The shifting culture of video games

More women, families attend video game conference

DALLAS, Texas (AP) --The Bouldin family drove 14 hours nonstop from their home in Phoenix to see old friends they'd never met before. Cary and Jeremiah Johnson, newlyweds from Austin, came to revel in the shared passion that brought them together in the first place.

Thirteen-year-old video game fanatic Andrea Stephens of Tampa, Florida, had a more simple reason for attending QuakeCon 2003: "It's pretty exciting."

Since 1996, QuakeCon has been the video game industry's Woodstock, a 21st century blend of tough games, fast computers and mostly white, teenage boys in black T-shirts.

But changes are afoot at the event, which grew out of fans' love of the "Quake" line of games: visceral, violent titles in which players gather online to blow each other up as fast as possible.

Girls, older people -- even entire families -- are joining in the fun.

Stephens dangled a pink cell phone in her hands as she recalled her first time playing Quake. She's now a member of several gaming clans and has even competed in a professional game tournament this year.

"It's pretty exciting," she said of winning. "It gets tense. After games, I'm all shaky."

Quake's inventors, id Software, Inc., said the conference began as a free thank you for the hardcore fans who continually flocked to their headquarters in nearby Mesquite.

Not just for nerds

This year it was moved from a hotel and convention center in Mesquite to a much larger facility in downtown Dallas -- it was the only way to accommodate the more than 2,000 fans, id game designer Tim Willits said.

"It's bigger than Quake. It's bigger than one game, bigger than one company," Willits said. "The core of the event is younger people, college students. But there are families, too. This is their yearly vacation."

The event is split into three areas. A conference room houses a dozen or so computer hardware and software makers touting their latest wares to throngs of eager gamers. A smaller room hosts game tournaments where players can win computers and other prizes.

Next door is the real draw: the fabled B.Y.O.C. (bring your own computer) area.

Pulsating with a cacophony of techno music and laser blasts, the cavernous, dimly lit space strings thousands of computers together with more than eight miles of networking cable.

Video gamers face off

For four days, gamers huddle in groups and alone in front of their glowing screens, facing off against each other in countless three-dimensional battlefields.

"It's overwhelming," said Doug Bouldin, a 38-year-old environmental consultant who arrived at QuakeCon with his wife, Candace, and their two daughters, stroller-bound Piper and 12-year-old Tonya.

The couple wore matching gray T-shirts and baseball caps with "NAD" inscribed in red, white and blue. Their North American Destroyers clan has some 50 players across the nation, and they were eager to meet fellow NAD members they'd only talked to while playing Quake.

"This is a huge conference, but Quake is worldwide. It's an opportunity for everyone to come together and meet and play," Doug Bouldin said.

Jeremiah and Cary Johnson hadn't met in person when they first began "fragging" each other with rocket launchers.

That was nearly three years ago. After a chance meeting in person, they realized they had more than just games in common. Friendship soon gave way to romance, and they married in January.

"I didn't go at this looking for romance, but it happened. Now it's kind of a tradition that we game together," said Jeremiah, 24. "We still do regular couple things, and we own Rollerblades, but gaming does take up a lot of our time as a hobby."