What keeps kids engaged in Club Penguin are the range of child-oriented activities available, the sense of community, and the items, outfits, and pets they can acquire and show off to their penguin friends. The same holds true for residents of Second Life, with the added draws of creating content, adult-oriented entertainment, and the possibility of earning real-world money through their virtual businesses. Habbo Hotel is much like Club Penguin, save for its teen-oriented themes.

For all three of these virtual spaces, the key component is finding friends, something that seems to be more difficult for adults to readily do. Children and teens have proven to be more socially gregarious, so it's easier for them to talk to virtual strangers and make a bond. One of the ways to get people interacting with one another is through a shared experience, and a great way to achieve this is through the context of gaming.

World of Warcraft currently claims a subscriber base of over 11.5 million users. If we look at WoW as a virtual world held together by the context of players adventuring together -- providing that shared experience -- then we can start to see what an all-encompassing virtual space might resemble.

It's no secret that people who spend a great deal of time interacting with each other online value the anonymity of having a virtual identity. Not only does it provide a safety valve for those wary of talking with complete strangers, it also allows people to exercise aspects of their identity they might otherwise have to suppress in their real lives. Avatar customization is a necessary component of the All-Net Virtual Community.

Adding to that, the ability of users to form and join ad-hoc activity groups -- similar to WoW pick-up groups -- for any number of endeavors, from shopping to questing to content creation, fulfills another important component of the ANVC. There would also need to be an always-connected instant messaging service, both voice and text; a robust and secure method of commerce; and ubiquitous accessability. In short, the ANVC would have to offer everything that real life offers, but with the added benefit of enabling everything fanciful, ridiculous, or impossible to achieve in mundane reality. Things will need to look and act more like games do.

Those who are currently growing up with the 'Net in place will already be dreaming of how things could be more game-like. Let's face it: we've gotten things to the point where the Internet is in a usable state, but visiting websites and accomplishing transactions don't provide the same thrill that games do. Right now, a great portion of the 'Net surfing audience is also involved in frequent casual gaming. If we could marry the two, turn regular surfing into gaming experiences, we'd be one step closer to the ANVC. Imagine a reality in which you could take your favorite WoW character out of Azeroth and into a highly immersive amazon.com product page, where you could interact with 3D, functioning replicas of real world objects. Receiving an IM from a friend, you could teleport over to a Last.FM-like site, and mingle with concert-goers as they dance to the latest hip-hop release. Or even conduct a business meeting while riding your epic mount, taking time to watch the live feed of the State of the Union address as it streams over the 'Net.

Neal Stephenson's vision of what a future virtual community might resemble galvanized many of our leading 'Net architects at least into thinking about what such a thing might be like to build. One thing that has proven true time and again is that sometimes things come into existence simply because people want them to. What I've outlined above certainly isn't that far-fetched compared to some of the scenarios I've read in various publications. What stands in the way is a lot of technical and design work -- as broadband becomes increasingly ubiquitous (not to mention whatever high-speed protocol supplants it) and this generation raises the next generation of digital citizens, we'll find new ways to make our everyday 'Net experience more fun and engaging. Less like work, and more like a game. Now is the time to start thinking about what you want the future to be, because it will be upon us before you know it.