Help us Bring Together the Local Gaming Community
Hello, my name is Timothy Masters, and my IGN is Yazkin. I've been looking around the town recently and noticed that there isn't a real community Hub for gamers to hang out, talk, and play video games together. A few people, including myself, are wanting to open a small business in a growing community down here in Simpsonville, South Carolina that caters to bringing together the gamer group into a physical and social one.
My Story: Ever since I was a kid, I was very big into video games. They were the only thing I could do growing up, the only thing that kept me entertained. My social life was fickle, and the only social experiences I had were in school. But because I moved so often, I could never create relationships with other people. Throughout my life, I've been through six different schools, lasting around a year or two in each. Finding friends was hard because everyone knew each other growing up, I was always the new kid that would vanish into the background. I didn't know how to talk to other people and make friends because of how often I moved, and how few people my age were around outside of class. It was video games that allowed me to find a common ground with the few friends who would be willing to hang out with me.
It was until my sophomore year in high school I was capable of making friends without moving away, my family had finally settled into a permanent house. My friends were gamers, and we bonded by getting together and talking about and playing video games that would come out. I'm currently happy with the friends I made and the family I have, but will always carry the burden of social awkwardness because of the lack of places to go and meet other people my age. I want to change that.
For the last 4 years, the small town of Simpsonville has grown exponentially. New stores and neighborhoods are popping up left and right, and the community is growing at a very fast rate. Looking around, though, there still isn't a place for teenagers and young adults to get together and hang out, unless you consider Starbucks one of those places.
A few others and myself want to open a shop to make it into a gamer hub. A social group that can help those that were in my situation, a place where gamers can meet other gamers and create physical friendships.
The store will sell merchandise like figurines, t-shirts, card games like Yu-Gi-Oh and MTG, and other game-related things like teemo hats and cosplay gear to keep the store going each year. But we want to focus on hosting tournaments for games like LoL, SC2, Evolve, and other popular games. The places we found have enough space to also allow a lounge where we can set up a PS4, XbOne, and two PCs with tables for people to come in and play games with one another and help improve the gaming community as a whole in this city.
What I'm asking from you:
Right now, funds are tight. We don't want to get a loan from the bank unless we have to for our first two years. I have set up a GoFundMe page to try and find people willing to donate to this cause, but while posting this, nobody has donated.
If you could share this link with as many people as possible and help us reach our half-year goal of $15,000 or more, I will be very happy and I couldn't thank any of you enough for what you are doing. I hope you all will help us bring together this community and create a safe place for gamers of all ages to come in, hang out and relax.
**LINK: ** gofund.me/q6aahngg