My Gaia Online Journey

So what's been keeping me busy these days? A game? A social networking site? A forum? Yes to all three but still wrong. My newest obsession (well, not really 'new') is Gaia Online. An avatar dress-up site complete with forums, mini-games, virtual hangouts, an MMO and guilds. It also has its own manga and NPCs.

I joined the site back in 2007 but wasn't active until last year. I did not explore it fully so I thought it was some sort of game where you get to dress up your virtual self, your avatar, and show off. For the next two years all I did was sign in and get the Daily Chance (freebies). It was also hard to earn gold and I wasn't interested in the forums (that was one way to earn gold). And then I discovered zOMG!

Gaia's MMO finally made me addicted to the site. I played for 10 hours straight on my first day. A few weeks after that I started exploring the other features. I played the mini-games. Most of them are fun but they need updates from time to time. Then I discovered homes. I was disappointed I could only upgrade it once. Then onto virtual hangouts. I enjoyed reading the conversations at first and then eventually the novelty died off. At that time I was already having problems with my PC so I could not play zOMG! like I used to.

Exploring the forums was a huge step for me. I'm not into forum-based sites despite the range of interests and hobbies I have. Then I got an idea when I saw the Petitions sub-forum (I don't know how I got there). I made a housing petition. After that I started exploring the rest until I found Gaia Community Discussion. It was scary at first but I was also excited because I never thought posting in forums can also be rewarding. Most of the time I'm ignored but it did not matter. I enjoyed sharing my thoughts and seeing people who have the same interests as me. I got into arguments but I also made friends.

It also gave me the opportunity to practice CSS and basic graphics for the first time. Not to mention, zOMG! was also my first MMO. I had a lot of firsts at Gaia so the time I spent wasn't wasted at all.

Gaia has a lot of things that need improvements but overall it's a good experience. Once you get used to the kind of atmosphere and the people in the games, hangouts and forums, you'll never want to leave it. There's always something new to try.

If you're interested, you can find Gaia Online here: http://www.gaiaonline.com
You can also check out my profile. My username is Ping of Death.