I was thinking today that perhaps what accounts for the exponentially rising number of people who join massive multiplayer online games in recent years is the fact that it gives us a reality of that lie our parents told us. Remember being very young and being told that hard work pays off, if you put in time and dedication you can have everything, and remember believing it? I guess it's hard to crush a child's dreams and tell them that in reality you're either born a winner or into a family of winners who will carry you, or you're pretty well going to toil away in obscurity for the rest of your life and undeserving fuckwits will have rights and privelages you can never earn. ah but in the world of online gaming, the lie is not a lie at all. Indeed, your hard work does pay off. you take away from games precisely what you put in. with enough hard work and dedication you can go from a nothing to a god. While in real life you're stuck with whatever physical prowess you're dealt and working hard at improving yourself will never give you the advantage over those with natural ability, in games you can become a great warrior by training hard. everyone in games truly starts out equaly and everything that hapens to them is dependant upon thier choices and efforts. things still go wrong, but it's never unfair. It's satisfying to see something turn out for your hard work, even if at the end of the day you still have to be treated like shit and sell your soul in real life. Of course there are always cheaters. Just like real life.