In a distant corner, a voice bellows, "Run, wizard! Run!" Amidst the crowd, the back of an extra-large T-shirt reads: "It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry." And nearby, a booth selling sci-fi and fantasy costumes plays a Star Wars fan film, and the siren song of lightsabers buzzing quickly draws onlookers.
No it's not a Star Trek convention. It's the Sony Online Entertainment Fan Faire, bringing together from all over the world fans of the popular video game, EverQuest II. So why are there so many gorgeous women around?
This year's annual fan faire is also the setting of "The Quest for Antonia," an open call for models resembling EverQuest II's statuesque heroine, Antonia Bayle. This nationwide search, the first ever for a woman who looks like an online video-game character, ends July 12. An online vote will determine five finalists to return to Las Vegas for the climactic pageant-style competition. The victor will receive a yearlong modeling contract from Sony Online and a photo spread in Stuff Magazine.
Who could have foreseen the merger of two such vastly different groups as game geeks and models? Who would have thought there were so many hot women into EverQuest? "Actually, I've never played it myself," says Bridget Peters, one of the Antonia applicants. "My friends used to play the first EverQuest in high school. They'd play for a long time—sometimes four or five hours straight."
The first EverQuest, released in 1999, reinvented massive multiplayer online role-playing games (or MMORPGS), creating a persistent fantasy world in which players from all over the globe could live virtual lives as wizards and warriors. Then last year, EverQuest's highly anticipated sequel was released, introducing gamers to a universe parallel to the original game's land of Norrath, with countless dungeons, hundreds of levels, and over a dozen races of various creatures—and one babe in a gold and purple, metal bikini.
"The outfit might be interesting," Peters says, studying a nearby mock-up with trepidation. "Maybe not the boots."
According to the EverQuest II website, Antonia Bayle is, "in her late 20s and already an accomplished leader. Possessing an enigmatic charm and an undeniable beauty, she immediately commands the attention of all who see her." The provocative outfit is apparently standard for government officials in the kingdom of Qeynos. It's also the reason few game designers cross over into the fashion world.
"I'm dying to put the costume on," says Josephine Prado, another aspiring video-game vixen. "She's so beautiful and strong." So at last we have an applicant who's played the game? "No. I just saw the ad in the paper."
"The fans take this seriously," says Greg Short, director of operations and web presence for Sony Online. "There are a lot of attractive women on the website, but the fans are really searching for someone who looks most like the actual character, and not just whoever is the most beautiful." Hopefully, the finalists won't have too many jagged edges.
Across the room, a crowd gathers for an EverQuest tournament. On a large screen overhead, pixilated warriors trade spells and sword blows. The emcee yells, "We've got an invisible shadow knight running through the field! He's a brave one, our invisible shadow knight." Never before have so many single guys ignored so many attractive women so effortlessly. It's either a testament to the immersive quality of EverQuest II, or an illustration of the chasm between beauty and the geek.
"I think it's great," says Andrea McQueen as she waits to see how her online photo came out. "People need different outlets, and this is really cool." So she's played the game? "No. I'm a mom, so I don't really have the time."
As the fan faire winds down, it seems that those who portray Antonia Bayle and those who play in her world will always be separate. But then Ally Chin walks in, fully clad in authentic versions of Antonia's otherworldly garments, with a sword at her side.
"I made this myself," she says. "It took two days." But has she really played EverQuest II? "Yeah, I actually know what the game is about. I've been playing since 2003. I had to take about a five-month break because it was getting a little out of control, but now I just play casually."
A hot girl playing EverQuest II? Not so fantastic a sight has even been beheld in the land of Norrath. What does it all mean? I don't know. But there's a room full of part-time wizards, clerics, and warriors who've just found their dream girl. It's a good thing that outfit is equipped with a sword to beat them off with.