What will be the social andmoral impact of World of Warcraft 20 years from now?

[Joseph G]

I do not believe an entire generation will be negatively affected by WoW. In fact the inverse will happen.

First here are some numbers:
In December 2008 1.8million players played World of Warcraft averaging 744min of playtime per week or just under 2 hours a day. Compared to the national average of TV watched per week 28 hours (nearly triple of what the average WoW player)

Now as far as the term "generation" you'd be surprise how this game bridges age and sex gaps. Most people think someone who plays WoW is a pimple faced kid or a loser living in his moms basement.

The fact of the matter is that the average age of the male player is 26 while the average age of the female player is 33. Over 50% of WoW players work fulltime and 36% are married and 22% have kids. (If you want more stats on WoW and other MMORPG's look up the Daedalus Project).

As a closing note people who play MMORPG's meet people from all walks of life. There is nowhere else where you can bring 10, 25, 40 people together have them all focus and work together to achieve a goal with no guaranteed reward other than the satisfaction of completing it.