SAN DIEGO -- People enjoy online adventure game EverQuest so much they sometimes forget to rejoin the real world for hours or even days at a time. Players have been criticized for logging into "EverCrack" more than they sleep, sometimes neglecting their work or loved ones.
But many of the 1,300 dedicated EverQuest fans who met here this weekend, said the game is engendering family interaction, not impairing it.
Previous EverQuest events, which were smaller in scale, attracted a predictable audience of mostly unattached males. But this weekend's meeting featured a great deal more women and families who firmly believe in playing together. EverQuest players say the social aspect of the game -- working in teams to defeat monsters and solve puzzles and get to the next level -- is its strongest draw. People spending hours using the game's chat function to converse with others about strategies, helping one another, or just about anything.
In many of the families, it’s the kids who are spreading the EverQuest addiction to the game to their parents. Kate Holtkamp of Laguna Hills, California, bought the game for her two sons Brendan, 16, and Conner, 12, and they in turn got her to play. In addition to the fun, Holtkamp said it's a way to stay in contact with her sons who during the week live with their father 100 miles away.
Holtkamp chats with her kids as they make their way together through the virtual world. The are in a guild, or team of EverQuest players together, and she breaks character to address them as "mom" during online discussions.
"Most of the players think it's pretty cool. I'm sure some are weirded out by it, but they are tactful enough not to say anything about it," she said.
"This way we can do something together, and we usually end up talking about other things," she said. "I end up knowing more about them than some parents whose kids are under the same roof."
Jeff Butler, who produces EverQuest at Verant, said the game isn't about isolating yourself on a computer, it's about making and maintaining relationships. "What keeps people coming back is seeing their friends in the game," Butler said. "I've spoken to people who have said if it was for game play alone, they would have quit by now. It's guild mates and friends who keep them coming back."
Dennis Gerrits, of Chula Vista, California, plays with his sons Denny, 12, and Daniel, 7, on weekends, and controls the amount of time they spend online.
"It's a good way to take a break from other things and do something together," he said. "It's not a school night thing, it's a weekend thing, and if they do well in school they get extra time to play."
Gerrits plays with his sons and says he isn't worried about player language online, since the game has an obscenity filter. While some moral watchdogs in Washington wring their hands over games inciting violence, Gerrits says his boys are more talkative and outgoing because of the game. "They'll talk for hours about some new items they found in the game," he grinned. EverQuest has sold one million copies and has 370,000 active players, many of whom simultaneously play on multiple computers. Several EverQuest addicts looking to meet people whom they only know virtually came in costume as their favorite characters
Some women players bemoaned having to put up with unwanted attention from male players looking to develop relationships with something other than their computers.
"Most players are shocked to find out we're women ... but sometimes (they get) too happy, and become like stalkers, asking my for my e-mail address and if they can come visit me," said Jacqueline Yauch, of Temecula, California.
Yauch's friend Jessica Way, also of Temecula, said some male players stray from the game's mission and focus on winning them over instead. "All of a sudden they don't want to hunt any more. They want to sit and talk. I tell them 'You sound like a woman, let's go out and kill something,'" Way said.
Although Way wishes she could be treated like one of the guys, she said some men give her virtual weapons and other needed items that are otherwise tough to obtain during the game. "My character has a lot of stuff that she otherwise wouldn't have," Way said.
