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So in the last update I said I'd be responding to questions posted in my journal comments. I'm going to respond to a select few today. As always, I can't give away sensitive company information OR answer every single question submitted to me - but I'll do my best to give you guys fun and interesting information!

The Questions

Do you have any favorite sponsorhips from last year that you particularly liked for whatever reason? (Tsukabu Nosoratori)

My favorite sponsorship from last year was definitely the "Anime 101" line of free anime episodes from Funimation. It was easy to set up, made good use of Cinemas, and I thought it fit in really well with Gaia's audience.


Do you HONESTLY believe that Gaia has valid competitors? (Seth Regente)

In Gaia's space there are numerous competitors, whether that be the social networking element (Facebook, MySpace), the casual gaming elements (Kongregate, Addicting Games), social gaming element (WoW, Neopets, Second Life, any MMO), or the entertainment element (TV, movies, video games, pretty much anything that's fun). No matter what, we're vying for users' attention, and with the virtual worlds being really hot right now, there are already a slew of Gaia copycats out there who instead of learning how this works for the first time - like we are, since we're pioneering a lot of it - are just copying the best parts of a site like ours.

In terms of sensitive info, if I were to say something like "Gaia has big plans to expand our social experience onto cell phones" (which is just an example, FYI, I'm not saying it is or isn't true), any of those competitors might try to own that space first. The people who "do it first" often have the advantage.


Any news on when we might be getting a non-sponsored quest? (Bria_Teragram)

Still working on it. It was delayed somewhat by the fact that I had to help another dev modify the quest system to integrate better with Battle stuff, but it's definitely on the way. I won't give a time schedule, because honestly, there's a good chance it will shift around.

I'm going to skip a slew of interesting technical questions from Pritchard, which while I would LOVE to answer them, I think the answers would be uninteresting to most Gaians. Props to Pritchard, though! blaugh


Any possibility of getting orphans back soon? (Sgt.PepperHat)

I would so love to do this, but there are no plans at the moment.


Can we expect to see more sponsored items in the cash shop? (Spirrow)
I was more miffed than anything else at the MTV Cash Shop stuff--paying to be advertised-at? (Rayinte)

This was a response that I actually didn't understand too much. It's an item you can buy in the Cash Shop like any other. If you like it, you buy it. For some reason, attaching the "MTV" label to it made users angry, but they're the ones who funded its creation. There's absolutely no reason it should cost anyone anything unless they like the item. In which case, treat it like any other Cash Shop item.


Lanzer, I think, also mentioned in the ATA that what was intended to happen to Santa was incredibly depressing... Care to elaborate? (Fvr v2)

I've debated whether or not I should tell users about this, and I decided that I wouldn't, in case we want to continue that storyline this year smile


Do you believe that Gaia - as it currently stands - has enough diverse content, activities, physical structure, and moderation to make the most of the insane surge that will come with the release of the Battle System?

I'm not sure that I'd describe it as or expect an "insane surge", but that would be nice.

Of course, if users are coming and staying for the Battle System, then the Battle System should be providing enough additional content (on top of what Gaia already has and all the stuff coming in 200 cool .

As far as moderation and physical structure, I don't think so -- but that's an issue we have to deal with anyway as the site grows - it's not a Battle System-exclusive problem, just one that might be aggravated much more as a result of it.


Are you an Adult Swim fan, and what show(s) do you enjoy most? (Smaddy)

Of the Adult Swim exclusive lineup (Futurama will always be #1, but that was a FOX show) I'd have to say my favorites are/were Metalocalypse and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I used to watch Adult Swim (or the seeds of it) way back in the day when Space Ghost Coast to Coast was still in its first run (though it started in 1994 and I didn't start watching it until 1997).


Will there be a point when the admins can say "We're breaking even without sponsors, but if we accept this sponsor we could afford to expand more if we wanted"? (Riddle-Me-This)

Gaia is a size where for better or worse, other companies will want to do business with us. I doubt you will ever see a Gaia again without sponsorships - because it's definitely a part of this kind of business model, it's a good source of revenue, and it gives us partnerships with businesses we do want to do business with (esp. since we want access to some of that sweet, sweet copyrighted content).

If we did get into a situation where we were breaking even without sponsorships, it's more likely that we'd become a lot choosier.

Are you going to add more random picture links to your journals again? (Tai Naito)

Sporadically I might, but even updating this takes up a TON of time. As Gaia has grown the demands on us devs has grown tremendously too. If at one time I could have just taken an hour break to play ping pong, now I'm lucky if I can get some ping pong time in after hours.


Just how casual do some of you dress? (Losaru Taiyo)

Most of us just dress how we would if we were going out with friends. Not quite pajamas and slippers biggrin


I was wondering if you knew anything about possibly having another gaia Olympics? (Yeata Zi)

Unlikely that this would happen. Not my choice. If it were up to me, we'd be doing an event every single month. As it is, it looks like we'll be doing fewer events than usual.


Who decides which items to include in your quests? (Lyca_Watyre)

I'm going to assume you mean sponsored quests? Normally it is a cooperation between us and our sponsors, but generally speaking they get final say with us having veto power. If there's an item that we think wouldn't go over particularly well with our audience we let them know -- but sometimes they have their own reasons for choosing a particular item.


Do you feel that you have to spend more and more time every year working on big events? (Yen Quest)

If you consider the added focus on the quality of the events (e.g., functionality, the site not crashing, etc.) then actually we're spending less time on each event, relative to the amount of benefit produced. Literally, though, Summer Festival took a long time, Halloween took longer. Christmas was a smaller event, so it didn't take so long.

Since I've been continuously working on the sponsorship / event team since the start of 2007, I've had the opportunity to streamline and optimize a lot of the techniques, code, and processes used in event creation. So a lot of things that we had to learn for the first time (or remember to learn) can now be reused.

The main extra time sink that goes into events comes in the form of quality assurance and art. Our events have a LOT more high-quality art than they used to have, they go through a much more elaborate QA cycle, and a lot more time is spent reviewing that the way we set up the event isn't going to put too huge a strain on our servers.

Thanks to that last bit, we've been able to break the "Total Users Online" record with every single event since Summer Festival.


While working on events, quests, and such, will you think of a topic or two, and write it on a sticky note as a reminder for the next journal entry? (Yen Quest)

Yes, I used to do this! Not so much anymore though, since my journal updates aren't as regular.


During the last Valentine's Day event, if you were of the same gender and did the love action, you got a message of disgust. Is it possible for Gaia to tweak the system so that gay people wouldn't get that message if they did to each other (that sounds so wrong XP) and that you could tell with you were about to do the action to? (Earth Terminal Destiny)

Okay, I'm going to clarify this once and for all:
The kissing responses for the Valentine's Day Event are 100% random.

As far as giving a person a choice... well, what would be the fun in that?!


With the sponsorships currently, is Gaia able to make enough money and not lose money? Or is Gaia still losing money right now even with the sponsorships? (Lady Kayura)

Losing money, even with sponsorships.


What is your band's name on Rock Band? (Gene-kitty)

I have two bands. A glam rock band called "Lovesnake" where my character's name is "Glorio", and a metal band called "Blood Gut" where my character's name is "The Geech".

Whew!
Wow. That was a lot of questions! Time to relaxify.

Go ahead and send some more questions if you like. The next update might be a more conventional one, but if there are enough good questions, I might answer those instead!