Two characters dance on screen, exchanging blows in a duet that culminates when one falls to ground, knocked out.

    This is how some students like to unwind during finals.

    “I’ll play against someone even if I know I’m going to lose instantly,” said Jeffrey Marzec, a 20-year-old psychology major who said this while standing in the Moorpark College Arcade. “It doesn’t bother me.

    The arcades at the three colleges in the Ventura County Community College District all have different machines or locations.

    The main goal of them, however, is to create a sense of community among students as well as give them something to relax with.

    “I think there should be more opportunities for people to hang out, and I noticed for the arcade it’s kind of like a meeting place,” Moorpark Associated Student President Ryan Krebs. “I always see a lot of people playing games and hanging out, talking.”

    Krebs also notices that despite the small space, there are usually more than a few students crowded around a machine.

    Wheras in Oxnard, despite having an air hockey table and a juke box, the game room is usually deserted, according to Oxnard Associated Student President Anna VanderStouwe.

    “Honestly, most of our students don’t know about it,” said VanderStouwe. “I don’t think our games are used that much.”

    She says this has to do with the cramped room the arcade is in as well as it’s location.

    While VanderStouwe says that a game room can help students feel more relaxed on campus, she would like to also have an area with a big screen TV or projector for movies and other activities.

    “As a student myself I’ve never attended the game room, and I can’t see large use for it,” said VanderStouwe.

    Oxnard rents the machines from a vendor who split half the profit the AS, which according Administrative Assistant for the Business Office Maureen Ecki at Ventura College is the same set up for their arcade and AS.

    At Moorpark, however, the money goes back into the college and overhead for the machines themselves, according to Moorpark College Business Manager Darlene Melby.

    “I got to tell you it’s kind of a losing proposition for us, we don’t really make any money at the end of the day,” said Melby.

    Melby estimates that in a good month they will earn $400 off the machines, which after applying to upkeep for them and electricity, usually is an amount that either allows to break even or come away at a loss.

    Despite this, she says nobody has officially proposed taking out the machines.

    “It’s more of a public relation, student relation tool,” said Melby. “We never really saw it as a huge profit maker.”

    Melby also adds that the college has paid for a new change machine for the room, which cost them $828.

    Krebs says that if they could open up suggestions to students what kind of machines they would want to see installed, it could bring in some extra profit.

    “A big money maker would be a claw machine, people would really get into it and you could have a claw machine with like a DS or something like that inside,” said Krebs.

    Melby says that the idea of opening up recommendations to students has never been brought up before, and she sees no reason why it couldn’t be done.

    “I don’t think there is any problem with anybody bringing forward recommendations,” said Melby.    “We’re pretty open to it.”