Exodus to the Virtual World How Online Fun Is Changing Reality

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 (likeWorld of WarcraftandSecond 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 aroundfun. Given the choice between a fantasy world and the real world, how many of us would choose reality?Exodus to the Virtual Worldexplains the growing migration into virtual reality, and how it will change the way we live--both in fantasy worlds and in the real one.

Edward Castronova is the author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games, he has been featured in such media as 60 Minutes, NPR, and The New York Times. He is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Telecommunications at Indiana University. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana.