It's Time
In addition to all the other things you're doing, it's time to start spending part of your life in virtual worlds. No longer — never again — can you go to a serious online conference and not know what it's like to have relationships with other avatars. Joi will be a Level 60 soon in WoW. Millions and millions of people in Korea and China are waaaay ahead of you.
More importantly, beyond getting your competitive juices going, it's becoming clear that the talk about virtual worlds is very similar to the talk about the internet in 1995. Something very exciting is going on. If you don't want to be a space miner or an orc, that's fine — go create things in SecondLife (free accounts!) or There. Try fooling people in Eve Online ('the largest online game in the world').
The next move (as Richard Bartle suggests) will be towards open source worlds that you form on the fly for your friends. To get ready for all of that, you'll need to put in your time. Starting no later than now.