I haven't been around here much the past coupla days. 

I've been playing Harry Potter on my laptop.  Yeah. Me.  Playing The World Of Haprry Potter, which includes The Sorcerors Stone, Chamber Of Secrets, Prisoner Of Azkaban and the Quidditch World Cup.

It's addicting, I tell ya.  I've been casting spells and tossing around cornish pixies...using rectusempra on doxies and fire crabs, I've been bitten by tentaculas, duelling with Draco (and handing him his ass on a platter) and flying around on my Nimbus 2000.  I've even been chased by a stinky mountain troll, and I've been busted in the Slytherin common room when the polujuice potion that made me look like Goyle wore off.  I even managed to see off numerous boggarts posing as dementors.

I'm now starting to understand the allure of World Of Warcraft et al.  I know that most of the gamers who read this article will say something like "pfft.  Harry Potter?!  Kiddie stuff!", and yeah, maybe it is.....but you know what?  I LOVE it, and I've never been a big video game fan.  And.....I want more.   

I'm at the end of the Chamber Of Secrets game.  All I have to do is whup Aragog's spidery butt and I'll have beaten the game (with NO cheats, I might add).  I'm almost done with the Sorcerors Stone, and I'm about halfway through with Prisoner.  Quidditch is okay for a little light fun, but I'm not really into it.  I much prefer the role playing, puzzle solving, challenge completing kind of game. 

So, I'm going to be on the lookout for some new games in the next week or so.  Does anyone have any suggestions for me?  Bear in mind that I'm relatively new to this so I don't want something that's going to be incredibly hard to play - I'll just get frustrated with it and won't play it.  I was looking at a cheapo version of The Hobbit the other day - the BX has it for $8 so I cn't really go wrong with that....but I wanted to tap into the knowledge of all you experienced gamers and see what game you would recommend for an almost-but-not-quite n00b.  Like I said, I like the role playing games where you have to complete challenges in orer to move onto the next level.  I'm not really into shoot-em-up kind of stuff, but I do enjoy things like pixies and trolls and gnomes etc etc.

I really do understand why you gamers are the way you are now.  Before I used to look at you and wonder what it was that you found so attractive about playing some computer game.  To be honest, I used to question your social skills....

...now, however.....now I'm beginning to understand.