The real world just doesn't offer up as easily the carefully designed pleasures, the thrilling challenges, and the powerful social bonding afforded by virtual environments. Reality doesn't motivate us as effectively. Reality isn't engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn't designed from the bottom up to make us happy.

Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World (ed. Penguin, 2011) - ISBN: 9781101475492