On that kid's screen now is a dozen noble warriors of exotic races, brandishing elaborate weapons and charging a gigantic demon across a fire-scarred mountaintop. The dwarf next to him is controlled by an accountant planted at his own computer in Cleveland, two babies sleeping in the next room and his pregnant wife on the sofa. The robed priest in the back casting healing spells is actually a 250-lb. ex-gangster, playing from the computer lab of a maximum security prison in Pennsylvania. The elf on his left, sprinting and drawing his mighty magical bow, is the digital body of a wheelchair-bound 12 year-old girl in Miami.
This is why MMOs own all, they force you to completely break down the barriers of superficial individualism for a common goal. When normal life is put aside, for chances of adventure, our preconceptions of the human race become obsolete. I figure MMOs will eventually dictate another reputation and psychological evaluation we are labeled with, as this guy also predicts.
Let's say a habitual shop lifter is forced to sit in jail and play an MMO where he/she has to be a cop, and the only way he leaves jail is if he/she keeps a small town safe from crime for a month, or he/she faces a couple years in jail. During this month, he/she has to accept the opposite of his crimes, which is preventing crimes, and realizes the reversed view of his/her crimes. I believe the experience could deeply affect this person on many levels, both subconsciously and in his/her social reflexes.
