- April 18, 2024
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Three friends, 18, 21 and 22 years old, partnered to open a new gaming shop in the Amaral Professional Center.
Behind a glass wall toward the back of FNA Gaming store, at 4721 East Moody Blvd., in Bunnell, children mash buttons on GameCube controllers, watching cartoons punch and shoot fireballs at one another.
Andre Maybin, Jr., 22-year-old co-owner of the store, points and smiles at them. Just two days into his company’s existence in Flagler, he doesn’t just see kids playing video games in that room behind the counter. He sees a future.
Two years ago, Maybin moved to Flagler from Virginia, where he said the video and card gaming community was strong.
“But it’s slower here,” he said. “And I live here now.”
After meeting partners Frank Annello, 21, and Sean Francis, 18, in school theater, they quickly started forming an entrepreneurship plan.
From jobs delivering pizza, serving seafood and manning the pumps at a gas station, the three friends took a risk. They were tired of wasting gas to play at St. Augustine or Daytona Beach card shops. They were sick of there being nowhere for young people to go in town for fun.
So they decided to do something about it.
“We talked about (opening our own game store) for two years,” Anello said. “Then we decided, let’s do it. … There’s only so much nothing you can do.”
Ask Maybin, and he’ll tell you that what his group is going for is a true “gamer’s paradise.”
On Mondays and Tuesdays, they’ll host training sessions in Magic the Gathering and Yugio card games. Wednesdays mean Xbox and GameCube arenas. Thursdays are Yugio tournaments. Fridays mean Magic. And Saturdays are up for grabs; bring 10 people, and you choose the activity.
Add chips and soda to the mix, and the trio believes they’re fulfilling a genuine need in the county: a place for gamers. A place to go for fun.
“I just want to curtail to the competitive nature of children.” Maybin said. “We’re a store that cultivates competitors.”
“And (card games) are such a great way to stimulate the mind,” Anello added.
Citing “professional” gamers — people who get so good at games that they get sponsored by companies to play them — Anello said that, nowadays, cards and controllers are more than just kids’ stuff.
“These days,” he said, “geek is a profession.”
And that’s what the three are banking on with their new company. No matter what a venture’s focus, though, launching a new business is never easy — especially when you’re still young enough to need parental signatures on certain contracts.
It can get “really tedious,” Maybin said.
“But after you get past (the beginning),” Frances added, “you’re working with your friends 24/7.”
“And then you actually think about it,” Maybin said. “Man, my job is to play Xbox and GameCube all day,” he said, laughing and sarcastically snapping his fingers — the universal sign for “Aw, shucks.”
The only gaming store within 25 miles, FNA eventually plans to get into league play, maybe add Dungeons and Dragons, maybe rent the unit next to them for an arcade and maybe expand into Orlando. They might even get into comics and add a karaoke night — if they see a demand for it.
“As we see the population and the desire here grow, we’ll grow with it,” Maybin said.
The trio knows that moving out of childhood and into the work world won’t be easy, but they’ve seen Flagler’s young population grow steadily in recent years, and they believe they have a real opportunity here — not just for their new company, but for their careers.
“(We’re) really trying to step into becoming young men,” Maybin said. “It’s one thing to talk about it in high school; it’s another thing to actually do it.”
For more, call 517-3404.
