Oracle Online

The game has only one off-limits boundary: Sorin dining hall. Anywhere else, participants can attack
targets with Koosh balls at any time. When asked whether he thought that participants might attack targets at inappropriate times, such as in class or at work, Isaac said, “We just ask that people not be stupid.”
Isaac and a few other Guild members came up with the idea at one of the organization’s meetings.

The game was played last year in Manor Hall, but Isaac and his friends found that participation quickly dropped off as people left for the weekend or just lost interest.

So the Guild decided to create their own version of the game, one they could administrate and monitor,
with hopes that participation would remain high.

Members set up a table outside of Sorin dining hall on several occasions recently where students could sign up for the game, and they got a good response.

The idea was that if participation was voluntary, then only those who really wanted to play the game would sign up, making it more fun for both the hunters and the hunted.

Another version of the game is also on campus, as part of Students Orienting Students (SOS) training each spring. For the past two years, those participating in the training have played “Gotcha.”

Much of the game’s vocabulary has been changed to ensure that any reference to violence is removed. For instance, what many students know as water guns are called “water-squirties” in Gotcha.

“I was hesitant [about playing the game] at first, so that’s why we sort of changed some of the vocabulary that went along with it,” said Director of Student Activities Kelly Krebs, who helped organize Gotcha.

The game was played between two training sessions as a way to help people match names with faces.
Each participant had a Polaroid picture of the person they were supposed to “tag,” and when they were “tagged” themselves, they were forced to give up their Polaroid pictures and pass their target on to the person who tagged them.

Since time was short, the game was won by the SOS trainee who collected the most Polaroids, unlike the Guild’s version, where only one player can finish the game successfully. Regardless of the differences, both games seek to provide a fun, if not slightly nerve-wracking, release from schoolwork and the grind of everyday classwork.

As of last Thursday, Assassins was still active, and it will continue until one person has eliminated every other target. The winner will receive $20 from the Guild as a reward for their efforts.