Gaia Online Magazine - Issue 3 by Emil "Meji" Meijer

Monthly Introduction Welcome back Be it your third issue, or your very first time reading, you’re in for a very special treat this month. This April Issue – the real one that lacks a certain pair of thick blonde thick eyebrows – is chalk full of tasty tidbits that you’re sure to enjoy. This time around, our staff has gone above and beyond the call of duty in order to bring you exclusive material that you’ll only find here in Gaia Online Magazine. We’re talking field work, people. We’re not just sitting in the basement eating Pringles and writing articles. No; that’s not how we here at G.O.M. roll. Instead, we’re out where the action is; seeking new and innovative ways to capture the imaginations of our readers. For those of you who couldn’t make it to your local convention center for great events, such as San Francisco’s ‘WonderCon’ & Seattle’s very own ‘SakuraCon’, fear naught! For we have you covered! That’s right, folks: We’ve got some great coverage from both events! --~:oOo:~--

Ah, April. It’s that time of year where spring finally starts to show its effects on our surroundings; both at work, school, and at home. Though, more important than either of those places, is on Gaia. It’s that time of year where we gaians roll up our sleeves and begin spring cleaning our Houses, Inventory, Forum Threads and Guilds. We post updates so as to be ready for new beginnings. The site takes on a whole new persona, and we are better for it. Keeping in theme with the contagious cleaning frenzy, our much loved GaiaHQ Staff – the often harassed and under appreciated team that brings us the - free to join - pixelated cyber world we love so much – brings about alterations to the site that keep it operating in tip-top shape. These changes are meant to benefit us all. Sometimes the changes are slight, such as a new homepage layout, or a new flash game; just a little something to bring about a breath of fresh air. Though on other occasions, the changes are set on a much bigger scale, such as the recent restructuring of the ‘My Gaia’ page. Sure, the alteration was met with controversy and much dislike by a majority of our users; who in turn set the website on fire with protest. Though, through all of this, the Development Team - led by our fearless Giant Head in the Sky, Lanzer - picked themselves up; dusted themselves off, and carried on with their work like the true heroes we all know them to be. I can’t fully speak for Gaia Online Magazine as a whole, but this reporter salutes the Staff at GaiaHQ, and congratulates them for their intrepid spirit and dedication to Gaia & its users. The rest of this month will see the continuance of the My Gaia page update, and many more exciting new additions – of which we will discuss later on in the magazine. We hope that throughout all of the changes, the user can stop, take a breath, and enjoy what Gaia has to offer. Good Night, and Good Posting.

Admiral Lord Cochrane - Chief Editor 2

INTRO COVER IMAGE

CONTENTS of GAIA ONLINE MAGAZINE ISSUE 3 4

THE CREW

THE COMMUNITY

Read about the workers of the Magazine.

FEATURED

ADVERTISING

GAIA-ART

3 Questions, Mod of the Month & Win-Fail list!

Avatars, profiles, threads & guilds You’ll be sure to find something of interest.

GAIA ITEMS

GAIA MEMORIES

zOMG

THE FORUMS

gOMG

SINCE YOU ASKED

CONVENTION

CONTESTS

MC review, new items, Girls’ Pick

Take share of these Gaians favorite memories. Read short summaries on 4 of Gaias Forums Everyone needs advice every now and then.

22 ROLEPLAY SPECIAL

We’ll teach you what Gaia Online is really about.

Featured Avi-Art & interviews with artists Funny images, useful links, tips and tricks. Read about the Gaia Online Magazine Guild. We attended to Sakura-Con!

Make sure to enter! You might win 1 million!

Fremere’s Guard Illustration drawn by Jenzee

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Here youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find everyone that works with the Magazine. Lead CREW - These awesome people control & create the magazine. They also hand out assignments. CREW - These members have pledged their life to the magazine, and helps out as much as they can! Helpers - The helpers take on easier tasks (such as gather information), and report back to the CREW members.

LEAD CREW theMeji Creator and owner of Gaia Online Magazine.

Admiral Lord Cochrane Co-owner and columnist of the magazine. Treat him with respect!

Qyp Gaia Online Magazines most active member. If you hang out in the Guild, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re bound to run into him. Nymph of Spring Our newest Lead CREW member. Make sure to give her a warm welcome!

Contact info

Do you have any questions considering the magazine? Want to become a sponsor? Have big plans for it? Contact theMeji, owner of Gaia Online Magazine via PM @ Gaia Online.

CREW Allerisse

Link Chesthill

Forums

Guild Guild Moderator Moderator zOMG zOMG

Champagnes

Lord i-dc

Journalist Writer

Journalist

ChibiLady

Sir Shay

Lurker

Editor Since You Asked...

DISK0

Waldo McFish

Artist & Illustrator Avi-Art

zOMG

K to the Tizzle

Valgarv

Avi-Art

Guild Moderator

Kain-Senpai

Xerxies

Guild Moderator

Journalist Writer

Kytona

Zilla Senetai

zOMG

Artist & Illustrator

le c l o u d Journalist

the

HELPERS

CREW

Deathly Delicious

Khrate

Star_Raven

Lurker

zOMG

Image Hoarder

bloodysword4

Kirisuka

Starlit Fate

Image Hoarder

Artist & Illustrator

Writer

Deathly Delicious

Mousse Chocolat

Link Chesthill

Artist & Illustrator

Journalist Writer

Writer

evilpoptart_lady

Sakura_Madison

xMonochromeDollx

Image Hoarder

Avi-Art

Lurker

iDildo Baggins

Shinigami-ANBU

YumaKirosaki

Forums

Artist & Illustrator

Designer

SPECIAL THANKS Keist Due to severe family issues, Keist (Lead CREW member and Co-Owner of the magazine) had to leave the project. Because of this, we were not able to complete the “How to become a CB legend” tutorial, since Keist was the one writing that. We miss you, Keist. Hope you’ll return someday... <3

Donate to Gaia Online Magazine! Click here to learn how

DONATORS These gentle souls have donated gold to Gaia Online Magazine, so we will be able to hold even bigger contests for you readers! Give them some love! Lord G-Off - Donate 25k BigBrother10 - Donate 20k Before The Stars Sleep - Donate 10k

The results of the Poll told us you people wanted to read about Admiral Lord Crochane. So, here he is! Enjoy!

CREW MEMBER INFORMATION

Bartonian Rhapsody ~ Gaia vs. Life

As much as I agree with people who like to point out that when you’re roleplaying, that it is just as the name suggests - a roleplay, I have always suggested the secondary arguement that, though they who partake in activities such as roleplaying games, may not actually be vampires, werewolves, pirates, ninjas, zombie apocoplypse survivors, war heros, slutty schoolgirls or anime characters, but that the way that they interact within those RP’s may actually alter their behavior in everyday life. The way we interact with other human beings via RP, effects everything that surrounds us. The same can be said of real life, can it not? When I first joined Gaia back in January of 2003, though I was already deeply schooled in the ways of the social circle, I was not yet aware of my inability to make friends without first making eye contact. I was used to the ways of Real Life interaction. As soon as I’d received that confirmation letter, I wasn’t immersed deep within the forums making friends, and adding them to my buddy list. No, far from it. Instead, I was lurking in the shadows: watching, observing & deciding that perhaps, pretending to be someone else in a Roleplay might take the edge off this new cyber world, and my lack of social graces... It was then that I realized that I had a corner in the RP Market. I was fresh off a tall ship, the POTC movies were being made, I knew my history, and was well taught in the ways of the square-rig sailing ship. It was then that I decided that I’d create Gaia’s first ‘Age of Sail’ roleplay. It was easy at first. I set the scene, created my persona, and sat down on a bushel of apples at the end of an old creeky dock. My crew began slowly. One at first, but then after a few pages of dialogue, things were looking

Username: Admiral Lord Cochrane Real Name: Christian Sorensen-Black Day of Birth: August 30th, 1985 (24) Age: 24 Gaia B-Day: December 12th, 2003 Location: Seattle, Washington Occupation: Office Clerk for the Department of Disabled American Veterans & History Major at University of Washington & North Seattle Community College GOM Position: New Co-Owner, Editor-in-Chief & Head of the Department of Journalism Interests: History (Specialty: Napoleonic-Edwardian) Literature (I’ve read more books than Monster has eaten cookies..) Journalism (I’ve written several books - all of which I’ve burned.) Steampunk (Stepping into my house & closet is like walking back in time) Historical Fencing (Working towards my Scholars Garters) Theatre (Currently seeking a musical role) Music (I torture a violin, but sing beautifully) Sailing (Retired Officer aboard the S.V. ‘Lady Washington’ ~ aka HMS ‘Interceptor’ in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the ‘Black Pearl’)

up. More followers began to trickle in - and like a crack in a dam, the more the water worked at that fracture, the more water came rushing in. Soon, I had a crew of fifty, and things couldn’t have been better. Our numbers only kept building, though with larger numbers and the power over them, came the great responsibility of taking the role as Captain. Now, this was back in the days when there were no Guild Forums. Just endless threads; full of storyline & plot. They tended to get messy if not properly kept in order. Meanwhile, outside of Gaia, things were getting messy as well. I’d been becoming more social as my self confidence grew, and thus was building my own real life crew of mischievious miscreants. And like the Ships Crew, they needed guidance, and above all - Leadership. So, I appointed myself Captain, and never looked back. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into at the time, but as time and such things progressed, I came to realize that taking that role upon yourself is more than just an honorary title. With it comes a weight upon your back. The weight of the group. It’s the Captain - the Leader, who keeps that little wooden world afloat. I was coming in to the understanding that acting in that role meant that I’d be the glue - the caulking that held the seams together. Fast forwarding a few years, I’ve since grown by leaps and bounds in my leadership skills. I’ve seen my crew grow and bloom in beautiful ways - both in real life and in RP. Though there were times when the seams showed signs of buckling and tearing assunder, they held through everything. Through good times and bad, through deaths and births, through lost and gain.. we prevailed, both as Gaians and as People. Through my time on Gaia, I’ve changed for the better. I can look at people now in a shade I’ve never known before. I can only hope that in the future, I’ll learn from the new generation of Gaians that are flooding into the forums every new bright day. BTW: I’ll never push the reset button on this RP. It’s only getting started.

New issue, new questions! Here we present you with yet another comeback of the “Ask the Community”! If you have any ideas on new questions we should ask he community, feel free to post them in this thread.

ASK THE COMMUNITY

We’ve asked several users around Gaia Online these three questions seen bellow. Here are our favorite answers!

3 DIFFERENT QUESTIONS

1. If you had the chance to design a Gaia Online Item, what would it look like? 2. Which is your favorite Gaia Online NPC, and why? 3. What would you do if you met Lanzer (Creator of Gaia Online)? A Story Worth Telling

Neonmatic

My favorite NPC is definitely Ian. I’m not sure, perhaps it’s because he’s been here since the beginning, but it’s comforting to see a familiar character among so many changes over the years!

It would probably be fairy tale-inspired, since that’s the kind of thing I love. I actually had a petition for a while back for more fairy tale items, and we got our wish with several items, but I’d like to see more pretty dresses and magical/fantasy items like you’d expect from a fairytale. For me it’s a tie between Blaze, because she’s a strong, independent female character, and--I know I may be alone on this, but--Rina! I like how peppy and upbeat she is; I think it’s cute.

I would probably totally geek out. I’d want to shake his hand and tell him he’d done a wonderful job creating such an addicting social networking site.

Pixi Lust

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If I met Lanzer, I can’t say I would do anything too exciting! I would love to shake his hand and thank him for all the years of good memories and unique friendships he, the staff, and his site have given me!

Lulu Bahamut

Probably some “Too Hot For TV” censor bubbles. Just because it would totally make me snicker every time I looked at it.

2 3

Carl is my most favoritest ever!! He’s crazy majestic.

I’d ask him if I could crash on his couch because I just got kicked out of my old place. And maybe give him a hug for FINALLY giving me my ‘04 zombie skin back.

CARL

If I could design an item, I would make bottoms that were more versatile, modern and flattering. We lack so many of them and in good colors that we usually end up wearing only stockings and undies!

Possibly something rainbow or panda themed as I’m obsessed with both. Otherwise something retro looking I think.

Moira - I like her dress sense & I think she’d be the kind of girl I’d be friends with, seconded by Ruby - just because I look a little like her.

Ask him for a job & hand him my CV. XD Gaia looks like a fun place to work & I’ve just finished my studies & am unemployed as of now.

the Mirialiah

COMMUNITY XxChibi_Kitsune_AzumixX

Doesn’t matter as long as it’s purple, orange, or yellow (or any of the other unloved colors). Gaia needs to be less color-biased! xO

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Definitely Ian. He’s such a sweetheart and hey-- he likes cats so he can’t be ALL bad, right? Probably treat him as if I’ve known him forever cause I feel like I have. Is that creepy? o.O’

If I have a chance to design a gaia online item, it will be a chibi kitsune because I’ve always wanted to create a baby kitsune that is similar to Ikki the Kitsune. I would make its body black and having red eyes, tip of its ears and tail since I love the colors black and red. Basically I wanted to make the kitsune a different color skin type of thing.

My favorite NPC is Moira. She is an awesome punk chick that I have ever seen on Gaia Online because she sells tight items that I loved so much.

If I met Lanzer, I would blush since I bet he will look cute in real life. Lanzer is a new guy to me and I bet he will update more news on Gaia Online.

theMeji

Stripes Desu

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I have a feeling I’d go ego and create something that would look neat on my own avatar. It would most likely have a futuristic vocaloid/mecha touch, since I’m really found of that. Oh, I’ve idolized several. When I first joined, I really had this thing for Sasha. She was just so cute and adorable! Then a few years later, Sam showed up. She could take on Sasha any day, yes! Then, yet another few years later, Dernier*Cri showed up. Today, Brennivin is my absolute favorite. :3

I would design an EI that was a compilation of different manga series. It’d probably be called Otaku Weekly. Kanoko. She’s the bee’s knees.

If I met Lanzer, I’d probably make a few suggestions for the site. Probably a few pertaining to the cash shop and gold sinks.

I’d have him take me as his apprentice. That guy is made out of epicness. I want to be like that, too. D: <3

Think You Have The ability to Survive the Gaia Big Brother Competition? 20 lucky Men & Women will survive auditions and ultimately continue for a chance to win the grand prize of 2.5 MILLION GOLD.

WANT AN EARLY JUMP-START ON THE COMPETITION? We’re holding a lotto where the winner will take home a guaranteed spot in the Big Brother Household! ~COME CHEER ON YOUR FAVORITE COMPETITORS~

PixieTai

Shagami

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Vase Of Flowers. Like dried flowers and have a few different poses and such.

I would like to design a shirt with long sleeves and shows the tummy a bit.

I would have to say Cindy D. She’s there with the latest breaking news all the time!

I would say my favorite NPC would be Johnny k. Gambino. I have been a huge fan of the Gambinos since 2005.

Oh Gee... Wow... Hmm... Probably glomp him first and then tell him how much I love Gaia. And then ask for a job since I am getting my degree in Graphic Design!!!

Minny Dino

If I met Lanzer; I would like to shake his hand and tell him thank you for making Gaia.

Makihyn Hiashin

1 2 3

I’d make an EI made up of just wigs. o 3o

I’d design an evolving item, so I wouldn’t be restricted to designing a top/bottom/hat/back/ accessory. EI’s need to have more than just a few poses/items, right? Specifically, I’d do a Captain/ Airship-themed EI. I really liked the Captain’s Cap contest and it’d be cool if we had whole Captain’s outfits available in an EI or even an airship background along with an airship item and everything.

Sasha. <3 She’s just so bad ass.

Do a fan girl squeal. Just kidding. I’d shake his hand thank him for thinking up this brilliant site.

Brennivin. Because FASSSSSSSHIOOOONNNNN! Also that hair is fabulous - you can agree with me, or you can be wrong.

I guess I’d hug him? Not the glompy-fangirly type or anything. Oh, wait. I would give him Kamina glasses. Manly spirit and all.

STFU SRSLY

Shagami

It’d look like a laptop, like an EI it would have many poses. It’d be based on technology with items like headphones, cell phones, ipods, xbox, etc. At least, that’s what I want to design; or it’d be more unique wigs, since my favorite items on Gaia are the hairs and wigs actually.

2 3

My favorite Gaian NPC is Moira since I like her style and I can relate to her in so many ways. I might hesitate, but I would approach him and thank him for doing the best keeping this site

up.

Well, as a very nitpicky avatar maker I’d love thin bracelets and anklets in every color of the rainbow. We just need more items like that!

My favorite NPC would be Rina, she’s so overly cute and ditzy, she just HAS to be a psychopathic killer...

Squeal very, very loud. Then, after I’ve got my sanity back, I’d ask him how he even got to the idea of making Gaia Online. And I’d ask for his signature..

COMMUNITY MOD OF THE MONTH the

AngeIsThanatos - Site Moderator

New issue, new interview. This month, we’ve interviewed yet another of Gaia Online’s moderators. And apparently, they’re not as scary as they look. They’re actually kind of sweet. Have a look yourself! <3

Who are you? Tell us a little about yourself! Well, I’m AngeIsThanatos, I’m 28 and I live in the UK. I’m originally from Scotland but I now live just outside London with my husband, who is Welsh. All we need now is a roommate from Northern Ireland to complete the set! I work as a video games tester - it’s not as fun as it sounds, trust me - but I’m currently in between jobs so I spend most of my time on Gaia, doing housework and job hunting. I love video games, my favorites being the Silent Hill series as my username suggests, as well as films, music and the occasional bout of drawing; I’m a somewhat lazy and sporadic artist. Oh, and I collect anything to do with crabs and lobsters - I think they’re cute. ^^

Which forum(s) are you currently acting a mod for? Currently I work in Welcome to Gaia, the Supernatural forum, Avatar System Q&F (not that it gets much traffic xD) and the Hot Topics section. Whatever is currently in Hot Topics, that’s what I deal with; I never would have known who Justin Bieber is without that forum. I also handle reports from the Jigsaw game.

So I take it you’re found of games? Any favorite titles? Definitely Silent Hill 2; I loved that game from the moment I played it when it came out (I think that was 2001.) I could literally go on and on about it for pages, so I’ll just leave it at that. Anyone who’s a fan of psychological horror should play it if they haven’t already. Apart from Silent Hill and other survival horror games, I love Final Fantasy and I’m currently making my way towards the end of number 13. I like classic games too, like Tomb Raider and the old Sonic and Mario games; in fact I’ll play pretty much anything as long as it interests me enough. Except sports games and FPSs; never had much interest in those. Fun tact: I tested LEGO Indiana Jones and Batman in my last job, so I recommend those too. xD

What’s the absolute best thing with being a mod? As cheesy as it may sound, it’s the satisfaction of knowing you’re helping make this site cleaner and safer for all members. Dealing with nasty gore and porn trolls can be particularly satisfying since no one wants to see that kind of thing on here, and I’m sure it’s fun for everyone to see them thwarted.

How long have you been a member of Gaia Online? When did you join? I joined on Halloween 2006. A friend of mine from another forum had told me about Gaia and I had looked around here a few times, but on Halloween I decided to bite the bullet and register. It was during the event of course, so I was very confused at first. I didn’t know why there were cows posting in the forums and the shopkeepers kept giving me candy when I tried to buy something. But it was great fun and it got me interested enough to stay, and here I am nearly 4 years later.

Did you get to choose what kind of forums to mod for? Yes. While I was being trained I was also assigned to some forums that I didn’t know very well, but that gave me an opportunity to branch out my area of experience. I’m glad I got to stay in Welcome to Gaia though because I enjoy seeing all the new faces that join up here every day. ^^ Before I was modded I was a regular poster/lurker in the GCD and I still try and post in there when I can. And take care of anything that shouldn’t be there along the way.

Out of all the Gaia Online NPCs, which one is your favorite? EDMUND! <3 Basically because it’s nice to see a suave, handsome and sophisticated older man who can handle himself in a fight with a vampire; it’s every woman’s fantasy, surely. Also his store sells some of my favorite items of clothing; I think I bought most of the commons from there. I’m also quite fond of Timmy and his constant slack-jawed amazement at everything. Thank you for the interview. Any last words for the readers before we finish? REPORT AND DON’T REPLY! Just basically, thanks to all the users for making this place interesting enough to keep people like me coming back here year after year, and also thanks to the Gaia staff for keeping the site up and running for us. ^^

REAL LIFE DESK Behind the Screens

Follow Gaia Online Magazine in their hunt for pictures behind the screens. Here we feature the desks of 2 CREW members. Laptops surely seem to be popular, nowadays.

Champagnes I am actually a vegetarian, I thought the beef picture was just hilarious. And when I am bored, I pick the edge of the desk hence why all the brown is gone in the front.

Qyp This is where I sit. This is where I do this and that, and that and this.

the

COMMUNITY

MC Review By: Qyp

Princess Kaguya

A multicolored dress based on the old Japanese folktales. The main pose of the item (the dress) is quite suitable. Two different colored wigs was kind of nice too, but they’re far from perfect. The Shoji and Rabbits are probably the best poses, because you really don’t need to match for them to fit. The description says that she is “the fair-haired princess of the moon.” Which I think there should of been some moonlight-skin pose or something similar to go with that. A few more poses just wouldn’t have hurt. Overall, this is no where near the best of MCs, but I would say it is somewhere in the middle. It was around the 120,000 gold mark when it first came out, meaning it must of been loved by a lot of people. It is going down though. Today it’s only about 60k.

Harbinger of Pestilence

This item, oh man, is just pathetic. This looks like it was meant to be released with Leviathan’s Grace set and Lidless Demon Armor set. Okay, okay, that’s putting a bit to low. But it is almost there, the Khopesh (sword) is great though. The Bracers, Belt and Shoes are pretty average, but the locusts do not look all that good. At least the name is awesome. It was about 90,000 gold with it first came out, and it is going down fast. Not a popular item at all. Today it’s really low. Only about 45k, and it keeps falling.

We’ve asked the community what they thought about the new MCs.

1. What do you like, if any, about this Month’s Collectibles? 2. What is your GENERAL opinion of Collectibles, in recent years? Have they gotten worse? 3. If you had a chance to see something as a collectible, what would it be? Nymph of Spring I don’t really like either. I certainly don’t care for the Harbinger... It just looks odd to be swatting flies or whatever the winged things are. I do believe they’ve been slacking on the Monthly Collectibles... which is sad, in my opinion. But there are only so many things they can do, since they’re using all their good ideas for Cash Shop items... I’d want to see more make-up and piercing, or some creative outfits... Some new wings would be nice too... And of course shoes. A Shoe-A-Holic item would be interesting.

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Aitaijini461 Honestly, I don’t like either of them.

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In recent years, I feel that Gaia has swung their attention more onto Cash Shop evolving items and are neglecting MC designs. Gaia is now more absorbed with making money rather than trying to make the site user-friendly. New members are entering an inflated market in Gaia and seeing all these cool Cash shop items at prices they probably might not be able to obtain (if they are unable to buy Gaia Cash). I mind too much what the item will be as long as they put effort into the design aspect, but I would like to see less of these mushrooms, frogs, and random genres.

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Awesome McGee I like the Princess Kayura, even though I always have a harder time working with “pretty” items.

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I think the pixel work has gotten better, but some items just aren’t too versatile. I really wish we could get something with a huge organ as (part of) a background.

What do you think of April’s Monthly Collectibles?

gaia Vocaloid Fans Rejoice The new Monarch Headphones took many by surprise! Especially all of the Vocaloid lovers and fans hanging around on Gaia Online. The new items is, pretty much, ripped from one of the illustrations found on a Vocaloid CD album. Too bad the item only comes in one single color, though. We would all have loved to see it in several different colors, so we could match it with our avatars even better! One can obtain the item by purchasing Gaia Cash for at least 25$ via PayPal, or simply buy it of the marketplace for about 150k. For more information, see the announcement!

“It’s like they were made for each other” Here follows some great different combinations of items! If you’d like to see more, visit THIS THREAD!

Valhalla’s Armor

La Dragonne

Nightmare Guardian Hooded Cape

Raptor Fire Top

ITEMS FREE ITEM

Barton Friendship Leaf Become friends with [NPC] Rufus & [NPC] Ian, and get a free item! Click the leaf to befriend them and claim your item!

Curious on what items the new chance item Perfect Tragedy contains? Pay THIS THREAD a visit, and you’ll find every single one of them!

Girls’ Picks

By Allerisse

Spring Kiss

This month for the top five girls picks, we celebrate the beautiful spring splendor with the items composed of the delicate shades of pink, and the soft earthen tones of green. Lily Starfire Channel your inner gossamer elf with this item’s hues of cherry and lime. (Code Alpha, Marketplace: 450’000 Gold) Audrey’s Green Strap Heels Your feet will ache, but your butt will look smaller. (H.R. Wesley, 1’980 Gold) Strawberry Sundae Sweets Celebrate sweetness and heat by accessorizing with a strawberry ice cream bunny. (zOMG, Marketplace: 95’000 Gold) Fresh Garlic Dress Suddenly, garlic isn’t just for warding off pesky vampires anymore. (zOMG, Marketplace: 500 Gold) Gogh Reed Get torn between the leafy and the cactus options. (Cash Shop: EI, Marketplace: 1’300’000 Gold)

tseung Kenshin Himura ^_^x

ell, when I first joined Gaia it was way back in the old days. Practically prehistoric. Almost everyone was a newbie and the best way to make money was to run around towns and shake stuff. And since I was sent from boarding school to boarding school the only way to stay in contact with my buds was Gaia. And like most people, they gave it up after a few years. I did too, for about a year or so. Then I came back and made a bunch of new friends. We ran around towns and poked people, we became twins, we even added each other on myspace and such. But then I went through an emo period in my life and I stopped talking to people on Gaia, RPing was my only happiness. Then just to get rid of the people who were pestering me, I switched accounts, back to this one. And then I made a few good friends, who nowadays I talk to 24/7 on the phone, on facebook, and a bunch of other things. But I just couldn’t stop remembering my old friends. I really missed them. Then one day I was just randomly walking around MTV and I passed by this person, who I didn’t know at all. But when she saw me walk by, she new who I was. From my avi, maybe? But once she said my name I felt years worth of talks flood into my brain. And well, we’ve been siamese twins ever since.

Steal the Queen

am Steal the Queen. I joined Gaia back in ‘08 when a friend of mine, Darcy Lune, told me about this place. I was hesitant at first but decided to jump in. I was barely in my noobie stage when she started donating to me. Then she told me about Gaia Cash and I bought Fortune Eggs by the dozens and sold them. By that time I was questing a Kiki kitty and made my first 500k. Thanks to my friend Darcy Lune, I’m a pretty happy Gaian. She doesn’t sign on very often but she still helps me out once in a while. I thank her for bringing me here to this site. I pass my time and stress on here as it’s a good de-stresser. I enjoy making beautiful avatars and exchanging. :3 I’m not an oldbie, but that doesn’t matter. I enjoy Gaia in my own way. I thank you Darcy Lune for inviting me to join Gaia!

have been a member of Gaia Online since December 2004. When I joined, the website was just getting started and was actually literate. It was the age of the instant messaging. Text lingo and chat-speak were just beginning to evolve so the role plays were amazing! I’m not saying that there aren’t still amazing role plays in Gaia but the vast majority of them when I joined were amazing. I would rush home from high school to add to my favorite role plays. I made some neat friends. As the years went by with the introduction of the now sensationalized Kiki and Coco mascots, Gaia grew. Games appeared. Jigsaws were a new way to make gold without posting! We were blown away with slots and Blackjack and a means of cashing in our hard earned tickets. Story lines unfolded. The Von Helsons and Gambino had been tyrants of yesteryear and new problems plagued Gaians. Santa had been turned into a cow, watermeats appeared and just as soon as things turned bad for our heros, things became peaceful again. These events I thoroughly enjoyed. Then in 2007, I took some months hiatus from my Gaia Online experience. I was finishing my senior year of high school and didn’t have the time. I’m glad I returned that summer for the water wars. Go Team Durem! I received my gold trophy but that wasn’t the most amazing part. I met my love. They say long distance relationships are difficult but when he lives on the other side of your country, it really hits you how far away he is. Gaia not only allowed me internet fun but introduced me to my boyfriend of two years and showed me the world. I flew to see him and saw the golden gate bridge in San Francisco for the first time. As Gaia Online has grown, so have I and I can never be more thankful for all this website has given me.

SUBMIT YOUR OWN STORIES!

Check out the Guild and share your memories with the world! It might even have a chance to get featured in the magazine!

gaian

MiaIkumis#1Fan

MEMORIES Commander Weedicide

ow I wish I could start off by saying “back in the old days...” but sadly, I am a mere ‘06 member. Moving on to something people would remotely care about: the story of getting my first donation letters. Well, my parents had been wary of letting me join gaia after a classmate from school invited me. So far, I had only been on sites with regulated fun, like Neopets and, what is now considered the center of all that is evil and censorship, 4kids.tv. So, my super cool aunt decided to join too, ensuring that I would have some sort of supervision on this wide, wild website. It was she who had given me my first donation letters, a few months after she and I joined. She bought me two envelopes using her Paypal, allowing me to get one of each November ‘06 item, Momo the Monkey and Mini UFO. I thought I was hot stuff, gliding around towns in a UFO with a monkey on my avatar’s head. Looking back, I now realize how ridiculous I looked. I also realize that I never use either of those items anymore. And in fact, I could sell both of them for a total of about 55k to aid me in obtaining the items on my wishlist. But I can’t do that. It’s dumb to be attached to pixels, but I can’t let go of the fond memories I have with those items. They were the first really “expensive” items I ever owned on gaia. Neither of them are aesthetically my favorite item, but no other items offer me as fond memories as those two.

aia has always been good and bad, jolly and sad, but I’ve made so much progress thanks to one of my first friends on this marvelous site. In the month of October in 2007, I’d first joined. By the end of the week, I had two accounts and about 4,000 gold’s worth of items. I was so proud of that feat, that I wanted to get something... exciting. During that same week, I discovered tektek.org, and found the ORLY Hat. It was worth about 19,000 gold way back when, so my newbish quest began. One day, I went to my favourite place, the Rally. I met that friend that day, and he had the ORLY Hat that I wanted quite badly. He also liked my Mokona hat. The request for a trade was heaven for me. I’d given him something worth 200 gold for my dream hat. To this day, I still feel guilty, but since then I’ve grown to five accounts, and over 2 million gold’s worth of items. Gaia wouldn’t have been the same without that little friend who’s name I’ve forgotten.

MICHAEL’S MEMORY QUEST!

Tired of your Michael’s Memory item? It can be in better hands! By donating, you will help another Gaian to be one step closer on achieving their dream avatar! Be their angel now!

Velvet Straightjacket

here to start...I remember when I first started Gaia. Back in 2006. God I loved this site. My best friend showed it to me one day and I was instantly hooked. I remember everyday coming home from school just to get on the computer and collect gold and post in forums.Then I found roleplaying. I fell in love with it. I couldn’t get my mind off what I was going to post next. Everything just came so natural when posting in roleplaying forums. Then I started to make my own roleplaying forums. I go back and look at them now and think how bad I posted... I thought I was literate when I only posted a sentence or two per post. About the end of last year the few roleplays I was

in died suddenly... And then I found no reason to go back to Gaia as much as I did before. I would love to get back into roleplaying but...the ‘noobs’ have taken over the Barton Town and its so hard to find a good roleplay anymore... so if anyone wants to 1x1 or has a good, advanced literate roleplay looking for someone, then please, please contact me. (:

This time, we’ve taken on 4 new forums. The Anime/Manga/Comics, Exchange, Bug Reports, and Barton Town forums. Next issue we’ll hit 4 new ones. Make sure you make your voice heard in the POLL! Vote down your favorite forum, and we might end up doing a summary on it~ By: Allerisse

As one of the most famous (or infamous?) forums in Gaia, One of the most interesting threads in the AMC forum the AMC has its daily share of giggles and verbal abuse, for this month was from user Reegi_San’s thread, Would brought about by opposing factions: it is always constant you like to be in a hentai movie?. The thread has a lively that when someone makes a forum worshipping some- and comical discussion on how funny and absurd hentai thing, trolls and haters make their way to it with gusto. is, and how exactly it would be if the scenarios and the This month, there was the usual horde of fans making the plot in hentai were to actually happen in real life. It also “[insert character’s name here]speculates on what and how life would be if “The thread has a sama is sooo smexxiiii lololol” the reader’s boyfriend or girlfriend acted like threads. As such, several min- lively and comical dis- a stereotypical character in a hentai. Although utes after such thread appeared, not recommended for the younger Gaian’s age cussion on how funny it was immediately followed by group, the discussion will be most interesting “[insert character’s name here]’s for Gaia’s older members. and absurd hentai is.” fans are morons” thread. There Another interesting thread was Wyrn’s Wait, was also, again, another surge of threads asking Gaians to you’re what gender? thread. It mainly discusses the genrecommend their favorite anime shows. Also, Gaia Online der-ambiguous world of anime, and which characters from Magazine would like to plead to its readers: although it still which shows’ actual gender caught the fans by surprise. It seems to be trendy to end your sentences with ‘desu’ in also comically discusses how long most fans took to figure AMC, we would like you to keep from doing that…forever. out the “not really a trap-trap”’s actual sex.

With Gaia’s new RIGS, or Random Item Generators, and ing off thousands of gold for a market fee, you name the the inflation in the marketplace, The Gaia Exchange is the price in the exchange. Every Item that you may be looking best place to be. This month, the item “Every item that you for, you can find in the exchange for a most being sold is The Nitemare Scarf, discounted price. may be looking for, you while the items being bought the most Some of the best items on Gaia can be are Mini Angel and Nitemare Wings. can find in the exchange found in Operation Purchase created Most Gaians go to the exchange to make by ValChan2. She is selling some of the for a discounted price.” a profit or hoard lots of items at a price older items on Gaia, such as, Devil Tail, at least 10k (10,000 gold) below the Market Place value. OMG, Angelic Scarf, Nitemare Scarf, Etc. She is looking to You can sell as many items as you’d like in one thread and buy either of the Mini Wings; she is paying a good sum of avoid the 2% fee from the Marketplace. This would come gold for them. She is also buying any items that users may in handy for the high end items, which instead of Gaia tak- have that are from the first year of Gaia.

An extremely important thread to check for this month a per computer basis. Having the data stored in our server is user I said RAWR’s Thread Subscriptions & My Topics: is something we’ll get to. It’s one of those last things that New Posts, False Positives discussion. It points out a recur- were still being saved in cookies.’’ ring error in the system wherein one receives notifications HyruleanHero’s Can’t Use Same Color for Wrap and Ribfor new posts in particular threads which are bon obviously points out that age-old er“Even our Admin, subscribed or personally made, when acturor: the inability to make a bouquet with ally, there are none. This is particularly both- Lanzer, had some- only one color choice of wrap and ribbon. ersome for users who have Petitions, Booty Gaians have been making bouquets for Grab Bump Threads and users with Quest thing to say;” years now, and this error is apparently threads, to name a few. still ongoing. It is amazing what Gaia online members such as ourselves It makes the most of us say, how messed up can you get? find around Gaia. This is a Gaia-wide problem as 99% of With Gaia Online falling behind on various updates, peothis happens to members. Even our Admin, Lanzer, had ple can spot something as little as same colored wrap and something to say; ‘’Yes currently there is a limitation of ribbon for flower bouquets while it actually doesn’t let you how the system works with cookies that are only valid on do it.

As one of the oldest forums, Barton Town is the place to do the character you play. OOC (Out Of Character) is when roleplaying in in Gaia. Roleplaying is essentially a form of YOU are talking about the role play, and other things. story writing, wherein you choose a character and First type role playing to show up “girls lost in forest. a base story, and along with other users, you write was simple kind like “vampire girls out usually in third person, what your character Boys hunting them and hunter boys” or “girls lost in fordoes with the other users’ characters. This month, est. Boys hunting them down” or Barton Town was active and popular as usual. This down” something similar. But as time went is to be expected, as one of the main goals of Gaia is es- by, literate role play became common. But now, it seems sentially to be an anime discussion and roleplaying forum. that the simple stuff is coming back. There are a few initials frequently used every user should An example of a more simple RP is War of Keepers. It has know about. NPC (Non Playable Character) is of course a a simple starter story, but there is some structure to the character that, well, one cannot play. (Own Characters) are NPCs and OCs. the ones the users who have joined the RP have made for themselves to use. IC (In Character) is when you are using

Since you asked Starring Sir Shay & God of Forever Gaia Online Magazine’s Advice Column

Everybody needs a little advice now and again. Whether you’ve got an issue with your mother, your best friend, or your significant other, we’re here to help. If we haven’t been there, and chances are we have, then we’ll put our heads together and find a way to help you out. Just ask! Since You Asked is here to aid you.

Shay

Questions look like this

I have a question. How do I become popular like theMeji? I’ve always wanted fame to surround my Gaia life, but it has never really struck me. Heeeelp? Meji has poured a lot of time and creative energy into creating a magazine by the people and for the people. It’s something many people enjoy, and so it has netted him quite a large amount of publicity. If you want fame in your Gaia life, you’ll have to get creative. Most Gaian superstars are only famous in one or two forums. Focus your energies on where you want reknown, and go for it. Remember, be creative! // Shay & God

Around the time I started Gaia I made this great friend. He’s helped me through some really difficult times in my life, and I’ve tried to help him, as well. We started dating, but we live on opposite coasts. I’m about to turn 18, and he’s 6 years older than I am. Should I fly across country to meet him, or should I wait a while longer and help him get the money to come to me? Safety is your number one priority. I understand being in love and wanting to be with this person. After all, God and I met on Gaia, and eventually met up. However, you should always be safe, just in case the other person has misrepresented themselves. In this day and age, it is not a matter of trust, but responsibility to protect yourself from possible harm. We think it would be in your best interest to have him come to you, and meet up in a public place, preferably with your friends or parents around. If he genuinely cares about you, and hasn’t misrepresented himself, he should be fine with such an arrangement. // Shay & God

Answers look like this

God

When it comes to avi art, I’m an addict. The only downside is that I’m usually running low on gold. Do you have any tips on how to make more gold or on cheap ways to get avi art? Do we ever! There’s always the Freebies forum, which is filled with artists looking for subjects to test new styles on, or even just to practice their skills. Many art shops have page or bump contests that can net you some free art. Lots of artists are also willing to discount for or draw regulars and/or friends. Stay away from bribe shops if you want to conserve gold, but remember that some artists are willing to take items instead of pure. And there’s always Booty Grab, posting, vending, and your other typical ways of getting gold! Good luck with your art hunting! // Shay & God

My mother is a severe alcoholic. My father just recently got home from the hospital. I’m 22 years old, and had to quit my job to take care of my dad because my mother is too drunk to do it. I now have to live at my parent’s house until my dad gets better and I can get a new job. I’m sick of my mother, and don’t know what to do. Sounds like a very unpleasant situation to be in. Have you heard of Al-Anon (or their counterpart for kids Alateen)? It’s a program to help the family members of alcoholics and they, from what we understand, even offer methods of coping with these people. We know that years of dealing with the frustration of your mother’s alcoholism has probably worn your patience for her extremely thin, but we hope you’ll give Al-Anon a try. You can check online for Al-Anon (or Alateen) groups in your area. // Shay & God

I have a friend, my best friend, whom I always try to please. Still, we always end up getting into fights over stupid stuff. Some of it is my fault, but she always has to argue with me. For example: If I try and help her get information about something, she yells at me that I’m wrong because her sister said this, or she thinks that, and then she turns mean and hateful when I’m not trying to fight. My sister and mom think I need to get a new best friend, but we have so much in common and she can be cool and nice. I really like being her friend, but every time I try and discuss her hurtful behavior, she says sorry, but doesn’t change. It does get rather annoying, but I don’t want to lose her after around 6 years of friendship. I admit I can be annoying, but I know when to stop, and I don’t hurt people. Sometimes when I am in the middle of talking to people she just tells me to stop like I’m embarrassing her. It really hurts me, especially since she never listens to me or tries to stop her own behavior. Is there anything I can do to save this friendship, or should I just move on? Sounds to me like your “friend” isn’t really your friend. She sounds like a user, and you’re the one she’s latched on to. If you want to try and preserve this sinking ‘friend’ship it’s up to you, but don’t expect her behavior to change any – it’s obvious to me she doesn’t really care about your feelings. While it’s a shame to let go of someone you’ve invested a lot of time in, I think in the end, that’s what would be best for you to do. // Shay I’ll make this simple for you. You’re unhappy with this person and they refuse to cooperate, yes? Your choices are to suck it up and deal with it or remove her from your life, six years or no. It’s not an easy decision to make but unless you do, nothing will change. // God

I’ve got a bit of a problem and would like any advice you could provide to me. I’m bisexual and my parents are terribly homophobic. In the past few weeks I’ve heard them slamming gays several times. I am currently still in the closet, at 19 and in college, because I am mortified by what could happen. Is there any advice you could give me concerning this? I’d appreciate it. I’ll be frank with you. There’s nothing you can do or say that won’t make them “upset” when you out yourself. You will be destroying how your parents see you and it’s going to be traumatic. For your sake, I hope it’s the overt kind. I very

well might be wrong, but in my experience, things tend to smooth out if you scream about it first. Hopefully you will be able to weather the hurt and confused feelings, none of which you should take to heart. Try to ride out the shitstorm that follows the announcement. In conclusion: you can feel secure in the fact that you told them, no matter what the outcome, or you can try to keep hiding it. Keep in mind that secrets have a way of making themselves known. // God God and I have wildly differing opinions on this matter. In your situation I would tell my parents that, though they certainly have a right to their opinions, I’m offended by them and would appreciate if they wouldn’t discuss that matter around me. Who says you have to out yourself to them just yet, or ever, anyway? Wait until you’re finished with college if you want to tell them, or wait until you have a boyfriend that you want to “meet the family.” Your sex life, honestly, is nobody’s business but yours so don’t let your parents run it for you. // Shay

This question might be a little silly, but... My room is a mess. I seldom feel the urge to clean it. As soon as I try to get down to business, I get distracted by something else. :sweat: Any tips on cleaning up your room without losing concentration? XDD You know, we have the same problem! It’s hard to concentrate on something that’s not really fun for long periods of time. Set smaller goals, like “I’m going to clear off my desk.” and then meet them one by one. That way it doesn’t seem like such a daunting, all-encompassing task. When you pick up a book, game, etc. DON’T start flipping through it, no matter how bored of cleaning you are. It will end up eating your time and you won’t get anything done! Remember: Create small goals that add up to your larger goal, and meet them individually. // Shay & God

In need of advice?

Go to this page and learn how submit your questions. Keep in mind, though, that Since You Asked do NOT answer editorial decisions. Such as who will be featured or what sections are going to be put into the magazine. Those questions are better suited to ask in the guild.

ROLEP

PLAY SPECIAL Back when Gaia Online was first created, it was a community filled with roleplay forums and links following to offsite anime & manga webpages. It was a community where the japan-loving geeks could ease their minds by creating breathtaking stories of their own, roleplays. And it wouldn’t take long before the popularity of this new roleplay community grew into thousands of users. Today, Gaia has grown into an interweb beast, filled with games, applications, and tons of other things. But let us all not forget about its true nature. In this Roleplay Special article, you’ll find a lot of useful tips on creating your own RP characters, learn how to make a nice post layout, among with a list filled with RP Guilds and threads. But before we begin, let me introduce you to a few good-to-know things when it comes to roleplaying. Roleplay (RP) is a game where players put themselves in the roles of a different character. These characters are created by the players of the game according to the rules set up by the creator, the game master. The players then decide the outcome of the story. Let me teach you the meaning of a few abbreviations and other words you’ll be sure to run into when RPing. • OC - Original Character An original character (or own character) is the character you use in your RPs. • OOC - Out Of Character Whenever you’re talking things irrelevant to the roleplay, it’s called OOC. Whenever writing out of character, one usually uses [] or (). • Literate RP Literate roleplays are considered to be more “serious” than regular ones. A good grammar and earlier RP-experience is recommended for RPs like these. • Godmodding Godmodders are players that tend to play the games by their own rules. They go “overpowered” and pretends to be the ruler of worlds • Third person When roleplaying, people often prefer to use third person language (He/She/It/Name) when they’re describing what their character is doing at the moment.

How to create a successful roleplay Literate roleplays

5 basic tips when creating a roleplay • 1. When creating a roleplay, there are a few things that you need to be aware of. To begin with, make sure you have an original idea. People won’t like to join your RP if it’s too common to come around. • 2. Make sure you want the RP to strike through! If you don’t have the willpower to keep the RP up and going, it will eventually fall into the trash. • 3. Describe the world! If you’re making a fantasy roleplay, don’t just go around telling the players the name of the planet. The economy, weather, among with a lot of other things would be nice to write down. • 4. Give the thread a nice layout! If the first pages are eye-cathing, people will surely read them. Also try to organize all the various contents of the RP (profiles, story, rules, etc) in different posts, so people can easily track them down. Look around in other peoples threads for ideas and design tips. Here’s a RP I made myself. You could take this one as an example. Make sure to create an OOC thread as well, where you post regularly to keep in touch with the other players. • 5. Know your companions! If the players of the roleplay become your friends, you will all surely feel a stronger bond between your characters in the RP, causing the roleplay to survive even longer!

Roleplay links Want to hang out with other literate players? Pay THIS HANGOUT a visit.

Looking for people to roleplay with, but can’t find any? Check out THIS THREAD. It’s a thread filled with hundreds of roleplayers and their interests. Send one of them a PM if you’d like to start an RP of a genre they’re fond of.

Want to join a new RP? Here’s a list of a few freshly-stared ones.

ｏｖｅｒ the ｍｏｕｎｔａｉｎ

This is a literate freeform roleplay. That means everyone work together to mold and shape the plot as it goes on.

♬ Ϩʊɱɱєя ϝʊɳ ♬

Nothing but three months of parties, crazy nights, and days at the beach... This is an everyday-life roleplay. No special literacy needed.

In Forced Love

In this Fantasy Roleplay, the prince and princess of two different nations have been forced into marriage to join in forces agains the evil kingdom of ‘Clios’.

East Haven

An apocalyptic RP Guild for the survivors of earth.

How to make a good looking RP post A quick tutorial on how to make your posts more interesting and fun to read

Step 1 - Text

First of, write down all the text in a reply. This will give your post a body, a base, which you will later construct into something else. Keep following this tutorial, and you’ll learn how. When you’re done filling in all text, it’s time to head for Step 2.

Step 2 - Correction

Everyone makes mistakes. Especially grammar ones. To ensure yourself your post is free from errors, I recommend you have a program check your post for typos. If you’re using Mozilla Firefox as your web browser, you should get this add-on for Mozilla Firefox. It’s a “Language Pack”, and helps you correct all the grammar typos you write down. If you’re not using Firefox, other programs such as Microsoft Word works just as well.

Step 3 - Preview your post

Once you’ve finished correcting the text, hit the preview button. At this time, you’ll find your post rather uninteresting and boring to read. Why is that? Simply because nothing happens. The human mind likes variety, so to prevent people from skipping your reply, you’d better make it look good. To have a neat looking post-style has become one of the many rules of RPing. So keep on reading, and I’ll teach you how to make it more lively.

Step 4 - Give it color

One easy way to make posts interesting is to give them various colors. Something that steps out from all of the regular black texts, and catches the eye. Don’t color the whole reply, though. That will just ruin it. Less is more. A good tip is to color the text whenever a character is talking/thinking. That also makes it easy for other players to take notice of which caracter is talking (Example: Character A = RED, Character B = BLUE). To prevent the lines of text to melt into each other, give them a little space between the lines whenever it suits with the text. And if you feel like it, you could add your characters name, favorite quote, or something similar, at the beginning of your post. Make the text bigger than the regular font, so it will be noticed. In my example, I put my RP characters name (MEJI) in there. This helps making the post more stylish. Once the coloring and spacing is done, give your reply another preview and you’ll notice great changes in the layout. But we’re not there yet. There are still a little something missing. An image.

Step 5 - Worth a thousand words

Ever heard of the old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”? Images are eye-magnets, and is a perfect way to attract attention. Let’s try adding one to your post, right away! Surely you included an image in the RP you’re attending to? If you don’t have any other drawings of that character, the reference-image works just fine. Get the direct link to your image (without the [IMG][/IMG] codes) and click the “Imgleft” button on the Post a Reply page. This will let you put the image to the left of your reply, having it shove all of the text to the right. Preview your reply, and you’ll notice yourself (if you’d rather like to have the image on the right side, use the “Imgright” button instead). Congratulations! Having done this, you’ve completed making your RP post reply look ways better! Just compare the new version with the absolute first ones. The difference is huge. But one problem still remains. Won’t it be a little annoying adding all these codes whenever you’re about to make a reply? Not if you keep on reading this tutorial. Flip the pages, and we’ll tell you how.

Step 6 - TekTek is your friend

There’s a famous web page called “TekTek” filled with useful Gaia Online related goodies. One of them is the Mozilla Firefox add-on called TekTek’s Gaia Toolbar. This application lets you save your post-layouts and then simply get them back by clicking a button (the application also gives you several new emoticons for you to use). This saves you a lot of time, not having to copy-paste all of the links whenever making a new reply. To activate this function, open the Gaia Toolbar Options and edit in the codes. “Beginning Text” means that everything written in here will go in the beginning of your post (before all of the text), while “Ending Text” means it will go last, in case you’d like to put something at the end of your reply. Once finished, hit the “Save Changes” button.

Step 7 - Try it out

Now open a new post, and simply click the “tekFormat 1” button. In an instant, you’ll be given all the codes you pasted in the options. Preview your post once again, just to make sure you’ve put down all of the codes right. Once you’ve confirmed the looks of it, you’re pretty much done. All that’s left now is to add the new text into the reply, and voilà, you’ve become a master of RP posting layouts!

LAYOUT EXAMPLES

Original Characters

• YOU CAN’T ROLEPLAY WITHOUT A CHARACTER.

That is one of the many rules of RPing. Here you can read about other Gaians and their OCs. Engulf your mind in lovely artwork, get inspired, and make a few OCs of your own!

ll son zack ll

I’ve always wanted my own Original Characters and time I was in love with the anime show “Avatar The even though I considered a lot of Avatar’s “My Original Last Airbender“, and that’s where I got my inspiration Characters” but Artists and Art collectors didn’t really from! Here follows my group of three OCs! agree. So I set out to try and create my own. At that

Dustin:

Dustin is a water bender. He’s the second oldest of the group but he is considered the leader. He is a very friendly and welcoming person who will do everything he can to help others. He’s 14 years old, 5’6 feet tall, and has a weight of 115 lbs. He has Blond hair and Blue eyes.

Creation:

What inspired me to make him was basically myself. I have Blond hair and blue eyes, I’m 115 lbs and I’m about 5’7-5’8 feet, so I really wanted my main character more like myself :3

Arianna: Arianna is a 13 year old girl who has long, thick, wavy brown hair, and she is always wearing a water crystal flower in her hair. She is 5’5 and 110 pounds, with tanned skin and deep purple eyes. On her thigh she has a tattoo of a water lotus as a representation of her love for her waterbending. She is always wearing lots of bangles around both her arms and a tiny necklace around her neck.

Creation: Most of the inspiration for Arianna came from the show; Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character Katara was one of my favorite characters the whole way through and I when I created my own OCs loosely based no the show I knew I needed to have a girl like her. However this wasn’t my only inspiration, my friend in real life, user name Zoey_100, reminded me so much of Katara that I decided to use features from both of them to create Arianna.

Joy: Joy is a 15 year old girl with black hair that is always up in a messy ponytail with her bangs and strands of hair hanging out. She also wears a red bandana in her hair always tied around her forehead with its two long strands flowing behind her and constantly has two gold hairpins in her hair. She has huge red eyes which seem to bore right through people and wears a tight red necklace around her neck. On her left wrist she wears a red ribbon wrapped around many times. Joy also wields a katana with two red flowers ornamented on the back.

Creation: Joy came out of the notion that we wanted someone who was extremely tough and bitchy to balance the team out. She’s the toughest out of all of them and even though she can be a bitch almost all the time, she is one of the best friends you could ever have.

Story: Dustin and Arianna come from the same village. They have known each other ever since they were born because their mothers were best friends. They grew up together, learnt how to waterbend together, and have been best friends for as long as they can remember. They met Joy while shopping at the local market, she was arguing with a

travelling cabbage vendor about whether her companion, a little boy, stole some cabbages. Joy was getting increasingly angry with the situation and before things could get ugly Arianna and Dustin rushed over. Arianna quickly mended the situation by paying the vendor what was owed and Dustin rushed everybody back to their house.

Dreaminglilly

I have a huge collection of original characters. Here follows three of my favorites; Artemisia Saga, Darren Lyona & Maeros de Diua. I picked these because Arty & Darren were the first OCs I came up with, and Maeros because I love his glasses. I love them all so much~ OC CREATION TIP: • Give your OC hairstyles/colors/clothing you like. • Same goes for personality traits, give them traits/hobbies you have yourself or maybe even traits of someone who’s close to you. It’s harder to RP with them if you can’t connect with them/or feel like them.

Artemisia Saga:

Artemisia is an energetic, outgoing, confident and really spontaneous person who loves magic and is a Mage who uses a staff for channeling magic. She can get really excited about simple things, and really loves to try out new stuff. But Artemisia is somewhat of a clumsy person who is bound to mess up when she puts too much effort in. She loves to play around with Darren (her childhood friend) and drags him all over the place whenever she feels like it or when she’s bored. Artemisia and Darren have been best friends since childhood. Artemisia & Darren share an apartment rented by their parents near the school they attend.

Creation:

I was practicing on how to draw boobs. After practicing for a while I was wondering how everything would look with clothes on, which resulted in the outfit she’s still wearing today. I love drawing long hair, so I gave her a ponytail and her signature Side swept bang ^^ To make up for her simple standard outfit I later designed her a School uniform and a party outfit ^^

Stats:

Gender: Female Age: 18 D.O.B: 8th of September Zodiac: Virgo Height: 178cm (5’8) Race: Human Haircolor: Platinum Blonde Eyecolor: Cerulean Blue Job: Mage Likes: Pudding, Chocolate, Pink, Shopping & Skimpy clothing “Sounds like fun!” “Let’s do it!”

Darren Lyona:

At first sight he has somewhat of a shy personality. His shyness will fade away once he gets to know one better, but he still is someone who is quick to blush or get really shy when confronted with unexpected things/ situations. He will get angry when people try to insult

him by referring to his height, but it also depends on who it is. Darren is straightforward and really cares for people he holds dear to his heart, but can also react very sarcastic and jealous. Artemisia and Darren have been best friends since childhood. Although she can be annoying at times. He sometimes agrees to her spontaneous wimps so she will get of his back. Darren’s hair used to be raven/black, but due to a spell gone wrong by Artemisia, his hair turned white.

Creation:

As for Darren, I just wanted to draw a small shy boy who hated his height. I’ve always loved white hair in combination with blue eyes, so that was fairly simple. I added in lots of straps in his outfit, so he could put away his gun anywhere on his body. Like Artemisia’s outfit his outfit is also very simple so I made him a school uniform later. For some odd reason he got paired up with Remise’s (see next page) OC Bis (which he still is today)

Stats:

Gender: Male Age: 17 D.O.B: 1st of June Zodiac: Gemini Height: 169cm (5’5) Race: Human Haircolor: White Eyecolor: Icy Blue Job: Gunner Likes: Mints, Croissants, His school uniform, Bis “Don’t call me small! >A< “ “I’m not a little girl!”

Maeros de Diua:

He is a diligent worker. But he doesn’t like people touching his stuff, so he’s very possessive. He can be quite disgusted by people with an ugly personality. But loves to be surrounded by people nonetheless.

Maeros is a charming person and loves to subtlety flirt with women, but he will pass on girls below age 20 or any girl with a boyfriend/man, because it’s just too much trouble. Maeros grew up at home with only his father to care for him. After finishing high school he went to study earth-science at the local university while working part time jobs after school to pay for the tuition. However, Maeros found his life very dull, and after graduating he decided to travel the world while studying strange phenomenons...

Creation:

This one was tough, ever since the very beginning I knew I wanted him to have a small ponytail, brown hair, grey eyes and glasses, boots and fur on his clothing. But I never knew from the beginning what his outfit should look like. So I ended up making four different outfits for him (Remise even tried to help me with designing him) in the end I got frustrated and let it be for a week or two. In a flash of inspiration I sketched the outfit he has on today in one sitting. I never had any set image in my head in what kind of clothing I should give my OCs, I just randomly sketched clothing, and in Arty & Darren’s case it turned out good with the first try and it became their standard outfit. For Maeros’ outfit I just wasn’t satisfied with the first try and had to redo it a couple of times. It just has feel right guess ^^

Stats:

Gender: Male Age: 26 D.O.B: 22nd of November Zodiac: Sagittarius Height: 191cm (6’3) Race: Human Haircolor: Auburn Brown Eyecolor: Light Grey Job: Geologist/Geophysicist Likes: His Laptop, Nature, Girls, Digits “01001101 01100001 01101111 01110010 01101111 01110011”

Remise

I started roleplaying back in 2006, so overall I’ve been roleplaying about 4 years with breaks in between. Around mid 2007 I met Dreaminglilly. We were in the same class, and soon we got to know each other better and soon discovered we had a lot of things in common. We’ve been roleplaying together ever since. Personally I think the best thing about roleplaying is that you can go all out representing your character(s) without any restrictions. But you have to keep it decent. Nobody likes god-modding, of course. OC CREATION TIP: • I don’t really think there’s a real ‘guideline’ to create an awesome OC. It’s all about personal tastes in my opinion. Nobody would create a character that they wouldn’t like even if it’s considered an ‘awesome’ character in general. Just think about the things you personally like. However, try to avoid ‘Mary sues’ and ‘Gary sues’. Divide characteristics, pick a few positive and a few negative ones. And then go all out on their outfits. I enjoy creating outfits the most when creating an OC (hence my characters have various outfits. OTL).

Lûmi Roia:

Lûmi grew up in a happy family. Her mother passed away when she was fourteen. She has lived with her father after that. He taught her the tricks and cheats to become a bounty hunter. Lûmi set out to hunt down bad guys at the age of eighteen. Lûmi’s kinda hot headed. Fierce in speech and actions. She’s a woman with pride, one who supports independency. Does not like to rely on others, but learnt to trust her friends. Her strong assets are her fierce punches. Lûmi can even fire energy-blasts through her gloves when she’s pumped enough. Very straightforward. She shows small characteristics of an alcoholic, though. You’d better not encounter Lûmi when she’s drunk. Lûmi is quite a smooth talker as well. She gets what she wants and nothing else matters. Her outfit mostly gets the job done anyway.

Creation:

Lûmi was the second character I ever created. To be honest I can’t really remember why I wanted to create her. I just started to scribble her on paper. I think I changed her appearance about three times. At first she had teal colored hair and gold eyes (I had already settled on her name and personality though), after that her hair changed to black. Once Lilly and I decided to create an art request thread back in 2008 I made up my mind and stuck with the appearance she still has today.

Stats:

Gender: Female Height: 177cm (5’8) Haircolor: Dark Reddish Brown

Age: 21 Race: Human Eyecolor: Brown

If you’d like to read more about Remise & Dreaminglilly’s OCs, make sure to visit THIS THREAD.

Bis Tuale:

Bis didn’t like his life at home. He was supposed to succeed his parents, but chose to take a different path and left home to discover the world. He was transferred to Thilliatas a year after he left the mansion. This sexy guy is a real pervert, easily bored and loves poker games. Always looking for adventure and fun. He definitely doesn’t care about random people. Once Bis set his mind on something, there’s no stopping him. Certainly not easily daunted and the mood-maker of the gang. Bis used the be very tight-lipped about his feelings. However, he became more open about them since he started dating Darren. Bis enjoys life every minute of the day. He does not want to regret anything. Bis also likes a drink once in a while, but won’t overdo it since his lover is a minor. Last but not least, Bis has a fetish for cross-dressing. Of course, not cross-dressing himself, but a certain cute, little white haired boy~

Creation:

Bis was my very first OC. He actually used to be a Gaia avatar of mine. I normally don’t like changing genders on Gaia, but the time I did I came up with an outfit I totally loved. After I changed my avatar back to a girl I requested avatar art of the male avatar. Eventually I created a personality and story for it and viola, Bis was born. (B.t.w, Bis’ name refers to his sexuality. Bi-sexual)

Stats:

Gender: Male Height: 188 cm (6’1) Haircolor: Red

Age: 24 Race: Incubus Eyecolor: Dark Grey

Enrin Taiyou:

Enrin lived her entire life at a shrine, being observed by priests and priestesses. She never entered the ‘outer’ world before being transported to Thilliatas. Enrin was expected to have special powers as a unicorn. Unfortunately this expectation was wrong. None of the priests could discover a unique power residing in Enrin. Enrin is a shy dere-type girl. She loves hugs and being pampered sometimes. However, she changes into a more assertive, pouty faced girl once she’s called small or cute. She really loves fruits (fruitcakes~) and enjoys singing as it enhances her healing powers. (Healing powers are common for unicorns to have on Agerthal.) Even though her outside character shows a very shy timid girl, on the inside she wants to be a more open and cheerful character. After living with the new friends she made at Thilliatas she slowly opened up to them. Enrin is easily captivated by magic tricks, like the card tricks Bis shows her once in a while. She also enjoys magic shows, especially the ones preformed by humans.

Creation:

Around the time I came up with Enrin I was really into the anime ‘Juuni Kokki’. I loved to watch the pretty Kirins* with their long blond hair. Having said that, Enrin’s appearance and race are pretty obvious. *A holy creature that chooses the ruler of a kingdom. It has the body of a horse and a horn on its forehead. A Kirin can chance into a human form.

Stats:

Gender: Female Height: 155 cm (5’1) Haircolor: Sunny Blond

Age: 19 Race: Unicorn Eyecolor: Greenish Teal

Now get out there and start roleplaying yourself! Hope you all enjoyed the Roleplay Special! 36

Here follows a few pages filled with awesome, epic and outstanding things one just have to take share of! Get inspired by the work of others, get creative, get active! The Feature section exists to ease and free your mind for a while. Make sure you enjoy these 8 pages filled with • • • • • • •

Avatars Profiles Threads Guilds Journals Aquariums Houses

If you ever notice anything worth featuring, make sure you tell us by posting it in this thread! Then it might have a chance to get featured in the next issue, and you would be helping us at the same time! <3

Ungoliath 40

Sharpie Charade

FEATURED AVATARS Get inspired Get inspired Get inspired

[Kern]

Anabaena

Born of Lilith

kirill-san

Income Tax

Honeydew Mew

Tacite

Dame Gaga

Sage Winters

Felix J Virgo

Kitaro Inutai

The nude reality

PROFILES

Click the image to view the profile in real-time!

FEATURED Special thanks for Kirisuka. You saved us all lots of time!

THREADS

Haven’t found a neat thread in a while? Looking for a new place to hangout at? Then check out these two pages filled with awesome threads!

Cultural Anthropology Project: INFORMANTS NEEDED!!

MOO! Avi Art Shop [Bribes and Art Trades Open!!]

Gaia Community Projects

Art Shop

Help out this user doing a cultural study research on Gaia by answering a few questions, and take share of all the other users answers!

This Art Shop has been around since 2007, and have about 10’000 pages. The prizes are excellent, and almost everyone should be able to afford some quality avi art from here!

::mysticism:: 100+ mil in prizes

The Thread Invaders- Helping Gaians, One Quest At A Time!

Art Contests

Love to draw? This contest will have 31 winners, with the grand prize being an Angelic Sash. There are 12 different characters for you to choose from. So what are you waiting for? The contest ends on June 18th, 2010.

Gaia Community Projects

Like to invade? The Thread Invaders attack one random thread a week (concentrating on charities and quests), and help out keeping the thread active for a while. You should join in!

{ R.A.D Freebie A.R.T } - Post!

|| The . S c r i b e . || Writing Services ||

Art Freebies

Services

This artist is looking for people willing to be his guinea pigs for sketches, so he’ll be able to improve his drawing skills. The thread is only 1 month old, and has already made it past 1100 pages. It’s a real popular place!

Having a hard time putting something down in words? Hire a writer! This place is offering a big amount of services. Everything from a short story of a few words to a novel with over 50 chapters. The prizes are good, too.

DON’T PANIC: HHGGaia. “Forgotten but not gone.”

The SDPlus Collection List

Gaia Community Projects

Collecting SDPlus dolls? This guide tells you where to find them all!

This thread is an encyclopedia filled with thousands of words used daily on Gaia. Every word is filled with a useful description.

Adopt-A-Newbie! Gaia Community Projects

Want to help out the beginners of Gaia? Become a mentor and adopt a newbie!

Gaia Guides and Resources

Engaged..and Underage [A SUPPORT thread!] Lifestyle Discussion

Are you young and engaged? This is a place for young couples to tell their story and show solidarity to each other.

FEATURED [GUIDE] Learn How To Code v2/Current Profiles

A Guide to Aquarium Mini-Monsters

Profile Discussion

Want to fill your aquarium with monsters, but don’t have the slightest idea of what they do? This thread is a perfect place for beginners to fill their tanks with Mini-Monsters!

Having trouble coding your profile? This Guide will teach you how to make your profile look much better!

Gaia Aquarium

QUEST TO SAVE HYRULE ~A Zelda Quest~

Ask an U.S. Army soldier anything! (burning questions?)

Charity/Quests

General Discussion

Feel like donating while saving Hyrule at the same time? Initial Brainfreeze is on a quest for Legend of Zelda cosplays!

Always wondered what it’s like being in the army? Or maybe you would like to know what kind off food they eat for dinner? Ask questions to your heart’s content.

[NPC] Ian’s Bar and Grill *Ziggy is back?!*

What are your memories of ‘O3 to O5? Screenies plz?

Gaia Community Discussion

Love Ian? He’s one of Gaia Online’s oldest NPCs. Make sure you join this fan club if you’re one of his stalkers.

Gaia Community Discussion

DON’T PANIC: HHGGaia. “Forgotten but not gone.”

Xio Pokemon Ranch ~ [Dark Touches Event - See News!]

Gaia Community Projects

This thread is an encyclopedia filled with thousands of words used daily on Gaia. Every word is filled with a useful description.

The Duct Tape Glomp Ball of Doom Gaia Guilds

Have you been hanging around on Gaia Online for a long time? Make sure to share your memories with the world, so all the not-too-old users can take share of them!

Chatterbox

Like Pokémon? Own a DS? The Xio Pokémon Ranch is a place dedicated to Pokémon training and breeding. They have even set up their own Gyms and Elite Four.

Kira Inc.™ Study, lest the power of God smite thee. Friends Chat

A hangout thread filled with cool people. But beware! All who enter past the point of no return will be forever engulfed in THE DUCT TAPE GLOMP BALL OF DOOM!

Are you a Death Note fan? Join this popular thread (with more than 17’000 pages) and hang out with other fans!

AQUARIUMS

OMFG Taylor A tank filled with creepy zOMG monsters. One surely would think twice before diving down in a tank like this one.

HOUSE

8Akane8 A simple, clean and realistic home with a nice easterntouch. The Kiki Painting on the wall creates a nice contrast between the shady and dark parts of the room. I surely wouldn’t mind spending a night in a place like this!

X-dede-X Blinking lights is the latest thing when it comes to styling ones tank. They’re cheap, and attractive! And you can make funny messages with them! You should really give it a try!

JOURNALS

Kitaro Inutai This is a journal filled with tons of different, awesome avatars. It is updated ever now and then, so make sure to subscribe to it! Also, keep in mind that you will have to ask for Kitaro Inutai’s permission before using any of those avatars.

GUILDS

FEATURED

Ocean Party Friends Guild

~ The Elven Sanctuary ~

Like to play Ocean Party, but donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have enough neighbours? Join this Guild, and share your Ocean Party Tank with the members!

This is a fresh & newly created charity and gift giving Guild. Join in, hangout, enjoy life and get presents at the same time!

The Gaian Wedding Chapel Inc

Ocean Party Friends Guild

This is a guild whose focus is your big day on Gaia. Need help with your Gaia Wedding? This is the place!

This is a Guild with the goal of getting people to build themselves a small community, somewhere within the Guild, where they can relax and have fun!

Ocean Party Friends Guild

The Pervy Paradise

Tired of putting your artwork up for critique in Picture Post only to receive unintelligent comments or no feedback at all? Then this is a Guild for you!

This is a guild where you can be perverted with everyone and get away with it. As long as you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go against the Terms of Service.

Want to advertise with Gaia Online Magazine? Visit this thread for more information!

Mini Shops

Art Shops Chromezombie offers a delightful mix of sass, spunk, & spontaneity.

Petitions

ADVERTISE

Make life easier by having an undo button. Sign today!

SIGN TODAY Guilds

JOIN THE GAIA POLICE TODAY

The Newbie Supporting and Training Guildâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission is to provide a safe and educational environment for the fostering of newbies to productive Gaians.

Other

With more than 350 tanks that will get YOU Rich in no Time!

Since the Avi-Art Special article was so popular, we’ve made an Avi-Art section for you guys. Gaia Online Magazine has scouted the forums for new and lovely artwork to feature. Hope you enjoy it. Images chosen by D I S C 0

FEATURED AVI-ART

Oh!1945 We all love chibis and minis. And here is an artist who pulls it off without coming off overly adorable. It allows detail and clean digital coloring that will have you start grabbing at the screen in an attempt to literally grasp the awesomeness of it.

kheleksul This is simply beautiful. You can’t tell it’s Avatar art because the artist focused more on the beauty and composition of the piece more than depicting ‘avi items’. The lighting is breathtaking and you rarely see a well drawn profile shot.

Suki_Daiyo4 I love how there is actually something going on. She’s holding a can of spray paint with this mischievous half-smirk and crouched. There is a background and even her shadow - so it incorporates an attention to realism and even though simple it’s highly important.

Gothicdevil1991 Here’s something a little more ‘classic’ for our viewers. It’s obviously Avatar art and even though it’s monochromatic, it is worth every last bit of pixelated gold a Gaian could offer for this kind of commission. The detail in the eyes is probably my favorite part of this - it’s simply stunning. anjiipoos I love the painted style of this chibi. The colors just melt into one another and it’s so stylized you could recognize the artist if you knew them and that’s one thing I love to look for in art.

GAIA-ART GALLERIES

Christmas_chan

Colonel Darko

GAIA-ART INTERVIEW Here follows an interview~ Learn what programs they’re using, and take share of some tips and tricks!

For this issue, Gaia Online Magazine has caught an interview with one of the extremely skilled artists here on Gaia. None other than bluefeathers_onDA

Tell us a little bout yourself; when did you first start drawing? I’ve been interested in art as long as I could remember, and I’ve been drawing as soon as I could pick up a colour marker (My parents covered our walls with blank paper so I could draw to my hearts content!)

Why did you decide to start drawing? It just seemed intuitive to me to want to put a strong feeling or a beautiful image onto paper, so I can share them with the world. Have you ever taken any art courses? When in high school, I took a human anatomy art course at a local college. My parents and I saw it as a test-run, to help me decide what I want to do after high school. I did not like the dry and boring course structure at all, so instead I chose Engineering as my undergrad. Lol.

How do you think your work has developed throughout the years? To sum this up in once sentence: More experience and familiarity with Photoshop.

Do you have any tips or tricks you would be willing to share with everyone? There are many little Photoshop tricks I picked up from friends and tutorials, like hiding the Select line, different layer fiters, use of patterns and brushes.... But I don’t feel qualified enough to give a tutorial yet. For general tips: • A) Always try to experiment with drawing, even if it’s just small things like using an unconventional colour - It makes the process more interesting. • B) Never be afraid to start a drawing. Let your stress out with big bold strikes; don’t be too conservative or you might find yourself trapped in a style that you dislike.

What program do you usually use when drawing? And, do you change from time to time? I use Photoshop CS2 with Wacom Intuos 9x12” tablet. I’ve heard great things about linearting in Sai, but I don’t see myself using it any time soon. I’ve had some exposure to Corel Painter. Many artists who I admire use Painter. I’ve seen demos of its special capabilities, and I would definitely like to learn more about it in the future. What is your greatest strength and weakness as an artist? My weakness is obviously anatomical correctness. Hard to pinpoint my strengths... For anything that I’ve been complimented on, I can think of many artists who do it so much better! What motivates you? Many things! Anything you say can be a motivator, but it can transform into a de-motivator too. Sometimes, entering into a contract (with a customer for example) can be a great motivator, but it can also become an unattractive obligation. What are your pet peeves as an artist? When I get asked “What did you use to draw this?” I really appreciate that they take the time to look at my art and ask questions, but I can’t help but think “Your questions would be answered if you read my artshop’s 3rd post, or the “Tools of Trade” on devART!” I also don’t know why people ask me if I have a Gaia artshop - It’s linked in my Gaia and DeviantART profiles.

GAIA ARTIST

We’ve caught an interview one of the artists working for Gaia Online, Derlaine.

Interview With Derlaine Alright so my first question is, who are you and what do you do at Gaia? I’m Laine and I do software development at Gaia. That involves working on stuff that makes this website work properly - things that show you your inventory and things that ban people! Aside from that I also help out the art department and draw things like RIG illustrations and MC designs. So, you are quite busy person. But what do you do when not working for Gaia? I draw, watch movies (all kinds), sometimes I play video games. Recently I’ve taken up ice skating! Ice skating! That is awesome! Are you working with the art team at the moment? Do you think you will get the chance to make a Evolving Item? I work with the art team on a part timeish basis. I’ve been asked to make Evolving Items but I don’t have time to commit to one at the moment :/ Ah I see. So if you did have the time, what would be the theme of it? I don’t know for sure; I’ve toyed with the idea of something humorous or ironic. I can’t give away too much in case I want to do it one day.

GAIA-ART What MCs have you designed? I designed Angelic Bow, Kaguya’s gift from Gift of Goddess, many of the hairs in Elemental Hair (Fire, water, etc). There are others that I don’t remember at the moment. Often designs are merged together in a collaborative process to make something better; like how Gurren Lagaan merges to make better robots. Alright. So, carry on the discussion of design, what inspired you to make Radio Jack? Also, what was the process of making Azrael? What other NPCs have you designed? For Radio Jack, I wanted to make a mascot type critter that had some attitude to him, but was still cute. He’s an amalgam of cute/ attitude. I didn’t really design Azrael, he was born out of items made for the cash shop by reapersun and jenzee. We just decided to use those items for the RIG too. I’m actually working on a new NPC right now but I can’t tell you anything more than that!

What is your favorite item so far? That’s hard, there are so many amazing items today! I don’t even know all of them I’ll just be biased and say Radiojack :] Have to designed anything for zOMG? Nope I didn’t work on that. Have you help coded any events? I helped put up a trick or treat one year but that’s bout it. I worked on things like Marketplace,the code that reads all inventory on the site, moderator tools, the old old old arenas. Is there anything else you would like to tell us? Any words for your fans? Thank you for supporting us! We’re grateful for your support throughout all these years!

zOMG section is brought to you by Gaia Online Magazines own zOMG Specialists, Link Chesthill, Waldo McFish, Kytona, Khrate

shine. The remainder of the rings were created internally, and they also were extremely well done. This time, we’ve had an interview with Mavdoc! Who is Mavdoc? He’s is an artist working on the environments and various design elements for zOMG! He’s the guy that fills the worlds with awesome colors. Tell us a little about yourself and what you do for zOMG! I’m the lead environment artist for zOMG!, and worked on the project ever since it first started several years ago. So I’ve had my hands on everything regarding the environments including coming up with the standards, techniques and most of the environment design and actual creation. Over that course of time, I’ve also done some gameplay and UI design for zOMG! among other elements. When I first started at Gaia, I also worked a lot more on Monthly Collectible and Gaia merchandise designs. What is your favorite part of zOMG? Of all the things that make up the game, I’ve always really liked the creativity and quality of the ring animations. We were lucky enough to work with an outside contractor named John Su who designed and created the majority of the rings in the game. He just had a masterful sense of comedy, timing and art that made all the rings he did really

zOMG TIPS Waldo McFish Sick of going to “sleep” when a powerful animated hits you? Instead of waiting for you to wake up, press the “R” key twice, and you will wake up instantly!

How did you get involved with Gaia? The whole reason why I decided to apply and take the job at Gaia was to work on the environments of this “Battle” (zOMG!) game that they had in mind for years and finally wanted to create. It seemed like a great opportunity to be creative and work on a game that didn’t take itself too seriously as far as characters, setting and story like most console and PC games being released today. For several years prior, I was friends with [ JK ] and many of the founders of Gaia already, so when they learned I was interested in working at Gaia, they graciously welcomed me with open arms. Can you leak anything coming up for zOMG? About the best way you could hear of all the things we have planned for the game in the future is to follow the “zOMG! Behind the Scenes” threads and similar other topics by [ JK ] showing monster, environment, NPC, gameplay and other concepts we have yet to incorporate. It’s our intention to leak info on a regular basis through the zOMG! forum, and hopefully get players excited and informed about what is to come. It also acts as a means for Gaians to voice their opinions and ideas to us to help shape what the future of zOMG! will be!

zOMG

Drawn by Kaitan Guo.

AWEZOME zOMG THREADZ zOMG Chapter 2 Discussion Threads Read speculations about the upcoming zOMG chapter

• General Discussion Thread #1 • General Discussion Thread #2 • Guess the release date of zOMG Chapter 2 • Is chapter 2 a goner? • What will the Chapter 2 End Boss look like? • What will the new areas look like? • Discuss the upcoming story • Chapter 2 concept art • zOMG in 3D

Useful zOMG threads

Here’s a few threads that might prove helpful

• zOMG Sound FX • Behind the Scenes • Bria’s Guide to your zOMG Adventures • <DAZED> A zOMG manga!

Want to discuss zOMG with someone? We’ve featured a few zOMG discussion threads among with other useful posts made by the users of Gaia.

zOMG CLANS

zOMG Elite

zOMG

zOMGAIAN

zOMG GUILDS

zOMG ELITE ALLIANCE

The Landshark Hunting Guild

zOMG Chatterbox

Read about the latest happenings in Gaia Online Magazines Official Guild!

The Chit-Chat!

You should really pay the ChitChat sub forum a visit, if you haven’t already! Here follows a few threads with a few awesome quotes! Enjoy!

Type your username with your nose slothiiiey

XD the title says all. NO CHEATING D:< swloo9t5hyuiiie4y76u <_< wow i failed xD

Schtek

wswdcyhut6e4ki Yaqy7 (Yay)

qyp

Qyp wrote:

Qyp

1512 Schtek

qyp CHEATER!

mittc

617 Ubie Boobie

Qyp Schtek wrote: CHEATER! My name is super easy ;D

I was given tons of hugs. Several users PMed me, telling how sad they would be if the magazine shut down. They encouraged me, filled me with fuzzy love, and cared. This made me all warm and cozy inside. I’m happy to know that, even though I might not always notice it, I am loved by everyone. It feels nice. <3 Anyhow, you readers can rest assured. I will NOT be closing this wonderful project. At least not in this era. I just lost focus back when I made that post. I had been stressing out over the release date crawling closer and closer, while the magazine remained about only 50% complete. I had just had so much to do those past days...

607 theMeji

501

I might have the magazine come out every two months, but I will, believe me, NOT shut it down. Hope this made things clear for you all. //Meji

PS: I would love to have a Lanzer Doll. <3

gOMG Post Count

Qyp

theMeji There has been a lot of talk lately about one of the confessions I made in the Ask the Admin thread, saying that I had lost the urge to keep working with the magazine. In this post, I told that a virtual Gaia-hug from the creator of Gaia (a.k.a. Lanzer) would get my spirit back up and running. I had since long idolized Lanzer, since I am aiming on becoming the head of something big, just like him. Having worked with the magazine for quite a while now, I know what kind of things he must be going through daily, and for once I just wanted him to spot me, and take share of this community project I’ve created. This soon caught the attention of the readers and fellow Guild Members, and they started an operation called “LANZERHUGMEJI”. In here, they readers discussed on how they could get my spirit back up, came up with various tactics on how to attract Lanzer’s attention without filling his inbox with PMs.

Qyp is in far in the lead, while m i t t c and Ubie Boobie is fighting for the 2nd place. theMeji settles down on 4th place. Wanna be in this list? Then you’ve got to exceed either of these users posts amount!

gOMG Make sure you don’t miss out on the Banner Contest! Help GOM spread by making us a neat banner for the readers to put in their signature. With over 500k in prizes, 8 different users will be proven victorious. One should really attend to this, since the chances of wining are huge, and you’d help GOM at the same time! The contest ends on May 24th, so make sure to submit your banner before then! For more information, visit the thread.

Make sure to visit our sponsor, the

Dreams To Come True Charity

A great place for those longing for a little extra gold. Every 1000th page, they give away a handsome sum of gold! Having page 86’000 coming up, there’s 86k in the pot! This is a charity loved by many, and you’d be sure to make new friends by staying in it!

Intro & Editing: Admiral Lord Cochrane Article by: LeCloud Photography by: David2074

CONVENTION COVERAGE

You better not troll You’d better not flame Better shout out! We all know his name.. DJHelsing has come to town!

Winter has come to an end, and with Spring upon us, we find ourselves again immersed deep within the beginnings of the 2010 convention season. Armed with giant cardboard weaponry, Sharpies for celebrity autographs, cosplay costumes, hot glue burns, and the latest internet fads fresh in our minds, we Gaians are coming out of the framework; flooding our local convention centers for the annual Japanese Popular Culture Conventions, and once again, Gaia Online will be there. But this year, they’re packing heat! This year, he’s brought a well known friend along to help him to haul that big ol’ bag of gaian goodies to every panel they’ll be hosting on both sides of the Atlantic. You may know him from a discussion thread that pops up in the GCD every now and again – weekly to be exact.

That’s right, folks. Straight from GaiaHQ in San Jose – the Giant Head in the Sky, Lanzer! Boasting some new features and some coming updates, DJHelsing & Lanzer are back to show you the future of our beloved Gaia! So far, they’ve visited both San Francisco and Seattle (Wondercon & SakuraCon) and to cover these panels, G.O.M. has dispatched news correspondents to panels such as these so as to enlighten those who could not attend these conventions on what Gaia has in store. Here now, is Gaia Online Magazine’s very own, LeCloud, reporting from the convention:

CONVENTIONS Sakura Con 2010: A nation of otaku. I’m not even kidding you. We could have populated our own city. But what surprised me more then the huge amount of people, was the turn out for the first Gaia Online Panel of this year’s Con. We filled up, I think, something like three full blocks of chairs each with approximately twenty seats in each row. That’s a lot of Gaians, some coming from as far as Australia and Singapore. It opened up with a bang, lots of screaming and happiness. As well as, quoting my seat neighbor, “Lanzer! The God of Gaia!” Pretty cool. DJ Helsing got the panel going with a slide show of up and coming stuff. For example the new My Gaia page they released, which didn’t seem to have the response they were hoping for online. I seem to remember the opening slide to be a pixel by pixel appearing winged pink gift box! The scream of joy from everyone in the room was rather terrifying. I’m pretty sure that the people next door got a little worried. Scratch that, we’re all freaks so I doubt they were scared. So the prize box had us on a wild raffle with these little pieces of paper that would allow us to redeem gold and special Con items. It took us awhile as no one seemed to understand the fairly simple arrangement. I guess I can relate, Helsing was saying stuff like second to last letter and the number fourth from the front. Is it bad of me to think their confusion was slightly hilarious? Well, it went on and we got to hear about new stuff. Yes! New stuff! Stop skimming and start reading! So, coming up is seems we have two new games going down back at the Gaian HQ. One is called Tiles, and it’s got a load of ways to test your ability to match colors or pictures. Even has three difficulty levels. Way to blow us away Gaia. I didn’t really find the game to interesting myself, but to each their own of course. The new game that did interest me was Dumpster Dive. It’s going to be a game of random chance you can play one or two times a day, where you dive for inventory trash. Wow. Am I the only one slight impressed with Gaia’s virtual recycling? Added bonus, I can send a message to the trasher. I smell fun. The rest of the first panel basically went by with more random prize giveaways and more new stuff. The possibility of the achievements system, which is intriguing, and new

zOMG! stuff if you’re for that. Near the end we had what Helsing called, Random Awesomeness. I like his creativity. Basically it was a bunch of mini contests for random things like Most Detailed Prop or Person With A Broken Bone. Stuff like that. I thought it was pretty fun. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think a Pikachu Baby came in second place to a stuffed monkey in one contest. Injustice! That baby deserved first place. Then, after two hours of Gaian fun, it all ended. Awwwww. But never fear! The follow up feedback session is always here! Next morning my basic schedule was wake up, park at the Con, buy coffee, and wait in line for the feedback session. Exciting, no? Quite. There was considerably less people in this session then the first. Maybe because it was the last day, maybe because it was 10 am after a long night of Con partying. I don’t know. But I was not alone; actually I was something like twelfth in line. Crazy Gaians. Anyway, the session started with a few rather humorous technical difficulties for DJ Helsing and a lot of the passing out of cards and gold. Who doesn’t love free gold? Torturously, we chugged through the first fifteen minutes when well low and behold, a socializing activity! Well, Helsing wasn’t going to make it easy for us was he? There was a list of things related to Gaia and then lines. Where we had to write someone else’s username. Well, not us. They had to write it, in their own handwriting. Is nothing simple anymore? So, thus began the mad scramble to fully fill out this sheet. There were I think two people in the room who had made some amount of gold from getting the three Halos in Slots. Man, did I feel sorry for them. Crowds of people. CROWDS. I’d have been scared to tell the truth. Well, after I had finished there was this cute little feedback survey complete with small print and lots of words. Fun for a girl with glasses, eh? Basically it was filling out papers for something of a half hour before we switched gears into, drum roll, story time! So, we got hunked into groups of twenties and then we all worked together to answer questions. Being a person of Group 5, I was fairly happy with the people. It was a nice crowd and personally I think it was a better socializing bit

then the username writing because we actually talked with one another. It was kind of fun, other than the sitting on the floor next to the speaker part. The only suggestion I really have for Gaia next year is that during the Feedback session; maybe raffle a few more things. Because there were only about twelve people out of like eighty actually won something. Oh, and congrats to those of Group 2/3 for the win!

Personal Experience Lines. That’s what Sakura Con is all about. Lines. Tons of people everywhere. Oh, and of course anime, manga, video games, art, and blowing all your money. And it is probably my favorite convention ever. This year I sadly didn’t get to cosplay. No money, no time. But I did enjoy admiring all the wonderful cosplays other people did. I mean heck, there was a piece of toast! I loved that. There were also dancing bananas in pajamas and The Millennium Earl from D. Grayman. You know, all the good stuff. Let’s see… First day was the least interesting. It was a three hour wait to get my pass as I had forgotten to prereg yet again. I need to remember to start doing that. Anyway, while in line I met this delightfully short eighteen year old and her two friends who were just a little bit taller. We had a nice talk, and I saw them a couple other times that weekend. But that’s not what was fun this year, eh? After that I think the most exciting thing was the AMV contest, which was spectacular this year. Yag Si Thgil anyone? Well, seeing as nothing much happened the first day, lets try the second day. Shall we? It was much more interesting Saturday then it was on Friday. My friends and I all got there much earlier, but alas with another unregistered buddy. So we let her off to those lines and told her where to meet us afterward. That’s not cruel is it? We only left her with one of the parents… While she waited in line we wandered about and spent money on art. Jeezus, I bought a lot of art this year. In fact, I spent about two hundred dollars on art. I don’t even know where I’m going to put it all… After we blew money on art and manga, we went off to the Cosplay Contest. Which wasn’t what I expected. Instead of a line-up of cosplayers I was happily graced with skits and walk-ons. Never will I forget the first thing that they showed us. CHUB AWAY! An infomercial by the wonderful Billy Mayes.

The Billy Mayes cosplay was scarily accurate. The next one that I remember was the Pokemon skit, which might I say was pretty epic. It had all your basic lessons of training. Leaving school in the fourth grade, getting beaten by the random level 100 Charizard. Everything that happens when you start training. The last one before we left out of boredom was a Vocaloid one. Yes, it was full of subliminal messages. Not sure how accurate the messages were though… Well, after the skits, we met up with my lovely one handed, now registered, buddy and I think we got food, tacos and burritos and such. After our stomachs were full, we booked it up to the Full Metal Alchemist panel to sit through a lot of Homunculi chatter. It was actually pretty fun, the voice actor of Nina was extremely cool. Voice actor after voice actor answered questions until the time was up! My group was a little dazed, but managed to make it into the second row right in front of the stage seating. Being one of the only Gaians in my small group, I think I was the only one excited and actually understanding everything that was said. I was a bit bummed out when my one handed friend had to leave early, but we moved on without her. After Gaia’s panel, we were left with not much to do. Simply wandering about, my group of three found ourselves drawn to the reruns of finalists for the AMV contest. Sure, we’d already seen them but who could pass up watching the Comedy section just one more time? So we did. That was until I received a call in the middle from a number that wasn’t even in my contact list. What the heck? Answering quietly, I was given ominous directions to find my mystery caller. Was it stupid of me to follow them? Turns out, it wasn’t any creepy stalker man. One of my Washington friends from when I was just a little kid had gotten a hold of my cell number, as well as the information I would be attending Sakura Con as well. Well howdy doody. In repay for her creepy phone call, I scared her. Bad. Every few minutes I would call for more directions until I found her. But she didn’t know I had found her, that would have taken all the fun from the game! Once I had positively identified her, she walked under the big neon ‘Washington Convention Center’ still chattering away into my ear. “And I’m standing under this electric green sign that says the name of this place.” I leaned down next to her ear and whispered, “Oh really?” Her reaction was the funniest thing I’ve seen in years! It was a mix between terror and annoyance. What I got was a tackle hug from her, and we talked for a few minutes until I realized I was missing my AMVs. Saying a quick goodbye, I ran past the security up

CONVENTIONS the escalators and back to the room full of chairs just as my favorite AMV came on. Yag si Thgil, for the win. Once the AMV’s were done, we were once again left with nothing to do. Until we stumbled upon the group of people playing a game called Ninja. Of course I stayed and watched. During that time, we lost one of our group, thus beginning the most epic Hide and Go Seek game I’ve ever played. The night went on and I won Hide and Go Seek. We eventually left, because our guardian was getting a bit tired. As you all know, the last day came all too soon. But it went by in such a blur, the end of the day came before I was even ready. All I can really remember are the fact that I was wearing my Got Jesus? shirt and how amazingly fun the Gaia Feedback Session was. With Sakura Con wrapped up, I was more then tired. I stayed home from school for a day catching up on sleep. Though, I already know what will be going down in my schedule next April: SakuraCon 2011. //Le C l o u d

Well, that was enlightening, alright. SakuraCon will return next year with a whole bunch of new guests and some of your old favorites. Next stop on the convention tour will be Rosemont, IL’s own Anime Central @ Donald E. Stephens Convention Center (May 14th-16th). We’ll see you there, Gaia! News Break: If you want to be a convention correspondent for GaiaOnline Magazine this season, send a Private Message to our Chief Editor & Journalism Department Head, Admiral Lord Cochrane. Help us get the only news fit to print!

Hello there, readers. I’m GaOnMa. Gaia Online Magazine’s little mule account. I take care of the contests in this magazine.

CONTESTS

In our last Issue, we held a Hermes’ Moon Contest. We had several of contestants, but only 1 winner would take home the prize. Here follows the three correct answers of the Hermes’ Moon Quiz: Question 1 - How many times did the Hermes’ Moon sprite appear? B) 6 times (Pages 3, 7, 22, 26, 32, 47)

Question 2 - The person who made Hermes’ Moon also made another Evolving Item. Which? C) Fallen Wish Question 3 - Hermes’ Moon silver-looking Twin, was released from a Chance Item. Which one? A) FAMESTAR 2000 To clarify a winner for this contest, we summed up all the PMs with the correct answers (there was a total of 23 finalists) , gave them all a number, and let Gaia Online’s Random Number Generator handle the pick. Summed upp all correct answers And the winner was none other than... Randomized a number

ooos This was her answer on Question 4: I have always wanted to always have one! ; u; to have one ;u;! It’s so cute, and I have wanted It’s so cute, and sparkly sparkly*3* *3* Make sure you give her a congratulating comment and show some love~

Hello everyone!

The name’s Ron Bruise. Want to become famous? Are you looking for people to adore you? Looking for more fangirls? Look no further! Advertise with Gaia Online Magazine today, and you’ll be seen in no time!

Click here to learn how!

WIN 1 MILLION GOLD Spring Giveaways Instant-Millionaire Contest™ This contest is valid from April 27th, to May 31st 2010, 12:00AM EST. This contest is open to all members of Gaia Online both inside and outside of the Gaia Online Magazine guild.

Hello there, fellow readers, and welcome to the Instant-Millionare Contest, where YOU have the chance of going home with the handsome sum of 1 MILLION GOLD!

All you have to do is to give us a good reason! Hello there, I’m Nymph of Spring. I’m a part of the Lead CREW of GOM. I’m also the one that comes up with ideas for contests.

We want you to write down a story. A short story, called “I Deserve 1 Million Gold Because...” Also, before writing, make sure you’ve read all of the RULES. They can be found on the next page.

How to Enter

Here follows a few steps on how to become a contestant

1. Know the rules

The RULES can be found on the next page

2. Open a new PM

The PM shall lead to Nymph Of Spring

3. Label the PM “I deserve 1 million Gold Because...”

Just so we know the reason behind your PM

4. Write your story

Begin the story with “I deserve 1 million gold because...”, then just keep on writing. Keep in mind that the text can’t exceed the limit of 750 words. And don’t include images or pictures. We only want text.

5. Make sure there are NO grammatical errors

We want a clean, nice-to-read text, not just something random thrown together.

6. Send it

This is the easiest part. Just hit the SEND button. If you’re lucky, you might win 1 million gold!

As the contest closes, we will pick a few finalists, feature their stories in the 4th issue of Gaia Online Magazine, and have the READERS vote down their favorite. As the voting of the finalists ends, the winner will be announced and given the handsome sum of 1 MILLION GOLD! Best of luck to you all!

CONTESTS Rules:

• Limit to ONE entry per user. • Mule accounts should NOT be used to submit more than one entry to the contest. • Any account found to be using a mule to submit multiple entries will be disqualified from the contest, and will be unable to participate in any other SPRING Giveaway™. • Copying, Stealing, “Knocking off” other members entries are prohibited. Any entries that appear to be similar, or to have been copied, will result in BOTH parties being disqualified. • Any member found to be “Bribing” or Attempting to do so will be disqualified. Winner will be chosen by Gaia Online Magazines Editing Staff ONLY. • Upon choosing the finalists, their entries will be featured in the 4th issue of G.O.M, followed by a voting for the readers. The entry with the most votes will win the contest. • The winner will be featured in the 5th issue of G.O.M. The winner will also be interviewed. • All entries will be submitted by sending a PM to Nymph of Spring (#540569). • Any entry sent in after May 31st 2010, 12:00AM EST will be invalid and will not be included in the contest entries. • All entries must be in the form of “I Deserve This Million Gold Because....” format. • All entries that do not provide logical explanations of why the winning user should receive will be invalid. • All submitted entries MUST provide at least ONE (1) reason as to why the entrant receive One Million Gaia Gold. • All entries MUST be less than 750 words. Any entries that are found to be OVER 750 words will be invalid. Gaia Online Magazine reserves the right to remove any users found in violation of the Contests Rules and Regulations any time during the contest, with or without notification to the user. Severity of the violation may result in permanent banning from ANY Spring Giveaway™ contest. No person(s) from Gaia Online Magazine will ask for your Password, e-mail, telephone number or ANY other personal information. Our only requirement is that you have a valid Gaia Online account. No CREW members from Gaia Online Magazine are permitted to participate in the Instant-Millionaire contest. The Winning Entrant will be contacted through Private Message on Gaia Online by Nymph of Spring. The winning entrant will be asked to answer a few questions which will be featured in the issue featuring the Winning Entry. Second and Third place winners will have their entry featured, but will NOT be asked any questions pertaining to their entries, nor will there be a consolation Prize. If the winning entrant does not respond to the Private message within 3 days of it begin sent, their entry will be invalid, and 1st prize (1(ONE)Million Gold) will go to Second place, and placing will be adjusted. With this being said, IF YOU ENTER, CHECK YOUR PRIVATE MESSAGES OFTEN.