Last month, I learned what Dian Fossey must have felt like in Gorillas in the Mist, surrounded by mysterious creatures and unknown dangers, and yet compelled to edge ever closer. On my right in full costume was someone outfitted as an adorable, and somehow huggable, green hammerhead robot…in a dress. (I later learned she was in the garb of a Japanese video game character from Katamari Damacy.) At a table in front of me was a young man who just received a free copy of Far Cry 3 for letting Ubisoft, the gaming company, shave his head with a mohawk. Fans of the game also received permanent Far Cry inspired tribal tattoos. Yes. I said permanent. This digitally inspired menagerie was PAX East 2012, one the largest gaming conventions in North America, held in April this year and attended by tens of thousands of devoted gamers.