When one imagines extracurricular activities, video games aren’t usually the first thing that comes to mind. However, video games are exactly the focus of Staples’ new cooperative video games club. Founded in 2021 by Joshua Gordon ’23 and Hannah Fiarman ’23, the club provides a casual, relaxing space where students can unwind after a stressful week of school. 

“While there were a lot of clubs in Staples, I found that there weren’t a lot of social, chill, sort of hangout clubs,” Fiarman said. “And so from the beginning I always had the idea of making a club. It’s supposed to create a fun space that people can come to after school, just to hang out, make some friends and play some video games.”

In addition to allowing students to relax after school, Gordon and Fiarman also hoped to be able to bring together students across all grades. 

“The idea was that we could bring more people across the grade levels together,” Gordon said. “Because I’ve noticed a lot of the times, for example, most of my friends are fellow juniors, and I wanted to bring upperclassmen and underclassmen together.”

Gordon chose video games as the focus of the club because he hoped that cooperative games would help to bring students together and appeal to a larger demographic.  

“We figured that would appeal to a broad, general people. We chose to do more fun, cooperative ones rather than the intense ones that further divides,” Gordon said.

Though their numbers may be small, members of the club are passionate about being able to spend time with others. Suhani Aggarwal ’25 puts it best. 

“I like talking with friends and playing video games,” Aggarwal says. 

Others, like Jack Srihari ’25, want the school community to be able to experience the club too. 

“[The cooperative video games club is] probably the best club I’ve been in; it’s really fun. […] I think more people should join it,” Srihari said.

Though she is happy with where the club is at the moment, Fiarman also hopes to expand her club for the future. 

“We’re hoping next year with the incoming freshmen we’ll be able to get a lot more because right now our current club members are all freshmen,” Fiarman said. “We’re hoping to organize some tournaments at some point, either schoolwide or in collaboration with Toquet hall, especially to help raise money for any charities. […] There’s definitely plans to try to expand.”