"I can show you the world-" Disney did world travel right

[Fractale]

If your from Barton, get a passport.
If you're from Durem, get a passport.
If you fly on Gaia Air, then get a passport!
See, I'm the man of this town
and I hope you wouldn't mind if I showed you around
so when you go to certain places, you'll be thinkin' of me
We got people to meet and many places to see

So, if anyone remembers the 1992 animated Disney film, Aladdin, and it's classic song “A Whole New World” that was sung as Aladdin and Jasmine were whisked out out Arabia on a magic carpet; even the untrained eye can clearly see that in the span of just a minute or two, the two lovebirds travel to Egypt, Greece, and finally, China.

Now, you may be asking; “Fractale, just what are you getting at, you crazy kook?” Thing is; I know Gaia doesn't have a magic carpet to work with, but how many people have ever wondered what progress Gaia has really made when it comes to letting us see our own world? What kind of progress could Gaia actually make, if they set their minds to it and put expanding our lovely, large world at a higher priority than they do, now? If the four main towns interest you, then wouldn't seeing what lie beyond make people curious?

What sort of benefits do you see yourself getting from a consistent world map expansion? There's the pretty art, of course, and finally seeing Gaia give all our hundreds of NPC's a space of their own, outside for 4 towns, to call home. There's also with possible character development, to all these guys, once the map is filled out, enough, and potential new shops popping up all over the new spaces of the map, as it expands.

What benefits, on the other hand, do you see Gaia getting from putting priority on such a project? It's probably not at all profitable as their constant updates out of the cash shop, which prioritizes the avi system, that's for sure, but does that mean that even if it might not be profitable, the feature should be ignored and abandoned?

Since our 4 main towns have been established on the map, we've gotten a glimpse of the floating island, Tlauixcalpantecuhtliopolis (which we never actually got to land on), in Gaia's 2009 zOMG April Fool's “Come Fly with me” event (sponsored by Omnidrink), and in later years, we got the Frontier Skies game, which gave us the opportunity to travel on an airship to save a Jelldgy, the floating jellyfish demigod of spoil, but we didn't get too far from Barton Town, even then. And after, our airship travels continued in the manga, where we traveled with Gino on an airship to Dref Dur only to fail at saving the life of the son of the goddess/creator of our world. I can't be the only one baffled and ticked off by the lack of progress, can I?

In all of Gaia's 10 years, we still know little to nothing about how big our Gaia world actually is. However, there seems to be more progression taken to developing the world (with maps!) of other Gaia areas, such as the very games that Gaia's staff and company create and abandon, much like our own world map. And while these games have been claimed to be non-canon, with no ties to our own world, I remain skeptical. Soul Crash has a map that seems to extend a whopping 6-8 continents with several small islands; the Original Monster Galaxy seems to have 2 continents shown, while Monster Galaxy the Zodiac Islands, and Monster Galaxy Exile seem to have an even larger number of islands and strange, floating continents to be explored.

[Chibi Halo]

Gah, it's times like this when I kick myself in the butt for forgetting the name of the former artist that had this grand idea of an entire Gaia based evolving atlas. And it's at times like this when I wish a friend of mine was still active on the site because she was the one that pointed out the illustration he worked out for his idea in the first place. His whole concept was going to be an atlas that looked into the different lands on Gaia with each evolution. It was an awesome world building idea. And it was something that inspired me when I worked up my setting for the RP I had worked up a few years back during the whole initial airship craze before we were introduced to Dref Dur.

That's something else. We get introduced to a new land and yet it's barely touched upon. Dref Dur had two mentions and that was it. Once it was no longer needed in the plot of the manga it was no longer talked about in anything else. Gaia has so many places mentioned in items and hinted upon with the maps from things like zOMG and the Frontier Skies yet they still haven't done much about it. The totally one hundred percent canon stuff that actually does expand our world barely gets mentioned. The desert and floating islands from Frontier Skies haven't been seen since the game. There's so much potential for great world building that they're missing out on.

World building can be so totally doable. So they don't have the time or desire to do full on multi generational EIs anymore. That doesn't mean they can't work on world building through REIs. Since they love to make REIs that have an overall story to them, then why can't they do a series of them that take a peek into different lands on Gaia with each new REI. People love REIs that are connected to one another like the Ciel series and this would be a great way to kill two birds with one stone because they can make it an over arcing travelogue like the ongoing Globe Trekker series. And if not in the EIs then make an entire monthly box that helps expand on the Gaian world where each turn of an atlas page brings us to a new land on Gaia. It seriously wouldn't be overly hard to expand on the Gaian world without detracting from things like the monthly items.

[Fractale]

Chibi Halo

Gah, it's times like this when I kick myself in the butt for forgetting the name of the former artist that had this grand idea of an entire Gaia based evolving atlas. And it's at times like this when I wish a friend of mine was still active on the site because she was the one that pointed out the illustration he worked out for his idea in the first place. His whole concept was going to be an atlas that looked into the different lands on Gaia with each evolution. It was an awesome world building idea. And it was something that inspired me when I worked up my setting for the RP I had worked up a few years back during the whole initial airship craze before we were introduced to Dref Dur.

That's something else. We get introduced to a new land and yet it's barely touched upon. Dref Dur had two mentions and that was it. Once it was no longer needed in the plot of the manga it was no longer talked about in anything else. Gaia has so many places mentioned in items and hinted upon with the maps from things like zOMG and the Frontier Skies yet they still haven't done much about it. The totally one hundred percent canon stuff that actually does expand our world barely gets mentioned. The desert and floating islands from Frontier Skies haven't been seen since the game. There's so much potential for great world building that they're missing out on.

World building can be so totally doable. So they don't have the time or desire to do full on multi generational EIs anymore. That doesn't mean they can't work on world building through REIs. Since they love to make REIs that have an overall story to them, then why can't they do a series of them that take a peek into different lands on Gaia with each new REI. People love REIs that are connected to one another like the Ciel series and this would be a great way to kill two birds with one stone because they can make it an over arcing travelogue like the ongoing Globe Trekker series. And if not in the EIs then make an entire monthly box that helps expand on the Gaian world where each turn of an atlas page brings us to a new land on Gaia. It seriously wouldn't be overly hard to expand on the Gaian world without detracting from things like the monthly items.

I remember there was a journal entry with an artist explaining that EI that they wanted to do, with the map and all. The map in question is in the OP, with all the other maps. i can't, for the life of me, remember the name of the artist, or the link to said journal, either. Should've ********, screenie'd it. -kicks self- I hate the idea of more CS items, but I would've been on board for its story, if it meant a wider view of the Gaia world. (although I'm sure the same story could be applied to a free EI in the gold shops, much like the one we've gotten in Sticker shop, was it?)

I hate that Gaia did that to Dref Dur. There was a post from someone in another thread of mine that explains some of the "reasoning" and path they set behind that, and I don't approve of it, at all. I wish they'd take expanding the world more seriously than they are, nowadays.

Pirate Captain Sushi

Gaia isn't unique anymore.


Oldbie rant (unrelated to thread so I spoiled it):

The characters we used to have have been updated, changed, and replaced with new ones for the sole purpose of advertisement. I accept that they have to do that because it's a business, but... are they forgetting what it is their business actually is?

It's making a world for us to be immersed in with eastern animation/novel influences.
It's not making clothing and pelting us with once in a lifetime chances to get the newest rare item they come out with. It's not creating a new character every month to advertise something that we're just going to forget about the next month.

Somewhere along the line, that thought process was lost, and it was a few years after Gaia was bought and turned into Gaia Interactive. Head honcho's in charge only knew of the business world, they didn't walk around in the shoes of a Gaian, they just wanted profit. They gave our NPC's new flashy clothes, they told artists to create poorly designed pixels in surplus and they established their foot in the door to get aboard the Facebook train: "since all the other guys were doing it". They wanted the next new thing in terms of socioeconomic trends and they abandoned projects quickly if they didn't rake in enough net-profits within a short amount of time.

They have poor communication with their staff and their staff has poor communication with eachother (something that has been noted in the past time and again). It's the reason why events and the main plot don't coincide as much.

Granted I accept if they didn't do the things they did, they wouldn't be doing business efficiently.

Some of the artists working for Gaia are also guilty of this line of thinking. Louie was never suppose to exist. VO admitted that Liam was suppose to be Ians lost brother from the very start. I've heard stories of both Devs and Admins literally shouting in meetings because of their take on certain subjects regarding the integrity of the site versus advertisement whoring and changing plots. Hell, Qixter blew his top frequently when they were thinking of making zOMG solely western influenced!

I'm happy that we have a lot of devs and admins in the community like he was, who care about us all greatly and who care about the site. Others however... there's a few who want either the site, or their own careers, to progress (using an old quote here) "by any means necessary". There's others who are out of the loop of Gaia's lore and just arrived here to do something they get paid to do.

To simplify my spoiled post: they took Pokemon, and they made it the Digimon movie.

[Yeata Zi]

Is Gaia a continent, country or planet?

I've never been certain.

[Fractale]

Yeata Zi

Is Gaia a continent, country or planet?

I've never been certain.

when the Zurg arrived, they made it clear that Gaia was a planet. that much, I'm certain.



in the manga, "The Floating City", Gino also confirms Gaia being a planet, but commenting in one of his journal entries that he didn't know planets could have kids (Gaia/ Meili)

[Denham]

That's something that has always baffled me. Looking at the scaling on the current World Map...walking between most maps in my mind would take 10-20 minutes, tops. But the assumption is that Gaia is an entire planet. Hence, at most, the current world map would represent a single country in the grand scheme, and more realistically it would be a set of cities in one or two counties. It would be fascinating if Gaia was explained to be a much larger place beyond the scope of our gold shops. I think that would be a far more interesting basis for new RIGs...but I'm a sucker for varying cultures, especially if they have a fantasy flare.

[Erinnerung]

We did recently learn that there is an elven homeland from which the dark elves were exiled.

[Anabaena]

I think the maps is a good example of lack of coherency on gaia's part. I remember trying to match the world map to the map we got in the 2009 event (so long ago already?!) and stuff was constantly at the wrong place!
This, combined with the low priority and ADD personality of the plot, I think are the reasons why we haven't travelled very far on the gaian world.

Besides, the planet is still kind of flat and tiny if we have only the maps to go on.. xd

[Magical Cat Party]

I always facepalm at their lack of initiative to turn this site into an in-depth game site. There is so much here, with people who are already invested in it. Why not make money off of it, people love a good story, especially if they might have some kind of involvement in it's telling.

[Chibi Halo]

Fractale

Don't you just hate when that happens? You see something way interesting and you totally forget where it is you saw it. I really hate what they did to Dref Dur. We could have had five way summer events, crooks and criminals galore to use for mini events and whole lot more if only they didn't throw away such a great place like Dref Dur. It's a shame they stopped using it.

[Paper Gears]

Chibi Halo

Fractale

Don't you just hate when that happens? You see something way interesting and you totally forget where it is you saw it. I really hate what they did to Dref Dur. We could have had five way summer events, crooks and criminals galore to use for mini events and whole lot more if only they didn't throw away such a great place like Dref Dur. It's a shame they stopped using it.

I wanna buy things thereeee

[Azavezel]

I'm more alarmed at the fact that they want to confine the supposed "lore" of Gaia strictly towards the major events. While I can see the appeal of it, everyone usually stops caring when it takes nearly 6 months for a plot point to become relevant again. I know I'm starting to wane interest due to the lack of real visible...I don't want to use the word effort since it's the wrong word, but it feels like they care more about items than the setting. Which isn't bad, I mean, it's a business and Gaia's entire point of existence can now be thanked due to the items. However, there's a point where the setting is becoming so uninteresting due to the massive info droughts that I'm beginning to seriously wonder the point of it at all.

[Fractale]

Chibi Halo

Fractale

Don't you just hate when that happens? You see something way interesting and you totally forget where it is you saw it. I really hate what they did to Dref Dur. We could have had five way summer events, crooks and criminals galore to use for mini events and whole lot more if only they didn't throw away such a great place like Dref Dur. It's a shame they stopped using it.

while I would've loved for Dref Dur to get some space in the towns vs events, i think it would make more sense to introduce Halloweentown, which actually has a space on the map, like the 4 towns. It'd be pretty neat, seeing witches and mummies, ghouls and goblins participate, with the other "normal" townsfolk, who- ironically enough, include dark elves and Dhamphir. -siiiiigh- if only Gaia would bother fleshing out that part of the map and characters, there, then maybe we'd actually see a 5th town added in the vs events. Shake things up from the usual we've been getting for 10 years

[TeriTeaRose]

Azavezel

I'm more alarmed at the fact that they want to confine the supposed "lore" of Gaia strictly towards the major events. While I can see the appeal of it, everyone usually stops caring when it takes nearly 6 months for a plot point to become relevant again. I know I'm starting to wane interest due to the lack of real visible...I don't want to use the word effort since it's the wrong word, but it feels like they care more about items than the setting. Which isn't bad, I mean, it's a business and Gaia's entire point of existence can now be thanked due to the items. However, there's a point where the setting is becoming so uninteresting due to the massive info droughts that I'm beginning to seriously wonder the point of it at all.

I feel almost the exact same way...For me personally I feel that they're too busy thinking of and making CI's, EI's, MC's, Cash shop bundle goodies, gold shop items... *breathes* Holiday event items, and any other type of items i forgot. Animated ones, you name it! Not to mention putting together the Crosstich contests and pick out winners and and...all that stuff! So much to do, so little time! Items are cool, I just always thought that it's taking up way too much space on the to do list you know? Maybe i'm wrong...most likely. sweatdrop Would it be too silly to wonder if they should cut back on making new items? Probably...Like you said, Gaia is a business and the items are very important. They did cut back on large EI's and now we have rapid ones, I guess I just want some thing more... I wish zOMG was getting new things added to it. I heard that it didn't get very popular I guess, but I just always felt that people only lost interest just like the lore. Things weren't getting updated or added fast enough...as I type this it has got me thinking. Me wanting them to cut back on making new items might make people loose interest in the site itself. There is just no solution i can think of besides adding more people to the Gaia staff to have things work faster...but that costs money and might cause confusion in the work place. burning_eyes I'm sorry to ramble like this, I just related to your post pretty darn well and it got me excited. Excited in the most wonderful way possible, forgive me.

[Chibi Halo]

Fractale

Chibi Halo

Fractale

Don't you just hate when that happens? You see something way interesting and you totally forget where it is you saw it. I really hate what they did to Dref Dur. We could have had five way summer events, crooks and criminals galore to use for mini events and whole lot more if only they didn't throw away such a great place like Dref Dur. It's a shame they stopped using it.

while I would've loved for Dref Dur to get some space in the towns vs events, i think it would make more sense to introduce Halloweentown, which actually has a space on the map, like the 4 towns. It'd be pretty neat, seeing witches and mummies, ghouls and goblins participate, with the other "normal" townsfolk, who- ironically enough, include dark elves and Dhamphir. -siiiiigh- if only Gaia would bother fleshing out that part of the map and characters, there, then maybe we'd actually see a 5th town added in the vs events. Shake things up from the usual we've been getting for 10 years

While it would be nice I'd like to see them establish the place within the manga first the way they did with Dref Dur. Would it be a Halloweentown like you see in The Nightmare Before Christmas or the type of Halloweentown Disney did to death with their quartet of Halloween movies featuring Debbie Reynolds? Is Halloweentown where our Jack lives? And is it a place that's known to the other residents of Gaia? A good backstory for the town before it shows up as an option in Towns against Towns events is key so people can have some sense of connection to it before picking it as their town to back. That's why you see a lot of loyalty for the four original towns, though they still haven't touched on the robot wars of Aekea that were once mentioned by Liam and couple of others in the shops.