Yep -- it's the online gaming secret that dare not speak its name. Diablo II, despite its meticulously rendered dungeons and groovaliciously vile undead, isn't aimed solely at gore-meisters obsessed with the efficient annihilation of Hell-spawn. This state-of-the-art offering from Blizzard -- one of the best game design studios in the business -- is really a cleverly camouflaged forum for clothes shopping and runway stuff strutting. I mean, come on -- when you finally get your hands on the Arctic furs that complete your Arctic-wear ensemble, dealing death and destruction to that bitch-demon Andariel becomes kind of an afterthought.

No wonder Barbie Fashion Designer rocked the gaming world way back in 1996. Dressing up is fun! Even in the original Diablo, a lot of the excitement came from choosing imaginatively and artistically designed war-gaming gear that you could either purchase or find deep within the dungeons -- helmets, full-body armor, weapons that both looked good and had magical properties. Diablo II raises the ante. Never before has an online game offered such a lovely panoply of ready-to-wear battle accessories.

But one does wonder: Do those in a world full of would-be Necromancers, Paladins and Barbarians -- some of whom display a tad more testosterone than is normally considered acceptable in your finer fashion boutiques -- understand that they are plunking down their hard-earned dollars for a chance to hang out at a department store? Let's not even begin to get into the cross-dressing issues associated with gender-bending Amazon and Sorceress role players who are certain that the "Rugged Amulet of Excellence" makes a perfect complement to the "Glimmering Chain Mail of Amelioration."

Clothing retailers and fashion mavens everywhere should take note. Gamers are all too often stigmatized as antisocial, trigger-happy teenagers unhealthily enraptured with murder and mayhem. But if Diablo II's popularity is any guide, the gaming population may also represent a hitherto-untapped market for purses, cowboy boots and opera gloves -- provided these items come adorned with the proper gothic/get-medieval-on-your-ass embroidery.

Blizzard Studios' original Diablo, released in late 1996, was a compelling Tolkienesque evocation of Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy role-playing that helped online multiplayer gaming come of age. The second offering in an impressive string of Blizzard hits that included the real-time strategy games Warcraft and Starcraft, Diablo made online gaming easy and fun. As a result, Diablo II, long delayed from its supposed 1998 rollout, has been as hotly anticipated by the game-playing public as any new release this side of Quake II.

First-day-sales reports and the huge rush to play the game online -- which Blizzard's Internet-accessible network Battle.net was woefully unprepared to cope with -- suggest that Diablo II is a worthy successor. Without a doubt, it is the hottest game happening in cyberspace at the moment. One gamer noted that the number of players logged in to Everquest servers seemed to have dropped significantly since Diablo first appeared in stores at the end of June.

Such a drop may be temporary. There are few gaming breakthroughs in Diablo II -- the genre is not being revolutionized. Diablo II still doesn't display the kind of in-game narrative creativity that would truly capture the open-ended Dungeons & Dragons feel. And while the nonplayer characters built into the game aren't quite as brain-dead as their counterparts in the first Diablo, they also aren't exactly what one might call paragons of artificial intelligence.

But few gamers seem to care. Diablo II is everything Diablo I was, and more. There are more quests, monsters, dungeons, skills and spells. And best of all, more accouterments!

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