Where are we headed? 'The World' not far off?

With the newer MMORPGs out there, (WoW, ROSE, and Everquest 2) we've witnessed yet again another technical advance in online gamming.

Online games are providing more and more people with escapes from reality, and they don't have to be alone in these new realities either. Many players can meet, group together, chat, fight or quest together, or even fight eachother. But are they real enough? And are they headed in the right direction?

I'd speculate that within our life time, games and online games will become simmilar to the technology used in Star Trek referred to as the 'Holodeck'.
Or in another way, users might be able to put on a headset that allows them to log in to a whole other reality, using their brainwaves to fool the senses into thinking your actually there.

The World of .Hack may not be that far off. :p

Should we even be trying to do this kind of technology?
Its most likely that technology will only get better, and as a result will eventually lead to this. Or is it?
Actually I have a few points I would like to get opinions on... one being, should we go there... but I also want to know how you think we will get there? Are we heading in the right direction, technology wise?

My thoughts:
In my own way, I enjoy games like ROSE and RO... and I dislike them too... the reason being, the graphics style/idea is very appealing to me, and I enjoy the gameplay... but they still don't provide the realness I'm looking for.
I've started to do a little research on online play, and I have found that another (maybe dissapearing) option to this, is text based... yea, I never thought I'd be looking back at text based games... but MUD text games do have their own unique way of providing an escape from reality. By their nature, MUDs are not graphics based, but use descriptive text to allow users to create their own graphics, using their mind.
Unfortunetly, this wonderful form of gameplay, is dying out... like D&D or even to an extent, books in general...
But maybe descriptions can get us farther than we thought? Maybe a world can be created, in out minds, by describing it, not with words, but with the language that our brains communicate to the senses with?
Think of a tree... you can picture a tree in your mind, right? So this is a simple way to demonstrate how the brain might be used to make a game. In a more detailed way, brainwaves could be used to tell the senses that your not sitting in your chair, in front of the screen... but your in a whole new world... Each object in this world could be described to your brain, in the same speed it takes you to visually see a world in RL, because its just bypassing your sense of sight, and sending signals to your brain directly. And if I tell you to think of a palm tree, your brain has a 'stereotypical' image of one already there, because you've probably seen what one is supposed to look like... Maybe that could also be used to create these worlds?
^_^ These are ideas, I am using on a (slowly) progressing story I'm writting.lol

But anyway, I just wanna hear what other people think about the future of Online Gamming.
Is 'The World' of .Hack possible... or can a Holodeck be the escape everyone is looking for?
Should we even be doing this? Are we heading in the right direction, in technology?
What do you think? ^_^? Am I totally wrong about something? (go ahead and correct me!)