It becomes an interesting exercise when we start looking for things to which we might affix the label 'escapist.' One can argue that a novelist, for example, is in some respects an escapist since he creates an artificial world that his characters inhabit, but that sort of pursuit rarely, if at all, gets labeled 'escapism.' If anything, it's hailed as an artistic triumph, provided the work has some redeeming value.
But then, I know some guys who slave over their campaign worlds to the point where their creations might be called novels unto themselves. The realism is that intense, and yet, unless the world gets published, the players are the only ones who can appreciate the extent to which the DM has worked on such a world. His audience, and feedback, are limited to those who participate in the creation.
I sometimes have players that insist on such realism in the games that I run. They get annoyed if wolves run side by side as opposed to single file. They measure the distance they have descended and comment that a ceiling couldn't be as high as I've made it out to be since they were only X number of feet underground, and so on. All to which I reply, 'lighten up guys, it's only fantasy.'
But different players have different expectations from a campaign, and it's hard to know what players want unless you ask them. Some are just in it for the beer and pretzels, some come to solve problems, while others look for ways to circumvent game mechanics. Some are there to make friends. Some might be there to escape. The motivations are many, and hard to know.
I play when I can these days, but like many around me, I find my time grows thinner and thinner. I spend less time constructing worlds than I once did and when I do find a bit of time to really stretch out and work some magic, I usually devote that time to other people in my life. If anything, I enjoy lying back in bed at night and dreaming up a few encounters before I fall asleep since that's one of the few moments in the day that I'm really alone with my thoughts.
