Tuscaloosa is abuzz with growing interest and competitive play within one of Alabama’s newest gaming communities as the video gaming center, Hive Bang Gaming, opens its doors to the community and a University of Alabama gaming club, ABXY, continues its active presence on campus.

Hive Bang owner John Hamilton, a UA library and information sciences graduate student, said his favorite thing about gaming culture is the passion that gamers have.

“Whatever [gamers are] involved with, they’re all the way,” Hamilton said. “There’s no dipping a toe in and just testing it out. They hit the ground running and go a hundred miles an hour.”

Hamilton said gaming centers like Hive Bang, which offers rows of consoles, TV and PCs, are somewhat rare in the United States. There are over 600 venues in the U.S., many of which are outside metropolitan cities, including a multimillion-dollar facility in Indianapolis, Ind. However, aside from Hive Bang, there are not many outlets of this nature for gaming in West Alabama.

Hive Bang offers gamers a more dynamic environment than simply playing at home. The venue gives customers the opportunity to interact face-to-face as well as offers incentives like tournaments, which appeal to many in the gaming community. Hamilton said the gaming community is highly competitive and enjoys discussing strategy.

AXBY president Kelsey White, a junior majoring in art, said the opportunity to play together and compete unifies the gaming community.

“Tournaments are a great way to encourage people to play against and with one another,” she said. “I think it’s definitely strengthening the culture.”

ABXY also gives gamers an outlet to connect. The club invites gamers of all interest levels, from casual to hardcore, to interact on a weekly basis. The group meets every Wednesday for tabletop gaming and every other Friday for console gaming. White said she has met many of her friends in ABXY and connecting with other gamers has expanded her own interest in gaming.

“To me [ABXY] is like a family,” she said. “You find people who are passionate about the same things you love. You enjoy the same things, you want to play the same things.”

“It’s an experience you can share with other people,” White said. “It’s not like a book where really only one person can read it at a time; multiple people can join you in it.”

Much like White, Jimmy Johnson, a senior majoring in music, met several of his closest friends through gaming. A shared interest in gaming has connected Johnson with people he already knew and helped him build friendships online with people he had never met before.

“The friends that I’ve made are my favorite part of gaming. [Gaming] is almost a bonding exercise to the point where they are still, to this day, four of the best lifelong friends that I have,” Johnson said.

Hive Bang is giving gamers a new way to meet. Hamilton said some customers have been unexpectedly meeting players with whom they had already played online.

“[Gaming] is definitely a good way to meet friends because it’s like meeting friends at the library or anywhere else. You’re there because you both have something in common,” Hamilton said. “I think [meeting people through gaming is] really easy because you’ve already got a big thing in common, you like the same kind of entertainment.”

For Tuscaloosa, PC gaming has become a popular outlet. Online multiplayer games like League of Legends are particularly popular with gamers because they require teamwork and collaboration between players.

Johnson said online elements of games are important to the gaming community because they offer players the chance to be part of a team as well as keep the interaction dynamic.

“Unless you can add something new and diverse to the mechanics of the game it’s going to be the same thing over and over,” Johnson said.

For the gaming community, interaction is key in keeping community alive for an activity that could otherwise be done alone. Hamilton said the passion gamers share not only for gaming, but also for competing is important to Hive Bang.

He said he hopes that having a venue for gaming will help grow the community and, so far, gamers have been excited about getting involved.

“They’re really passionate about this place,” Hamilton said. “I guess their passion about games and the stuff they have in their own lives is spilling over onto us because I have several customers that don’t leave here without asking me [about business].”