Gaia Online

Back in 2005 I stumbled across a site called Gaia online after a friend told me I needed an account. I looked it over and shrugged, why not. It gave me an avatar I could dress up. I could be social (god forbid). It gave me something to fill the gap when none of the real people I knew could talk. Win win right? Ok in case you guys haven't noticed when I get involved with something I tend to get a little bit excitable. Whether it will be a sheepadoodle you will hear about next time the new video game I've been pining after, I tend to get a little bit obsessed until someone comes and bursts my bubble.

When I first created the account, it was a forum based game. There was a town setting that your avatar could walk around in but I was not impressed. So I wandered aimlessly through the forums and decided, meh. I've got better things to do. So I logged out and walked away, or at least tried to. For the first few days it was just a passing thought. Someone had a really pretty item and I wanted it. Then well I can't leave my avatar half naked... I just want the one item. So three weeks later when I am devising a stratagy to make the most money on the site, I logged back in.

I started to peruse the forums again when I ran across my first experience with forum roleplaying. It was like writing a story where everyone got a character, I could get behind that, except I was finickier than I knew. The people in the public forum wanted to RP something like this
::  *walks to bar* Hello sir *takes out wallet* Can I have a drink?
And this irritated me to no end but hey we all have to start some where. So I asked the girl running the thread, can I type mine in paragraph form without the ** and she said 'SURE!! I would love that'. She also told me about another aspect of the site I had missed before. Guilds. They were meant to get people of common interest in the same place and she thought I might enjoy the RolePlaying guild that she was in. This is where my honest addiction started. I love to write. Whether its a poorly written peice for a blog, a critiqued short story, or a role playing forum, I love to write. So the guild this girl led me to was close to a place called heaven.

The site I couldn't have cared less about became the site I spent a great deal of my day and night on participating in as many role plays as I had the time to type responses for. I believe the most was being almost 10. I did a LOT of typing during that time since they all had literacy standards of at least one well written paragraph per response and I was typing on average 8-12 responses per role play per day. My mother was certian I was going to give myself carpel tunnel but so far so good, no pain yet.

Perusing this guild I ran into a out of character thread where I started to meet other people with simular interests to mine and who were pining after items as I Was. They told me I was questing. Ok if it was a quest then I would make it a spectacular journey.  I went to the charity forums and braved my way through tasks that each owner required to gain favor but then I realized something. By the time I was finished posting for the day in my RP's and talking with the virtual friends I had made in the Charity forums, I had more than enough gold for the items I wanted with one exception.

The site offered thank you letters every month for people who donated real money to keep the site afloat. Not being able to donate real money, I had to pay virtual currency for them, and each letter held two items. I could only keep up enough to afford one a month. This actually wasn't as big a problem as it sounded. There were several charities I had made friends in that made it their business to give out letters to those who couldn't afford so I rarely missed out on an item I wanted. This is about the time that the real world kicked into place.

Tradjedy struck in real life so I slowly back out of the site drawing away from everyone. THe last announcement for the site I remembered reading was one declaring a new invention. Gaia Cash. You had to buy it with real money and it would offer you an evolving item. I looked it. Declared it a bad idea I didn't have time for and left. For several months I didn't look at the site but when I came back, it was aweful. All my items that I had wanted had undergone massive price inflation and Gaia gold the original currency was all but worthless compared to the Gaia cash. I was horrified. The thank you letters were so far outside my price range I had a jaw drop moment. I went to my old threads. Many of which had shut down since there primary for of helping people was no longer valid amidst the new price jacking and many people had outright quit from the changes being made to the site. All my favorite roleplayers had moved on to bigger and better things and only a few stragglers remained.

My online community was broken. I tried to keep up with the new system but unless you could sink real money into the game it was fighting a loosing battle. Then I came to a conclusion. To hell with the items. Gaia had grown so much over the years that it didn't notice part of the population leaving when it had a new crew coming in who would pay cash. I ignored it. I roam here and there now days. Mostly in life issues forums to offer advice to those who are in need. I chit chat but the role plays hold little interest since many have returned to the old way of ** for actions that irritated me so badly before. The themes are redundant and no one seems willing to learn anymore. Because of this I roamed to find a new way to fufil my need to tell stories and I began to write short stories again. I started a blog. I have still have my human being role playing games but it's not the same.

I miss the site that was trying to pry its way off the ground and didn't force people to pay cash for virtual items, but that's just me. A lot of people seem to like it just the way it is. I don't. I was Gaia's cash shop system that made me think twice when google offered to put ad sense on my blog. I could make money for every click that was here! But it's not what I want. I wanted a place I could put my opinion. Type til my heart was content and maybe even say something insightful once in a blue moon. I like it just the way it is. As for Gaia. It grows every year. I hope their proud.

Girl in a corset signing off.