"Mirror, Mirror" is the title of an old episode of Star Trek. I am enough of a geek to remember it well from reruns, but not enough of one to know what season or episode number it was.

In summary, it involves transporting some of the key Enterprise crew into an alternate universe, where their counterparts are... different. I don't think it's politically correct to say evil, is it?

Anyway, the mirror aspect reminds me a great deal of how conventions such as the SoE FanFaire are.

The biggest change of course, and the most important to any Dwarf, is the difference between the price of a beer at home ($1.25) and at a convention ($8.00). Now THAT'S evil!

I digress though... At an online gaming convention, we remove the avatar and reveal our regular selves to everyone else, like a giant un-masquerade party. That is, unless you are a reality-challenged Dwarf such as myself.

The "real" person behind the avatar is often completely different than what one might imagine, and it takes some adjusting to reconcile the human avatar with the online counterpart.

It delineates the ultimate social nature of our online gaming world. We all want to make contact, to be with other people, in a world where we can be much more than our usual selves, a place we go for fun, relaxation and enjoyable challenges. However, we are also much less than our usual selves in virtual worlds, and therefore many of us seek out their play-partners in this thing we call real life. We always want to get to know people better.

My long-term gaming guild, the InnMates, gets together once or twice a year for a weekend of camaraderie, silliness, song and Mojitos. The first time seemed a little weird, but now I look forward to it with great anticipation.

Online gaming allows us to broaden our circle of friends; to draw our acquaintances from a far larger pool than we normally paddle about in. Here it doesn't matter what you look like, where you grew up, what you do for a living or who your parents are... we are all on equal footing, and unique friendships can be forged between people who would never have had occasion to (or would have wanted to) meet for the first time in our regular world.

I am looking forward to attending the SoE FanFaire for the sixth time this year... meeting some new folks, renewing old acquaintances. If you hear some Dwarf loudly complaining about the price of beer in the capitalist empire - that'll be me.

If you've never attended a gaming convention and you play any of the SoE lineup of games, consider making last-minute plans for FanFaire. It is an experience worth your while. Onsite registration is available, and I'd love to see you there!
Check out the details at the Official SoE Fanfaire site. It's in Vegas, August 2-5... and do plan to stay a few extra days if you can - there is a TON of stuff to see and do in Vegas (besides gambling all your gold away).

;-)#
Brasse



(the people in the comic are all utterly fictional - I was too lazy to try to portray any of my real friends in this one. Besides, I don't know anyone named Guido... unless you don't pay up what you borrowed last year!)