Taking games to the xtreme

Question: What do a noob and a rogue have in common?

Answer: They both pick locks.

Nikki Hemphill, 20, laughs heartily at her own joke. Hemphill — college student, video game enthusiast and unofficial vice president of operations at Xtreme Gaming in Marysville — attempts to explain.

Rogues are thieves; thieves pick locks. Noobs are young or unskilled gamers, and they tend to favor or pick warlock characters.

Gaming humor loses something in translation. But on most evenings, Hemphill's joke would have killed.

The arcade, which opened a month ago, already sees a steady stream of regulars, and some have signed on for membership that allows unlimited playing hours: $49.95 to start, $39.95 each month afterward.

Yuba City's Powerplay Internet Gaming Lounge is just over the 10th Street bridge on Plumas Street.

"But they don't have an 80-inch screen," says Patrick McBride, 21, who works for Succeed, an Internet service provider in Yuba City.

McBride makes no apologies for his gaming habits. He's at level 70 of "World of Warcraft."

That massive multiplayer online role-playing game — MMORPG, for short — is among the gaming world's most popular.

Asked about his official role at Xtreme Gaming, McBride says, "I'm the game tester, I guess."

He tests games for hours and hours. The arcade's owners pay him in free play time.

He and Hemphill, who met eight years ago at Friday Night Live teen center, now are engaged to be married.

Hemphill did not enter the relationship as a gamer.

"But now I'm probably more addicted than he is," she says. "We raid together all the time."

"There is an addiction," McBride admits, with some hesitation. "But I know I can stop any time I want."

Hemphill shakes her head to indicate that her fiancé is in an Xtreme state of denial.

When you get hooked on games like "World of Warcraft" or "Halo 3," she explains, "your priorities maybe, possibly, get a little skewed."

Just before dinnertime on a recent weekday, 9-year-old Brandon Davis walked into the arcade for the first time, with his brother and parents.

He stopped suddenly at the sight of a video game box-covered wall and his eyes widened dramatically.

"Whoa," he said.

Brandon and his brother Eddie Hanley, 12, play games online all the time. But the arcade was something altogether new to them.

They peeked into the darkened gaming room and gasped.

As soon as their parents signed them in, the boys scrambled to the couch for a game of "Halo 3."

The scene was exactly what Xtreme Gaming co-owner Scott Burgess, 31, said he had in mind when he opened the place.

"It's a way for kids to get away from home but still have some interaction — and not just through a computer," he says.

Burgess, an Oroville resident, works as a finance manager for a car dealership in Roseville. He had a membership once to a gaming arcade in Folsom where he played console-oriented games — the descendants of early Nintendo. Some newer PC-based games that fascinate younger gamers are lost on him.

That's where McBride, Hemphill, and two other associates come in handy.

They help him select software and keep up with trends.

Among some of the other ideas his young gamer friends have helped foster is regular Internet service until closing time at midnight. On Saturdays, the arcade is open until 2 a.m.

They hope special events, like a pay-per-view ultimate fighting championship they plan to air on April 19, will bring in both non-gaming crowds and gamers who will stay to play.

Burgess says regular gaming tournaments will become part of the arcade's monthly schedule. Over time, he's hoping they will produce a couple of professional champions.

"Not all kids are athletes," he says. "And there's a lot more of them playing video games than there are playing football."

Hemphill says those kids, like herself, function in two very distinct worlds. The "in-game" one, and the one in real life, or "IRL."

She jokes about the culture she shares with other gamers, and the tendency of some to become the characters they create.

Spending time "in-game" helps develop useful intellectual and motor skills and is a perfectly healthy companion to being "IRL," she says, "as long as you can tell the difference."

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com

XTREME GAMING

• WHERE: 825 9th St. #F (corner of I) Marysville

• CALL: (530) 741-2646

• ON THE NET: www.xgarcade.com

• HOURS:

Mon-Fri: 4 p.m. - midnight

Sat: 11 a.m. - 2 a.m.

Sun: 11 a.m. — midnight