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{\Huge \bf A Brief History \\}
\vspace{.075in}
{\Large \bf Of the UCR Gamers' Guild \\}
\vspace{.075in}
{\large By Jim Vassilakos \\}
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\end{center}

Steve asked me to write a brief history of the Guild some months
ago, and I've never realy known what to say; but with the journal
deadline approaching, it seems like it's either now of never. Here's
my somewhat abriged version of what happened. \\

But before I really begin, it should be understood that this Guild is
not the only one that ever existed. There were others. By my reckoning
there were many; each rising, growing, waning, and dieing in a long
string of sucessions like so many Emperors of the Flag, rarely knowing
one another except for a day. When I founded the Guild, I wondered
just what force had torn them apart. \\

During my freshman year in `86, I attended the final meeting of one of
those dying Guilds. There were only a dozen of us whether due to poor
promotion or lousy timing. The president was a tired senior looking
forward to graduation. He basically turned the club over to a chaotic
bunch of Gamers. {\bf Rule \#1:} {\em Gamers will fail to organize themselves into
anything larger than a role-playing game
unless into forced to do so at gun point.} He didn't use his gun, so we ended up
breaking into two AD\&D groups. I took one and Matt Eshelman (still a good friend of
mine) took another. {\bf Rule \#2:} {\em Gamers refuse to think beyond the
next game or alternately, the next slice of pizza.} The two groups lasted awhile,
and then did as all campaigns do. They died. \\

That's disintegration. You don't really notice it until you stop having fun.
During the rest of that year I ran a short campaign, and during the next two
years I ran an extension thereof. Only at the beginning of my fourth year did I
begin to recall the old-guild. Too bad it died, I figured. Then I met Wayne. \\

If anyone can be said to the prime mover of the current Gamers' Guild, I'd have
to award the position to Wayne Wallace. He was a freshman majoring in C.S., sort
of your stereotypical gamester with lots of orcs and hobgoblins on his
mind. He began to talk about how neat it would be to have a Guild. ``We just
need ten people... that's all.'' He sorta made me believe we could really pull
it off. \\

Now, neither of us had ever managed anything more complex than brushing
our teeth in the morning, but for some reason, we got the ten names, handed
them into Campus Activities, and $\ast$ poof $\ast$, we had our guild. January
dragged until the 27th. I still remember the date because it was promoted so
heavily. Two sets of flyers, two highlander ads, and loads of word-of-mouth. I
oringally expected maybe twenty people. We got more than twice that. \\

Well, if we we're actually gonna have a guild, we both figured we might as
well do a little gaming on the side :-) (that's a smiley face for the majority
of you). So we decided to set up a mini-convention. Getting the name was the
fun part. \\

Highlander Ad \#3  ---  Gamers' Guild

\begin{center}
\parbox{4in}{``Alert! Swordswingers, Plasma throwers and other
assorted gamers: The Gamers' Guild is hosting
its FIRST gaming CONVENTION on Fri.,March
2nd {Friends of UCR Convention}! A wide
open forum will convene at high noon in the Interna tional Lounge and the 
chaos shall commense at 1:30pm and go to the wee 
hours of the night. Be there or fall into a bottomless
pit of sherbert cool whip.''}
\end{center}

Actually, the name FUCRCON stood for Fornication Under Contempt of the Regents
Conference, but we we're actively publicizing the fact. Both the name
and the ad came coutesy of Aaron Miaullis. The great part was that he
was so embarrased when I actually used his suggestion (which  was meant
more as a joke at the time) that the first
thing he did after the officer elections at the beginning of Spring was
propose that we change the name to UCRCON. That was actually my original
idea, but FUCRCON spoiled me for all others. Except for NECRONOMICON, of
course. That one had a twinkle hope... but I'm digressing. Whatever you call
it, the Conference was a blast. \\

\begin{verbatim}
           _   /|
           \`o_O'
             ( )
              U                   Friends of
          Aachk!                    U C R
            FUCRCON!              Conference
                 Phft!

\end{verbatim}

Friday, March 2nd... \\

\begin{center}
General Meeting @ Noon in the International Lounge\\
\vspace{.1in}
Wayne Wallace's AD\&Dv2 Scenario: ``Monsters' Revenge"\\
     @ 1:30pm-6pm in the Commons Small Conference Room\\
\vspace{.1in}
Shawn Dudley's 2300AD Scenario: ``Cybertech"\\
     @ 3:00-11pm the Commands Small Conference Room\\
\vspace{.1in}
Aaron Conway's Cthulhu Scenario: ``Hearts"\\
     @ 3:30pm-11pm in the International Lounge\\
\vspace{.1in}
Brad Hall's AD\&D Scenario: ``Dwarven Mines" \\
     @ 6pm-11pm in the Commons Small Conference Room\\
\vspace{.1in}
Colin Kameoka's Champs Scenario: ``A New Political Party"\\
     @ 4pm-11pm in the International Lounge\\
\end{center}

Only these five games ran, though it was a start. The positive note
was that we increased our guild roster to some sixty gamers. In other
words, we were still growing and the demand seemed far
from bottoming out. \\

The next major event was new elections for a new quarter. I was trying
desperately to write a UNIX manual to get gamesters on UCRMATH. The
system proved to be an ideal means of communication, and with the
rec.games.frp newsgroup always available, the immediate benefits proved
impressive. By the time elections rolled around, we had several new gamers
on the system with the promise of more to come. \\

The elections were held at the 4th general meeting on May 6th. The
turnout was very good, but the competition was rather disappointing.
The only offices where any competition was present was for the positions
of Bard and Miser (the two with potentially the most work involved). As
an interesting and much warrented outcome, we acquired two bards instead
of one. These were the results: \\

\begin{center}
{\large Guild Officers --- Spring 1990} \\
\vspace{.075in}
\begin{tabular}{|l|rl|}
\hline
FlakeSpanker & Colleen Lee& {\em omalley}\\
GamesMaster & Colin Kameoka& {\em fandora}\\
Miser& Aaron Miaullis &{\em cyborg}\\
Cryer& Brian Chrisman &{\em chrisman}\\
Bards& Mark Dulyanai &{\em dulyanai} \\
    & Steve Mays &{\em ranger}\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}

I recall being particularly pleased that Colleen got the position of
FlakeSpanker (effective president). She had been one of the few {\em doers}
of the original admin'ing group which wrote the Constitution. She impressed
me most one weekday evening, starting at about 4-5 pm. I had appointed her
and Kelly Nabours to present our appropriations request to ASUCR in hopes
of gaining their recommendation for when the request would come before
LegCon. The total amount came to over \$300, and none of us were very
hopeful about getting the money for Spring. \\

I was just parking my rear-end in a comfortable corner of my bed when the
phone rang. ``Jim, get over here now!'' We ended up taking the better part
of the night writing our budget and fitting it item-by-item into the
appropirations request. A week later, Colleen got a message on her
answering machine from Jean Kim. We'd been recommended for the money. \\

To put it in as few words as possible, Colleen made that request go
through when the FlakeSpanker (me at the time) was seriously flaking. \\

Over the Spring quarter we held a second gaming conference, went to the
Renaissance Faire in Devore, purchased membership cards, sold t-shirts,
and produced this journal. Judging on the basis of her record, she was
a very good motivator. \\

Of all the activities, however, producing the journal was the most
difficult and ugliest to relate. In short, it was a mistake to leave the
duties of selection and editing in the hands of so few. It was my hope
to train both Mark and Steve in \LaTeX so that the journal could be
produced on the system, and to this end I wrote a Learner which later
gained some notoriety in the department. However, Steve \& Mark became
far too busy early in the quarter to spend serious time learning the
package, and in the end it was primarily myself and Ray Wong who carried
the bulk of the chore.\\

I'd like to spare the reader the petty details of this chore, in which
I am, of course, emersed as I write. However, the sort of collective mood
which this enterprise has generated is unique in my gaming-related experience.
To give the reader an example, I am currently pulling my second consecutive
all-nighter of \LaTeX ing and just this morning I recieved the following
email message from one of the more involved officers:

\begin{center}
\parbox{6in}{
Jim, \\

I am serious.  We need that mag out by tomorrow (Friday) morning
so I can get the \$ to get it printed out.  You need help, then ask for
it.  The collective ass of the club is on the line and mine is near the
first in line.  What happened to our bards?  I am free from about 8pm 
tonight to about 6am on friday.  Call me (E-mail may not get to me).}
\end{center}

The fact of the matter is that between Steve's file archiving
and Mark's artisic talents, the set of integrated skills and positions did
not meet the task at hand. The bards did the best we could expect of them, but
their task was simply too great for them alone. Luckily, however, others were
willing to pitch in and do the job. Ray's generous donation of time and
effort was particularly instumental in making the journal possible.\\

As for the future (because no history is complete without a peek therein), there
has been somewhat of a controversy surrounding the constitution and the
very foundation on which the guild is set. Some individuals have stated that
the charter rules stifle members who want to get involved. The argument has
been proposed that gamesters accomplish the most in an environment free of
politics and that the formalized structure of offices ought to
be revoked. Looking externally, we have also entertained propositions for
hosting a larger conference and of inviting the SCA onto campus to run an
educational/promotional tournament for the battle-hardy. Finally, the advantages
of attracting more guild members onto UCRMATH remains a long-term goal which
will likely be pursued over the course of several administrations.\\

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