Gaia Online
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| File:Gaia-logo-red.gifManagement (CEO)[1][2][3] | |
| Company type | Corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Internet |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Headquarters | , |
Number of employees | 60 [4] |
| Website | www.gaiaonline.com |
Gaia Online (pronounced /'gaɪ.ə/ Online) is an anime-themed forums-based website. Originally named "Go-Gaia", it opened to the public on February 18, 2003[5] by Gaia Interactive. Gaia originally began as an anime linklist and eventually got itself a small community[5] but after a statement by founder Derek Liu (username "Lanzer"), the website moved towards social gaming.[6] It eventually became the forum-based website it is now. [1] Big-Boards.com reports Gaia is the largest forum on the Internet[7][8] with over a million posts made daily,[1] over a billion posts total,[1] and over 2.5 million unique users each month.[1][3] Gaia also won the 2007 Webware 100 award in the Community category.[9]
Users of the site, denominated as Gaians, create a customizable avatar and a customizable virtual home for which they can purchase equipable items using what it's called Gaia Gold. This virtual currency is given to the users after engaging in some of the website activities, like playing a series of Flash games or the regular posting inside the forums; the site also rewards users everyday with random quantities of gold and items with the Daily Chance feature. Since October of the 2007 Gaia released a new kind of currency denominated as Gaia Cash that can be bought at Rite Aid or Target stores.[10]
Special events
Gaia holds various special events during the year, ranging from special comic updates to holiday celebrations (Halloween, Easter, Christmas, etc.). During the time of the event, the users take part of an always active storyline of local plots (in occasion, the users even get to vote upon the plot outcome) and in multi-user interactive games. These events also reward gaians with virtual conmemorative items according to the user participation during the time it lasted.
The time of an event duration is usually of one week though some are known to have been around for more.
Forums
Forums are public message boards that users use for everything ranging from regular conversation to roleplay and to even in-depth discussion. Gaians are free to either make their own thread, or to join an existing thread by replying to another's post. Usually, a thread is accompanied with a poll of some sort, which most users answer for the virtual currency available throughout the website.
User Features
Private Message System: A regular feature of almost every forum in the net, this is the usual way for users to communicate privately with each other.
Trade: Gaia also allows users to exchange items and gold with each other.
Guilds: User-created private boards where members are free to talk about whatever specific topic the guild promotes in a secluded way. A guild consists of a captain, vice captain(s), crew(s), and members.
Profile: Gaia allows users to code and customize their individual profiles.
Donation items/Monthly Collectibles
Monthly Collectibles (formerly Donation Items) are special items that can be bought with real money meant to support Gaia's mantainance and costs. Established in June 2003 after users of Gaia Online petitioned for a "donation system" in an attempt to increase site revenue, for every US $2.50 a user gives to the site,[1] he or she receives an item known as a "Sealed Envelope" in his or her inventory.
On the 15th of every month, the Sealed Envelope disappears from the user's inventory and is replaced by a "Thank You Letter" for the current paid month (for example, a "Thank You Letter for August 2004" represents a payment made in that month of that year). Users are then able to "open" these virtual letters to choose one of two or three limited-edition items to be granted into their inventory from each letter. These items were known as Donation Items until potential legal problems prompted the name change.[11] Monthly Collectible items and the "Thank You" Letter items they are found in are specific to the month that they were released in: for example, the items found in the "Thank You" Letter for April 2006 can only be found in that letter, and one could only purchase that letter in April 2006. Letters can be purchased over the phone, with a text message from a mobile phone, via PayPal, credit card, traditional mail or with the aforementioned Gaia Cash cards.
Games
Gaia Online currently offers eight Flash games: Fishing, Towns, Word Bump, Jigsaw, Slots, Cinemas, Cards,Rally, and most recently 'Virtual Hollywood' . (which is sponsored by MTV). These games comprise of 10% to 15% of total site activity[1].
In most games, users can win different items or gold, the virtual currency, which may be exchanged for items. For example, in Gaia Fishing, users fish on the banks of various lakes and often catch anything from different fishes to garbage, these can be exchanged for fish-shaped hats and/or clothing made out of recycled garbage.
Towns
Gaia Towns (often simply called Towns) is an virtual world where users' avatars may move and interact with each other, collecting gold and small items along the way. Users' homes can be found throughout Towns. Homes can be designed by items obtained from the Furniture shop.
Rally
On June 18, 2007,[12] Gaia Online and Scion announced a partnership that allowed users to create virtual Scions, with customizable wheels, decals, fog lights, tail lights, and spoilers, [13] and race and display them to other users in a Adobe Flash game called Gaia Rally.
Other cars that came with the game are the fake Possum, and Musculero. They are also customizable but have much fewer accessories then the Scion.
In this game users are able to race their cars in a simple track. Clicking the left mouse button beckons the car to move, gradually increases the speed. Numerous obstacles appear in the road for one to overcome, such as cows, UFOs, ramps and zombies.
Cinemas
Gaia Cinemas was released in April 2007, and allows users to sit in a virtual theater, and watch anime, education shorts, cartoons etc. with other Gaians. Users have the ability to throw tomatoes, fireballs, popcorn, as well as other things during a cinema session. The programs shown in Gaia Cinema are anime or cartoons shown with permission from Gaia Online's sponsors, films in the public domain, or films made by Gaia or by Gaians. Gaia has old classic films as well as new anime in their theaters like Suzuka and Moon Phase. Recently Gaia has created its own 3-D animated films, under the title of MMVII, that correlate with the Gaia Manga storyline. Quest movies also take place in cinemas, when somebody finishes watching a trailer for a movie they will be able to get a free quest item. Recently released was Gaia VJ where Gaians can make a virtual living room cinema with play lists composed of videos from video-hosting sites including YouTube.Also, in a recent announcement, Gaia Cinemas is hosting a movie Monday themed day where actually movies could show for free to anyone who wants to see them. There was a recently added update that shows movies such as " Matrix "
Gaia Battle
Gaia Online has announced it is developing an MMORPG where users will be able to battle monsters and participate in RPG style quests. The game will utilize special rings to simulate abilities. While a sub-forum for the battle system has been established, the official release date has not been announced. Also an informational site has been made for it, which can be viewed here.
Market
There is a full-fledged Gaia Market. Market is divided into four parts - Shops, Trade, Marketplace, and Gaia Cash Shop.
- Shops: There are various shops where NPCs sell different items for avatars, house, cars, etc. These shops are of all types, upmarket as well as economy. A player can buy items using gaia gold or gaia cash. Items found in the shops can also be sold back to the shop for 50% of the shop price.
- Trade: Users can trade items and gold with other Gaians.
- Marketplace: Users can have up to 10 items for sale at once in this eBay like vending system. The cost of this convenience is a 2% tax on all gold earned from sales.
- Cash Shop: The most recent addition to Gaia's economy sells items for Gaia Cash (which itself is bought with real money). It includes high end items and special "evolving" items, that change over time.
Quests
The Gaia Quest system grants users items for performing certain tasks. Most quests on the site are for promotional purposes, granting items related to the featured movie or anime series for watching trailers. Movies promoted by the Gaia Quest system include Gracie, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, The Golden Compass, Nancy Drew, The Last Mimzy and Bee Movie. TV shows have also been promoted, such as The Hills. Some quests are restricted to certain geographic areas, causing much controversy.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "Move over MySpace, Gaia Online is here". GigaOmniMedia, Inc. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
- ^ ""Gaia Online"". PSFK. Retrieved 2007-06-14.
- ^ a b ""Kids and teens have pushed at least 6 immersive online worlds to over 2m UU/mth in the US"". Lightspeed Venture Partners. Retrieved 2007-06-14.
- ^ "AlwaysOn: Gaia Online Profile". AlwaysOn. 2007-06-02. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
- ^ a b "Interview: Derek Liu, Gaia Online Anime Community". fif-flowers.com. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
- ^ Announcement of Link List removal
- ^ "The largest Message Boards and Forums on the Web". Big-Boards.com. Retrieved 2007-08-06.
- ^ Big-Boards.com only lists forums that contain accessible members and post counts.[1] According to other sources, 2channel is the largest in the world.[2] [3]
- ^ "Gaia Online: Webware 100". CNET Networks, Inc. 18 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-20.
- ^ "About Gaia Gold". Gaia Interactive. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
- ^ Liu, Derek (2006-10-30). "Donation items name change to monthly collectibles". Gaia Interactive. Retrieved 2007-02-25.
- ^ ""Gaia Online announcement of Gaia Rally release"". 2007-06-18. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
- ^ ""Gaia Online and Scion Allow Teens to Pimp their Virtual Rides"". 2007-06-19. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
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See Also