IMHO, we will end up back in the old BBS days of the 80s except it will be Internet style BBS communication, if this shattering occurs but don't fret too much. There is yet another glimmer of hope on the horizon. Keep an eye on the upcoming 3D computing environment and virtual technology.
I presume you are referring to Open Croquet? http://www.opencroquet.org/ That is merely an application that runs on the Internet, one of many applications like browsers, email servers, IM clients, P2P apps, etc. The political games regarding who can and cannot charge fees for running "official" DNS services have hardly any impact on people communicating over the Internet using a wide variety of applications. ICANN is not and never was the Internet government. Fortunately, it seems to have caught the attention of the get-rich-quick crowd and the resulting ruckus has distracted government players from what is really going on in the Internet. By the time they wise up, it will be too late because the Internet will be such a diverse and slippery fish that no one will be able to grasp it, not even the regulars on this list. --Michael Dillon