I'd call this "Babbie's First MMO", since it is. I didn't truly discover the Internet until about 2003 when I went off to college for the first time and my friends had me join this, among other, nerdy websites. Though I mostly want to focus on the current event that has been going on during this last week, I suppose I should provide a little context.
Gaia Online has grown significantly in the last ten years. It began as an anime forum board but is now a full-on community with various Flash games, a town system, a diversified forum, and a battle system. It is also very weird narrative-wise.
Gaia is a land comprised of a few different towns and areas: Gambino Island, Barton Town, Durem, Aekea, and Bass'ken Lake are the major areas. NPC's run shops in each town where you can buy your clothes, items, and accessories for your avatar.
Now that a brief overview of its history has been covered, I will now explain why I find it fun.
The most prominent feature of Gaia Online is its customization. Each user is represented by an avatar with limitless possibilities in hairstyles, skin styles (tattooing was introduced a few years ago), clothing... my avatar looks however I want it to look. Users dress silly, they dress for their dream role, or they may dress the way they do in real life. I find that type of imagination fun: my avatar has bunny ears and a werewolf tail.
Several games were also developed along the way that went along with different areas of the world. You can play blackjack against the NPC dealers or slots in the Casino that is on Gambino Island. As you play, you win tickets that can be redeemed for items. You can fish in either Bass'ken Lake, the Port of Gambino, or the Durem Reclamation Facility. Each has a different level of difficulty with different fish populations. You can go into the town system and pick up trash, pick flowers, catch bugs, or just hang out with friends. Collecting items allows you to redeem better items. There is a pinball game, a jigsaw puzzle game, word games...
My favorite is the battle system, ZOMG. Basically, something has made inanimate objects, called the Animated, come to life and attack people. You use up to eight power rings to fight them and beat them. I prefer to solo, though that makes a few of the quests impossible to beat, so it makes for a good social game experience.
On a social note, as a social community, many people enjoy posting in the forums. Threads include everything from real world current events, entertainment, role-playing, and in-game discussions. The world is also driven by a narrative. Each NPC is involved in a continuing story that gets updated during major events, which usually occur during holidays: Halloween, Christmas and New Years, Easter, and also the summer.
These days, I only log on during the holiday events. Sure I have a lot of fun in ZOMG, but I also lose a lot of real world time, and there's really so much that I can do on my own since my original friends are now very scarce. Currently the summer event, called What the Fluff, is running and is slowly wrapping up. The story behind this event is that one of the NPC's has come across a bunch of Fluffs (a few of the little Animated from ZOMG) who have been beaten up by the Cybernetic Easter Bunny who hates cute things because when they were kids, Jack (the Halloween NPC) beat him up for teasing Santa, which caused the Easter Bunny to become a cyborg and un-cute (I TOLD YOU IT WAS WEIRD!) So users go into the Towns system and pick up a Fluff and take care of it until it is happy again. The more Fluffs we take care of, the more achievements we get along with items. We feed the Fluffs, let them sleep when they're tired, and play games with them.
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| At my home with my first Fluff while he sleeps |
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| The Event Top Page |
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| The Dancing Game |
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| Freakin' Tic Tac Toe |
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