Gaia Online
"Gaia Online" is anime oriented web based community with a huge player base. Create an avatar and explore the "Gaia" world!
Players can customize their homes, cars, join or form guilds, write in their journal, and make friends in this forum/mmo blend. Players earn gold by browsing, posting on the forums, and playing mini-games.
So yes, "Gaia" is basically a forum with games -- but it's the funnest forum out there!
SCROLL DOWN TO THE COMMENTS BELOW AND LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF THIS GAME.
- Pro: Several game areas and towns to explore
- Pro: Large community
- Pro: Lots of clothes and other avatar customization
- Pro: Many Small movie theaters with short videos
- Pro: House and car customization
- Genre: Text, Browser, 2D, Virtual World, Minigames
- Area: Global / USA
- Official Site: Gaia Online
- Publisher: Gaia Interactive
- Developer: Derek Liu
- Platform: Web Browser
Screenshots
Review
Originally released as a linklist for anime related websites, Gaia became the forum based interactive community it is today in 2004. Gaia Online has a large user base, over one million posts are made on the forums alone. The developers are rapidly expanding the site with things like customizable houses, cars, and mini games but Gaia Online is still primarily a forum and social website.
Account creation in Gaia Online is simple, players simply customize their avatar and input an email address. Verifying your email address is encouraged with a small sum of the in game currency (gold) as a reward. There are many ways to earn Gold throughout Gaia. Every forum post you make will yield a few points, playing any of the 7 main minigames is another popular method of earning gold. Gaia also encourages players the install toolbars with gold as bait but I do not recommend this. There are plenty of ways to get gold without junking up your browser.
Gaia Online is mainly a place for people to socialize but it comes packed with more features than most web based MMOs. Players can actually walk around some parts of the game world. For example, when placing a house a flash window opens where players can walk around town, socialize and build their homes. Homes can be moved, expanded, and decorated though this will require a heavy gold investment. Another recent addition to Gaia Online is the Car feature. Players can buy cars and customize them with dozens of parts and even race each other. For years Gaia has had an easy going fishing mini game but recently several others have been added; Jigsaw, Rally, Slots, Cards, Word Bump, and Pinball. Another feature which is somewhat strange is the dozens of short clips that are available on the site that are played like movies at the theaters. Players click what showing they want and a new screen pops up where they can move around the theater and watch.
Like more traditional MMOs, Gaia allows players to form guilds and keep a friends list. There is even a quest system which has players hunt down particular items throughout the Gaia world. The stores are packed with various types of clothes, hats, and other accessories to customize your avatar with. Usually you can tell how long someone has been playing by how much strange, glowing clothes they're wearing. Gaia Online even has a player driven economy. There is a marketplace system complete with auctions and fancy charts. All told, Gaia packs quite a lot of content for such a casual site but there are some flaws. Gaia is populated with nearly illiterate kids and those who spam posts to generate gold all day. Web games like Neopets & Gaia Online are even easier to bot in than client based games. If a casual, social site with tons of interactivity is what you're after, Gaia Online fits the bill.
Review Mister Happy
October 9, 2009
Review
I love it, but sometimes, you get tired of it. But still, it's a great game! :D
On-Off Gaia Player, on October 10th 2009 03:25 pm
its great. u just have to know why/how. ^_^
Sky The Chosen, on September 24th 2009 12:18 am
dont listen to x-gaia its pretty fun when you have friends gaia is just for when your bored just hit the forums discuss random stuff its not a game there is minigames on there but its maining for interacting with others... dont expect gold because you wont get it easily you will have to spend money on gaia if you want good items
Phaze, on September 22nd 2009 02:31 am
Gaia is one of the worst games i've ever played, If you can call it a game. It takes years to build up to something and it's almost impossible to earn the ingame currency. It's full of hackers/passwordphishing/scams/trolls/flamers/hentai addicts, and everything else. Don't even waste your time registering unless you want to play a crap game AND get your email subscribed to tons of things.
Anonymous X-Gaia player, on September 2nd 2009 06:20 pm
Gaia Online is currently Beta Testing zOMG! where it incorporates your Gaia Avatar and many aspects of the Gaia Online website into a cutesy 16-bit era style MMORPG. It is relatively simple, but fun. Especially fun to see your Avatar actually doing something beyond going to shops and chat rooms.
Eric, on September 2nd 2009 04:47 pm
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Gaia can be fun. However it's becoming more and more of a website where you need to spend real money to get any good items. The forums can be harsh, and the mods on the website can be even harsher. I have lost a ton of accounts because they claim I broke the rules. Quoting people and putting it in your signature got me banned on one occasion. And the ZOMG "mmo" is kinda crappy. I would have been much happier with a sidescroller like Mapplestory than what we got. And this review 110% accurately describes the website.
Gaia Onlines Tork, on November 3rd 2009 08:29 am