minutes there, why not waste one minute on Facebook and one minute on GXC instead?" Landry said. "This is an open domain, and it should be a lot of fun."

Jones College senior David Triana said the game generated high enthusiasm amongst students last year.

"People loved it - it was a great thing!" Triana said. "It was also a good pump up for Willy Week, like it made Jones want to kill Will Rice even more."

Landry said this year's version of GXC incorporates several modifications. Firstly, the rules of the game have been tweaked so that players must use more "energy" to move their troops to non-adjacent territories. Colleges are also equipped with a "force field" buffer system that gives armies time to rebuild after an onslaught.

Landry said these changes will impact strategy by preventing the early targeting of fledgling armies, which crippled Sid Richardson College last year.

"Last year, from the very start, it was south versus north, so [Will Rice] immediately had Hanszen and Wiess," Landry said. "This time, the entire dynamic could change. Who knows, we might work with Martel; it entirely depends on how commanders want to make the game go. Even if its south versus north again, the game is different enough so we can't eliminate colleges quickly."

Another change is that sportsmanship regulations have been formalized, discouraging the tactic of "account farming." Last year, players who did not regularly log onto the Web site could relinquish their account to more enthusiastic participants. Triana said some students were more subversive, hacking into other colleges' listserves to gain opponents' account information and squander their daily turns.

The new model of GXC will police accounts to prevent such usurping, Landry said. He also hopes commanders will discourage account farming, which he said can create anxiety in the game.

"Last year, [account farming] wasn't defined in sportsmanship rules . one person could control 20 people," he said. "If that player went on vacation, the college would lose tons of armies. Now hopefully we'll have one person controlling one account."

Only Rice students are allowed to participate in the campus-specific version of GXC, though other networks are accessible to players (the site includes open games like "WWII: The European Theatre"). The fall round of the Rice game is expected to end by Winter Break.

Rumors are already circulating regarding battle plans and college tactics, Landry said.

"Early reports show that Sid will rain fire from the high ground and take the game by storm," he said. "May the best college win.

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