UC Berkeley Shoots Down ‘Assassin’ Game
Nearly 300 frustrated would-be “assassins” are roaming the UC Berkeley campus after administrators brought their game of kill-or-be-killed to a premature end.
“Assassin,” a game popular at college dormitories nationwide, was banned at Berkeley last week, shortly after this year’s participants had begun playing.
Inspired by the 1985 movie “Gotcha,” in which college students stalked each other with paint pellet guns, the game was held by three Berkeley dorms this year. Players obtained a “contract” on a fellow dorm resident and were to stalk and “kill” their victims using water pistols. Every assassin was also a target for another player. The game could last weeks, ending when only one person remained.
Dormitory buildings and eating places were havens, but players were vulnerable anywhere else on campus, including classrooms.
Housing and dining director Tom Vani, who called off the game after reading about it in the campus newspaper, said it was an inappropriate use of student activities money.
“We don’t sanction games or activities that show disrespect or uncivil behavior toward people living in our community,” he said. “The components of the game are stalking, entrapment and then the confrontation. Its premise is an agreement for a symbolic death. And I have a problem with the premise and the components.”
“Assassin” enthusiasts lamented Vani’s decision.
“It’s not violence, it’s a way of meeting people,” said freshman Gene Litvonoff, who, with fellow dorm resident Maggie Mendoza, helped assign squirt guns and victims to 110 budding assassins in his dorm. “You get to know the person you’re trying to kill.”
Although the campus has had an unwritten policy forbidding the “Assassin” game for several years, dorm residents played it to completion last year with backing from residence hall staff and the student-led hall associations.
Sophomore Andy Choy, co-president of La Loma Hall Assn. and an “Assassin” participant, said the association provided about $150 this year for squirt guns and prizes. All together, the three dorms spent less than $180 on the game.
Vani’s office has final discretion over how hall association funds are spent, but Vani acknowledged that he would be powerless to prevent students from organizing an independent game.
However, he can prevent posting of sign-up lists on dorm bulletin boards and forbid students from soliciting players door to door. Deprived of these tactics, organizing an independent game “wouldn’t be possible,” said Norton Hall staffer Vandana Gupta.
Campus housing officials have received complaints about “Assassin” in past years. Professors have been disturbed by “kills” taking place in their classrooms, UC police have worried about the use of real-looking guns, and some international students have been upset that fellow students would make light of assassinations.
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“In some of their countries, assassinations are very real,” said Gary Kelly, coordinator for residential programs. “It’s not surprising they would be offended by this.”
Choy said his hall association is considering a variation on the game, where the “kill” would be made with a sticker slapped on the victim’s back.
But Vani said the game would still be unacceptable.
“Some people think I or the staff don’t like it because it involves guns,” he said. “My problem with the game is . . . the values that are portrayed.”
