Why do the tournament gamers show up in person, when the cafe’s almighty LAN connection (Web2Zone is the largest LAN center on the East Coast) exists entirely so that people don’t have to be face to face to compete? Andrew Ko, who has been a manager at Web2Zone for two years, half-laughed when I asked. “You have to defend your reputation,” he said. Which also means, I guess, descending from the game’s wonderfully Norsey universe of Azeroth to greet your earthling mates.

Web2Zone seems to have nice crowd; the manager tells me they only occasionally tell loud gamers to cool it. Customers regularly tell surveys they don’t need any more privacy than is offered by the workbench layout; they don’t seem to crave the cubicles and capsule rooms with bucket seats that are the pride of such spaces in Japan and Korea. “Half of the people who come here don’t have computers, or they have bad connections,” Ko told me. “The other half, they just like being in a public place. They like having the cafe within reach. Our regulars know each other.”

Participants in social networks and any kind of massive-multiplayer-online existence often feel suspended between total isolation at their screens and howling online crowds. The next incarnation of the cybercafe should take into account that people will pay not only for coffee and online minutes but also for the reassurance that in their cyberjourneys they might find traveling companions whose faces — in line for a Red Bull or a margarita? — they might even see. Finding a way out of isolation and into productive fantasy and social connection, without being eaten up by virtual swarms, may be the video game we’re all playing.

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Points of Entry

THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONS

WOWEE: On Nov. 13, Blizzard Entertainment will release World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Check it out at worldofwarcraft.com. “Such a game is not merely consumed, or even played,” wrote Seth Schiesel of the massive multiplayer game in The Times. “It is inhabited.” Are you ready to move in? Schiesel also recommends a new non-Blizzard game: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Warhammer evidently improves on the WoW formula with an interesting “public quest” framework that brings far-flung players together to accomplish shared goals.

ZONED OUT: Take stock of how gaming and Internet use has evolved since the first Web2Zone, opened in the U.S. in 2001, by checking one out (at 54 Cooper Square, with more branches said to be opening someday) and at Web2zone.com. The Counter-Strike 1.6 tournament is this weekend!

WORLD OF WEBCRAFT: Many of the visitors to Web2Zone are tourists, looking for a home away from home where they can print out plane tickets or send e-mail. Traveling? Fodors.com can find you a wireless hotspot almost anywhere and offers tips about staying online around the world.