Virtual worlds are luring a myriad of people hungry for living virtual lives that run parallel to their real lives. Virtual worlds are an industry by themselves with spectacular growth prospects, and many investors have already taken note. A prominent media firm, Virtual Worlds Management, which keeps track of the virtual worlds industry, has revealed that investors poured in $425 million into virtual worlds in the fourth quarter of 2007.

There is an emerging field in science dedicated to studying video games and their relations with society and modern life that is beginning to gain credibility. This field is called Video Game Studies and it involves specialists from different areas including psychology, computer science, visual arts and pedagogy. Professionals from several of these disciplines gathered more »