Charles Babcock, Information Week, recently wrote a piece, "What's the Greatest Web Software Ever Written?". Great article. After nominating World of Warcraft to #9 (of 12 - and it's heady company), he explains:
"...[M]uch has been made of a three-dimensional virtual world known as Second Life. For my money, more significant examples of 3-D virtual reality can be found in massively multiplayer online games, which offer playful, real-time activity where the actions of one participant affect another. The possibilities in terms of training people to complete complicated team-oriented tasks seem obvious. The godfather of this genre is Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft. Introduced in 2004, World of Warcraft's 8.5 million rabid fans--3.5 million in China alone--put Second Life's 6 million registered residents in the shade."