Bangor - Mixing business with pleasure has never seemed so profitable.

"I've been playing this game for a long time and using it as a business for a long time."

David Meier is a regular at the game citadel in bangor where he's both a customer and competitor.

"I come probably two or three times a week to play in the different events," said David Meier.

The weekly game tournaments are just one of the reasons the gaming store has found success where others haven't.

"Most businesses expect to break even in about 13 to 16 months, but we've been seeing steady growth and profit since about month two," said store manager, Grant Beals.

When the store opened in Bangor less than a year ago, it was one of three in the area.

Now, it's only one of two left standing, and it hopes to be the place to break the mold in the otherwise limited market for role-playing games.

"The die hard addicts have been in their houses playing their games by themselves very far away from their friends, but we've created kind of a community, I feel, in this area for gamers. We really have bonds that a lot of people would never make if this kind of place didn't exist," said Beals.

And in an industry plagued by stereotypes, a store that offers products, as well a social scene, is key.

"This is where I come to hangout. This is where I kind of feel like I have a little niche that I belong to," said customer, Chris Pierce.

"We have several colleges in the area that tend to turn over our customer base, yearly, because we get new students at Husson and UMO, which are located pretty close to the store," said Beals.

And they don't seem to mind the price tag that some of these games carry.

"Minis games can cost you upwards of 300, 500, 600 dollars to get started in it."

The prices are based on how many components a game has to it, and the manual labor that went into putting it together.

"A lot of the hobby games require a pretty big degree of concentration and obviously the funds that go into it are a little bit more than your average video game."

But for a gaming trend that values originality over other skills, cost has become secondary to its fans.

"We see a lot of new customers daily. We've been noticing nothing but growth since we opened."

Which is as good for the gamers, as it is business.

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