For years, playing games like Dungeons & Dragons was an act reserved for the dark dusty room in mom’s basement, “…but now, geek is chic,” states Brad Williams, the community and events director for Level Up Games.
Level Up Games is a local game store with four locations: Athens, Dawsonville, Johns Creek and Duluth. The store is well known for selling trading card games, board games, miniature games and role-playing games. The Athens location recently celebrated a new, expanded location upgrade on May 2. It features an abundance of natural lighting along with more visibility of the store from the road. With this upgrade, Level Up Games is successfully combating individuals’ digital fatigue by stepping into the role of an important “third space” in the Athens community.
“There’s enough connection online, there’s enough comfort inside that people are feeling more of a desire now to get out, especially post-COVID, to see what they can do with other people,” said Colin Mullally, Level Up Games’ store manager.
The store is a place where all kinds of people gather, and both Brad Williams and Mullally have witnessed it first-hand. Mullally explained how fascinated he is by friendships with many age gaps bridged by trading card games such as Pokémon. As a manager, he loves witnessing these friendships form while also helping build them…