World of Warcraft

If you haven't heard of WoW, you must be someone who actually leaves your house. Here's how it works: You create a character who either belongs to the Alliance (the good guys) or the Horde (the bad guys) and off you go to a land full of quests and characters. You meet up with friends or are recruited by strangers to go off and complete tasks. You can communicate, quest and fight in real time. And you'd better grab some caffeine before you start because I'm told it only takes one session to get hooked. (The person who told me this was dressed as a large beast with a 4 foot staff and a light-up hat.)

For a noobie like me, this was quite an experience. I was asked to take pictures of people in costume, so I walked around the convention floor, passing people dressed as Blood Elves, and Dwarves. I stopped to ask them if they would pose for me and almost everyone was happy to let me do so. They're an unbelievably friendly bunch, though I was snarled at by a group of what can only be described as pig-men with axes. (Inflatable axes, of course...no weapons allowed on the con floor) Unlike Comic Con in San Diego, there is little to buy here. And the one store had a line that wrapped around several times and continued out the door. Incidentally, the only other line that long was for the alcohol and the Dippin' Dots.