Online games are perhaps one of the most popular types of games, a place where people meet on whole new worlds, create new characters and become entities that can grow into anything they like.

Quite obviously the first and foremost reason for playing an online game is to escape the hassle of life, to go into a realm that helps you forget your troubles, to liven up a boring day. This obviously shows that Online Games can be relaxing, because in online games there are no deadlines and no people you must answer to.

Online games can also be a place for socialising, they have vast communities and many have clans/guilds that you can join. You can go on hunting parties with the people you meet and improve your social skills.

One of the more commonly overlooked benefits from socialising on online games is learning new languages. Online games have many people from all over the world playing them, and although most online games are based on English it is still easy to find people from all over the world to brush up on your language skills with.

One of the more tangible benefits for playing online games is money. Although most online games have policies against real life for virtual trading, on World or Warcraft alone $1 billion is traded for virtual items. However only do this if it is within the rules of the Game, otherwise you can get your account banned. If you aren't too sure if it is allowed, don't try it.

All this said, there are many reasons for playing on online games, they are fun, can help you with languages and can do many more things.

Game List Online - An online list of internet games, these were the inspiration for the article.