OK, in case you need numbers to justify your several hundred hour WoW investment, here we go. Online Video games now generate more cash than other forms of digital entertainment including music and video. So I guess that makes you/us cool in the eyes of… well, someone, probably. Such games made $3.8 billion last year and are projected (by Strategy Analytics, a company known only by those two to three tax brackets above me) to pull in nearly $12 billion by 2011. MMOs and an increase in digital distribution (like Steam) are said to be the main reasons why the sector (I guess it’s now a sector) is expected to grow so rapidly.

Games outselling music and video in online entertainment markets [GamesIndustry.biz]