What's the point of a virtual world anyway?

I've never been a fan of the "virtual world." I thought that creating a virtual world itself would offer no purpose to your every day life. Though the more I think about that I realize how wrong that thinking is. People often describe gaming as a way to escape their world, they enter a "false" or made-up world so that for a short time they can escape the difficulties that surround them. Adding to that, gaming in general takes us away from our fears and our disappointments, whether it's reaching that next level or simply "winning," these small achievements help us cope with other things that may be crappy in our life. I think that all video games nowadays are actually virtual worlds, whether it's a sports game where you control the players, a fps where you're killing the axis in the world war, or even Hello Kitty Island Adventure (south park reference), they all take us to a place that we could not go to realistically.
I'm finding the virtual world, along with helping us find an escape, also is a place to experiment things that you're scared to do in life, or couldn't do otherwise. Whether it's living your dream as a sports star (I love being able to break 50 on the world's best golf courses in the Tiger Woods series), or even living a second life as a person of the opposite sex, I think video games are key in opening people's eyes to different experiences that they would not be able to get otherwise. Think of the possibilities that video games could mean for the world...a game that would easily let us step into the lives of someone from the middle east, or Europe, or anywhere to help us understand their culture. Or even a market simulation to figure out the best ways to help the economic downturn, who knows?