Nice post. Can't agree more.
I have to say it's almost the same case in China, because we are both developing countries and emerging economies with a huge market potential (yeah, we have a huge population). When I was young, we don't have access to consoles or game disks or whatsoever but only crappy domestic games. What I was able to play was only pirated Warcraft III by Blizzard. Nowadays many of my peer college students know steam and copyright, and would not hesitate to buy the latest games.
Another thing that is bringing wider awareness is undoubtedly game streaming on Internet. Streaming business is booming in recent years in China. A wider audience and a loyal community are formed and this will definitely bring more people together to video games.