MMO's : Social or anti-social

Please note this is my view on it, based on my experience over the last couple of years...

I am an avid World of Warcraft player.
I am also not totally obsessed with it, being able to limit my time on the game and also some days just generally not feeling like logging in.
That being said, I also understand that there is a level of addiction involved.

I have read horror stories on the interwebs of people losing family, getting divorced and generally dropping the ball in all aspects of their lives. And this seems to be the focus for anti MMO groups.
But bear in mind that there are at the moment almost 8million players of this MMO alone across the world. Not all of them have destroyed their families and lost their jobs.

I am now in my fourth year playing World of Warcraft, and for me, it is an escape. An escape from a stressful reality, with a demanding job. Please understand that I am not saying no one else has a demanding job. Everyone copes with the pressures of work and life in different ways. Some drink, or smoke. Others go to gym, or cycle... play sports... I think you get my meaning.

Some of us like to use this game as our escape.
The escape does come with a sense of achievement, as does any other activity. I understand that the games are designed with this sense of achievement built in, that is how we come back to it day after day.
But it doesn't change the fact that we feel good when we play the game.
And this is where it gets tricky.

It is a game...

And this is where things fall apart a bit. I know a few players that immerse themselves so much that it takes over. And with that comes anger. Anger about other players. And new players. About small things going wrong...

But I digress. This is more about the social aspect of MMO's.
I am certain that almost all MMO players have made friends along the way. Some friends stay friends in-game only. Some become real life friends. I have made friends this way, and value them as good friends. People I can trust.
This in my opinion means that the game is not anti-social. Almost all "tasks" in the games are geared towards pooling resources and working in groups.
I suspect that the anti-social viewpoint is from people who do not play these games. They see a person sitting for hours on end in front of a PC, plugging away at something that is meaningless to them.
So, from that aspect it could be anti-social, but in game we have friends, we talk everyday. I dont have to see them in real life to know who they are. I also think that it has more of a social aspect than "social" media. The MMO forces interaction, which is good.

I think that is enough on this subject, and I will wrestle with this question a bit longer.