Gaia Online: Over a million people have discovered an interesting online world known as “Gaia online.” This is a forum based, fully interactive and damn near fully customizable web based hang out. Members create anime style cartoon representation of themselves and control their “Avatar” as they navigate throughout a series of sites. You may equip your Avatar from a large collection of several hundred different items in order to change it’s appearance and express your personal style. Some of these items are quite rare and valuable. Once you’ve played dress up to your satisfaction, navigate through the many chat rooms, forums, mini games and more to express your opinions and interact with a lively online community. Join a guild or two, make some friends, or just play pinball, anything you like. The sheer amount of options available will keep you entertained for hours on end and a dedicated Gaia Online team of programmers is constantly coming up with new events, games and more.
…and the best part is… It’s Free. So why not give it a shot. |
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My Avatar Fashion: Shown below are several variations of my Avatar within the world of “Gaia Online.” I’ve set up the first few to show you the progression of my character from his beginning over a year ago, up to present day and everything in between. There are so many options available that I can’t seem to stay with one for more than a few weeks before I’m rushing to the stores to buy up a new outfit with the “Gaia Gold” that I’ve earned.
As well as store items, you’ll see several pieces from the “Monthly Collectables.” These items actually do cost a little bit of real money but depending on your involvement with the game, it may be quite worth it. Enjoy.
                 | Caveman Maki: The first clothing item that I got from the stores was this lovely dead animal toga. It was very inexpensive and I was able to procure it with my starting “Gaia Gold.” Clutched in the fist of the dumb looking Neanderthal is the greatest possession of early man, one of the forms of my first monthly collectable but namely fire.
Martial Artist Maki: This picture is the second outfit ever that I assembled. It took some time and patience to earn up the Gaia Gold for the clothes, during which I was stuck as the Caveman.
Martial Artist Maki 2: This is the next evolution of the original design.
Tribal Maki: When I left the United States five months ago and deployed to Iraq with my Army unit, this was the outfit that my Avatar was wearing. I just recently began playing Gaia again and have changed out clothes but so far, “Tribal Maki” has been the longest running look for my Avi. What the hell is on my head? Is it eating my brain?
Monk Maki: Not long ago, Gaia was hosting several events for the upcoming DVD release of the movie “Kung Fu Panda.” As part of the promotional, they were offering “Kung Fu Panda” quest items and a flash player Kung Fu fighting game. Not being properly attired for “Kung Fuey” at the time, I donned this outfit and promptly set out for Martial Art glory among my fellow Gaians.
Death Knight Maki: Several of my Guild friends went with an evil look to their Avi, so I decided to try one myself. Ultimately, I think it turned out rather well, though I don’t usually care for evil stuff. I’m having a hell of a time with foot ware for my Avi, again, something that females don’t have to worry about, as there are allot girly shoes. Vampire Slayer Maki: Last Halloween, the Gaian Programmers ran a big “Vampire Vs. Humans” game and this was my Vampire Hunter during it.
Undead Maki: One of last Halloweens get ups. Generally, I don’t care to depict evil crap but after all it was Halloween.
Napoleon Maki: This is a sneak peek at my up coming Halloween costume. My wife, who also plays, is going to be dressing herself up as “Josephine.” She often likes to match whatever I am wearing. I find it quite sweet.
Maki as Anubis: There are all kinds of great Egyptian stuff out there for female characters but not so many for men. This is my attempt to match up with my wife’s “Cleopatra.” “I didn’t care for it though so I went with the Roman armor route later and called him “Anthony.”
Anthony a.k.a. “Maximus Maki”: The ultimate match for my wife’s Cleopatra. Regrettably, the site doesn’t offer a Gladius but this Kunai kinda works.
Pant less Viking: On Gaia Online, there are various [there’s that word again] “Arenas” were you could enter your Avatar to be voted on in the hopes of winning a massive Gaia Gold prize. I don’t know what I was thinking but of all the costumes I had available at the time, this is the one I decided to enter. I guess that I thought my accompanying story would win them over. It didn’t. You can read the “Pant less Viking” Story in my “Tall Tales” section. Viking Maki: Much later, after having acquired several more Items, I finally discovered my best Viking Look. This outfit is one of the most expensive that I have created in both real money [3 items] and Gaia Gold [3 Market Place Purchases] but I think that it’s well worth it.
Samurai Maki: I am a big fan of anything Asian and a few months ago, this Samurai Armor became available as a monthly collectable. Knowing how hard it is to find armor of any sort on Gaia, I dropped a few bucks and snatched it up. Ideally, I would love to have the “Ancient Katana” collectable to go along with this outfit but it is only available for sale on the “Marketplace” these days for ridiculous amounts of “Gaia Gold.” Sith Maki: Fear leads to hate, hate leads to anger, anger leads to the “Dark Side,” a tendency to wear black, bad skin and aggression issues. Of course, while it may suck to have your body slowly decaying from regular use of dark forces, the “Sith” are just badass.
Monkey King Maki: Remember what I said earlier about being an Asian anything nut, well, I love the tales of “Sun Wukong” the “Monkey King” and decided to make a tribute to the character. I was looking around for a decent sash but nothing looked right.
Cowboy Maki: Not long ago, the Gaia programmers placed several new items in the “Prize and Joy: Casino Store.” Once I saw the brand new “Silver Revolvers,” I had to have one. Once I had one, I had to have two and so on. The end result is what you see here. |
Maki's "Tiki Bar" Picture. Special thanks to Kirtap Reglip for the pic at the "Dungeons and Dragons Guild" Forum where the Tiki Bar is located.
Prize and Joy Tips: For those of you who regularly play Gaia, I have a sweet tip for you. If you see something that you really like in the "Prize and Joy," before you rush off to play hours of cards or dump thousands of tokens into the slot machines, see if you can buy the item outright from the "Marketplace." At the very least, search the Marketplace for the item and try it on before you decide to buy one. I was going to buy the new "Monks Staff" item from "Prize and Joy" to add to my Monk personna but after I tried it on in the Marketplace I discovered that it was garbage. I hated the way the item looked on me no matter what pose I used. By finding this out in advance, I saved myself thousands of tickets.
Some folks take pride in the fact that they earned something while the rest of us just want the damn thing. I discovered through trial and error that you have a 1 ticket per 2 token win ratio in "Cards" while the "Slots" are practically a waste of time [unless you are really lucky]. If you want the item without all the time, just go to the Marketplace and search for ticket sales. Gaians are selling literally hundreds of thousands of tickets and some of them at good prices. Any seller who is offering less than 2 gold per is giving you roughly the same cost that it would have taken you to earn the tickets yourself.
Marketplace Woes: For God's sake Gaians, stop putting stupid crap up for sale on the Marketplace. Nobody is going to buy your bugs, trash [except cans], guppies, flowers, or individual tickets.
Legal Disclaimer: All pictures displayed above are the sole creative property of "Gaia Online." The Author of this page does not claim any rights to these images except for the manner in which they have been organised.
