In these challenging times, they have become an escapist's dream. Online subscription computer games allow players to control a character - or 'avatar' in the parlance - explore the landscape, fight monsters and complete quests. Players can study for professions such as tailoring, mining, cooking and first-aid, while characters can form or join guilds and clubs.
Activision Blizzard's World of Warcraft has taken the gaming world by storm, making its creator the most successful gaming studio, with 11m paying subscribers worldwide and revenues topping $1.34bn (¡ê875m). It is by far the most popular 'massively multiplayer online role-playing game', wow gold as internet pay-for games are known by the gaming community.
"That is a big number for an Icelandic company. It is, after all, the size of our population," says the game's creator and CCP Games' chief executive Hilmar Veigar P¨¦tursson. "We are selling escapism and escapism seems to be in demand at the moment. The online gaming industry is booming in the same way as Hollywood boomed in the Great Depression."
The 300,000 players come from 230 countries, with 40pc from the US, 40pc from Europe and just 1,000 from Iceland. The game is relatively unknown to those outside its 25-30-year-old male demographic, as it is promoted purely through word of mouth and select websites.
CCP's revenues soared 25pc to $46.5m in 2008 and it forecasts revenues of $55m in 2009, as users have leapt from 240,000 to 300,000 since the beginning of this year.
The group was named one of Europe's fastest growing digital companies, winning the 'Vision and Future Growth Potential' award at last week's prestigious Media Momentum awards, judged by a high profile panel including Lastminute.com founder Martha Lane-Fox.
"Eve Online is set in the future. It is pure escapism. The game is its own economy, like [virtual world] Second Life. However, while Second Life is seen by many as being too close to the real world, our game is pure escapism," said Mr Veigar P¨¦tursson.
The graphics are film quality, with players piloting ships resembling the Starship Enterprise through a universe comprising 5,000 star systems. They form corporations, participating in in-game professions, such as mining, manufacturing, trade, exploration and combat. They can even buy shares.
"The Russian players are particularly good at the military aspects of the game," he says, adding that each nationality has its fort¨¦.
While Mr Veigar P¨¦tursson, the company's former chief technology officer, was instrumental in creating the game, he does not get time to play it. "Being chief executive of a virtual company on Eve Online is a full-time job. I can't find the time to do both," says the former University of Iceland Computer Science student. While he says a lot of people at the company ¨C which has 400 employees in Atlanta, Shanghai and Reykjavik - play the game, the group has strict "insider information" rules for employees.
Mr Veigar P¨¦tursson says, with more professional males in the 25-35-year-old age range losing their jobs, he has seen the number of subscribers soar since the economic crisis began. wow gold CCP Games has been profitable since 2004, but all profits are currently being reinvested in Eve Online and also into creating World of Darkness, a new online subscription game about vampires targeting an 18-25-year-old, female demographic.
Fashion and design will play a key role in the game and the group has employed two supposedly well-known Icelandic fashion designers to create virtual "gothic-style" clothing for avatars. The group is hiring 100 more people in the next 12 months ¨C including producers, animators and economists ¨C to create its new virtual world.
Despite the fast pace of growth, Mr Veigar P¨¦tursson is happy to remain independent. He says the group has regular acquisition approaches and has no grand plan for an eventual stock exchange listing. "We are profitable and we see value in being independent," he says. "There is a lot of innovation that has yet to take place in this space."
