Gaia Online

Since its release in 2002, Gaia Online has become one of the hottest spots for teens to hang out, chat, and play games. The site was created by Derek Liu, Long Vo, and Josh Gainsbrugh. The popular site was originally called Go-Gaia.com, but was changed to GaiaOnline.com by Gaia Interactive on February 18th, 2003.

When users join the site, they create a unique Anime-styled avatar, suiting to their personality. Users can earn Gold, the currency of Gaia, play games, chatting in the forums, or chatting with friends through comments.

Although the site may look friendly and safe from the front page, I beg to differ. I have been a member of this online community since early June, 2007, and since then have been thoroughly disgusted by some members. Yes, there are friendly, nice users who simply want friends and a nice time, but among these few, there lurks bad people.

Ranging from perverts to n00bs, the site contains just about every form of 'annoying' or 'obnoxious' member one could think of, like so many other sites.

Though if you peek past the numerous amounts of junk-filled message boards and creepy people, you can find nice people who have similar interests as you. In my opinion, however, you have to look deep to find them.

To join the site, a user must be 13 years of age. Obviously, no one gives two thoughts about that rule, as I have come across kids who are as young as 8 or 9 years old. The age-range of the site certainly is a large one, from little kids to senior citizens.

The games section offers a nice selection of games, including fishing, pinball, and puzzles to name a few. Although one of the most popular is Rally.

Rally is like Gaia's other feature, Towns, where users go into a 2D virtual area, and chat over instant messaging. The only difference is that in Rally, users can race, show off their cars, and chat. Rally is great fun, but usually only if you have friends to talk to before you get there. I have learned that a lot of people don't like to talk to me, so I am always stuck by myself.

The other games are basically like that too, although with their own small changes to suit the game's theme.

I would rate this website a mere 7/10. Why, you may wonder? There are only so many bad people, spam around every corner, and gold is sort of tough to get, unless you are marketplace tycoon... Which I am not. Meeting good friends is hard, but once you have them, the site offers many ways said friends can chat and hang out virtually. The avatars are great fun to dress up, and messing with my profile is something I adore.

In conclusion, I see Gaia as another site with many offers, but also with many negatives, too.