Gaia Online
Social networking services are looking closely at the world of MMOs for cues, and some of the first things they pick up on is avatars. Gaia Online is one I just registered for today, to check it out.
It’s very very anime. You get a big-head kawaii avatar, and you can buy clothes with gold. I don’t know how you get gold yet, but it looks like just staying logged in earns you a little bit over time, because I went from 400 to 419 in a few steps just as I browsed around the site. Given that the initial clothes are really horrible, there’s good incentive to do so.
There’s embedded games, there’s a form of housing, there’s forums and friends lists… I wouldn’t call it an MMO yet, but it’s certainly edging in that direction. Clearly, they’ve taken a look at what made NeoPets tick.
uhhhh…..
Im just not a fan of this type of game.
there are tons of them around too.
EDIT: Gievn the type of game you design and support… I would have pegged you for having interest in http://www.darkandlight.com/.
The world is amazing.. Noob Devlopment team…but..wow, its about 10x the size of SWG.
Very ambitious project.
How is it not a MMO?
I don’t feel like encouraging more spam, so I didn’t register, but a perusal of the pages implies a casual MMORPG.
Take this number with grain of salt (my source could be hyping it) yet wisper numbers are Gaia is already at 5M users. Recent Benchmark / Redpoint investment too. Defenitely an entrant to watch.
Max, I was told exactly the same figure.
What they’ve done with a simple phpBB setup is pretty impressive. For an idea of what goes into setting up a forum to handle that many users, this is an interesting read.
I’m all for social networking MMOs too.
I registered on GaiaOnline a few months ago to test it out myself, and see what all the fuss was about. Maybe it’s just not my kind of community, but I was unimpressed. It was like Ragnarok Online, only web-based and even clunkier. There’s even a walk-around-town GUI game-ish mode, but it’s so slow and unintuitive that I was flabberghasted that they bothered making it at all. It seems like a glorified forum, but I guess the gold and avatars are just sticky enough to keep people hanging around!
It is a glorifed forum, in the way that most MMORPGs might be seen as a glotified chat room.
Im a gaiaonline user, for over a year and a half now. You guys are missing the point of gaiaonline, its not an MMORPG, or trying to be. It is simply a forum with avatars, the games/towns and such were all added later. The avatars are what make gaiaonline, its why people stick around, and its just a catchy place as there is always something to talk about. Its a very very fast paced forums, with over 10-15,000 users on at a time, it makes for a very fun and interesting community. Dont mistake it for an anime forum either, there are plenty of people there that have no interest in roleplaying or anime, there are sports sections, video sections and computer forums. Its just a place for everyone to come together and talk, while also having a unique avatar to really show your style and individuality.
Gaiaonline is a positive way for introverts to interact with people they may not normally be able to interact with. It gives sight into many different cultures, beliefs and practices. Some may argue that all Gaia is doing is being a host for people who have less than positive adgendas to post their nonsense. Well to that I say, “Aren’t non-sensical people everywhere?”
I’ve been using Gaia since 2004. I’m a relative oldie. I don’t mind when people post their nonsense, there’s a forum for that. I think all the hype about Gaia needs to stop. It’s just like any other online source for entertainment.
That’s exactly what Gaia is,
Entertainment.
All Gaia was really ever meant to be was a forum. I’ve been playing for almost 3 years now, and it wasn’t orignally even supposed to have the complications it has now! It’s not meant to impress gamers, it’s just meant to chat, or at least, it WAS meant to chat. You can meet all kinds of people from all kinds of life, and have fun as you meet them. So stop banging’ on it, you guys got the wrong idea.