Gaming spots throughout Chapel Hill enrich UNC student experience

At the start of every semester, the first bulletin board residential advisor Preston Grady displays in their first year dorm reads “Things To Do in Chapel Hill,” which is filled with their favorite picks for safe and fun spaces for new students. The Gathering Place on Rosemary Street, they said, is always one of the first places on the list. 

The Gathering Place is an all-ages bar that specializes in trading card and board games, owner Josh Goodsell said, with about 250 board games and 30 taps, including alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. 

“Which means a group of students can come in, half of them can be 20, half of them can be 21, there's no pressure to drink, there's no embarrassment around being underage or anything like that,” he said. “They can all get something on tap, and it's just kind of a welcoming atmosphere.”

The space opened its doors in 2022, and Goodsell said it is an internationally-known full service Magic: The Gathering vendor, selling individual trading cards and accessories for the tabletop card game.

Though the store hosts events like weekly trivia and a monthly comedy showcase, he said most of its recurring events center around board games and card games like Magic: The Gathering, Flesh and Blood, and Dungeons & Dragons, the store’s most popular game community. 

He said the events are geared towards seasoned players and newcomers alike. For example, some themed nights include teaching your favorite board game and weekly D&D Learn to Play events. 

“You just show up at six o'clock on Wednesday night, and you're welcomed with open arms into the experience,” he said. “​​You really don't need anything besides a good attitude and a little imagination.”

Grady said the store’s emphasis on introducing and teaching people how to play different games — rather than catering exclusively to those who are already playing it — is what sets it apart from other gaming spaces. They explained that typically “nerdy” hobbies can be hard to access and learn about if you do not already know someone who is actively playing them. 

This is how Grady started playing Magic: The Gathering, after playing D&D their whole life, which they taught themself how to play. They first attended Friday Night trivia as a first-year and now go to events several times a week. They described the store’s events as a warm and welcoming experience. 

“The community that The Gathering Place builds is what makes it so special,” they said. “And that's really what made me fall in love with it and keep coming back.”

There are also plenty of opportunities to get involved with gaming on campus.

Carolina Esports is for both casual and competitive video game players, senior Nick Fay said, representing UNC under the NACE StarLeague — the largest collegiate esports league in North America. The club hosts up to eight online and in-person events a week to play together, facilitated through an online Discord server, which he encouraged those interested in the club to join. He said the group’s most active gaming communities include League of Legends, Overwatch 2, Valorant, and Super Smash Bros. 

Craige Residence Hall is also the home to an on-campus gaming setup. Free to use for students, the Carolina Gaming Area allows video gamers to play together in-person, featuring more than 10 gaming consoles and 33 PC stations that students can reserve ahead of time.

 “We have high-end Lenovo Legion PCs available to game on as well as consoles such as the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox,” Phil Young, the technology support coordinator for ResNET — IT support for residence halls — wrote in a statement to The Daily Tar Heel. 

CGA is complete with lounges, gaming chairs, and headphones, senior Ria Rawat said, who visited the space with a friend to play Overcooked, a cooking simulation game where players overcome challenges to prepare meals in an allotted time period. 

CGA hosted 59 events last year, partnering with campus orgs and RA's to bring together a variety of audiences who might not have experience with gaming, Young said. 

“Having it located in an area with many first year students is also strategic as it makes it easier for new students to make friends," he wrote.

Rawat described the space as your “modern gaming arena,” compared to Baxter Arcade, a vintage arcade bar in Carrboro that she has also enjoyed visiting with friends. 

“You know how everybody always goes to the same bars, like He's [Not Here], Goodfellows,” she said. “And we were like, we don’t really want to go to all of those. So Baxter [Arcade] was kind of a fun, quirky little arcade bar.”

Baxter Arcade features traditional arcade and pinball games like Mortal Kombat, Pac-Man, Crazy Taxi, and pool, to name a few. Most cost a quarter to play, and the arcade has a change machine if you do not already have coins with you.

There are lots of two-player games in addition to single-player. The arcade-bar is open to all ages, with limited hours for those under 21. 

While not an official club at Carolina, a UNC Discord group for Genshin Impact fosters an online community for students who want to play the role-play video game together, sophomore Tyler Bissoondial said. He said the online group is a good way to learn how to play the game and that more knowledgeable players on the server will help teach new players. 

Bissoondial joined the server his first semester at UNC, a year that he said can be a struggle for a lot of students that are adjusting to college.

“I've met a lot of people that I’d say I'm pretty friendly with and can talk to about things besides the game, like finding help with schoolwork, like stuff at UNC,” he said. 

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