It is sometimes difficult to a imagine a world without online gaming, and yet World of Warcraft (WOW) for example, which is the most popular multi-player online game with over 10 million subscribers as of November 2011, was only launched in September 2001. So barely ten years after it started it now has about the same number of subscribers as there are people living in Portugal!

These can be both a lot of fun to play, and also incredibly useful to the players. Because increasingly online gaming is moving out of the realm of the boys locker rooms, and into the realms of the mainstream, with large amounts of women coming on-board to online gaming in all manner of ways that are not related to sports or battle simulations. In fact, approximately 41% of gamers are now reckoned to be female, which is an amazing statistic when you consider that the image of online gaming is still very much reflective of a Dungeons and Dragons perception.

Online Gaming

However online gaming extends well beyond simply fantasy kingdoms or WOW types settings. Games based on real adventures are also becoming increasingly popular. These games can not only be fun, but also educational in nature. For those of us who have often fantasized about being power stock traders on a daily basis there are websites like www.fsxindex.com, which is a fantasy stock market trading website where people can use virtual money to buy and sell shares in American sports teams. There is huge growth in these types of virtual trading games that allow people to trade the fantasy stock market without having to gamble real money while learning the nuances of trading online.

World of Warcraft is part of the online gaming phenomenon that has become part of mainstream home entertainment

Online gaming for adults has really come on in recent years with the release of different virtual trading systems and true to life scenario games which have increasingly brought new demographics, who wouldn’t remotely think of themselves as gamers, to participate in these fantasy worlds.

The virtual trading environments are interesting, because in a very real sense they perform a dual function. They certainly are practical, because they allow people to experience trading on the stock markets, without ever actually having to risk any real funds. However, don’t let the educational aspect take away from the fact that the number one goal for these and any other types of online games is to deliver fun to the participants – regardless of whether they are adults or kids.

Something that has not gone unnoticed on social network websites, like Facebook, is that a great number of people login on a daily basis to not only network with friends and colleagues, but also to play online games. Companies like Zynga have created a huge following (and revenue) by introducing their online games to Facebook users, which a lot of people admit to being addicted to playing them.

The future of online gaming is bright, and whether you want to play World of Warcraft or participate inVirtual Trading on Fantasy Stock Markets, the fact is that only gaming is here to stay. And it’s only going to get bigger.