Being a parent means saying goodbye. As stepfather to a 17-year-old, Katie, I am bracing myself for the day she says her final goodbyes and steps out on her own. I know there’s a whole new world out there waiting for her.

It’s most likely World of Warcraft. She tells me all about her current game, Warcraft III.

“In that one you have a hero and a town to start off with, and you have to build up a town and train armies to go and complete some set of quests, whether it’s wiping out a particular person on the enemy side, or whether it’s finding an object or something to get through this big storyline,” she said.

See, my stepdaughter is a gamer.

She doesn’t play any online role-playing games yet. But the warning signs are all there: hours at a time spent in her room fighting fairies and demons on her computer, bookshelves filled with Pokémon game guides and fantasy books with dragons, elves and vampires, my Internet browser history full of IP addresses for free online games and anime movies.

Now she’s chomping at the bit to break her avatar out into the Internet universe. And she won’t be alone.

The Internet has taken role playing games (RPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons off the game board, said Mitch Weis of Wild Things Games in downtown Salem. By being on the Web with animation and soundtracks, these games have become much more appealing to a broader spectrum of fans.

“You get to do the same thing, create your characters, and build them up,” Weis said. “[But] it’s pictured, everything goes on in front of [players], instead of having to think about it.”

“Or use their imagination,” Chris Peacock, Weis' co-worker, said.

An estimated 11.5 million worldwide currently play World of Warcraft. It is what is known as a “massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG).” Somewhere, someone right now is online, playing. The game never ends, and it’s not just for kids.

“It’s like [ages] nine to dead,” Peacock said.

“You get to meet people all over the world,” Weis said. “The social aspect of the online gaming is really where it’s at.”

For many, playing is addicting. For Katie, who regularly downs a 500-page book in one day’s time, MMORPGs are just as compelling.

“You wouldn’t want to stop reading a book halfway through and just say ‘Oh, I’m done, I don’t feel like going back to it anymore, at all, ever,’” she said.

There are others, as well, like Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare, Left 4 Dead 2, and Team Fortress 2.

MMORPGs are going mainstream. Gaming companies now routinely advertise on Comedy Central, Versus and Spike, during football games and ultimate fighting bouts, and with celebrity spokesmen like Mr. T and Ozzy Osbourne. It is a far cry from the stereotypical basement at mom’s house.

“Look at all the movies coming out,” said Isaac Guzman, manager at Borderlands Games, referring to fantasy-themed blockbusters like the Twilight saga and Avatar.

At Borderlands, there is a local-area-network computer game room, for individuals to connect over MMORPGs. The shop also sells trading card games and traditional board-based RPG equipment, and has a larger conference room where gamers can get together for tournaments in traditional board-based RPGs like Warhammer or Dungeons & Dragons, or in trading card games like Yu-Gi-Oh! They also screen anime movies. The store gets a lot of business, Guzman said.

Seventeen-sided dice, warlocks, wizards, and anime: Could it be a sign that what was once considered geeky is now, possibly, cool?

“Times have changed,” Guzman said. Gamers now come from all walks of life.

“Some of the cool kids that were picking on the nerds actually take the time to learn what they’re doing, then they get into it,” Weis said.

At Wild Things Games, anyone from kids after school to state employees during lunch traipse through the door, Weis said. Even Pokémon has had a resurgence; some card sets can actually go for $2,000 to $3,000.

As far as gaming being socially accepted, however, the jury may still be out.

“There is some stigma,” Weis said. “It’s gone away for the most part. But with high school kids, [it’s] their fear of being ripped on.”

That’s the appeal of online games, according to Weis.

“Everybody can sit at their computer, and not have any face-to-face interaction, not have that fear of rejection, ‘cause they can do it at home,” he said.

Of course, in Katie’s social circle, the answer seems much more nuanced.

“It’s not geeky to play it,” she said. “It’s considered geeky to tell other people that you play it.”

There’s a lot of different people playing them; nobody wants to admit that they do, though.”

For her, the RPG world is a place to get away.

“I play games for the same reasons I read books, which is the whole escape thing,” she said. "Sometimes being in high school can be pretty stressful.”

At Borderlands, she showed me a game based on Lord of the Rings. Battling for Middle Earth, she guided Lorien archers into the woods to battle Orcs. As the battle sounds of snorting monsters and clanging swords swelled, suddenly Katie was prompted to select a spell from something called a “palandir,” which resembled a drop-down menu.

One of the spells: “Enshrouding mist – Become stealthed.”

On becoming “stealthed:” In an intimidating, stressed-out world, there’s something awfully appealing about a spell that can hide you away.