"Aww, man. A tank just ran over me. Who did that?"

From across the room, "I just ran over, like, 12 of your guys with my tank."

"Ooo, I got a tank now. You guys might want to get out of the way 'cause I'm not stopping this tank. Oops! I just ran over my own troops. Sorry about that, guys."

At Gamerz Lan, half a dozen young teenagers sat at the computers, each trying to control a soldier from a simulated battle straight out of World War II. It was Allies vs. Axis, one side of the room pitted against the other.

For more than a decade, gamers have had LAN parties, where they gathered in basements or bedrooms to connect their computers through a local area network, or LAN, to play different characters in the same game. They can battle against each other or team up to fight a common enemy.

But the idea of trying to run a business off such events is new to Alaska. At least two such enterprises have cropped up in the state; both are in Anchorage. Gamerz Lan opened in October in Anchorage's Russian Jack Plaza. Vortex, located in South Anchorage, opened about two years ago.

"The multiplayer aspect of computer games hasn't been explored in Alaska yet," said Gamerz owner Ty Bate. "There's the competition and playing among others. It's a good alternative to sitting a home and playing in a room."

The gaming world is fast overriding other forms of entertainment. U.S. computer and video game software sales grew 8 percent in 2003, to $7 billion - more than double industry sales since 1996, according to a recent study by the Entertainment Software Association, the organization that rates games. In 2003, nearly two games for every household in America were sold.

By comparison, 2003 movies sales reached $9.5 billion.

Computer games are drawing some of that major Hollywood talent. Movie actor Vin Diesel recently opened his own computer programming company and released a game based off his sci-fi series featuring the character Riddick. British actor Christopher Lee - most recently known for roles in "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones" - will lend his voice to a main character in EverQuest II, an online role-playing game.

Bate, a hardcore gamer since the early Pong days, used to get his family and their computers together to play the role-playing game Dark Ages of Camelot. He even got his mom hooked.

"She's got some amazing characters," he said. "I'd connect with her and we'd play the game together. I'm a gamer, and I like to get people excited about games."

Gamerz and Vortex each have 30 computers made specifically for gaming. High-speed Internet connections allow for smooth game play and local servers allow players to save their games to continue their adventures later.

"When you're playing here, you know who you're playing against," said Vortex's Ryan Michele.

Gamers pay $5 an hour for access to nearly two dozen computer games. Vortex also offers Playstation and Xbox games.

Communal gaming started as parties

A computer generation ago, Nathan Elliott and a small band of like-minded geeks were the hosts of Alaska's largest LAN parties. Beginning around 1996, Elliott and four other friends first networked their computers to play Doom, a first-person shooter game.

Working for GCI, Elliott and his friends had backgrounds in computers and networking, important aspects of connected gaming.

"It was cool to play in one room and play against each other," he said. But they wanted more.

The next year, they set up in the attic of a print shop owned by a friend's wife. Some 20 people showed up to play Quake. Then, in 1999, in the basement of a strip mall off Dimond Boulevard, they got serious.

Elliott and his friends rented tables and chairs for a 60-player LAN party. Everyone brought their computers and played all night long. "We just fronted the money and then basically passed the hat around at the end," he said. "We did OK, but we decided we needed to get more organized."

Soon, they found a bigger space, set up their own servers, instituted an entrance fee and found some sponsors to offer prizes for drawings and tournaments for a two-day event. A gamer-friendly chef volunteered to cook. Nearly 100 players showed up.

"It was a lot of fun," he said. "But the problem was that by then there were so many new games that everyone wanted to play something different. We figured that was probably the best it was going to get."

It was the last official hosting of the Insane LAN Parties. But their legacy lives on as Bate and others start looking for profits.

Game centers draw a diverse crowd

At Vortex recently, 22-year-old Sam McIntyre sat around three computer screens that showed a slightly different view of a forest scene from the Dark Ages of Camelot, an online role-playing game based on a Dungeons and Dragons concept. He clicked a button and his main character conjured a spell to take over the mind of a giant salamander to do his bidding in a quest to find better armor for one of his Dark Ages characters.

A pharmacy technician in the real world, McIntyre frequents Vortex about four times a week in his continuing battle to rule the Camelot. He prefers the LAN center to playing at home because his 2-year-old computer isn't powerful enough to run the newest games he wants to play, and upgrading gets too expensive, he said.

It's not just the stereotypical geeky kid that plays games, the Entertainment Software Association study showed. The average gamer is 29 years old. The majority of those surveyed said they exercise, vote and keep up with current events. Some 61 percent said they participate in some type of religious activity for several hours a month.

Multi-player online games are also in higher demand. Some 43 percent of those surveyed say they played games online one or more hours a week last year, up from 31 percent in 2002.

Gaming is also a fast-changing industry. People get bored with the games after a few weeks, so developers and sometimes players release modifications that are available through online downloads. Modifications use the same basic concept of the game but offer some alterations, such as new weapons or levels. Sometimes modifications offer an entirely new game to play.

"That was one main thing I didn't anticipate when I started this," Bate said. "There is constant updating and constant downloading. And you can't do that while you're in business (hours), it takes up too much bandwidth."

The constant change is why Michael Carmen plays at LAN centers.

"I don't have a computer, but I come to the LAN center because they have updated machines and games," he said. "You come here, there are nice computers with good Internet connections. I've been playing at LAN centers for years."

And LAN centers are a safe place for kids to hang out, Bate said.

"It's interesting, the younger kids start getting mouthy and the older ones tell them they don't need to do that," he said. "The older ones mentor the younger kids on the games, too."

Now 22 years old, Carmen said he used to get into trouble for playing games to much. "I'd ask my parents, 'Where do you want me to be, out with my friends drinking or doing drugs or playing Counter-Strike?' Kids don't get into trouble playing games."

"We get a lot of parents who come in saying they appreciate that their kids can come here, and they know they're not going to get into trouble," said Vortex's Shanon Rowsey.

Teambuilding exercises

Bate plans to start offering a Counter-Strike league, which he wants to be similar to a bowling league. He'll have coaches to help improve game play, and then he'll have play-offs and tournaments.

"We'll keep stats on the games," he said. "Then give trophies for the most improved, the most kills, that kind of thing." He's thinking of having the league meet on Sundays, just after church.

Bate said part of his business plan is to encourage businesses to consider Gamerz for retreats and teambuilding exercises.

"I worked a corporate job for 20 years and my bosses were always looking for teambuilding exercises," he said. "They'd take us go-cart riding or fishing every year. I think this place will be good for that kind of thing. They want to build teamwork and to break the tension, don't they? What better way to do that than blowing up bad guys?"

PHOTO/Melissa Campbell/AJOC