Gaia Online

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Gaia Online (Owned by Gaia Interactive)
Type of co.	Website
Founded	February 18, 2003
Headquarters	Milpitas, California, USA
Key people	Site Founders: Derek Liu (Lanzer) Long Vo (VO) Josh Gainsbrugh (L0cke) Rosann Yip (Ling)
Industry	Internet
Revenue	Unknown
Employees	Unknown
Website	www.GaiaOnline.com

Gaia Online is an anime and games site. It was opened to the public on February 18, 2003 by Gaia Interactive, a group earlier known as AniHQ, consisting of Derek Liu and some of his business partners.

Users of the site, known as Gaians, are able to create a customizable avatar, for which they can purchase outfits using gaia gold, which is earned by browsing the site, playing games, and posting on the forums.

As the site is free, there are some ways the administrators have set up to gain revenue - these include Gaia-themed posters, shirts and hats. They also sell in-game collectible gifts.

[edit] Company Information

Originally the website was named Go-Gaia, but in May 2004 became Gaia Online.

In June 2006 it was reported that Gaia Online received venture capital funding from Benchmark Capital^[1] and Redpoint Ventures^[2].

The "goal", target audience, and theme of Gaia have been debated amongst users since its beginning in 2003. Originally, it started off as a resource website with a linklist, but it was openly stated by Derek Liu (username "Lanzer"), the founder, that the website was moving towards that of a social gaming one. It eventually moved forword to a chat based forum website, with millions of avatars created. It moves further ahead as time moves by. You can chat and meet friends at Gaiaonline. ^[3]

[edit] Basics

Each user can have one avatar per account, although there is no limit to accounts owned by a single user. Around 58% of users are 13-16, 26% in the 17-20 range, 6% around 21 and 24, 5% less than 12, and 5% more than 24. There are also some users over 60, although the age group isn't seen as often on the forums. ^[4]

Users can play mini games to earn different kinds of game currency, such as Gaia gold, casino tickets,university and bachelor credits. Other activities that earn gold include posting on the message boards with other users and entering contests in the arenas, or simply lurking on the site. Items are also received through 'Daily Chance' and random 'Rare Events.'

When making an avatar, the user can customize it by selecting gender, skin and eye color, and hair style and color. Hair style and color can be changed by paying Gaia gold at the Salon Durem.

When users first log onto their Gaia account they receive a starter set which includes four outfits and furniture (older Gaians started with just one outfit) as well as a small amount of gold. When a user has earned enough currency, they can buy additional items from NPC shops, or from other users via the marketplace. They can also choose to 'quest' until they have enough gold to buy expensive items. Gaians are also known to 'quest' for avatar art and even vitual pets.

Gaians can browse and comment each other's profiles, talk over private message, add people as friends, chat in forums, play various games, and explore and socialize in Towns.

Gaia has continually updated its site with new games, items, avatar features, and plot updates. Major plot events are usually accompanied by manga-style story-lines.

[edit] Popularity

As of 8 December 2006, Gaia is the largest English language forum on the Internet in terms of both users and posts ^[5], with:

Total Posts: Over 864,668,171
Registered Users: Over 5,259,641
Most users ever online: 68,141 on Thu Nov 01, 2006 5:24 am (PST, Pacific Standard Time)

Note that the number of posts on the forums is inflated dramatically by threads specifically intended for bumping, since posting is a method of gaining gold. This activity usually occurs in the Chatterbox subforum, created for chatting and hanging out, though also used for spamming and roleplaying.

[edit] Community

Gaia Online is a community in which users can chat with and contact each other by PMs (Private Messages) or in the public forums. As of August 2006, Gaia has 194 public forums.

[edit] Forums

The Gaia forums system is the most popular on the internet as of November 2006, according to BigBoards. Users can chat about serious topics in the Extended Discussion subforum, or about less serious topics in the General Discussion or Chatterbox forums. There are subforums for many things on Gaia, ranging from anime to digital photography to Linux, and many of the subforums are further subcategorized.

The Gaia gaming and Anime/Manga/Comics forums are quite active, as these topics are an integral part of Gaia, but even forums as far removed from core game topics like Computers and Technology have significant activity. Of all the forums, the Chatterbox may be the most active, as there are few restrictions on how often (or on what topic) a user may post.

[edit] Guilds

Users with similar interests can, by paying a certain amount of Gaia gold, create or join Guilds. Guilds usually revolve around a single theme, such as the Gaian storyline, or non-Gaian themes such as those for the fans of real-world celebrities or Anime/Manga lovers. Some guilds are dedicated to certain causes or goals, such as speculation on future plot updates, helping poor and/or new players, role-playing, and so on. There is no limit to the number of guilds a user can join.

It costs 20,000 gold to create a guild, but they can be bought used from other members. The message boards inside the Guilds can be made public so that everyone can write and read, private so that the public can read it but only members can post, or hidden so that only members can read and post in it. The Guild Captain can promote other guild members into Vice Captains or Crew Members, granting them administrative powers.

[edit] Private Messages

The PM System is a small email-like system - it works very much like the private messaging systems on other bulletin boards such as phpBB. Users can write messages to other users, receive and read messages from other users, save favorite messages in a savebox, and even block people that they don't want to come into contact with. Users can also send a message to everyone on their friendlist at once. Players may only use PM once they have confirmed their e-mail addresses. Many other activities also require this action, such as chatting in the game rooms.

[edit] Environment

The Gaian world is located on the planet Gaia (Gaia means Earth). On Gaia there are several towns all built on different themes: Barton Town (Medieval), Isle De Gambino (Tropical), Durem (European), and Aekea (Industrial). There are also several small areas between the towns, which might contain games such as fishing, or during special events such as Christmas events may hold surprises or rewards.

These areas are usually first introduced through plot updates that involve their "discovery" or "destruction". For example, the Barton Cliffs was "discovered" by the News Reporter NPC, Cindy Donovinh, during the plot update on April 1, 2006.

Currently the map is made of seventeen accessible areas, but the administrators have announced that more areas will be opened as time passes.

[edit] Gameplay

There are many activities that Gaians can do to enjoy their time on Gaia. For example, users can become collectors of rare and expensive items, or can submit their artwork in the Art Arena and have a chance of being rewarded for their creativity and skill. They may also enter their customized avatar in the Avatar Arena to win prizes. Some users may enjoy lurking or roleplaying, and others become owners of a minishop within the Minishop subforum.

[edit] Flash or Shockwave games

Most of the games on the site are Flash or Shockwave games, which require the user to have certain software installed on the computer. As of October 2006 there are 6 games on Gaia: Fishing, Towns, Word Bump, Jigsaw, Slots, and Cards, the latter two making up Gold Mountain. In each game users can win different items or currency. For example, in Gaia Fishing users catch fish and trash, which can be traded for hats and other fish-themed items. Gaia Casino was temporarily removed due to a US law prohibiting interstate online gambling^[6], but were brought back on a later date, renamed from 'Gaia Casino' to 'Gold Mountain.'

[edit] Item Collecting

Players can choose to collect items, since there is no cap on inventory space. Many Gaians collect rare, 'collectable', and event items. They may also collect insects, trash, and flowers from Gaia Towns, which can be exchanged for other items. Of course, a user can collect anything they wish - some users collect green items, some collect headgear, some collect avatar art given to them by other users, and so on.

[edit] Gaian Quests

Released November 16, 2006, The Quest System has been in the works since the site's beginning. The NPCs of Gaia place up a quest for the players to participate in. After each step is completed, a reward proportionate to the difficulty of the quests given. The first quest ever posted for participation is the New User Quest, in which NPC Moira explains the basic operations inside the site for new members; such as customizing the avatar, shopping, daily chance, etc. A bug in the Quest System forced the Administration to disable it for a short time due to it slowing down the web site, and was brought back in November 22, 2006.

[edit] Plot

The official Gaia Plot is presented in a manga-styled form, and is updated several times throughout the year, mostly at special holidays like Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. At many events the users are able to interact in the storyline by entering specially created Event Forums - for this they often are granted special items, though their interactions will rarely be included in the comic. Past plot updates have included:

Halloween 2004- A Resident Evil parody where human users had the option of shooting zombies, and Zombie users had the option of biting and infecting human users.
April Fools Day 2005- Showed the apparent death of the Gambino family, as well as their rivals, the Von Helson sisters, due to Gambino being shot by the mysterious Sniper.
The Return of Gino Gambino, The prelude to Halloween 2005.
Halloween 2005- a direct sequel to the previous Halloween, users captured zombified rabbits (Grunnies) until they became zombies themselves. The Gambino mansion burned down in the middle of the "festivities".
Christmas 2005- A feud between Jack, the spirit of Halloween, and Santa Claus.
New Years 2005- A Masquerade ball at which Gino kissed Sasha at midnight and Ian was arrested for arson at the Gambino mansion at Halloween.
The Trial of Ian- A courtroom drama giving backstory on the shopkeeper NPC on trial. It ended in Ian being judged not guilty and shot (but not killed) by the Sniper.
April Fools 2006- The Return of Johnny K. Gambino.
We Are not Alone, Prelude to Halloween 2006- while the NPC's survived the events of the last update, they unknowingly alerted aliens to their presence.
Halloween 2006- All users were able to transform into aliens by drinking Zurg (parody of Monster), and changing back into humans with Red Bino (parody of Red Bull) and, depending on their race, zap alien users, probe human users, and tip & probe cows. Gambino's mansion was rebuilt, and only the roof was destroyed.
Zurg Crisis/Alien 09 Attacked; Prelude to Christmas 2006- All users are able to help crack the code of a page mostly in the Zurg language [1].
Christmas 2006- As of yet to begin; Expect More Aliens.

[edit] NPCs

Gaia players on rare occasions may be included in the plot comic, but for the most part only the following characters appear.

Johnny K. Gambino, The "Most Powerful Man in Gaia". Brought back to life once. Famous for entering a Casino with one token, coming out and buying the Island. Creater of Red Bino.
Gino Gambino, the heir to the Gambino fortune. Is referred to as a prince, despite the fact his father has no official political power. He is in love with Sasha.
The Sniper. Not an NPC to speak of, as s/he lacks an account, but definitely a main character. A mysterious, black-caped assassin who fires from the top of the Durem clock tower at noon, s/he has shot Gambino and Ian, but killed nobody yet. Reasons are unknown.
Ian, Formerly The Shopkeeper of the first Shop in Gaia, Barton Boutique. He is also in love with Sasha, and was the Easter Bunny one year.
Rufus, Ian's talking cat. Currently looking after the Barton Boutique while Ian is away.
Sasha, the shopkeeper of Gambino Outfitters, a ditzy island girl. She's caught in a love triangle with Gino and Ian. During Halloween 2006, she went out with Liam, before discovering that he was already going out with Moira and Vanessa.
Moira, Sasha's best friend, and owner of the Durem Depot shop. One of Liam's girlfriends until Halloween 2006. Caused Mothership to come crashing down by pulling down the beam along with Sasha and the haircut lady, Vanessa.
Cindy Donovinh, Gaia's only news reporter. HQ in Barton Town.
Edmund, the bad-tempered shopkeeper of HR Wesley, who seems to be a friend of Gambino's, but may only be trying to use him as a ladder to power. One of the more suspect NPCs for being the Sniper, as he seems to have a military background. Part of the "G-Team".
Liam, the clerk for Crate and Apparel. He is an engineer and a flirt. Has/had multiple girlfriends, including Vanessa, Moira, and Sasha.
Labtech, an organization made up of researchers working for Gambino. All known are deceased.
Ron Bruise, a take on Tom Cruise. Appears to like the number 19. Supposed actor and all-round oddball. Been spotted talking to 09.
Mothership, the leader of the Zurgian Invaders. Seller of the energy drink Zurg.
UFOs. 13 NPCs role played by the staff of Gaia Interactive. UFO 09 had a love affair with a Gaian. He has been missing since just before the Halloween 2006 event. His disappearance is most likely due to the hostility of his brothers/sisters, UFOs 06 and 11, and the Mothership's secret plans. He might be the NPC, Alien Flarn [2]. UFO numbers 10 and 11, named Oomph and Sorn, respectively, have also gone missing since the release of the manga.

Minor characters include other NPCs, used mostly for depth and comic relief.

On occasion, NPCs may show up in actual forum discussions, such as Ron Bruise, a Tom Cruise parody, and chat with users. In a recent plot, multiple UFO NPCs appeared to scan and chat with users in the Towns game. A popular area to get scanned is at 1919, where aliens usually come to hang.

Ironically, the most serious updates seem to occur on April Fools' Day, and usually result in all of Gaia appearing as if it had been destroyed.

The administrators seem to make certain theories become reality if they are popular enough. One example of this is the 19 Theory of Halloween 2k6, proclaimed as the most interactive event ever.

[edit] Monthly Collectibles

A Sealed Envelope.

Gaia is a free website, and could not profit by simply putting ads up. Early on in Gaia's history, it was funded by its administrators and advertisement revenue. The users suggested that a donation system be set up to help cover the site's expenses. Shortly afterwards, the donation system was created. When someone donates money to Gaia, he or she receives an envelope item in his or her inventory. Earlier in the month, the item is called a "Sealed Envelope", and can neither be equipped nor opened. Later in the month, the Sealed Envelope becomes a "Thank You Letter" for that month, and can be "opened" to grant the user with one of two "Monthly Collectible" items only available that month (December 2006 Thank You Letters have three items instead). The item can be bought and sold using Gold like any other item. Typically, the older a monthly collectible is, the higher its value, due to the principles of supply and demand.

Main themes in Monthly Collectibles include:

Hats named after internet slang terms, such as OMG, AFK, OMFG, BTK, and ORLY?
Plushies of animals, such as kittens, dragons, yetis, robotic canines, puppies, and monkeys.
Anime-inspired items, designed to look like things such as Sora's Keyblade and Naruto's headband (itself based off historical items).
Contrasting versions of the same item, such as Lunar and Solar, or Angelic and Demonic.
Weapons, like swords, staves, katanas, and armor.
Items that once belonged to legendary Gaians, such as a Wind Security Blanket, and the Elegant Veil.
Items with reference to real-life celebrities and icons, such as the Chyaku Norisu (Chuck Norris) Scarf.

[edit] Shops

In addition to the regular NPC shops, players can open their own shops in the Gaian Marketplace to sell items to other users. In the NPC shops users can only purchase common items, whilst in the user-run shops users may also be able to find rare, donation, and event items. The NPC shops are:

The Barton Boutique, previously run by Ian, currently run by Rufus, his talking cat . This shop sells most basic items.
Barton Jewelers, run by Agatha. As the shop's name implies, this shop sells jewelry. Users used to be able to engrave a message on to them, but this feature is no longer available.
Barton Flower Shoppe, run by Rina. This shop doesn't sell much, but can exchange flowers for equippable bouquets.
Gaia Guild Network, run by Leon. This shop sells users a private forum, otherwise known as a guild, for 20,000 Gold.
The Ole Fishing Hole, run by Old Man Logan. This shop sells Fishing items, such as bait and fishing rods. Fish can also be exchanged for hats and other accesories.
Gambino Outfitters, run by Sasha. This shop sells clothes, which are often tropical-themed.
Gambino Hat Rack, run by Ruby and Peyo. This shop sells items such as hats and costumes. Paper trash can also be exchanged for hats.
Gambino's Gold Mountain, run by Lex. This shop sells tokens for the casino games.
Prize and Joy, run by Becky. This shop sells casino-themed items for Tickets, won in the casino games.
Bank of Gambino, run by Meredith. This is where all transactions between users are carried out.
Durem Depot, run by Moira. This shop sells modern-looking clothes. Bugs can be exchanged for ink here.
H.R. Wesley, run by Edmund. This shop sells formal clothes such as tuxedos and schoolgirl outfits. University Credits can be exchanged for school themed clothes here.
Salon Durem, run by Vanessa. This shop can change user's hair for a fee.
Crate and Apparel, run by Liam. This shop sells mostly urban-themed clothes.
The Faktori, run by the robots Bildeau, Bludeau, and Ribateau. This is Gaia's only furniture store.
Aekea Housing Commission, run by Josie. This shop gives each Gaian a free home, and permit to place it in Gaia Towns. It also sells upgrades to homes and land reservations.

[edit] The Arenas

The Arenas are competitions, similar to Rate-me sites, in which Gaians can enter their Homes, Avatars, and Artwork to be rated from one to ten by other Gaians. Since users make gold by voting and commenting, people vote as spam.

[edit] Avatar Arena

The most popular arena, it is an avatar costume contest. An avatar poses on a small stage and other Gaians rate it from one to ten. The Avatar arena is more often than not a contest to see who has the most creative avatar and matching description. The winners are usually exceptional cosplays, well-coordinated outfits, or make inventive use of items. Many users, however, rate 10/10 for other users in hopes that they will be rated a 10 in return. Because of this, plain avatars receive unusually high scores.

[edit] Art Arena

The second most popular arena, users submit their art for rating. Most of it is fan art, but Gaia accepts all fantasy or anime related entries. The art arena used to house a monthly art contest where users could win rare medals, but it has since stopped. Users now enter simply for the fun of trying to make it to the top ten, getting comments on their work, and getting higher ratings.

The last Gaia art arena Fanart Contest ended in September of 2003. The contests were based on a user-picked anime. The first prize was the Gold Medal. This is given out to the top rated picture of the contest. It is currently the rarest item on gaia, as it is not likely to ever be given out again. A gold medal has never been sold on the market place, and its value is unknown. The silver medal is equally rare, and given to the second place winner of the contest. The third prize is the bronze, which was given out to the remaining 8 winners in the top ten. It is less rare because more of them were given out at each contest.

Right now the status of the future of the Art Arena is unknown. The admins have mentioned changing around the system, and maybe making new prizes for a contest in the future.

[edit] Housing Arena

The third arena functions in the same way as the other two arenas, rating interior design of Gaian homes instead of art or avatars. New in 2006.

[edit] Criticism

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While the administrators have announced that Gaia Online is in the Alpha stage of development - there's no set time frame for Gaia to become Beta, however it has been mentioned in forums that once the battle system is implemented that the site will move on to Beta - and as such glitches of varying degrees of annoyance should be expected, there still is often criticism of the amount of time it takes for various glitches to be fixed. The long wait is probably due to the relatively small staff and often lack of correspondence between users and staff.

One example of this is the clothing glitch that occurred as a result of a new implementation for the avatar system. Some combinations of clothes layered incorrectly, with items appearing behind the avatar when they should be on top, and parts of clothing or hair becoming invisible. Although those that made avatars appear naked have been corrected, there are still many glitches. At times users can be seen with green splotches or highlighted outlined areas on their avatars. Other times, when an item has several poses, a player can equip it twice, despite only owning one.

As a result of the avatar update, the actual models of some avatars have been physically altered. While the administrators said that they will create a tattoo parlor with the old body styles for sale, this feature has yet to be forthcoming. The facial features with the greatest alteration seems to be the male style 5 eyes.

Many criticisms stem from the donation item system, as many users complain that the items that are given to Gaians for donating physical money to the site rise in gaia gold price far too quickly. (For example, the "KiKi Kitty Plushie", a donation item that started off as 3,000 gold in March 2005, has, as of November 2006, reached a minimum value of roughly 130,000 gold.) The administrators have refused to put a price cap on donation items, preferring to let supply and demand run its course.

Other criticisms taken from the Gaian Boards include:

The reward of large amounts of gold for voting in the avatar system, coupled with a glitch, caused poorly thought-out avatars to win with improbably high averages. (This glitch has been fixed^[7])
Constant delaying of features. For example, the battle system, which never had a set release date.
Features being taken down due to a glitch, and never being put back.
Slow connections due to the servers being swamped by user participation.
Reduced gold given out for posting in the forums, commenting on profiles, and voting in the polls. Apparently, it was a glitch that these features gave out too much gold to begin with.
Inflation allows proportionately fewer people to afford avatars with rare items.
The quality and type of role-playing on the site is generally low. This does not, however, deny the existence of some serious games, but does note the disturbing possibility of sexual material. Moderators do work extremely hard to combat this by deleting threads and banning users.
Sometimes features are made available, but then removed because of cybering. The personals listing and Hangouts (private, two person chat rooms) are the two main examples. Since cybering was already a widespread problem, the time spent on coding and implementing such a thing could have been better used elsewhere.
Low moderator to users online ratio, hence, trolling often goes unnoticed.

[edit] External links

[edit] Official

Official Gaia Online Website

[edit] Extended Information

[edit] Creator Interviews

[edit] References

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