As the former head of NickJr.com, Kyra Reppen has experience with bringing offline brands to the online world, which could be growing trend in the virtual worlds industry.

As for the construction of the site, it is created by the staff at Neopets Studio offices in Los Angeles and Singapore. Reppen said, "All of the artwork is created in Flash from sketch to character design to small animations. It's all done by our artists. Something that is really special about Neopets is that our artists actually have a lot of input into the creative. Because it's in Flash, there is a real speed to launch, so an artist could pitch, sketch and launch something within a day. Our studio approach is to be as nimble and as quick as we can while obviously maintaining a high level of quality. It's both a challenge, but also a great opportunity."

With a great deal of feedback from users about what new features they like and dislike, Neopets is able to keep the users happy by adjusting to their desires. This idea moves over to the company's deals to take the property to offline media. Reppen commented, "I think the goals and mission of the site have always been to be responsive and to service the community. First and foremost it was about making a great virtual world and a great game experience."

When asked about finding a balance between the nonlinear online world and the more story driven world of movies, Reppen said, "We have 54 species and within those species there are hundreds of variations. There isn't any one specific character or pet species that jumps out as the lead or the star of the show. On the other hand, all those species and characters on the site have backstories and have a rich lore. I think it's possible to pick components of the world… and develop that out. These are all things that we are grappling with and trying to figure out." And when asked would they poll their fans to see what they want, Reppen responded, "Absolutely."

As for the future of online communities, Reppen said, "The whole virtual world community is in its infancy and has huge, huge potential for growth. I think we're just on the tip of the iceberg in terms of different technologies and different ways communities can create their own communities. New levels of gameplay and whole ranges of roleplay. It's an incredibly exciting time to be in the virtual world biz."

Habbo's Huuhtanen sees the future of online worlds making the jump to mobile phones. The company is already in talks with European cell phone providers to bring the virtual world to teens via their phones. This will allow users to bring the social network with them wherever they go.

Huuhtanen also believes that virtual worlds have the potential to help all segments of the entertainment industry whether it's taking offline brands into an online web community or providing more virtual products within existing virtual worlds such as digital band posters or movie inspired bed sheets.

About the future of online communities, Fisher said, "I just see it growing and growing in every direction. In my opinion anytime another social community is successful, it's a better situation for Urbaniacs."

And in terms of whether this new form of entertainment is going to kill older mediums, Fisher added, "TV isn't going away. Kids still want that passive experience. People still want to sit on the couch with some ice cream and just be entertained. But I think, more and more, they are seeking an entertainment experience that is also interactive. So if any social community has enough of an audience, you can begin to generate content that melds that passive experience with an interactive experience."

Rick DeMott is the managing editor of Animation World Network. In his free time, he works as an animation writer for television. His work on the new series, Growing Up Creepie, can be seen on Discovery Kids. Additionally, he publishes movie reviews at his blog, Rick's Flicks Picks. Previously, he held various production and management positions in the entertainment industry. He is a contributor to the book Animation Art as well as the humor, absurdist and surrealist short story website Unloosen.