I currently have my own version of the holographic room, it's called World of Warcraft . Yyes it is a computer game, but it is the most compelling game I've ever played (and my game playing goes back to Pong). 

I get to choose who I am in the game, sometimes I smite evil as a beautiful woman with horns, hooves and a couple of glowing swords. Sometimes I'm an unattractive zombie who is trying to rise above her evil beginnings. And sometimes I'm a gentle healer who happens to look like a bipedal bovine.

The environmental detail in the game is amazing, down to being able to see your characters breath when you are in a cold area. There are snowy mountains, dank swamps, beautiful beaches, tiny villiages and big, bustling towns.

There is so much to do and so much to explore in the game. I once spent an entire afternoon swimming and fishing and watching butterflies.

It's also fun to sit in one of the major cities and people watch.

If you can't tell I'm a wee bit obsessed with the game.

Hi Bambipi, it's good to meet another gamer here. I've quit playing everything but WoW, it takes up much too much of my computer time.

I am a social player, so I spend most of my time in WoW chatting with people. (I chat while I quest or farm) The new ingame voice chat is wonderful. WoW makes me feel more connected and social and not as lonely. Here are a couple of examples:

I have a character I use as a bank alt and I hadn't signed on to him for a long while, when I finally did I received a whisper from a player asking if I was OK. It turns out this player, whom I had never talked to or ever met, was worried because he hadn't seen "the little guy" around and missed him.

I also met a couple through my job who play on the same server and when I mentioned my character's name the wife said, "Blue Draenei Warrior" and the husband said "Purple tabard, yellow 'x'". Which is a pretty good description of my toon.

I did some research and found out there are about 30 of us who live in the same area who play on the same server and we try to get together in real life every couple of months.

Nick Yee has done some brilliant research on the psychology of MMOs. If you haven't visited his site you should. I find the site fascinating.

I think you would find his thoughts on Imagining Future Worlds interesting. It is about virtual worlds, which is what the holo's are all about.

I saw a Star Trek film once where the captain used the holographic room to create a tommygun, and then shot some guys with it for real