Wandering Roads

I spent the weekend wandering over the roads of Azeroth. I've been trying to figure out what separates the roads in World of Warcraft from the roads in the real world. I think that placing the real road against the virtual one will reveal interesting ideas about the nature of both, although I am concentrating on the nature of the virtual one.
First, I tried to come up with a few basic points to build off of:

1. Machines travel on the roads
2. It's a path that players follow
3. Promotes a tourism of sorts
4. safer than the pockets of wilderness
5. does it allow reflective, thoughtful travel?
6. builds community

Alright, now I've got to see if I can't break these down, and who knows maybe I'll come up with more.