The Next Superpower Won't Exist.

I recently read a news story that really got my imagination going. It was the story of a player in the game Eve Online. This player robbed one of the game's virtual banks, and exchanged the online game's currency for real world money. You can read up on the story here
One of the things I found most interesting about this article was the mention of the University of Indiana study that studied the real world value of online game world economies. Everquest for example, had a higher GDP than Russia, and a currency that was worth more than the Yen. The average Everquest player earns $3.42 per hour once their 'credits' are converted.
It occurred to me that given this information, and the rapid advance of technology and social networking, that the next superpower won't be an actual nation or state, but rather an online world...a hybrid combination of WoW meets Facebook meets Twitter or some such 'place'.
It just remains for someone to dream it up. I should have gone into programming instead of networking. (smacks palm against forehead!)