Oh! The BBC must have been reading this blog (ok, maybe not). Take a look at this series of pictures: Online gamers unmasked. The players talk about their motivations for playing – mine would probably match those of Bae Kyun-Eun (the first player) – I like the social aspect of MMORPGs best.
The focus is interesting – the author looked at players of Lineage and City of Heroes. CoH lets you create characters with superhero qualities. For example you might be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, or paralyse people with your death ray, things like that. M played this one but I never have.