Gaia Online
 | |
| Company type | Website |
|---|---|
| Industry | Internet |
| Founded | February 18, 2003 |
| Headquarters | Milpitas, California, USA |
Key people | Site Founder: Josh "L0cke" Gainsbrugh Long "VO" Vo Rosann "Ling" Yip "Jakobo" |
| Revenue | Unknown USD+ |
Number of employees | Unknown |
| Website | www.GaiaOnline.com |
Gaia Online is an anime-inspired online internet forum and games site. It was opened to the public on February 18, 2003 by a group known as AniHQ, consisting of Lanzer and some of his friends. AniHQ have stated that the site will always be free to use.
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. Though originally Gaia was intended as a place for like-minded individuals to get together and chat, roleplay, and generally escape from their lives, in recent years it has become steadily more gold-orientated. Though there are still nests of literacy amongst the forums, many users would arguably say that Gaia has begun to become infested with illiteracy and trolls.
As the site is free, there are some ways the administrators have set up to gain revenue - these include, but are not limited to, a diversity of posters, shirts, hats and more all themed around Gaia or Gaian items. Users can also donate to Gaia to obtain Donation Letters, which open at a certain point once a month to release special edition items.
Company Information
Traditionally, the site has relied on donations from members to stay active. As a thank you gift for the users who donate, the site admins decided to introduce the donation items in June 2003. Users receive one donation letter for every $2.50 donated. A donation letter can be opened for the user's choice between two donation items, and can only be opened after the 15th of the month it is from.
Originally the website was named Go-Gaia, but in May 2004 the site administrators announced that the site name was officially changed to Gaia Online.
In June 2006 it was reported that Gaia Online received venture capital funding from Benchmark Capital[1] and Redpoint Ventures[2].
As of August 2006 the site has been through 5 re-designs. The newest design was introduced at June 20, 2006 and is still going through a few small changes.
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[3].
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, and the other 16% are 12 and under or 20 and older, although the aforementioned age groups aren't seen as often on the forums. [4]
When making an avatar, the user can customize it by selecting gender, skin and eye color, and hair style and color. Users can play mini games to earn different kinds of game currency, such as Gaia gold, casino tickets, and university credits. Other activities 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 users first log onto their Gaia account they receive a starter set, which includes clothing and furniture - users can choose between three different themes for these sets - Warm, Neutral, or Cool. 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 save their gold and 'quest' until they have enough to buy expensive items - these are often donation items, random event items, or just very expensive items. Gaians are also known to 'quest' for avatar art, or even pets (equipable items, or user made artwork).
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.
If a Gaian is caught breaking the rules as stated in the Gaia Terms of Service or Rules and Guidelines their account will be banned for a time period somewhere in the region of one week to permanently, depending on which rule has been broken or the extent of the offence.
Gaia is continually updating its site with new items, games, avatar features, plot updates, and more. Major plot events are usually accompanied by manga story-lines.
Popularity
As of 14 September 2006:
- Total Posts: 780,603,779
- Registered Users: 4,613,515
- Most users ever online: 55,206
on Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:20 pm Central Standard Time.
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 in recent years used solely for spamming and bumping.
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 109 public forums.
Forums
The central point to Gaia has always been its forums. Users can chat about serious topics in the Extended Discussion subforum, or babble away about nonsensical things in the Chatterbox subforum. There are subforums for many things on Gaia, and many of the subforums are further categorized so that people with an interest in say, art, can talk about their favorite topic without seeing threads about, for instance, football.
The most lively forum is the Chatterbox, as it is the only forum where users can spam to their heart's content to earn gaia gold. The roleplaying forums are also quite active, as roleplay has, and hopefully always will be, an integral part of Gaia.
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 figuring out what will happen in the future plot updates, helping poorer Gaians and/or new players, role-playing, and so on.
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.
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.
Environment
The Gaian world is located on the planet Gaia. 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 they 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 fifteen accessible areas, but the administrators have announced that more areas will be opened as time passes.
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 arena and have a chance of being rewarded for their creativity and skill. Some users may enjoy lurking or roleplaying, or perhaps become owners of a minishop within the Minishop subforum.
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 August 2006 there are 5 games on Gaia: Fishing, Slots, BlackJack, Towns, and Word Bump. In each game you have a chance of winning or collecting different items or currency. For example, in the Gaia Casino games Slots and BlackJack, you can win Casino Tickets, which can be used to buy special Casino Items.
Plot
The official Gaia Plot is presented in a comic book-styled form, and is updated several times throughout the year, mostly at special holidays like Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. It revolves around the Gaian NPCs, most notably Johnny and Gino Gambino, as well as those that run shops. 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 2k4, A Resident Evil parody.
- April Fools Day 2k5, Showed the apparent death of the Gambino family, as well as their rivals.
- The Return of Gino, The prelude to Halloween 2k5.
- Halloween 2k5, a direct sequel to the previous Halloween, users captured zombified rabbits until they became zombies themselves.
- Christmas 2k5, A feud between Jack, the spirit of Halloween, and Santa Claus.
- The Trial of Ian: A courtroom drama giving back story on the shopkeeper NPC on trial.
- April Fools 2k6, The return of Johnny Gambino.
- We Are not Alone, Prelude to Halloween 2k6, while the NPC's survived the events of the last update, they unknowingly alerted aliens to their presence.
Item Collecting
Players can choose to collect items if they want to. Many Gaians collect rare, donation, and event items. They may also collect insects, trash, and flowers, which can be exchanged into 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.
Gaian homes can be built after a user buys a spot in one of the Gaia Towns neighborhoods. Users can pay gaia gold to get their house upgraded to a bigger size, and wallpaper, flooring, and furniture may be purchased, placed into the home and arranged.
Shops
In addition to the regular NPC shops, players can open their own shops in the Market Place 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.
Criticism
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 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 to the length of time it takes for various glitches to be fixed that is compounded by the lack of 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 often parts of clothing or hair become 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.
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 "Staff of the Angels", a donation item that started off as 5,000 gold in October 2004, has, as of August 2006, reached a minimum value of 90,700 gold.) The administrators have refused to put a price cap on donation items, preferring to let supply and demand run its course. Some users also complain that many of the donation items are copyright skirting ripoffs of popular anime and videogames (Though this is nothing new, one of the earliest Donation items is a take off the Headbands found in Naruto), or of older donation items, saying the administrators are 'too lazy' or 'too arrogant' to make new items.