Mick Galuski, owner of Toy Soldier in Amesbury, which sells games and comics, said there has been an increase in the popularity of board games among the college-aged set for a few years.
“Geek culture has come to the foreground,’’ he said.
Mike Cross, a Northern Essex chemistry professor who started the club, sees it a little differently. “Board games allow for relaxation, while promoting healthy competition, mental stimulation, and social interaction,’’ he said.
“Especially now, with everybody plugged into their iPod and Facebook all the time, it’s a nice change of pace to stop and talk to people face to face. You pick up important techniques that are useful in your life, like quick recall, and spatial reasoning.’’
Cross has for years been using board games for educational purposes.
“I teach chemistry, which is not always the most exciting topic,’’ he said. “I have always loved games, so I started bringing some in to explain complex concepts.’’
Take the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which states that it is impossible to determine with perfect accuracy both the position and momentum of a particle at any given point in time.
That’s where Loopin’ Louie comes in. The game involves a flying plane that players try to keep from knocking chickens off a wall by hitting a paddle to change the position of the plane.
“The plane is an electron going around an atom,’’ Cross said. “As soon as you measure where it’s at, you change its position. It’s complex, but the students can then visualize it.’’
After playing games in the classroom, some students approached Cross about starting the club. There are about 20 members, and there is no fee to join or come by the B Building, Room B306, and play.
Players don’t have to be Northern Essex students to join the games. Cross said a computer analyst who found the club online came to a meeting, as did a former soldier who missed playing games when he came home from overseas.
Cross said the group is “diverse. . . . people who ordinarily wouldn’t meet or get together.
