Massively Multi-Player On-Line Role-Playing Games

Gaming, telecom and affinity groups have all merged to create an enormously popular new form of recreation, as well as an emerging shadow economy. We’ll examine what this will mean for business and society.

In 2001, an unknown 38-year-old academic named Edward Castronova was teaching at Cal State University in Fullerton, California, and feeling like a failure. His career had never gone anywhere, and he felt like he was at a dead end. He was so lonely at night he just sat around and played video games.