After a long spring and an even longer summer, I return to GaiaOnBlog with full force.
We are going to try and add an additional writer so that it's even easier to continue updating the blog on an daily basis.
This is just my way of getting it down in writing.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
The End of the Zurg
The end of the Zurg, my thoughts.
The storyline update we had yesterday was such a cop out! Months and months of Zurg related plot and this is what we get. People devoutly involved, spending hours in towns waiting for NPC's to show up, PMing and talking in their respective forum threads, and all they say is "we have no use for you, we're leaving, GOODBYE. The end."
And of course this type of ending has caused significant drama.
There were two camps with this plot, some people were really really involved with this plot and then some people found it very challenging to learn about what was going on in the plot. Obviously the latter group is much larger than the first, and guess what? There's a reason the plot was hard to learn about! Turns out The groups that were involved in the plot didn't share very well with the rest of Gaia.
So basically the users who did happen to be really involved in the plot are simply crushed that this is the way they ended it. It seems like such a let down, all that for nothing? And they're right, it's like an abrupt crash landing. Anti-climactic FTW. And there was apparently some movement within the groups like GIB and the Believers to better share the information so it's even more of a let down to them.
Even myself, I still feel mildly disappointed with the ending. I was only mildly interested, and because I found it very very difficult to find out what was going on, I didn't know all the details of the plot. But it's still such a cop out. It doesn't make any sense -- to me it wasn't leading up to that. I can't believe they killed off 02! He was seemingly the only NICE Zurg, and he was shot by Flarn?? I know he was diseased or something.. by the Darkngry or whatever. But that's crazy.
But a lot of people really wanted to be done with the Zurg, There was a vocal crowd in the GCD saying it had gone on too long. They had a point. People who didn't get involved in the plot in October were feeling very disenfranchised by this point because the groups are all firmly entrenched. Many felt that it was too late to get involved so a lot of people had just given up trying to know what was going on. And it is surprising that they kept a plot from Halloween going all through Christmas and New Years and Valentine's day and beyond. We all know that they are the one's behind the NPC's avi. Maybe they were just having fun with it themselves.
Even if it did go on for too long, the ending is not fitting and that's what people are surprised by.
In my opinion, they should have run this event like S-Corp with a guild, so everyone could read it. Instead the ran this event in towns, for the large part, and in some user run threads that were full of spam and very hard to actually find important posts in, and whose first pages were horribly organized. Giving user's the responsibility to disseminate information is a bad idea. The S-Corp plot line from Christmas 2k5 was very well run and everyone knew what was going on because the information was given in the guild. Manga updates and Guild posts are the best way to do this. Users being involved with the plot is a good idea. But control of information should be in the hands of the admins!
I hope that the bitterness and disappointment some users feel on both sides of the divide will go away with time. At least we GOT an ending this time, right?
The storyline update we had yesterday was such a cop out! Months and months of Zurg related plot and this is what we get. People devoutly involved, spending hours in towns waiting for NPC's to show up, PMing and talking in their respective forum threads, and all they say is "we have no use for you, we're leaving, GOODBYE. The end."
And of course this type of ending has caused significant drama.
There were two camps with this plot, some people were really really involved with this plot and then some people found it very challenging to learn about what was going on in the plot. Obviously the latter group is much larger than the first, and guess what? There's a reason the plot was hard to learn about! Turns out The groups that were involved in the plot didn't share very well with the rest of Gaia.
So basically the users who did happen to be really involved in the plot are simply crushed that this is the way they ended it. It seems like such a let down, all that for nothing? And they're right, it's like an abrupt crash landing. Anti-climactic FTW. And there was apparently some movement within the groups like GIB and the Believers to better share the information so it's even more of a let down to them.
Even myself, I still feel mildly disappointed with the ending. I was only mildly interested, and because I found it very very difficult to find out what was going on, I didn't know all the details of the plot. But it's still such a cop out. It doesn't make any sense -- to me it wasn't leading up to that. I can't believe they killed off 02! He was seemingly the only NICE Zurg, and he was shot by Flarn?? I know he was diseased or something.. by the Darkngry or whatever. But that's crazy.
But a lot of people really wanted to be done with the Zurg, There was a vocal crowd in the GCD saying it had gone on too long. They had a point. People who didn't get involved in the plot in October were feeling very disenfranchised by this point because the groups are all firmly entrenched. Many felt that it was too late to get involved so a lot of people had just given up trying to know what was going on. And it is surprising that they kept a plot from Halloween going all through Christmas and New Years and Valentine's day and beyond. We all know that they are the one's behind the NPC's avi. Maybe they were just having fun with it themselves.
Even if it did go on for too long, the ending is not fitting and that's what people are surprised by.
In my opinion, they should have run this event like S-Corp with a guild, so everyone could read it. Instead the ran this event in towns, for the large part, and in some user run threads that were full of spam and very hard to actually find important posts in, and whose first pages were horribly organized. Giving user's the responsibility to disseminate information is a bad idea. The S-Corp plot line from Christmas 2k5 was very well run and everyone knew what was going on because the information was given in the guild. Manga updates and Guild posts are the best way to do this. Users being involved with the plot is a good idea. But control of information should be in the hands of the admins!
I hope that the bitterness and disappointment some users feel on both sides of the divide will go away with time. At least we GOT an ending this time, right?
Monday, December 4, 2006
Beware of Imitators
I had the pleasure of experiencing first hand a user doing something nefarious and silly a few days ago and wanted to post this as a warning of sorts.
The situation: I got a PM from someone saying,
And so I did. I found that the person was totally an imitator, and not my friend at all. He had been trying to imitate several Gaians in a matter of 20 posts.
My question is why would you want to do something so silly? To get random donations I suppose but it seems so lowly and pathetic. And then what happens when the person they were trying to imitate comes back to Gaia and the truth is revealed? Oopsie didn't think of that, eh?
Such idiocy deserved to be mentioned here on GaiaonBlog. :3
So the warning part of this post: don't fall for things like this, check out a person's posts, ask for some kind of proof, etc. before blindly thinking that they are who they say they are. Be safe, Gaia harbors some crazy folk!
The situation: I got a PM from someone saying,
"Hi it's me _______!! I got hacked!!!"They were claiming to be someone I knew pretty well who has not been on Gaia for quite some time. Ooh cool, I thought, and hit reply. I was about to send my message back to them when something niggling at my brain thought, check out his posts.
And so I did. I found that the person was totally an imitator, and not my friend at all. He had been trying to imitate several Gaians in a matter of 20 posts.
My question is why would you want to do something so silly? To get random donations I suppose but it seems so lowly and pathetic. And then what happens when the person they were trying to imitate comes back to Gaia and the truth is revealed? Oopsie didn't think of that, eh?
Such idiocy deserved to be mentioned here on GaiaonBlog. :3
So the warning part of this post: don't fall for things like this, check out a person's posts, ask for some kind of proof, etc. before blindly thinking that they are who they say they are. Be safe, Gaia harbors some crazy folk!
Monday, November 20, 2006
A friend in the Arena this week!
Our friend [ Ira ] has joined the avatar arena this week so I figured I'd better give her a shout out here in hopes of pulling in a few more votes!
Sunday, November 19, 2006
A New Comic Already?
One of the many things every Gaian has to look forward to are the weekly comics. Tonight while browsing the GCD I noticed a post that said "New Comic! YAY!!!" so I of course I went straight for the home page to check it out...but wait...it's not new yet. ??
So this time I actually look inside the thread and sure enough, new comic! So before reading it I once again go to the home page...still, nothing new.
Then I take a closer look...it's USER MADE and it's FANTASTIC! (click the comic to go to the thread where it's posted).
So this time I actually look inside the thread and sure enough, new comic! So before reading it I once again go to the home page...still, nothing new.
Then I take a closer look...it's USER MADE and it's FANTASTIC! (click the comic to go to the thread where it's posted).
The comic was created by KaylaGalela. Kudos to a job very well done! This is just as good and just as fun as an official comic IMO....if not better considering the free time spent on it. Thanks for sharing Kayla!
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Hi My Name Is
And now for something completely different...
Faeriebell will introduce herself.
I joined Gaia in December of 2004, the twelfth to be precise. I thought the same thing as Oda when I discovered it, how could I have missed the most popualr forum on the Internet?!
And well I've been a Gaia addict ever since. I've had the pleasure of making many Gaia friends, been in many guilds, and a regular of a few forums, mainly the Entertainment Discussion forum and Charity/Quests. I lurk like mad in GCD though. ^_^
My favorite things to do on Gaia are to dress up my avi, play the flash games, poll for gold, and bump. I guess I'm a pretty typical Gaian.
So I am glad that Odareu invited me to post on this blog, I look forward to sharing my fun times on Gaia!!
Faeriebell will introduce herself.
I joined Gaia in December of 2004, the twelfth to be precise. I thought the same thing as Oda when I discovered it, how could I have missed the most popualr forum on the Internet?!
And well I've been a Gaia addict ever since. I've had the pleasure of making many Gaia friends, been in many guilds, and a regular of a few forums, mainly the Entertainment Discussion forum and Charity/Quests. I lurk like mad in GCD though. ^_^
My favorite things to do on Gaia are to dress up my avi, play the flash games, poll for gold, and bump. I guess I'm a pretty typical Gaian.
So I am glad that Odareu invited me to post on this blog, I look forward to sharing my fun times on Gaia!!
Friday, November 17, 2006
New Feature! Quest System!
Last week after the massive Halloween event (read about it here), Fleep posted in his journal that something we've all been waiting for was about to be released. They just needed to test it.
So we speculated and waited with bated breath. There were threads a plenty trying to figure out what the super top secret new feature was going to be.
Fleep stopped by a few times...mostly to tell us that it was still being tested and we'd have to wait just a little bit longer. Eventually it came down to the end of this week (since MC's came out yesterday and thatwould have been was a glitchy mess. So today was the day slotted for release.
Then suddenly it appeared:
The little page popped onto our screens and screamed QUEST! Huzzah!
So it's finally arrived. The Gaia Quest system. Today's quest was basically just a test. It's set up to show newbies around Gaia in a fun and fruitful way. Moira (a Gaian NPC that runs The Durem Depot store) dragged us around by our ears, forcing us to change our outfits and buy new clothes! Some people found this upsetting and considered it a trick by the admins to make them give up their old Gaia mouths that no longer exist or clothing glitches. But of course, it was remedied by the attack of the mules.
The final part of the quest told us to head over to the Welcome to Gaia forums to say hello to the community. I guess they didn't consider the massive influx of "oldbies" making threads saying "For QUEST..Not saying Hello!" so eventually a sticky was made for questers who are not new to Gaia.
I'm super ENTHUSIASTIC (shout out to Ron) about the new quest system and can not WAIT for new quests. I think this is a wonderful addition to the world we call Gaia.
P.S. - As I post this message, the Quest system is currently down. Yes, I LOL'd too.
So we speculated and waited with bated breath. There were threads a plenty trying to figure out what the super top secret new feature was going to be.
Fleep stopped by a few times...mostly to tell us that it was still being tested and we'd have to wait just a little bit longer. Eventually it came down to the end of this week (since MC's came out yesterday and that
Then suddenly it appeared:
So it's finally arrived. The Gaia Quest system. Today's quest was basically just a test. It's set up to show newbies around Gaia in a fun and fruitful way. Moira (a Gaian NPC that runs The Durem Depot store) dragged us around by our ears, forcing us to change our outfits and buy new clothes! Some people found this upsetting and considered it a trick by the admins to make them give up their old Gaia mouths that no longer exist or clothing glitches. But of course, it was remedied by the attack of the mules.
The final part of the quest told us to head over to the Welcome to Gaia forums to say hello to the community. I guess they didn't consider the massive influx of "oldbies" making threads saying "For QUEST..Not saying Hello!" so eventually a sticky was made for questers who are not new to Gaia.
I'm super ENTHUSIASTIC (shout out to Ron) about the new quest system and can not WAIT for new quests. I think this is a wonderful addition to the world we call Gaia.
P.S. - As I post this message, the Quest system is currently down. Yes, I LOL'd too.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
November Monthly Collectables at Their Best
Every 15th, when the new collectable's come out (once known as Donation Items), I like to see the different uses for them. Last month when the shadow and pixie came out, I came up with what I thought to be a pretty unique idea and ended up placing 10th in the Arena on week 42.
So every month I will post here what I feel are some great takes on the new items. By the way, the glitch has been fixed.
Here are some great examples I found today:
So every month I will post here what I feel are some great takes on the new items. By the way, the glitch has been fixed.
Here are some great examples I found today:
In order: Jabay, Honey Loops, Shaun Holder and Vanko.
Jabay's matching of the baby Zurg diaper and her outfit is adorable. They really look like a little family. The addition of the robo dog is an excellent choice.
Honey Loops monkey bashing made me LOL. Is she preparing a meal for her little one? I think it's safe to say that sitting on the monkey is a huge hit.
Shaun Holder's eye for color and matching is excellent. I have seen the green long john's paired with the UFO hat a few times now but this is by far the best over all look I've seen. Especially with mini Zurg in tow. The question, however, would be is this a reluctant father out for a walk with his child or an evil doer teaching the baby Zurg to harnass his powers.
Vanko displays the monkeys in a way I haven't seen yet. Over monkey'd? I think not! The ninja headband goes suprisingly well with the multiple chimps. I wonder, does each one have a name?
Jabay's matching of the baby Zurg diaper and her outfit is adorable. They really look like a little family. The addition of the robo dog is an excellent choice.
Honey Loops monkey bashing made me LOL. Is she preparing a meal for her little one? I think it's safe to say that sitting on the monkey is a huge hit.
Shaun Holder's eye for color and matching is excellent. I have seen the green long john's paired with the UFO hat a few times now but this is by far the best over all look I've seen. Especially with mini Zurg in tow. The question, however, would be is this a reluctant father out for a walk with his child or an evil doer teaching the baby Zurg to harnass his powers.
Vanko displays the monkeys in a way I haven't seen yet. Over monkey'd? I think not! The ninja headband goes suprisingly well with the multiple chimps. I wonder, does each one have a name?
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
November Monthy Collectables are Out (of control!)
Well folks, the MCs are out and already causing riots over the mega glitch the UFO is creating! I LOVE the glitch and hope it sticks around for a day or two of pure enjoyment.
I put on my UFO bottom and ran around towns for some screenshots! Here's what I came up with!
So yes! Win for Gaia! The new donation items are a huge hit on opening day, not just because of the glitchs. We all look forward to seeing the UFOs in all their pixelated glory!
Ohohohoho!
The GCD has aquired it's queen...whether they wanted to or not.Chax is an "oldbie" or member of the elite group of people who joined in 2003 (when GaiaOnline was conceived) and HRH will surely not let you forget this. Some people bow and accept...um...her...leadership while others find themselves infuriated by her holier-than-thou ways.
I'm sure I myself will always find myself a peasant in the Queen's eyes, being a 2006 "n00b" and all, but I find myself strangely fascinated by this pretty much successful attempt to become one of the most popular gaians. Be it positive or negative attention.
Today she created a thread to show off her new found fame on Wikipedia. You can find the entry here.
Man-Queen of GCD, user Chax on Gaia Online. Pure royalty and ruler of all GCD peasants. Her "Ohohoho!" can be often heard miles away. I advise you ignore her complete and utter bullshit, as it is merely a joke that s/he refuses to admit to.
It seems the Wiki entry is constantly changing. Here's what it is today (16th):
GaiaOnline's most annoying user. Calls him/herself "queen" of GCD. Everyone who's heard of Chax either loves or hates her/him. I suggest you ignore Chax's comments, as they are full of crap in a game that seems to have been taken too far.
You will most often find Chax on the second post of a new thread. I haven't personally seen HRH post anywhere lower than that. Not that the posts usually have a whole lot to do with the discussion. It's typically an "Ohohoho" here and a "behead the peasants" there.
I'm glad we have people like Chax around. It sure keeps things lively and entertaining at the very least. Is this the beginning of a rise in Gaia gimmicks? We shall soon see, I'm sure. It only takes a moment for a fad to catch on like wildfire at Gaia.
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