This article was originally published in May 2009.

When I was a kid, the country went through a full-fledged Dungeons & Dragons hysteria, where the fantasy role-playing game was accused of everything from turning kids onto Satanism to encouraging them to kill themselves.

Decades later, we’ve now reached a point where D&D is seen as sort of a harmless, if incredibly geeky pastime.

But isn’t there a third option? Dungeons & Dragons isn’t a dangerous, evil force in the world, nor is it just harmless fun; it’s actually one of the most worthwhile activities ever created, and there is literally nothing better for turning a kid into a thoughtful, creative, passionate, open-minded adult.

Almost everything I know today I learned from Dungeons & Dragons. And almost everything I’m passionate about, I first discovered while playing the game.

I started playing Dungeons & Dragons at age twelve, when my friend Tim asked for, and received, a “starter” box set of the game for Christmas.

I immediately loved it. It gave a focus to all those lazy afternoons with my friends. It was something for us all to be passionate about, an endless countryside for us to discover and explore — endless because we made it up ourselves.

But it didn’t just focus those afternoons with my friends; it focused the rest of my life too.

Before the game, I’d had little interest in reading for pleasure. For me, books were something that were assigned in school — staid, musty tales that said nothing about the things I was interested in and had absolutely no relevance to my life.

But because I was so enamored with the world of D&D, I started reading fantasy books. For the first time in my life, I realized, “Hey, books aren’t necessarily boring! Sometimes they can even be really, really interesting!” It was a revelation. In months, I was devouring every fantasy book I could get my hands on — even long, complicated sagas that I wouldn’t have looked twice at before (Stephen R. Donaldson was, and still is, my favorite author).

In school, I’d always hated history. It had always been presented to me as nothing more than a long list of dates to be memorized.

But in the world of D&D, in the adventures we were concocting for each other, history came alive. And why wouldn’t it? We were literally living it! And like almost every virgin D&D player, I immediately embarked on my own extracurricular study of weaponry, of myths and fables, of medieval life — even castle-building.

Philosophy and ethics? At my Catholic grade school, that meant just another list to memorize, this time of picky little rules to follow.

It was while playing D&D that I discovered the notion of “alignment” — the idea that everyone has a point-of-view in life, and that few people think of themselves as “evil.” Instead, ethics necessarily follow from one’s perspective. This acknowledgment of the obviously relative nature of all things made my head feel like a balloon; I could almost feel it expanding on my shoulders.

Even better, by implicitly granting me the right to make my own ethical choices, and by having me role-play different choices and then forcing me to accept the consequences of my actions, I think the game made me a much more ethical person. It definitely made me a far more broad-minded one.

In school, I had absolutely no interest in debate or public presentations. My sixth grade presentation was on Bolivia, and I literally could not have cared less.

But because D&D involves such an elaborate set of rules, many of which are, uh, ambiguous, an essential part of Dungeons & Dragons means arguing a case, both to your fellow players and to the dungeon master.Year later, in college, professors would always say, “You did debate in high school, didn’t you?” I never knew what they were talking about — until it finally occurred to me that I had, in fact, spent every weekend of my high school years engaged in passionate debate with some of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met.

Before D&D, I’d never thought of myself as a storyteller, or a performer in any way. But when you’re the dungeon master, you’re required to be a performer, acting out the role of the narrator and dozens of other characters — and you’d better be an incredibly quick-thinking performer at that, since most of what you do is improvisation in response to something your players did that you didn’t expect.

If you write your dungeons yourself, as we usually did, you’re also forced to confront the notions of character motivation, the importance of a good antagonist, of theme, of rising tension and resolution.

In short, if he’s going to keep the attention of his players, a dungeon master must quickly intuit all the elements of dramatic structure.

Best of all, you tell your stories in direct engagement with your audience. If that doesn’t tell you exactly what does, and doesn’t, work when it comes to storytelling, nothing will.

Finally, there’s math. I didn’t like that either as a kid — more memorization, natch. Truthfully, I still hate it, but when you spend countless hours adding up dice-rolls in your head, you’re suddenly a whiz  — and when your character’s life is at stake, you pick up statistics pretty quickly too!

Dungeons & Dragons would have been worth playing even if it built no “character” whatsoever — if it did nothing but entertain. And maybe this essay will do nothing but make today’s generation of kids less likely to play it; that’s probably how I would have reacted.

But the truth is, the game does so much more than entertain, and it’s about time it got credit for it.

As an adult, I’ve done a number of things for a living: teach at the high school and college level, and write novels, plays, and screenplays. Now I edit this website.

If it weren’t for Dungeons & Dragons, I couldn’t have done any of these things well.

If I hadn’t found D&D, would I have discovered some other passion as a kid? Video games? Sports? Horticulture? It’s possible. But it’s almost impossible to imagine that any of these activities would have given me such a long and varied list of skills and interests.

As an adult, I occasionally run into parents who mention that their children have discovered Dungeons & Dragons. They usually roll their eyes and shrug, as if to say, “At least they’re not out robbing liquor stores.”

I always tell them they’re wrong to dismiss the game so casually; I try to tell them all the things I’ve written here.

They never listen to me. They always say something stupid like, “What kind of game is it if you can’t ever win?” The stereotypes run too deep. To them, D&D means being silly, dressing up like an elf and rooting around in sewers. They can’t dismiss it fast enough.

In a way, I’m sad — sad that they don’t appreciate and support the passionate, creative, intelligent, interesting kid they’re probably raising (no thanks to them).

But mostly I’m sad that they themselves have to go through life with such a narrow, limited perspective. That wouldn’t be the case if one of their friends had ever introduced them to D&D — but now, of course, it’s probably too late.

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Four and a Half Torches (Out of Five)

First, let me say this: I loved Assassin’s Creed 2 (2009). The story was great, the challenges and puzzles were interesting, and the setting was fantastic.

In Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (Xbox/PS3), the highly anticipated follow-up released earlier this week, the setting is even more beautiful and compelling, the gameplay has been improved, and there’s at least as much, if not more, content than in previous AC games.

And yet, it’s not quite as good as it could be.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood picks up where the second game left off. The Borgia family is after Ezio for ruining their plans for world domination, and when they torch his  lovingly restored villa, Ezio takes the fight to Rome. There he’s given the task of liberating each section of the city and restoring it to its former glory through renovation. All of which offers a wealth of missions and side-quests, like saving the madam of the local brothel from slavers, or searching underground caverns for treasure.

The game’s most significant change is the requirement to recruit and train a band of assassins, who are then at your beck and call. This makes combat much more fun, as you can summon reinforcements at the press of a button, and it adds another layer of complexity to the game, as you level up their weapons and experience.

The other noteworthy change is the ability to ride your horse almost everywhere, which helps given how large the city is.

You also spend a little more time playing as Desmond in this game, which ties the past and future together well, but drags the game down a little in the beginning (and doesn’t seem to add much to the game other than letting you spend more time with Kristen Bell…I mean Lucy).

So if this game seems to do almost everything right, why am I giving it only 4.5 torches?

Because it feels like Assassin’s Creed 2.5. The improved-but-familiar setting and gameplay is a strength, but it’s also a weakness, and the story isn’t quite as complicated and interesting in Brotherhood as it was in AC2.  (The strange cliff-hanger ending doesn’t help, either.)

In short: Brotherhood just doesn’t have quite the same “wow” factor as AC2. It’s clearly designed to be a bridge to Assassin’s Creed 3.

But a very good Assassin’s Creed game is still better than the best of many other video game series, and Brotherhood should be on every gamer’s must-play list this year.

The multiplayer game is also notable. Unlike most multiplayer games where the goal is to shoot anything that moves, in Brotherhood, stealth, trickery, and silent assassinations are the key to taking down your target, even as you attempt to avoid the assassin targeting you. As you level up, you gain access to more weapons and talents, like the ability to look like someone else. I’m not sure it will have staying power once the novelty wears off, since it requires more patience than most multiplayer games, but it’s definitely worth playing.

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Please send an email to thetorchonlineoracle@gmail.com and be sure and include your city and state and/or country.

3, 7, and 100-sided die

Q: So I know there are 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20-sided dice in Dungeons & Dragons, but are there any other-sided dice in existence? What are they used for? — Jay, San Diego, CA

The Oracle Speaks:

Sure!

There’s 3-sided dice that are mostly used for gaming (especially Dungeons & Dragons).

There’s 7-sized dice that can be used for backgammon.

There’s a 1-sided die (just a sphere) and a 100-sided die (again, used for D&D), but these are mostly just gags.

You could also say that a coin is a sort of 2-sided dice.

Here’s a company that sells a collection of oddly-shaped die: D3, D5, D7, D30, and D100 (left).

Q: So after the release of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, there was the expectation that they would greenlight the sequel, The Sea of Monsters. But they didn’t. Have they yet? — MAGPIE, Toronto Canada

The Oracle Speaks:

Not that I can tell. If they’re working on the project, they’re keeping it very, very quiet. But when a movie studio declines to greenlight something, rarely do they come out and announce, “We’re done with this! Screw the sequel!” Keep in mind that they still have a DVD to promote, and they want fans to be as excited and enthusiastic as possible. And the talent has no motivation to announce the bad news either, because they’re usually hoping against hope that the studio might change its mind.

Speaking of which, if 20th Century Fox is still on the fence about the sequel, it might be because they want to take a look at the DVD sales before they actually commit. It’s happened before: the 1999 crime thriller The Boondocks Saints played in only five theaters for one week — but went onto to gross $50 million in video sales, something that eventually resulted in a 2009 sequel.

(It’s a little different in the case of this movie, however, because the stars are teenagers and are rapidly growing up.)

But if the Percy Jackson franchise really is dead (as I suspect it is), it doesn’t surprise me too much. The movie was something of a disappointment, grossing only $226 million world-wide on a budget of almost $100 million (keep in mind that the studio splits the gross with theater-owners, and they had to spend at least another $50 million to promote the film).

My opinion of the movie? Rather than film the book as it was, they tried to turn it into another Harry Potter. They almost completely eliminated the humor, which is by far the best thing about the book (and the only thing that keeps it from reading like, well, warmed-over Harry Potter).

I think they had their shot, and they blew it — which also doesn’t surprise me as I think two of the Harry Potter movies Percy Jackson director Chris Columbus directed (Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets) are by far the worst in that series.

Q: How is mead different from wine and ale different from beer? — Manny, Orlando, FL

A: Ale is probably closer to what you think of as beer than mead is to wine. Ale is made from barley (like most beer), but without the addition of hops, which are the female flower clusters of a type of plant; hops adds bitterness to beer. Ale is usually bittered instead with certain herbs.

Lightly-alcoholed ale was drunk widely in the ancient world in place of water, as it had natural preservatives; to actually get drunk, stronger ales were used.

Mead, on the other hand, is made from fermented honey, water, and yeast, and is even sometimes flavored with hops.

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Please send an email to thetorchonlineoracle@gmail.com and be sure and include your city and state and/or country.

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In a new feature at TheTorchOnline.com, we’re offering free fantasy-themed online social games. This week: battle other players and computer enemies in an ever-expanding fantasy world.

In the last two weeks, I’ve played a lot of Fable III, both in single-player and multiplayer mode. I’ve become the Queen of Albion twice, made a lot of money, been insulted by gnomes, figured out the secret to dying my hair blond (use the cream color, not the yellow one), and discovered The Ice Maiden gun that rewards me for sleeping with 15 men and killing 200 of them (uh, no thanks).

I’ve also received more marriage proposals than The Bachelor.

Any guy (and it’s always a guy) who asks to join my game inevitably proposes within two minutes. Every time. This isn’t because my character is so fantastic — although she is — but because you get an achievement for marrying another player, and there are almost no women in Fable 3′s multiplayer world. Or more accurately, there are almost no women who will play with strangers (let alone marry them). In the dozens of Fable III games I’ve joined at random, I’ve only come across one other queen.

Of course, all these single guys roaming the countryside of Albion looking for a wife could just marry each other to get the achievement. But for some reason, they’re not pursuing that option.

Although I’ve turned down all the marriage proposals, I’ve become Fable-friends with many of these guys (and even ended up giving career advice to one of them). Turns out, the men who play Fable III are much nicer and better behaved than the guys I meet playing the FPS shooters online. I haven’t been insulted or verbally assaulted once in Fable III, or had to listen to any racist, sexist, or homophobic comments so far. (It really is a fairy tale kingdom!)

There are 50 Legendary Weapons in the game, but only some are available in your kingdom (through quests or shops). You have to buy the rest from shops in other people’s kingdoms, via multiplayer. The best way I’ve found to do that is to turn your orb visibility to “all,” stand in a weapons shop in Brightwall, Bowerstone Market, or Aurora, wait until a friendly-looking orb comes in, and then join their game and buy the weapons in their shop (assuming they’re different from the ones you already have). Just don’t forget to say hi to the player you’ve joined.

The day of Fable 3’s release, Microsoft accidentally published for a few hours some of the upcoming Fable III DLC content that wasn’t supposed to be released yet, including a new dye pack with the color black (finally!), new hair options, a potion for your dog that immediately levels it up in all categories, and a new futuristic set of armor that looks really out of place in Albion. (You can see photos of these items here.) It also offered the ”Understone Quest pack,” which also includes the “Mercenary Shooting Range” and ”Wheel of Misfortune” quests for free (those who’ve played through the first-half of the game will be able to guess what the last one is).

Fortunately, I happened to download several of these DLC packs during that short window (not knowing they were posted accidentally). I don’t want to spoil the quests too much, but I will say that I enjoyed them. “Understone” is a short but fun quest that opens up a cool new area, but there’s not much to do with the area after the quest. “The Wheel of Misfortune,” on the other hand, is combat-heavy, excellent for co-op/multiplayer, and a great way to upgrade enemy-specific weapons. Both the Wheel and the Shooting Range quests are endlessly re-playable, with prizes given based on performance.

As for the DLC that is still available, the free weapons are kinda lame unless you’re playing an evil character, and the dog outfit … well, I guess that depends on how much you like dressing up your dog.

Finally, following the advice I gave you in my Fable III review, I’ve earned so much money in my second playthrough that I can’t spend it all, even after I sold all the houses I’m not living in, adopted all the kids in the orphanage, and bought my wife and children many, many gifts. It’s still just piling up in my treasury. So I’ve taken to giving it away to random strangers, with some funny responses from the startled recipients — from thank-you notes, to women’s pajamas, to (you guessed it) marriage proposals.

I had to temporarily stop my Robin Hood activities a few days ago, however, when I downloaded the extra content that comes with the Limited Edition game and suddenly became unable to play with those who don’t have this content. Which is almost everyone. Apparently, this is true for everyone who purchased the LE version, which means you pretty much have to un-install the additional content if you want to enjoy the multiplayer feature of the game. I’m guessing this is a bug they didn’t get around to fixing yet, but one thing’s for sure: it’s a really effective way to encourage players to buy the (cheaper) standard version.

Now that I’ve removed the incompatible content, however, I’m back in the online fray. So if a blond woman suddenly teleports into your kingdom, gives you a million dollars, and then disappears, it’s probably me. Just please don’t give me an engagement ring in return.

Follow Sarah Warn on Twitter and Facebook.

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Four Torches (Out of Five)

The long-awaited third game in the Fable series has been released today for the Xbox 360, and except for one major design flaw, it’s a winner.

Fable 3 picks up a generation after the events of Fable 2. You are the Fable 2 hero’s son or daughter, trying to stop your tyrannical brother King Logan from working and taxing the citizens of Albion to death. To take on the King, you must gather followers across the land, and to do that, you must undertake missions that range from fighting Hobbes and Hollow Men, to searching for rare books, to helping a woman divorce her husband.

Overthrowing your brother, however, is only half of the main quest — the other and arguably more interesting half takes place after you become Albion’s new King or Queen and set out to undo the damage your brother has caused.

The Fable games are known for their open-world setting and the intermingling of combat missions with treasure-seeking and social ones, and this game only improves on this.

Lionhead has clearly invested time and money into building out all three, but especially the combat and social elements of the game. Not only do the weapons change based on how you use them, but your attack style morphs over time, as well, culminating in some truly entertaining slow-mo flourishes. Additional customization options include re-naming your weapons and your dog, dying your clothes and hair, and redecorating your home. Here’s a screencap of my character wearing a customized outfit and harlequin makeup:

As I wrote about previously, the characters are much better looking in Fable 3, and the user interface and gameplay has been improved — simplified in many ways, but expanded in others. The humor has been toned down, but it’s still there (the banter in the side-quest The Game is particularly entertaining).

The multiplayer feature of the game — which allows you to visit the kingdoms of friends (or strangers) and complete quests together, enter into business partnerships, trade weapons, and even get married and have children  —  has been signficantly improved from Fable 2. Perhaps the biggest change is that you’re no longer tethered together on the screen — when you play together over Xbox Live, each player moves and sees the world independently. This makes for a much better experience.

They’ve also enhanced relationship options with other characters — NPC villagers, or real people via multiplayer. Now your character can actually touch other characters (although all the hand-holding gets old after awhile, because it forces you to walk so slow), go on dates, and get married to other players via co-op. And the introduction of an orphanage (although not until late in the game) means same-sex couples or players who prefer to stay single can now have children.

In a nutshell, Fable 3 includes all that you loved about Fable 2, excludes many of the things you didn’t, and offers a better gameplay experience. The end result is a really fun way to spend many, many hours.

So why am I only giving it four torches (out of five)? There are several minor but annoying bugs that crop up occasionally (golden bread crumbs disappear, characters get stuck, etc.) but primarily because of one major design flaw. It’s difficult to explain without being too spoilery, so I’ll try to keep it high-level.

(spoiler warning)

Your experience of the game very much depends on how much money you earn early on, but you’re not made aware of this until late in the quest — by which time,  it’s too late to do much about it.

The game designers appear to have done this on purpose, in order to force players to make the difficult trade-offs often required of rulers. But the choice isn’t between being hated and rich, or loved and poor; it’s between being hated and continuing to play the game, or loved and not being able to continue playing the game (OK, technically, you can, but many side-quests are no longer available, and it’s not much fun, anyway, because your kingdom is a ghost town). Which means you have no real choice at all if you want to continue playing after completing the main quest, unless you happened to have amassed a huge amount of money early on — which many players are unlikely to have done.

To be fair, your character is warned in the last half of the quest that there would be dire consequences if more money wasn’t earned, but again, the warning comes (mostly) too late.

This might not seem like such a big deal, but if you zip through the main quest (as the narrators constantly urge you to do), stopping for only a few sidequests along the way because you assume you can do more later, you’re in for a big disappointment. And there’s no way to undo your mistake without starting the entire game over.

Which is why I’m now on playthrough number two. I’m still having a lot of fun, I just wish I’d known to play it this way the first time.

Should this discourage you from playing Fable 3? Absolutely not. In almost every other respect, it’s a terrific game.

But if you want to play the game and actually have a real choice at the end, here’s my advice:

1. Make a lot of money early in the game, and invest it in real estate (homes and shops) as soon as possible
2. Do a lot of sidequests, and collect as many silver keys as you can
early in the game (some of the chests contain a lot of money)
3. See #1

Happy hunting!

The Magic of Gaming is a weekly column with news and mini-reviews of fantasy games.

Have you always wondered what you would get if you combined Clash of the Titans with Mel’s Diner? You’ll find out anyway in the new Facebook game Heaven’s Diner, a Diner Dash-type game in which you run a restaurant frequented by cherubs, angels and Greek Gods.

Yes, really. Because who hasn’t always wanted to serve crab legs to Zeus?

A much better use of your online casual gaming time is the fantasy tower defense game Cursed Treasure: Don’t Touch My Gems! on Kongregate.com, the large online game site owned by GameStop (you don’t have to register to play, just to track your games and achievements).

A deceptively simple game which includes orcs, demons, and the undead, Don’t Touch My Gems requires you to build and strategically place different types of towers on the map in order to protect your gems from being stolen by increasingly difficult waves of invaders. It’s surprisingly fun, and consistently ranks as one of the most popular games on the site.

If MMOs are more your thing, you can try Final Fantasy XIV Online — but I wouldn’t. The graphics are great, but almost everything else isn’t. There are just too many glitches and design flaws, which even Square Enix has tacitly acknowledged. Once those get fixed, FF XIV Online may be worth playing, but you might want to wait until then to take out your credit card for this one.

Another game that doesn’t quite live up to the hype is the just-released Arcania Gothic 4 (Xbox/PC/PS3). The graphics are good and, unlike in FF XIV, the gameplay runs pretty smoothly. There’s just nothing all that special about in Gothic 4 — it looks and feels like the kind of third-person fantasy RPG we’ve seen a million times before. About five years ago.

Watch this gameplay video to make up your mind (skip to the 7-minute mark to see the village):

Unless you’re a hardcore Gothic fan, I suggest you get your fantasy RPG fix with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Xbox/PS3) instead.

The world of Trine 2 looks beautiful in the new gameplay trailer!

The downloadable platformer is slated to be released sometime next year.

Last but not least, Lionhead has released a new trailer emphasizing the combat in Fable III (Oct. 26 Xbox):

They also released this pic from their upcoming Fable III Art book showing off the prostitutes that were too risque for Albion:

Yikes! Now I’m curious to which prostitutes did make it into the game. Only a few more days until I find out!

Sarah Warn runs EntertainHer.com. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

The Magic of Gaming is a weekly column with news and mini-reviews of fantasy games.

The first stills of Batman: Arkham City (Fall 2011, Xbox/PS3/PC) have been released, and it looks like a gorgeous game!

As much as I enjoyed playing the caped crusader in Batman: Arkham Asylum, I didn’t like the setting — being stuck inside a building felt too limiting. Flinging the batarang around Gotham City looks like much more fun!

This week I’ve been busy playing the multiplayer beta for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (Nov. 16 Xbox/PS3/PC). The game mode “Wanted” involves assassinating another player while someone else is trying to assassinate you, and unlike most multiplayer games, this one rewards stealth, not speed.

One of the most interesting features is the ability to change your appearance for a short period of time, which makes it harder for your pursuer to locate you. The folks at Machinima made a gameplay video showcasing the Disguise ability in action:

Now that the beta has been opened up to all PS3 Plus subscribers, you can try it for yourself.

If you want even more Assassin’s Creed, take a look at Ubisoft’s Facebook game Project Legacy. Presented as a training simulator brought to you by Abstergo Industries (the front company for the evil Templars), the game has you piece together memories in the Animus by using action points and purchasing items, which are earned by completing missions.

I find the game a little boring, since it mostly requires reading very small text and clicking buttons, but the folks at Kotaku enjoyed it more — read their review here.

If you enjoy Facebook games, check out Fantasy Kingdoms, currently the fastest-growing fantasy game on the popular social network. I’ve played a few hours of it, and so far it seems to be like FarmVille, with mana and magic beans instead of fertilizer and forget-me-nots. Fantasy Kingdoms may not be a very complicated game, but it sure is a pretty one!

If you’re looking for a new console game to play, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Xbox/PS3) was released this week, and it’s surprisingly fun! More like God of War than the previous Castlevania arcade games, which is why I like it, but why some longtime Castlevania fans may not.

Overall, the game is getting mostly positive reviews, and there’s already a sequel in the works.

Finally, there’s good and bad news for PC gamers this week: 2K disclosed that their well-received BioShock 2 DLC “Minerva’s Den” will not be released on PC, after all; and if you pre-order the upcoming real-time strategy game Lionheart: King’s Crusade (Nov. 27 PC) by Oct. 18, you’ll get the “New Allies” DLC for free.

Sarah Warn runs EntertainHer.com. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

The Magic of Gaming is a weekly column with news and mini-reviews of fantasy games.

New screen shots were released for DC Universe Online (Nov. 2 PS3/PC).

This action-focused hero and villain game uses a “state of the art physics engine that turns your world into a weapon,” and allows you to create your own hero or villain. If you pre-order the game, you get various in-game goodies. Sadly, a real-life invisible plane is not one of them.

Check out the new multiplayer trailer for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (Nov. 9 Xbox/PS3/PC)!

I’ve signed up to play the beta when it begins next week; I’ll report back with my thoughts.

Irrational Games released footage of the first 10 minutes of gameplay for their upcoming city-in-the-sky game BioShock Infinite (2012 Xbox/PS3/PC), and it looks as awesome as it did before.

Online co-op for Lara Croft: Guardian of Light on the Xbox was delayed (again) until the end of September. No date yet for PS3 and Steam online co-op.

There’s a new Star Wars game coming to the Android soon, and an iPhone version of Naughty Bear available now. Not sure if the latter qualifies as a fantasy game, but I figure there must be some magic involved in creating a homicidal brown bear, right?

Sarah Warn currently runs EntertainHer.com; you can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

The Magic of Gaming is a weekly column with news and mini-reviews of fantasy games.

The video game tie-in to the upcoming Warner Bros. movie The Legends of the Guardian: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (Xbox/PS3/Wii/DS) was released this week.

Flying around as an owl dropping fire bombs is surprisingly fun, but not worth $50 when that’s pretty much all you do. You’re better off just playing the free demo.

IGN published an article this week criticizing the recent Wii game Metroid: the Other M for Kiling Samus, contending that Nintendo turned the ruthless bounty hunter and heroine of the classic Metroid series into “just another generic, overly emotional female character.”

As this new game would have it, the same Samus who single-handedly destroyed an entire alien species and murdered countless space pirates was actually a fragile, emotional mess beneath all that armor.

I haven’t played the game myself, but I’ve read similar complaints online from other Metroid fans. If you’ve played the game, let me know your thoughts on this issue in the comments.

A new storyline trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011 Xbox/PS3/PC) was revealed at the Tokyo Game Show this weekend.

The hero looks cool, but so does the villain with the half-shaved head — I wish we had the choice to play either. Although deciding between wings or invisibility would be a tough call.

The just-released 4th Edition Red Box of Dungeons & Dragons aims to return the classic card game to its roots, after complaints that the previous version deviated too much from the game’s core appeal.

You can see more photos of the game, and read an interview with the developer.

There’s a brand new Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (Nov 2. Xbox/PS3/PC) trailer showcasing Ezio’s new combat moves.

Last but not least, the list of achievements for Fable III (Oct. 26 Xbox/PC) has been released. The strangest one is “Henry VIII” — I won’t spoil it for you, but you know anything with his name attached can’t end well!

Sarah Warn currently runs EntertainHer.com; you can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

The months leading up to the holidays are always spilling over with game releases, and this year’s no different. To aid in your game-buying decisions, here’s a short list of high-profile or highly anticipated fantasy games being released in the next two months.

Sid Meier’s Civilization V (Sep. 21 PC) — The latest installment in the Civilization series is one of the year’s most anticipated PC game releases. In the single-player and multiplayer game, “players strive to become Ruler of the World by establishing and leading a civilization from the dawn of man into the space age, waging war, conducting diplomacy, discovering new technologies, going head-to-head with some of history’s greatest leaders and building the most powerful empire the world has ever known.”

While the graphics and some gameplay features have been improved, Civilization V doesn’t appear to be significantly different from Civilization IV. That’s not necessarily bad, if you like the series as-is. You can check it out for yourself by downloading the demo, which will be released on the same day as the game.

Final Fantasy XIV Online (Sep. 30 PC, PS3 next March) — Judging by the rush of people who overloaded the open beta two weeks ago, a lot of people are looking forward to this MMO RPG. The latest iteration of the Japanese fantasy series uses a skill-based progression system similar to FF II, balances group and solo play, and develops your character partly by the weapons you use.

Unfortunately, the user interface is clumsy to the point of frustration at times. Whether that’s enough to deter Final Fantasy fans remains to be seen.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Oct. 5 Xbox/PS3) — This series reboot is an action adventure game in a fantasy setting in Southern Europe during the Middle Ages, with 50 levels of combat, platforming and puzzles.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow appears more similar to Darksiders and Gods of War than to the recently released Castlevania arcade game. That’s great for gamers who prefer more immersive gameplay, but not so great for a game trying to stand out in a crowd.

Arcania Gothic 4 (Oct. 12 Xbox/PS3/PC) — This fantasy action game features 30 to 50 hours of gameplay as a nameless shepherd-turned-swordsman, archer or wizard trying to avenge the death of your family and friends by the evil king.

Arcania Gothic fans will be happy to discover the technical difficulties that plagued the game’s third installment appear to have been overcome, and the game should attract new players now that it will finally be available on consoles, as well (previous Arcania games have only been available on PC).

Fable III (Oct. 26 Xbox) — In the latest game in this open-world fantasy franchise, you return to Albion as the brother or sister of an evil king, and must convince villages to support your stand against him by completing many, many tasks. With an interesting if not exactly original story, an improved user interface, better-looking characters, and even better-looking graphics, Fable fans of the series will find much to like in this game.

The game will also be released on PC sometime in Q4. For more details, read my gameplay preview.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (Oct. 26 Xbox/PS3/Wii/PC) — The sequel takes place six months after the events of the first game, and once again follows the story of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice Starkiller as he searches for his love interest from the first game, Juno, and seeks to understand his identity after his betrayal by Vader.

The gameplay has been improved, but otherwise there doesn’t appear to be many major differences between Unleashed I and II.

Disney Epic Mickey (Nov. 1 Wii) — Battle enemies and the environment with paint and paint-thinner in this creative RPG platform game that emphasizes the mischievous side of the famous mouse.

But don’t let the Disney name fool you — with a solid user interface, and a morality system similar to the Mass Effect games, Epic Mickey is likely to be popular with kids of all ages.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Nov. 16 Xbox/PS3/PC) — The next installment in the excellent open-world action-adventure series set in Renaissance Italy picks up where the previous game left off, as Ezio goes to Rome to build an Assassin’s Guild to fight the Templars. While there are several gameplay improvements, the ability to recruit, train and equip assassins (including female ones!) is probably the game’s biggest change.

The multiplayer beta opens up on Oct. 4 to select PS3 gamers.

If you’re looking for even more games to play, check out these upcoming sci-fi/fantasy-esque games: Halo: Reach (Sep. 14 Xbox), Dead Rising 2 (Sep. 28 Xbox), Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (Oct. 5 Xbox/PS3) and Vanquish (Oct. 19 Xbox/PS3).

Sarah Warn runs EntertainHer.com. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

AS THE WINDY DAYS OF AUTUMN stretch out before me, as the leaves on the trees begin to turn to gold, I find myself thinking back on past experiences in my life.

Like the time I went wandering in the farmlands outside the medieval village of Tristram and unexpectedly came across that very vocal cow.

Or the time I infiltrated Area 51 in Nevada and poked around in that alien spacecraft.

Then there’s the time more recently, that emotional night in Ostagar, when my friend Duncan initiated me into a sect of mysterious Grey Wardens.

Wait. These were all things I only experienced while playing video games — in Diablo, Tomb Raider, and Dragon Age: Origins, respectively. They didn’t actually “happen.” How can I be nostalgic for something I only encountered in a video game?

Would my experience have been more “real” if it had been part of a MMO game — if I’d been interacting with other actual human beings online while doing these things?

The fact is, whether there were other living human beings around or not, I do feel nostalgia. When I think about these experiences, I’m flooded with fond feelings. And while I also feel fondness for books I’ve read and movies I’ve loved, it’s not quite the same feeling: with books and movies, it doesn’t quite feel like “I” was there, like it happened to me.

Here it does — because, of course, the experience was interactive. It did happen to me … sort of.

What is “reality” anyway? How are “other people” ultimately any different from cyber-creations, at least from my own subjective point-of-view?

Oh, boy. Best not to pursue that line of thinking too far.

There’s already been way too much written about the future of entertainment, how a Star Trek-like holodeck is the inevitable destination to which which we’re all furiously rushing, a virtual reality indistinguishable from “real” life — except, of course, that it’s way more beautiful and active and entertaining.

To hear many sci-fi writers tell it, our brains will eventually reject reality altogether, choosing instead the ever-increasing stimulation of the virtual world.

Island of the Lotus-Eaters, here we come!

Basically, Skynet won’t need to declare war on us, and the makers of The Matrix won’t have to bother plopping us into saline baths to power their machines. We’ll have long since surrendered to the cyber-void. The human race will end with a whimper, a virtual one at that, not a bang.

Depending on the day you ask me, I might agree or disagree with these predictions. But today I think: like any new media, the entire virtual experience is not “good” or “bad.” It’s completely neutral, merely a tool, to be used or misused based ultimately on the character and integrity of the human race.

Yikes. As Krusty the Clown might say, “Oy. That’s not good!”

The greater point is, we’re all fools not to acknowledge the massive, transformative change that is currently occurring in the human race — a change that’s centered on that Xbox (or whichever is your platform of choice) sitting atop your television.

Increasingly, I’m finding myself nostalgic for things that never “happened,” for experiences I never really had.

And that is simultaneously extremely cool and also, when you think about, kind of off-the-charts terrifying.

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