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U.S. sales of video games, which includes portable and console hardware, software and accessories, generated revenues of almost $18 billion, a 43 percent increase over the $12.5 billion generated in 2006

All video game categories experienced double-digit percentage increases

The image of the antisocial, sunlight-deprived game geek is enshrined in the popular consciousness as deeply as any stereotype of recent decades.

That’s changing. Online PC games in which thousands of players gab and explore together are attracting tens of millions of subscribers.

The list, released recently by the market research company NPD Group, highlights the soaring popularity of mass-market franchises like Guitar Hero and the Wii at the expense of critically acclaimed projects aimed at the same young-male audience the industry has relied on for years. (As recently as 2006, sales charts were covered with single-player diversions and sports games.)

It often seems that being clueless about video games goes hand in hand with being a parent. But a new site called WhatTheyPlay.com aims to give parents an inside scoop by going beyond the ratings and offering evaluations written by knowledgeable gamers — many of them parents.

The site’s database lists 16,000 games.

That ranges from Habbos creating their own  pretend shops to IMVU's emphasis on user-created content--Rosenzweig says that almost 100% of its 1.6 million items are user-created, seeing its top ten developers raking in $100,000 over the last year--to Three Rings' Whirled, which encourages users to build their own games from the ground up. The big question, of course, is how to monetize that content. In IMVU, said  Rosenzweig, creators "do what they do because it's cool, but they like making credits" by selling the items in world. That can then be cashed out through IMVU, which leads to 90% of its revenue, taking a cut while transfering IMVU credits to real world dollars. That user attitude is true of Dogster and Catster as well--users don't get a cut of the money generated by creating games around their items and boosting activity. They just enjoy creating and sharing. For Whirled, Three Rings is still experimenting with its business model for sharing and creating content.

“You can’t just make a book anymore,”

At the same time, Mr. Haarsma very calculatedly gave gamers who might not otherwise pick up a book a clear incentive to read: one way that players advance is by answering questions with information from the novel.

Spurred by arguments that video games also may teach a kind of digital literacy that is becoming as important as proficiency in print, libraries are hosting gaming tournaments, while schools are exploring how to incorporate video games in the classroom.