The Ultima Fans

Katrina & Michael O'Keefe and Marlin Stout

The Society for Creative Anachronism provided entertainment -- including medieval singing and battle demonstrations -- at the Ultima convention. "We try to re-enact periods between the fall of Rome and 1600, 1608 if we want ice cream for dessert," says Katrina O'Keefe (l), also known as Catalina Ana Desalamanca. Like Ultima fans, SCA members create alternate personas, but they use those to pursue flesh-and-blood re-enactments, rather than virtual adventures. "I've been on a field with 2,500 people," says Marlin Stout, aka Lord Charles McKinnon (r). "You have a line of a thousand people. For just a minute, you can imagine what a guy felt like at Bannockburn." Explains Katrina's husband Michael (center), "When you lose that mundanity of real life, you're sharing the dream."