Have you ever sat at home, playing on your favourite console, and no-scoped the best headshot in Call of Duty of your gaming career so far? Or have you just managed to beat your best friend on Fifa – the mate who you know is just that bit better than you - and you’ve thought to yourself: “I wish someone could have seen that”? Well now there is a place in Nottingham where you can show off your skills to as many people as you like, at the city’s newest gaming lounge, [ALT], situated in an old restaurant in Hockley, opposite the Nottingham Arts Theatre.
[ALT] has created itself to be a place for all types of gamers to come and share their experiences together, with such a wide array of gaming consoles from the modern Xbox One and PlayStation 4 to retro classics such as the Sega MegaDrive and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) meaning that gamers of any age are bound to find something worth playing. The old gaming systems are laid out on individual tables for groups to play, and people can easily move around to have a gander at some other systems they might not have played before. At the back are separate rooms, one for the PCs and one for the modern consoles, set-up for potential future collaborative sessions.
I spoke to Wingo, one of the new managers for the lounge, who told me about the plans for [ALT]: “We’ll be holding workshops of all kinds over the coming weeks, from workshops on how to create games, to sessions on streaming via YouTube. We plan to install a private room where people can stream from directly.”
“The [ALT] gaming lounge is aimed at all types of gamers, young and old, and we plan to have family events, birthday parties and beginner sessions for game development in the day, and then tournaments, LAN parties and competitions after hours. We’re planning on creating another Kickstarter to raise funds for another potential VR system; they tend to cost around 3–4k each so not cheap, and it means it can be accessible to everyone if they themselves can’t afford it or don’t have the space to use it.”
“This is only the beginning, and over the next six weeks, there’s going to be so much more.”
To top it off the lounge serves cooked meals and cold drinks as well to ensure everyone is relaxed. The environment seems very open and social, and you can tell when you enter the building that time and effort has been put in its creation. The lounge has a lot to offer the gamers of Nottingham, and it seems like a good place to hang out. Let’s hope the idea takes off and lets us show that we are actually reet good at Fifa despite what difficulty we play on.
[ALT] Gaming Lounge is located at 7 George Street in Hockley. It is open seven days a week, 11am-11pm.
[ALT] Facebook Page
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