The Rise and Fall of Gaia Online 

Yo this is like finding out about all the family drama that happened when you were kid and had no clue it was going on.

This sounds like a fallen civilization story

One of my fondest memories of Gaia was drawing my friends' avatars, then bringing my sketchbook to the library to scan and send them. I remember people taking photos of themselves with a note saying thank you. Really meant a lot.

The downfall was 110% the introduction of cash. No better way to alienate your young users than by making them pay for something they didn't previously have to, especially when Cash was so integral to the game. RIP Gaia, miss those long 2007 nights on Towns.

Gaia: installs micro transactions EA: write that down write that down

Dudeee, I remember when they had the cinema that was sponsored by Skittles I think and I watched Spirited Away in like 16 parts back when people posted movies in parts on youtube roflmao

"Move over MySpace, Gaia Online is here" This is the most disgustingly mid-2000s thing I've ever heard, I love it.

2008 gaia: economics are important any must be carefully monitored 2013 gaia: haha gaia gold go brrrrrr

I can't believe I lived through the "Bee Movie" promotion, my character still has that suit

Ha! I met my wife of 5 years, 15 years ago on Gaia! We have a 3 year old and... god this video made me feel old.

Thank you RU-vid recommended algorithm, this was completely unrelated to everything I watch, yet still relevant to me. Long term data mining am I right?

I made an account in 2004 during my senior year of highschool. I left the same year. About 4 years later, about to graduate college, I signed back in out of curiosity and didn't recognize the place. Then I searched for my old posts and.... Oh GOD I was SO CRINGEY T___T I've never owned a fedora or trenchcoat but holy fuck I might as well have. At this point the term neckbeard as a pejorative didn't exist yet. I did a massive scouring of every post I made and deleted the embarrassing ones.

Gaia Online... *smokes cigarette* that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

"In the end, 'twas Booty killed the beast."

So basically: Old crummy businessmen ruin the fun for everyone.

I remember watching bootleg films in a virtual theater. We're throwing popcorn at the screen and roleplaying like we're actual irl moviegoers. I remember someone roleplaying as an usher then shushing anyone trying to chat lmao.

as an old admin from the golden age of gaia, I can tell you watching this video was like being thanos on titan. the world of gaia online was beautiful and in the years I was admin I took pride in helping the site and players. I was around since the very beginning but only became an admin when the site basically exploded with new players, but I would give anything to go back to those days. I watched my fellow admins get fired and/or resign but I kept going because I still had hope. I slowly watched as the world I came to know and love slowly crash down around me and by 2015 I finally resigned, stating that I could no longer do my job to the best of my abilities. it was sad, and watching this video just reminds me of the times I had with my friends. thank you.

I literally learned how to code because of Gaia (making those custom profiles and cursors were on another level for my 10 yr old ass)

For me, Gaia died when they shut down zOMG and then strung us along making us think they would put it back eventually.

I miss 00’s internet so much. It just, ironically, feels harder to connect with people now.

what I expected: "down the rabbit hole, weebs, drama, nostalgia" what I got: "a course in economics and inflation" 10/10 would equate again

God I remeber when the "peasant cloths" were no longer given and new users got a bundle of nice basic cloths and some gold.....the old users rioted.

The really rich Gaians were the kids with good art skills. They'd essentially do commissions for gaia gold instead of real money.

tbh gaia cant even handle the amount of users that play NOW. trying to log into any chatroom can take many relogs and closing and reopening the tab due to there only being 40 slots when usually theres 38-39 people online per chatroom. if gaia got the amount of users it used to, i think the whole website would crash. they need to fix SO badly.

remember when they nuked TEKTEK :( and nobody could make dream avis anymore. I'm still resentful about that

What I was expecting: Weeb Club Penguin. What I got: _Weeb Zimbabwe._

I learned how to play blackjack on Gaia when I was 10 lol

I remember going to a Gaia panel in '07 and it was full of weebs and awkward teenagers wearing water meat whales and zomg hats. They showed concept art of the mmo and we all gasped and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I went with a friend and my dad (bless his heart) and we ended up winning this 4ft Kiki kitty plush. I wish I was making this up.

I still don't understand why my oldest brother made me not tell anyone about this site.

Now that Gaia isn’t absolute trash we should make accounts now lol

I’m damn sure the reason why Gaia Online died was because everyone forgot their passwords.

Came to learn about Gaia Online, and left with a degree in economics.

I have so many feels about this. God I miss Gaia in its prime...

I miss the gaia days, it was literally the only positive part of middle school

the amount of times i commented “bump” in gaia forums truly gives me shivers

“Equipable yaoi paddles.” Whoa hold on there, that’s straying a bit too far away from “user friendly content”!

Oof yes, I miss old Gaia so much... I keep trying to get back into it, but every time I just kinda dress my avatar up, check the market, become overwhelmed at inflation and the sheer number of items, check the forums, then kinda quit. It was such a fun site early on, and really a great entry point for the weebs of today. Also, I fucking love your videos! Keep being awesome!

every now and then i get tempted to look up my old Gaia account but then I remember all the over-a-decade-old memes on my profile and cant find the strength to do it.

I worked at Gaia from 2015 to 2018, left of my own volition. (I was actually hired by the person you quoted at 28:59, one of the best product managers Gaia ever had.) I'm hesitant to leave this comment, which might go unnoticed regardless, but I feel I should provide more info on the later years and why the gap where things were outwardly more calm actually were the most destructive years Gaia had from the company side. First and foremost, Gaia's employees were fully aware of the issues going on, but weren't allowed/able to make changes to make things better. That quote at 28:59 is apt because the daily/monthly revenue goals weren't based on projections, they were based on the amount of money Gary and Jason wanted to make, which is to say, "more". No matter what a day's goal was, the expectation was that we had to exceed it by as much as possible. They would threaten cuts for everything, even when revenue was exceeding any reasonable expectation. It wasn't about keeping the company afloat, it was about lining their pockets at the expense of the site and the company as a whole. Working at Gaia under Gary and Jason was hell, and it was always one rash decision or another that led me to watch many of my colleagues leave the company for good in the time I worked there. Gary and Jason's goal, as it turns out, was to make Gaia look as rich as possible so they could sell it at a profit, which is precisely what they did. By the time they finalized the sale of the company in late 2016, they were making us sell Gaia Cash at 68% off, which even if you don't know the ins and outs of Gaia is an unreasonable amount to discount anything you actively rely on for revenue. But, to their end it didn't matter. They made the company look profitable and had a good amount of money in Gaia's account by the time of the sale. And then, they gave themselves all that money on their way out the door, leaving Gaia in a financial hole it likely never will recover from. There were a lot of little things I'm glazing over here, for fear of making a long story longer, but essentially financial struggles were somewhat warded off until late 2018, and then the reality of Gaia's dwindling finances couldn't be held off any longer. There were multiple rounds of layoffs starting in late November 2018 and continuing on into 2019, and from what I've seen in the few times I've visited the site since, things don't look like they're going to be able to get better in the wake of it. It's rough, especially because I know how many people on staff who cared deeply about Gaia's success and wanted (and still want) it to stay alive and afloat, none more than Lanzer himself. But, personally speaking anyway, I don't think there's any way to undo the damage that was done under Gary and Jason, and I felt that way even before they sold it off. It's just a shame how things have played out, given the nostalgia so many rightfully have for Gaia. I think that's all I've got to say, apologies for the long-winded comment.

I joined in 2006. On my 10-year gaiaversary I said “I’ll probably never quit this site” I have’t logged in in over a year :(

Gaia Online: the story of some poor decision-making leading to a website being hijacked by two greedy sociopaths that proceeded to plow the site and company into the floor.

Met my bestie, 15 years ago on Gaiaonline, still best friends, saved my life when I tried to OD. Can't believe this is what Gaia has become.

I study economics at school. As soon as I heard the words "gold generator" I knew everything was going to go down into a massive dumpster-fire.

Oh the stories I could tell from being a Mod on that site....

We all had great times on Gaia. And then the heartache of a friend that never logged in ever again...

When this video started: I'm going to log back on for old time sake. A little after the Midway point: Nope I'm not touching this ever again. The end of the video: I'm going to log back on for old times sake.

Logged in to check on my avatar after this and found myself wearing the Bee Movie suit & 2008 Barack Obama mask. I thrived on that website, ran a guild of thousands of Harry Potter fans & LGBTQ+ media, had a lot of friends. My heart aches at what we lost.

I had created this picture that once went viral. On the "Avatar Creator" site I made members of MCR ((My Chemical Romance)) and I cut and cropped them into my MS paint and I had shared it on the forums. Little did I know that it would be passed all over Gaia. I wish I watermarked it.

"Move over MySpace, Gaia Online is here" needs to be a T-shirt. It want to wear that beautiful headline loud and proud.

I remember when was gifted a torn cape for my birthday 14 years ago. I was the edgiest darklord with swim shorts and flip-flops.

It just proves two things: 1. Communities are generational. Nobody goes back to the same toys they played when they were 6 when they're pushing 40. 2. Going fully corporate is the biggest mistake a fan driven community can ever make on ANY platform.

This went way to quickly from a Weeb Club Penguin to a virtual Venezuela. And I loved It, 10/10 documentary.

I still remember when they had the video lounge back then, where you could throw popcorn. Good times.

I didn't know that the words "panda hat" in this context would give me war flashbacks but here we are

I remember being some ones pet in 2006 in Gaia. True dark times

I used to hang out on Gaia! I once conducted a wedding ceremony between two other users I didn't even know. They just wandered up to me in the village area or whatever it was called and asked me to be the minister. Luckily I remembered all the words from the last real life wedding I was at. I wonder if they're still together? XD

I remember the TekTek days when I could customize my dream avatar as my signature. I miss those days...

Oh god....rewatching this during twitter's downfall is...really something...

Gaia is such a distant memory for me, I can't even remember how old I was when I used it. All I remember was some weird fishing game, and drawing people's avatars for gold.

"The rise and Fall of gaiaonline" Oh the foreboding, the site broke several hours ago.

I remember being a kid and seeing this girl with a huge elaborate profile section opening up layers continuously and trying to find the html codes to copy it lol

“They introduced taxes to the marketplace and prevented inflation.” ...we are still talking about a video game, right?

My friend literally met her boyfriend of 9 years on Gaia lol

Suddenly all the highschool memories of Gaia online flooded back. Oh god.

I once got "married" on Gaia as a teen to my long distance college boyfriend.

I'll be honest, what I disliked is just how 'child friendly' they tried to be... So many strict rules when it came to art or roleplay content (and I'm not just talking like OMG SEX), but then they would have incredibly--INCREDIBLY--sexual avatar items and the like as if that wasn't 'adult'. They had a double standard between what THEY could put out and what we could create even in privacy. I never liked that. I gave them up a long time ago, but if I need inspiration for new art, I go back and do freebies. Lol.

Ah the good ol’ “girls find a lap to sit in” thread days.

Lol back when Gaia still allowed people to upload videos in that theater thing, I watched the entire ponyo movie 😂 nowadays it’s dead af, it had a good run though

Ah yes, I remember back when a slice of bread was worth less than 10 billion gold

Omg I remember just dying for the kiki kitty. I desperately wanted one and I ended up getting one when they finally did the economic reset.

Did y’all know that boxxy is a voice actress now? Wild.

this is actually a legit modern history and economics lesson

I'm so old, I remember the days when Gaia actually had a brothel sub section. Yikes.

This unlocked so many memories of my teens, the online friends, the mini-games - the pre-facebook social media era felt way funnier than what we have nowadays. My account is 10 years old now, joined because a few online friends joined and told me to do so, it was so fun until the prices went crazy. I remember being in love with a Rapunzel wig item that at the time was priced at 1 Million gc, grinded a lot and sold a lot of beloved items trying to reach that money goal but eventually felt burnout and left the place. A few years later, logged again only to find that item costing like a billion or so and got so mad I left again, lol. It's sad that all of this happened, because it was a really fun and beloved social media/game

Oh boy, I remember Gaia Online. I used to be on it DAILY. Every day after school, I'd get home and would be on my computer constantly. I lost tons of sleep since my friends and I were on it. Yes, I was one of those geeks that did role-plays. Now, it's basically a thing of the past--I let go of it over ten years ago. But, those were one of the good ole days, I'll admit. My account is _still_ there, of course.

The end of zomg And overinflation of gold. That was literally the main problem.

Gaia died when they started prioritizing gcash RIGs over all other items.

It was pretty cool trick or treating on Gaia as a kid. I'd never been allowed to do so in real life, so I appreciated that.

OH MY GOD I REMEMBER GETTING THAT USELESS BEE MOVIE SUIT HOLY SHIT THIS IS CRAZY NOSTALGIA LMAOOO

Ain't going to lie, I made an account and got lost. I walk into someone's house I think and they were naked and I got even more lost.

"by a user called MoldyLunchBox" NOOOO! NOOO! DON'T! NOOoooooo

I did not expect to get a crash course in inflation and economic policy in a video about a 2000's anime website

CEO: I don't believe in inflation Employee: Well I don't believe in this company. Here's my two week notice.

I'm actually still on Gaia online! i had several accounts in the 2000's but i rejoined just out of nostalgia in 2017 luckily at that. the website really is in a shambles and is so much quieter than it used to be, alot of the website is becoming unusable, i don't think anyone has been able to submit to the art arenas for a very long time, and site holiday events have been hit and miss at best or absolutely hated, especially this current Halloween one. in the Gaia retrospectives i've seen no one seems to mention that ZOMG was closed down in 2014 and then reopened in 2017, that and gaia's short and unfortunate and short foray into NSFW territory with Tentacl

"The Rise and Fall of Maplestory". Please, Red Bard. The truth must be revealed. I know if you knew gaia online you were at least aware of maplestory at the time.

So, I've been checking my account maybe once a year or more and when I did so last week I noticed a problem. There's a lot of racists that are using the forums. Like, In The News had someone bringing up positive points about white supremacists and later admitted to being one. And there were others sharing their sentiments. That cut me deep, because I remember all the good times on Gaia. I reached out to Gaia and am waiting to hear back. I hope something happens for the better.

TAKE BACK WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT THE ONE PIECE 4KIDS RAP

Zimbabwe: We have the most useless currency in the world Gaia Online: Hold my beer

its like i watched my entire childhood in 30 minutes

Just realized I could still log in to my old Gaia account. A message I got on the 18 of Febuary 2015 read, "Your item Blue Ink was successfully sold to Minuet Lynn for 55,000,000 gold. A 5% transaction fee was deducted from the sale price. The calculated fee is 2,750,000 gold. The remaining total of 52,250,000 gold has been transferred to your account." Jesus.

i used to be filthy RICH on gaia... back when “chantix” was my username, and that one company didn’t steal it. r.i.p

This video just made me realize how old I am. Holy shit

Me: I wish I could go back in time Genie: Where to? Me: back in like 2006, so I can get the Bee Movie suit in Gaia Online

I mean, almost 5000 players online is still a "lot" for a game like Gaia, a lot of games get less players nowadays and are still rentable. I never really played the game but back in 2007 I would use their avatars in other forums, using the Tektek avatar maker.

Oh yeah... I have a gaiaonline account. Edit: I logged in and was immediately given 500 mil gaia gold.

I actually met my husband on Gaia when I was a teenager and we have now been together for 10 years. I also used to run a bump making shop back in The days when you barely needed to be able to work photoshop to run a shop on Gaia. 😁

Had my first “boyfriend” for about 1 hour on Gaia 😂

Gaia's 20th year now and just checked: now 2,440 online. Not the juggernaut it was back in the 00s/early 10s.

Gaia breaks my heart. Even grandmas used to post there. Gg, motorcyclist grandma.