CHIBA, Japan — As the Internet continues to increase in complexity and social networking grows in popularity, game developers are working to utilize the full potential of these technologies.

"Social technology has fundamentally altered the means by which we communicate," Jim Crowley, president and CEO of Turbine, said during a presentation Friday at the Tokyo Game Show.

Crowley, whose company is a maker of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games including "Lord of the Rings Online" and "Dungeons and Dragons Online," said gamers born after 1995, whom he called the "born digital generation," are demanding more from their games. And he stressed that developers need to be more creative.

With a title of "The Collision of Virtual Worlds, Online Games, and Social Networking," Crowley spoke on the pros and cons of each of the three technologies, and how MMOs emerged where the three met.

Although social networks like MySpace, Flickr and Facebook have become the way to communicate and share news, he said they are limited in their ability to establish a strong community or sense of immersion.

Meanwhile, virtual worlds like Second Life and Google Lively offer an open environment encouraging user-created content, but lack a unified theme or sense of purpose, he said.

Finally, Crowley said that video games, while the most immersive and directed, suffer from a short life cycle and have limited community potential.

MMOs, with their large communities, immersive environments and long life cycles, lie in the middle of the three worlds, he said.

MMO 2.0

Crowley then presented a concept for an evolution in MMOs, what he called the MMO 2.0.

Crowley said the key to bringing the worlds closer together is to make games more "Web aware" by developing social networking directly themed around the content of a game. By creating a "MySpace for the game," he said, gamers can share information with one another in and out of the game, making it accessible to more people.

Maps of game worlds using Google Maps, game wikis and other knowledge bases created and maintained by the user are examples of this concept already being used, he said.

"The born digital generation wants to share," he said, showing off a new web concept being developed for the "Lord of the Rings Online."

The Web site, which will be launching in the fourth quarter of 2008, gives the user a place to post character profiles and stats linked directly from the game. It also has a space for posting blogs, screenshots and other information.

‘PlayStation Home’

Sony is also planning on establishing a stronger online community with its "PlayStation Home," which it displayed at TGS 2008.

An online virtual world, "Home" allows users to create a custom avatar that can navigate through a series of environments, depending on what they want to do.

During the demonstration, guests were able to change their avatar’s clothes and exchange greetings with one another in a virtual Tokyo Game Show before exploring other areas of the program.

Users were able to watch videos, chat with text or voice, or even play games in a virtual arcade, such as Namco Bandai’s "Pac-Man." They are also able to access their own custom areas which they can personalize with furniture and other accessories, including trophies earned in games.

"Home" is undergoing beta testing, and the release date for the final product has not yet been announced.

‘New Xbox Experience’

While the "New Xbox Experience" may not look at all like the sleek virtual world of "PlayStation Home," Microsoft says its update to the Xbox 360 represents a reboot of the console, from a software rather than a hardware perspective.

Scheduled to be launched worldwide Nov. 19, the new experience allows users to create avatars as well, which will be displayed along with a more detailed and accessible gamercard.

The traditional "blades" used to navigate the Xbox menus are gone, replaced by a series of cycling menus that link the user to games, downloadable content, gaming news and, for U.S.-based gamers, downloadable movies via Netflix.

Gamers will also be able to socialize more easily on the new interface as they now have the ability to gather online in virtual parties and games using text, voice and video chat.

Both the "New Xbox Experience" and "Home" will be available as free downloads.