Gaia Online
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| Company type | Website |
|---|---|
| Industry | Internet |
| Founded | February 18, 2003 |
| Headquarters | Milpitas, California, USA |
Key people | Site Founders: Derek Liu (Lanzer) Long Vo (VO) Josh Gainsbrugh (L0cke) |
Number of employees | Unknown |
| Website | www.GaiaOnline.com |
Gaia Online (formerly known as Go-Gaia) is a forums-based website. Opened to the public on February 18, 2003 by Gaia Interactive, Gaia first began as an "anime linklist with a small community,"[1] but it was openly stated by founder Derek Liu (username "Lanzer") that the website was moving towards that of a social gaming one.[2] It eventually became the chat-based forum website it is today.
Users of the site, known as Gaians, are able to create a customizable avatar for which they can purchase items using virtual currency, which is earned by engaging in many site activities.
Gaia Features
Gaia Gold
Gaia Gold (or simply gold) is the unit of currency on Gaia. Users may be granted gold through virtually any feature on the site, including posting in the forums, playing minigames, or leaving comments in user profiles (personal pages granted to each user).[3] Users may then use gold to purchase in-game items through shops run by NPCs or by trading with other users, either directly or through the Gaia Marketplace, a system of bidding on, buying, and selling items in a format similar to that of eBay.
Forums
Gaia Online's forums system (which, according to www.big-boards.com, is the largest on the Internet [4]) is a phpBB2.xx -based collection of message boards which give users the opportunity to post their ideas, engage in discussion, chat, or post nonsense. Gaians may roleplay in a storyline of their own, or interact with NPCs. Gaia is home to many main forums, which are further divided into subforums. Users' posts usually appear in a speech bubble next to the poster's avatar.
Gaia Online's forum system also includes a private messaging system. The Private Message (PM) system on Gaia is a small e-mail-like system based on phpBB, the software the forums system is based upon.
Guilds
Users with similar interests can create or join Guilds, or private, user-moderated forums. Guilds may be based upon the discussion of a certain topic, or just a place for friends to chat. Some guilds are dedicated to certain causes or goals, such as speculation on future plot updates, helping new players, or role-playing. Guilds can be made public, so that everyone can post and read; private, so that the public can read but only members can post; or hidden, so that only members can read and post in the guild. The Guild Captain (the user who "owns" the guild) can create entry fees and promote other guild members into Vice Captains or Crew Members, granting them administrative powers.
Games
All of the games on the site are Flash or Shockwave games. As of February 2007 there were six games on Gaia: Fishing, Towns, Word Bump, Jigsaw, Slots, and Cards (Blackjack), the last two making up Gold Mountain. In each game users can win different items or currency that can be traded in for items. For example, in Gaia Fishing users catch fish and trash, which can be exchanged for fish-shaped hats or clothing made out of trash.
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 quest is given. The first quest 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 on November 22, 2006. Only one quest has been offered since the Quest System reopened.
Monthly Collectibles
Originally, overhead costs for Gaiaonline were paid by the administrators' personal funds and by advertisement revenue. In June 2003, however, Gaiaonline released its donation system. This system allowed users who donated money to the site to receive items known as "Sealed Envelopes" in their inventory. At a certain point during the month (originally the 25th day, now the 15th day of the month), the Sealed Envelope disappears from the user's inventory and is replaced by a "Thank You Letter" for the month in which the user made his or her payment (for example, a "Thank You Letter for August 2004"). Users are then able to "open" these virtual letters and can choose one per letter of two online items to be granted to their inventory. Recently, during months with special events (Valentine's Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, possibly others), they will allow add a third item to the list of items the user may choose. These items are known as "Monthly Collectibles" and can rise up in value significantly due to their popularity. The value of certain collectible items, for example, can jump from a few thousand Gaia Gold, to numbers in the hundreds of thousands in no more than a few months time. None of the monthly collectibles can be bought in NPC's stores, although users put them for sale in the user-run Gaia Marketplace, or "The Gaia Exchange" forum created for the buying and selling of GaiaOnline items between users. The Monthly Collectibles were once known as Donation Items, before the admins were forced to change the name due to certain circumstances.
The Arenas
Gaia Online features multiple Arenas. These Arenas are 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. Up to 50,000 gold (the online currency of Gaia) is given out to the top ranking each week.
Avatar Arena
The Avatar Arena is similar to a costume contest. A user may dress their avatar up with their own items and at the cost of a specified amount gold to enter and have it rated by other Gaians. The Avatar arena is more often a contest to see who has the most creative avatar and matching description; however, some users may rate a ten out of ten of other users in hopes that they will be rated a ten in return. User comments are also allowed to offer compliments or suggestions, but commenting and voting gives gold so the system is commonly abused as with other areas of the site. -
Art Arena
The Art Arena is the only arena that does not have an entry fee. Users submit their art for rating to try get it to the Top Ten and get feedback on their work. The Art Arena used to give out rare medals to the winners but that has since been removed.
The last Gaia art arena Fanart Contest ended in December of 2006. The contests were based on the latest update in the Gaia plotline (link below).
Housing Arena
Introduced in 2006, the third arena functions much in the same way as the other two arenas by rating the interior designs of Gaian homes instead of art or avatars.
References
- ^ "Interview: Derek Liu, Gaia Online Anime Community". big-boards.com. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
- ^ Announcement of Link List removal
- ^ "About Gaia Gold". Gaia Interactive. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
- ^ "Forums Rankings". www.big-boards.com. 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
My user name on gaia is The Lob btw ttyl.