At the Web 2.0 Expo we had someone (cannot recall her name) who is an “Alternate Reality Game” designer talk at one of the keynote sessions about “Happiness Hacking”. The talk made little sense to me as did the Wikipedia entry on Alternate Reality Games (of course, I’m a pretty simple minded person).
Seems like people are going to great lengths to essentially escape from their real lives and live alternate, “happier” lives. Given how much time and money some people spend on these fantasy games and how “happy” they feel, it seems like we’ve got ourselves some new forms of hallucinogens that are legit, plus you don’t need to smoke, snort or shoot up 😉