I just got back from the GAMES 2006 conference in Portalegre, Portugal (a really beautiful place). There I presented my MA Thesis as a shorter paper, examining whether war exists in MMORPG and what we could learn from it. The abstract:

Most online games let players fight each other, but this fighting does not constitute war. This article explains why it is not war, how games can be designed for war, and how online games can be useful for the academic study of war.

Read the conference paper, or read the full-length MA thesis on virtual war.