My first clue that I'd entered another world was the doorkeeper, dressed in a brown velour tunic and leggings.
"Welcome, milady," he said, taking my plastic wand and scanning it over a reader at the register.
I was ready to play MagiQuest, a new electronic role-playing game at the Funplex entertainment facility in East Hanover.
The ticket to entering this live video game is a wand that you buy at the front desk for 60 minutes of play time, you are set loose in the facility - a land complete with dark woods, rooms designed to look like castle nooks, dungeons and a serene green forest.
The goal is to gather "rune" talismans, gain power and level up as a Magi, all by using your wand, which records your successes. On the way, you fight magical creatures and meet a host of characters, all animated or portrayed by actors on video screens. No one expects you to finish all the quests and become a "Master Magi" in one trip, but the wand "remembers" your identity for subsequent trips.
Though I was literally a novice, still waving my wand at every gold chest hidden in a dark corner and rune in the wall just to see them light up, I was about to get a tour from the most powerful Magi in the land - all 8,000 square feet of it.
The Enchantress looked quite humble dressed in a tunic of black and purple tatters, complete with a violet cape. But when she signed in to the screens at the Stonehenge-like Stone Circle to the left of the entrance with a wave of her wand, the system welcomed her as "Magi God."
Her name is Denise Weston, and she invented the game.
"Video games, although compelling, are isolating," explained Weston, of Rhode Island, a psychologist who studied play behavior in children.
Before she devised the game for entertainment company Creative Kingdoms, "I didn't see my own kids socializing, and I had a hard time connecting with them in their play," Weston added. "I thought, I can't stop my kids from playing [video games], but I can create an experience that feels like a video game and invite the whole family to play together."
Our quest brought us to the Goblin King's castle. Two boys of about 10 who had just failed at challenging the Goblin King stumbled out the gate, disappointed, as we entered. The Enchantress easily got past the animated goblin gate keeper by flicking her wand at two runes embedded in the wall. They blinked in response before sinking back into the painted gray concrete.
Once in, the Enchantress waved her wand at the large screen in the dark dungeon-like throne room, and the animated Goblin King woke up. He was full of PG-rated verbal abuse - "Puny human!" he shouted - but she tossed it off.
"Yeah, yeah," she said jeeringly. "Let's fight!"
Two columns on either side of the screen, one labeled "M" at the top for "Magi" and the other "G" for "Goblin King," lit up like three-dimensional health bars out of Street Fighter. The battle was on. The Enchantress whipped her wand at the screen over and over.
And then she made a hit. Blinding white lights flashed in the small throne room as the Goblin King roared in pain.
"Yes!" shouted the Enchantress, pumping both her arms down to the knee. The Goblin King's health dropped several bars.
The two defeated boys watched from outside the painted concrete doorway, hoping to learn some new tricks. It wasn't long before the Enchantress depleted the Goblin King's health and left him a smoking heap on the throne.
"Aim for the middle," she muttered under her breath to the boys as we strolled, triumphant, out of the throne room.
Frankly, I'm not sure I have what it takes to become a Master Magi, let alone a Magi God. But according to Weston, the game is a great equalizer that has gotten families playing together at other, larger MagiQuest locations in the Poconos and at Myrtle Beach.
"Girls play as much as boys, and adults play as much as children," she said. "Once you catch on, you get kind of addicted to the play. But you're doing it with your friends."
For this Magi, it's never lonely - not even at the top.
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
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