Huddled masses.

A really long time ago, my grandparents on my mom's side jumped on a boat, emigrated from Europe, and arrived in New York city. And stayed there. Later, they met each other, married, and raised their family. They passed away.

I never had the chance to ask them why they came here to the United States. Economic opportunity, freedom, the weather, who knows? Whatever it was, the urge to leave to a supposedly better place was strong enough to pack up whatever was important and light enough to fit in their trunks.

I promise, this is about gaming. I'm getting there.

The perception was that the grass (or the cash) was greener on the other side of the pond.

I've been wracking my brain lately, trying to figure out why the urge to immigrate to online worlds is so powerful. World of Warcraft just broke 2 million subscriptions, world wide. The penetration of virtual worlds is only going to increase. Why?

A couple reasons come to mind.
-The market is now truly global. Where the U. S. and Korea have sustained the MMORPG market until now, more and more countries are becoming wired. Language is also becoming less of a barrier.
-Costs of broadband are decreasing.
-Subscription models are becoming obsolete. Guild Wars is an excellent example of this. I've friends that will spend hundreds on a variety of games, but refuse to spend a single cent on a game with a subscription model.
And here's the big one:
-Folks are realizing that television has very little to offer in comparison.

To this day, in the U. S. at least, the masses are huddled in front of their flickering screens, living vicariously through the pretty people. We are a nation of escapists. And up until now, we've been limited to escaping through the lives of other people, projected through phosphor windows.

In games, the escape is personal. It's a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, with no ending. The escape is better and fills the empty places of our lives more fully.

Gamers are tired of real life. We're tired of school, taxes, nagging, work, debt, illness.

We're tired of falling short in our jobs, our relationships, our everything.

Do I stress over my student loans, or banish hordes of undead? Do I struggle with homework, or lead my guild of 100 people in a wild raid on our foes? Do I work late to please my boss, or log in and mine ingots of solid gold, gold, gold?!

The huddled mass of gamers is emigrating from a country of mediocrity to a New World, where the grass only gets greener when you upgrade your video card. The money is beginning to flow into these worlds. Lives will be sustained from it. It's happened already.

Reality is losing its luster. Whether the migration is positive or negative, it's happened. More and more folks are moving in, calling VWs home.

And soon there will be no reason to leave.