I never really stopped to think about it, but of course massively multiplayer online games are going to be introducing reproduced social systems to facilitate the open-ended gameplay they introduce; you have to have a mechanism in place that keeps players coming back to play.
You have to wonder though - and this is really an eternal question that rears its head occasionally - why do millions of people participate in artificial systems that have no bearing on their own physical well-being when they are merely unimaginative reproductions (well maybe there's a little imagination) of the same shitty social systems they are attempting to temporarily escape from?
People want to be admired. If their only avenue for growing in power lies in a virtual simulation, I suppose it is understandable that they would pursue it, as unfortunate as that is. But why is it that the most popular simulation in the history of video games is the one that treats the players with nothing but contempt? Just as the real world elites have done, which in turn produces this unappealing real-world environment that they feel the need to escape?
