Gaia Online

Gaia Online: http://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 Gold

Gaia 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 commenting 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. Gold is also used to create guilds and join them (if a fee is required).Users may also choose to give gold to other users in exchange for services such as artwork and thread-bumping.

Forums

A post on the Gaia Online forums system
Gaia Online's forums system (which, according to www.big-boards.com, is the largest on the Internet [4]) is a phpBB-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.

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 of anime and manga. Some guilds are dedicated to certain causes or goals, such as speculation on future plot updates, helping new players, or role-playing.
It costs 20,000 gold to create a new guild, but they can be bought used from other members at lower or inflated prices, depending on the guild popularity and number of subforums in the guild. The message boards inside the 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 guild's owner) can create entry fees and promote other guild members into Vice Captains or Crew Members, granting them administrative powers.
Subforums, which can be bought with gold from the guild's funds, can be viewed by the members, public, or only crew members and moderators.
Private Messages
The Private Message (PM) system on Gaia is a small e-mail-like system which uses the private messaging systems built in to the bulletin boards software used to run the site (phpBB). Users can write messages to other users, receive and read messages from other users, and save favorite messages. Players may only use the PM system once they have confirmed their e-mail address.

Games
All of the games on the site are Flash or Shockwave games. As of October 2006 there were six games on Gaia: Fishing, Towns, Word Bump, Jigsaw, Slots, and Cards, 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.

Monthly Collectibles

A Sealed Envelope.
Originally, overhead costs for Gaia Online were paid by the administrators' personal funds and by advertisement revenue. In June 2003, however, Gaia Online 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 or three online items to be granted to their inventory. These items are known as Monthly Collectibles and some can rise up in value significantly due to their popularity. The Chyaku Norisu Scarf, for example, which was released in Febraury 2006, rose from a value of 8,000 Gaia gold, to 70,000 Gaia Gold in the space of 10 months. None of the monthly collectibles can be bought in NPC's stores, although users put them for sale in the user-run Gaia Marketplace.

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 Gaian Currencey) 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 on 2007-01-03.
^ Announcement of Link List removal
^ About Gaia Gold. Gaia Interactive. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
^ Forums Rankings. www.big-boards.com (2007). Retrieved on 2007-01-03.

External links

Official
Official Gaia Online Website

Extended Information
The Gaiapedia
The PlotWiki

Creator Interviews
Interview with Derek Liu, Big-boards.com
Follow-up interview with Derek Liu, Big-boards.com


Comment From Sammy:
This is an awesome site, you earn gold by doing things. You get to meet new people and make friends. You can talk as a group in the forums and guilds or you can talk one on one in the PM's. You also get to make your own avatar to how ever you want, but each item is a certain price of gold that you have to pay. You earn gold just by surfing, talking, doing whatever. If you want to know more e-mail me your questions or comments about anything, including gaiaonline.