Exodus to the Virtual World:  How Online Fun is changing Reality

Posted by Rezwan on Jun 08, 2011 at 06:42 PM
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Exodus to the Virtual World:  How Online Fun is changing Reality

by Edward Castronova •

Is this where everyone is going instead of working on solving the fusion problem? 

Are we experiencing brain drain, losing valuable intellectual capital to the world of fantasy?  Edward Castronova warns that what we are experiencing today is a “Mass exodus to virtual worlds”. 

Amazon description:

Virtual worlds have exploded out of online game culture and now capture the attention of millions of ordinary people: husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, workers, retirees. Devoting dozens of hours each week to massively multiplayer virtual reality environments (like World of Warcraft and Second Life), these millions are the start of an exodus into the refuge of fantasy, where they experience life under a new social, political, and economic order built around fun. Given the choice between a fantasy world and the real world, how many of us would choose reality?

On a positive note:

As virtual worlds rise in popularity, they are bound to have effects on the way we live our real world lives. Dr. Castronova has put together a persuasive case that the real world may begin to model its institutions on games simply because the general populace finds them more fun. It’s an eye-opening tour through how virtual worlds are run, and why practical, enjoyable governance is very different from the systems employed today.
—Raph Koster, virtual world designer