AskED The Admin: Answer Compilation (10/14: Reincarnation)

[Platonix]

October 26th
As promised close to two weeks ago, Lanzer held a Friday session for the benefit of those who couldn't make it on Monday. Not many people were aware of it, it seems, as the thread got a lot less activity than usual (only six pages by the end.) I completely forgot to bump this thread beforehand, and I wasn't on for the event anyway...I can't make it on Fridays, I have a prior commitment IRL. On the plus side, fewer questions asked meant Lanzer could answer pretty close to all of them.

Lanzer

dark jamie

post comming

EDIT: Woot! I can't believe this! lol (newbish) this is the second time I have gotten first post on a sticky!=D

anyways, what I would like to ask is:
With the upcoming items (by witch I mean the ones that evolve over time) how will that work exactly? like will be be able to choose from different stages once we achieve the next level or will you have to buy a new one to get the original stage?

EDIT #2:lol.
I just got finished having supper. Brought to me by the BK. Lounge =D

Evolving items evolve by themselves over time, by the week I think.

Lanzer

Losaru Taiyo

1. Cool. Firday night. EDIT: So is this going to be a regular thing now?

2. I heard that there used to be animated .gifs for sushi long ago. Who's idea was that?

3. How's the cubicle contest going?

EDIT: 4. So when might the NPCs and towns change for Halloween?

Sorry, Friday's are really inconsistant. I often get dragged to dinner early. XD

I have no idea what happened to that. ^^;

Cubicle contest is getting more intense between the UI and the art team, both promises to have surprises to pull in more votes... :O

Lanzer

Fortenra Askasa

Hi Lanzer. Thanks for putting it on Friday. ^.^

So, what's your favorite item set? MC? User?

My favorite MC is Gwee biggrin

Lanzer

The Losthought

hi lanzer just a few questions.
when is the next battle system update?
is there a projected date for the release of cash shop items?
and will there ever be angelic/demonic shop items?

*edit*
oh and will you be in towns at all tonight?

The next update will happen after the Halloween Event. :O

As for Cash Shop, it'll probably be released next week. There won't be angelic/demonic items since they're not necessarily MC items, though we have no idea what kind of new ideas we'll come up with in the future.

Lanzer

Leopardchild

Hey Lanzer! I finally remembered this thread while it was actually still up! Yay!
Anyways, I have a random question, do you prefer cats, dogs, or rabbits?

I like them all but I'm totally a dog person. 3nodding I used to have a dog called Lucky, that's when I was 7 years old...

One day I'll have a nice big dog, but that'll be when I can afford the time to walk my dog. sweatdrop

Lanzer

greenferret

Okay I have to ask a question! Will we ever have Grunny Slippers in the G-Store, in the near future I mean?

Are the banners going to change anymore for Halloween? It would be so cool to get on one day to see a giant graveyard or maybe have Barton be turned into a creepy old village.

Grunny slippers? We didn't make plans for them, though if enough users ask for it, then we'll get cranking. eek

There will a few more changes here and there, though the impressive parts will come when the event begin...

Lanzer

The Peanut Smuggler

HAI LANZER. <3

I was wondering...

Hmm...

Oh! Have any crazy fangirls/guys ever stalked any of the staff? Like you or VO or Fleep? x"D

And do you like pokemon? ninja

Old man like us are not worth stalking. biggrin As long as we're in our super secret headquarter we're safe. smile

Lanzer

Pocket Dimension

Good evening, Lanzer! biggrin I guess my only question at the moment is: Will NPC interaction in the headers make a return this Halloween? I loved how NPCs said random things at you or gave you things in previous parties. whee

Oh, not for this one event, but we'll definitely use the header more in future events.

Lanzer

xX.Terror.of.Death.Xx

How long will the Halloween Event Last? O:

Will Jack lose count and give us loads of pants this year? XD

Have you played the demo or the full version of Dynasty Warriors Gundam?

Can I please have a hint how the Halloween event will work?

Halloween event will be throughout the week I believe, please check the announcement to double check

Gundam Dynasty Warriors is awesome! It's the reason I started building Gundam models again. XD

Halloween event? There'll be conflict... wink

Lanzer

` V i e

Hey, erm.. Lanzer.. hehe

Well I, and many other users, just found out about the filtering system. Now I understand that you guys don't particularly like that one word that you filtered, but will there be any way to unfilter words? For older users, if anyone?

Will you be filtering anymore words? D:

eek The word filter came out earlier than I anticipated. Need to make a note for everyone regarding the change.

The change really is to focus on the one word, the rest are really minor changes. I really don't see any other words that will come close to having filtered this heavily. The filtering option works across the board for everyone, and if you set filtering to off, it shouldn't really affect anything.

Lanzer

The Peanut Smuggler

I'm kinda suprised, Ata is usually much faster then this~ o3o

@Lanzer: SOOO

Have you seen GCD McSourface? And, if so, what are your thoughts of this presentation of a passionate GCDer? Did it make j00 lawl? 8"D

Heh, that comic was awesome. We often felt like we're punched in the face when listening to our users. rofl

Lanzer

Hyperdryve

So who's the one on staff who loves stargate so much? XD
I noticed, as did everyone else, the odd device in the middle of the field on one of the maps.



The device that looks oddly like a stargate.



So what's up with that? I know the aliens left through it but is that all there really is to it? Now I know you guys aren't going to reveal plot or anything but I really can't help myself. And what's with the zurg and triangles? That like something to do with the pyramids in the show?

And on a related note I tried to make an avatar oh so long ago with the name Dr Meredith Rodney McKay, this is what came up: Your username is in conflict because it is the name of a NPC (Non-Playable Character). For storyline purposes, we kindly ask you to choose another username. Thank you!

D:

Oh my, is something interesting in our future?

Oh, the gate! I can't say much or another team will kill me for spoiling the surprise. biggrin

Lanzer

Fortenra Askasa

Lanzer, if you could have any super power what would you have? surprised

I would stop time.

Then get back to work. biggrin

Lanzer

Losaru Taiyo

Wait, I just read somewhere in this about maybe not adding Jack.?Please tell me that's not true! Jack's a Gaian halloween staple!

Do not worry, this is Gaia, after all. wink

Lanzer

Yuki Inuzuka

Hi Lanzer!

I got a couple of questions!

1.Will we ever get any more hat or Pajama Collectibles?
2.When will the Von Helson castle be up?
3.Will the new NPC's be introduced in this plot?
4.Will any more manga/comics be up soon?

There will be another hat item, though I dunno when we'll release it

Castle, yes, but not necessarily the same old one

Well I shouldn't spoil things too much, I think that the story will be at the least... funny as hell. biggrin

Lanzer

dakki-dono

dakki-dono

LANZER! I trust your day was well?


Anyway...I wanted to ask....did whomever is on advertisements steal my avvie? ;__; If it's some poor heartsick Dev that yearns for my love....can you tell them I'm taken?
*Points down*



gonk Why?

gonk I'd just like to know why the ad looks so.....me inspired.

eek I was pretty sure it came from one of our developers.

Lanzer

Hana Maehata

Hello Lanzer, and anyone else who happens to read this~! How is life treating you?

I was wondering, how was high school for you? Did you hang out in any cliques? And what about dances and whatnot?

Hard to imagine things being more busy but it is. :O

Highschool was nice, I had my geeky friends, friends that were into gaming and having fun, and then I have the friends who were total anime fans. biggrin I was horrible at dancing, but I tried. XD

Sorry, I gotta go and make the announcement about the word filter. Have a great weekend everyone!

[Iosthought]

yea first time i asked in ask the admin.. was pretty cool. and btw thanks for doing this. it helps alot of us!

[Cid High-Wind]

Wow, Lanzer did have one today! o_o

Too bad I was at work.

[Platonix]

October 29th
Today's Ask the Admin was very, very short (as in three pages.) The devs were all busy handling the event, especially since it's a Halloween tradition for Gaia's servers to revolt and start spitting out Anti-Staff Picket Signs. I hear the staff have started using the durn things to build shelving.

Lanzer

Hello everyone,

It's been one heck of a day, with so many users logging on, we had to make sure that our system can handle the traffic before we can announce the Halloween event. eek

On top of that, after a lot of discussions with users and mods, we've decided to turn off the word filtering.

Now we're still battling to keep the site running smoothly, meanwhile, I hope that the new comic update is to your liking.

Lanzer

The Arabian Mule

Hey Lanz, how's everything going?

How much work did you guys put into the halloween event?

Also, can you get banned for arguing with a mod?

I think I just was.

We put more work on the Halloween event than the summer event. Hope you'll like it. :O

Nobody can get banned just for arguing with a mod, but a mod is protected to the same clause that protects a user. If anyone is being offensive to a mod, the warning/banning would be at the same level as it would be towards a user.

Lanzer

Magical Spork

Hey Lanzer.
I know you guys have a PO Box... so most people don't know where the Gaia HQ really is. But, what would happen if a crazed Gaia fan decided to camp out at/in the post office... and wait to see who gets the stuff from the box. Then, using amazing skills, stalk them.

Stalking is creepy and all, but what would you do if someone actually did this, while taping, and posted the link to the video (for proof), and HQ's real address somewhere on Gaia?

>_>
I swear I'm not gonna do this. I live on the other side of the US, and have no plans or ways to get to California.


Oh, but have a happy Halloween, and I love the event!

OH! And!
DO YOU LIKE HAVING A FANCLUB/FANTHREAD?

EDIT: Oh. Word filtering. You still filtering the p-bear or what?

Well the Gaia ninja delivers MC letters with great stealth. He'll never be seen.

And those who got a glimpse of him never lived to tell the tale...

And no more word filtering, but we will be saying what we're gonna do with all the threads about topics that are potentially harmful.

Lanzer

nature kid

lanzer why is it that its almost impossible to be a vampire?

Because our servers went kaboom. gonk It's quite nasty, and we're still working to iron out all the problems with the slow access and log-out issues.

Lanzer

bsbartgurl

i love the comic

will the new cinema vj be able to show videos from voeh.com in the future?

Are we getting an official announcement on how this event works? A lot of people are finding it hard to become vampires and I sorta want at least one of my mules to be a vampire.

We will be adding more services soon for VJ, the reason for the lack of them is because not all sites are compatible wish us being able to run list queries and searches.

Lanzer

Platonix

Why is it that site-wide Announcements have become more rare?

It's happened frequently lately that a new feature comes out, surprising and confusing everyone, and then several minutes if not several hours later, the Announcement finally comes explaining it...

You spoke Friday of needing to make an announcement about the new filtered word, and it never happened. Tons of people are mistakenly accusing you of thinking that filtering the word would somehow stop child molestation from happening here.

A lot of the problem we've been getting lately regarding announcements are due to communication within ourselves actually. We now have 95 people, and we're split up into many groups working on different projects.

Sometimes one team finishes up their work, and thought that another team had made the announcement already. At other times many people submitted a lot of changes, and one of those changes aren't meant to be released just yet. There are confusions that need to be fixed with better communications. We're still working on that.

As far as the word filtering goes, I didn't make a site-wide announcement because the topic was still up for debate within our team. Today we finally decided on the final stance, which is to not have the word filter. After we ironed out all the details, we'll be able to make a site wide announcement.

Lanzer

Losaru Taiyo

Loved the latest manga XD

1. Have you ever gotten Fan art?

2. How is everyone doing at HQ?

3. What was with the recycling of the halloween costumes, like someone asked.

Hope all is well. Gotta go stake/ get bitten.

Yes, and I love anyone's fan art. wink

Everyone is doing fine, though many are exhausted over the recent amount of work. Hope things will slow down a bit during November.

We end up spending more time on the event instead, so the NPC just picked up their last year's costumes... We got a lot more headers to decorate also. It's a lot of work!

Lanzer

Meeki

Heya Lanzer,

What are your thoughts on Gaia's progress over the years? Is it where you had expected, not yet close, or way beyond? I know it's changed so much but I'm curious what your personal thoughts are of it. Do you ever find it all overwhelming?

Gaia's way beyond my original expectation, though I really wish that Gaia will have more games, more fun things to do, and more users who could appreciate the fun things that we build. The amount of work and things going on is definitely overwhelming to the point where it's hard for me to keep track of everything. I can only do my best to keep up!

Lanzer

RumbleBlast

But 1 question and sorry to any developers or artists.
But why do the NPC avatars of Zhivago, Vladimir, and Louie suck so badly?

Also will you become a vampire?

Maybe because Saka did too good of a job in drawing those characters in the comic!

I probably should check back on the servers. Hope everyone have a great time on the event this week!

[Platonix]

/boots topic back to top of board/ Guess what, folks? It's that time once more! Rev your Asking engines!

[Elijah Frost]

Lanzer didn't answer my questions... gonk gonk gonk

[M370-D]

I'm busy eatin this traditional baked potato and making fun of V for Vendetta. I think they'll ask most of my questions anyway. At least the non strange ones.

[Platonix]

November 5th

Today's Ask The Admin was largely about Halloween, but Lanzer also snuck in a few answers about the upcoming Christmas, New Item Petitions, and the Evolving Cash Shop Items. Crazy Spork may have even let slip a tiny hint about what one of them becomes... >:3

Lanzer

Purple Hair Spray

Did you go trick or treating, irl?

And when are the aliens coming back to fix Santa?

Nope, I've had too much candies already! Though I did dress up in my pimp outfit for Halloween.

Santa's fate is uncertain... but I'm sure we won't leave him alone. wink

PS - Thanks for the items!

Lanzer

Krystal Tsukino

HEY Lanzer and Staff. I must say, all the Halloween decorations are wonderful =3

I just wanted to know (Any staff can answer) What was Ya'lls favorite part of this event?

The Gun Show. xd

Lanzer

Sea-Salt Ice Cream

Hey, Happy belated Halloween, and I guess super-early happy Thanksgiving. XP

So, should we expect the whole vampire thing to extend into Christmas? Yetis and vampires and S-corp, oh my...

Probably not. surprised Though we'll be seeing vampires in other places around Gaia.

Lanzer

Sylabus

Is it okay for me to use Gaia as an example of a good hangout in a Paper on "what teens do on the internet?" And are there any things in particular I should put in said college paper? ^_^

Of course! Everyone is welcome to use Gaia and our characters for your school paper, comic, games, and other fun stuff.

PS - As long as it's not a commercial product.

crazy spork i am

Shiori Miko

crazy spork i am

Krystal Tsukino

HEY Lanzer and Staff. I must say, all the Halloween decorations are wonderful =3

I just wanted to know (Any staff can answer) What was Ya'lls favorite part of this event?

BITING ALL YOU PEOPLE >:3

How do we taste?

delicious >:3

Lanzer

El Haou David

Lanzer

Hello everyone,

Have everyone collected their candies? Wonder if anyone are hanging around in GCD. biggrin

Yes Lanzer, I have like 16 Bags Already!
1- How's your day?

2- When a New Area of Fishing will Come out?

3- Will next Halloween be more fun! o3o?

4- Are the Zurg coming back to celebrate X-mas with us? since they need to change santa Back into a Human..... :3

Doing great! Really sleepy but it's starting to get dark and I'm awake again. biggrin

Haven't planned for a new fishing area yet because we're trying to make new games, but we'll have more fishing items later.

Next halloween will kill us in terms of planning. XD

Xmas ideas are flying everywhere, I don't know how we're gonna pull off this year's event! sweatdrop

crazy spork i am

Purple Hair Spray

crazy spork i am

BITING ALL YOU PEOPLE >:3

Spork's bite is worse than her bark? XD
[/lame joke]

actually probably from kirby's perspective it's the other way around when i get angry scream

Lanzer

Platonix

I'm going to rephrase a question you've answered before in the interest of touching on a point that was overlooked last time.

It's been established that evolving items like Fausto's Bottle will automatically change over time. But what if, for example, somebody decides they want to build an avatar that's like Gaara of Naruto, but wielding wind currents instead of sand? Such a character has valid need of Fausto's Bottle's basic form, but probably not a need for any of its later forms.

Would such a Gaian need to trade his/her second-stage Bottle for a new first-stage Bottle every week? Or might evolving items simply gain new equip modes over time if someone falls in love with an early or middle stage and wants to hold onto it?

There will be ways to keep your item at a certain state. More details will come later. eek

crazy spork i am

ChainedLink

crazy spork i am

ChainedLink

harroooww crazy spork!
What is your favorite cash shop item? and if you've seen any avatars sporting the smashing cities cash shop item, which one is your fav?

hehe someone said that one of you guys had a close encounters of the third kind avie and it certainly piqued my interest :3

hmm, probably the fav would be the dandii dudes. i think it's because i spent so much time working on it so i'm just biased. but there's a lot of pretty badass things i've been wanting to buy (but alas! no gaia cash for me!)

ummm which items are those? I just looked in the cash shop and see nothing with that name. sweatdrop

oh, it's those dandiiDooDad spore thingies heh.

Lanzer

Shroopliss

I'm in the GCD, Lanzer...

Are you planning on letting any of the remaining vamps (Von Helson Sisters, Zhivago, etc) live?

And also, are we going to be able to keep the vampire skins?

Can't say much about the fate of the vampires,

but yes, the vampire skins are here to stay.

Lanzer

Din Whispers

I have a few questions I'd like to ask for a business assignment if you don't mind.

-Do you think of Gaia Online as a business/service? Non-profit or not?
-How did you get started?
-What is it like running a business/service like Gaia Online?
-What are some of the pros/cons?
-What are some challenges/obstacles you have to faced or are facing? Is it worth the trouble?
-Were there any rewarding moments? Any in particular?
-In general, do you have any significant future plans?
-Do you have any extra thoughts, advice, etc. to share?

You don't have to answer each question exactly, you could just go with the flow.

Gaia is a service oriented business. We're not a non-profit because it involves investment and other things that makes us grow big.

We got started with the idea of creating a community site that is fun and engaging. The site would feature all our awesome ideas of what we would do if we are to make our own virtual world.

The biggest challenge is to get things done... We wanted to build a lot more but we only have so many people.

Rewarding moments are the times when I receive thank you letters from our users. On our third anniversary we received a scrap book with letters from a lot of users. That was the best present ever.

The future is to keep growing! When we have more people, we can build more stuff! More people buying MC = more developers to build features.

I have a lot more to say, but I'll leave those to my journal. biggrin

Ling

ChainedLink

Ling

Kalos Niteshadow

Greetings Lanzer and staff. I have a couple questions.

-The Gaia Cash store evolving items..when will they evolve? A lot of people have been wondering this as well as myself.

-Have you guys ever watched wrestling before? Who's your favorite superstar or Diva?

-Have any of you played guitar Hero yet?

There is a Cash Shop FAQ in Site Feedback which answers a slew of questions. Not sure off the top of my head if it answers this specific one, though. (Platonix's Note: it does.)

I used to watch wrestling when I was 11 or 12. Hogan, no doubt. He's a reality TV star now too, to boot. :'D

We actually have GH3 here in the office and have been playing it a lot. (What's what that guy's chin?)

Hiya Ling!

Here is the link to that sticky: evolving items sticky
I really loved your costume!!! ^_^ Thank you guys so much for including us in your office decorating contest. heart

What is your fav cash store item?

Thanks! And your avatar is all sorts of awesome, and you're wearing my favorite CS item: Smashing Cities. There's so many strange and wonderful avatars people can make with it.

Lanzer

[Chibi Ryoko

Hello there! whee I have a real quick question. (Prison Break is on you know. wink )

You've mentioned that you look at Petitions and if enough people want an items/items you'd consider making them. (Granted if you can)

My question is, how many people do you need to want it in order for you to make the item/s?

*Points to petition in sig for example* ninja

We gather item requests when going into brainstorming meetings, and in most cases, popularity play a huge role, but there are cases where we see something that's fun and we just go for it. biggrin There was never a minimum... But more towards how many items we can make this month. ^^;

Lanzer

stormoftara

Hiya Lanzer! I have a little question that is kinda...stupid?

I would like to know if we are ever going to have the option to have no mouth on our avatars again? I think I heard that having no mouth was a glitch to begin with. But as I really don't like the mouths I was curious.


Also do you like Pumpkin Pie? Pie is soooooooooo good.

Yup, we're working on it, along with new avatar looks!

Ling

Kid Jak

Ling

Kid Jak

Ling just wanted to say I loved your Art for Halloween though why did you put the thorns in Louies hair I am just curious Love the pic ^_^

*nervous laughter*

I wanted to get across that love is painful, but I think it came out too cryptic. I really should have listened to CP and put that somewhere more blatantly in words or something...

Ahhh That makes sence. I I was wondering if we were gonna see more of your work with that theme. I know I would love to see a Damian romancing Sasha done by you ^_^

Probably not seeing as to how about 90% of users seem to want a gay or lesbian pairing. smile

Lanzer

Kalos Niteshadow

Greetings Lanzer and staff. I have a couple questions.

-The Gaia Cash store evolving items..when will they evolve? A lot of people have been wondering this as well as myself.

-Have you guys ever watched wrestling before? Who's your favorite superstar or Diva?

-Have any of you played guitar Hero yet?

In about two weeks.

Yes. I thought it was real when I first saw it as a kid. XD

We have Guitar Hero in the office, but I haven't played it yet!

fulltimefailure

ChainedLink

fulltimefailure

Hi all, I'll be jumping in here for a bit before I head home and play some Hellgate London :O

Hiya!! and thanks for joining the chat!!
I wanna know what your fav cash store item is and what your fav part of the Halloween event is as well. ^_^ (please) xd

Hi Chained,
Well...the Cash Shop question is a bit tricky...since I have seen a glimpse of the future. Currently I am wearing the DandiiDooDad, my buddy CrazySporkIam worked on. My favorite part of the Halloween event was the Vampire invasion. Being one of the original vampires and watching the vampire numbers grow and grow was a lot of fun.

fulltimefailure

Purple Hair Spray

Hello. ^_^

How was your Halloween?

Unfortunately it was pretty mellow at home, but pretty fun and hectic here at Gaia.

Lanzer

Everchanging Earth

Hello Lanzer and any other member of Gaia staff hanging around!!

I was wondering: There seems to be a new town on the World Map called Halloweentown. Because it popped up during the event and nothing is currently in the town, I was wondering if it was going to disappear like other panels of the World Map have joined and left in the past (like Gambino's super huge mansion). Is this new town going to become a permanent fixture in the Gaia world with new shops popping up in it, or is it going to disappear forever after the event (or for some other reason)?

I also have a concern for you and the Gaia staff (mostly developers): With the release of Gaia Cash and Cash Cards, more and more users are going to be putting money into Gaia. My main concern about this is that if a user is hacked (or scammed), whether it be through their own fault or because they unknowingly clicked a bad link, and the hacked user has Gaia Cash on their account, it is possible for the user to lose their Gaia Cash. Thankfully, it can't be traded yet, but if the hacker decides to gain more profit by buying from the GC Shop, they are indirectly stealing, not just pixels, but money. Could it be possible to put more security on this money, like perhaps having the Bank's use extend to an actual bank account for a user (and each user would have their own pin number, a sort of assigned password for their bank account) to have a safer place to put their Cash?

Halloween town will go away after the Halloween event.

As for Gaia cash, we're definitely spending more time on tracking usage so that we can reverse the purchases and changes if someone get hacked. Though the additional password is a good idea. We'll definitely consider that.

It's time to go. Enjoy the rest of the event everyone!

[Keiji Arashi]

Sometimes, I hate having night classes. I always get an Admin to answer my questions, whether it be Lanzer or Ling or any of the other developers. But now I miss even getting to the event!

Thanks Platonix.I keep on typing your name Plantronix, which is the company that made the headsets for the astronauts. Now they make bluetooth's for your cell phone. o.o...

[The Best Futanari]

When do the ask the admin threads pop up? I wanted to ask some questions, but every time I see the thread, it's locked D=

[Platonix]

The Best Futanari

When do the ask the admin threads pop up? I wanted to ask some questions, but every time I see the thread, it's locked D=

Ask The Admin is technically scheduled for Mondays at 6 PM California time (9 PM New York time.) It's not at all surprising to see it actually start as much as half an hour later, or in extreme cases even an hour. The locking usually happens shortly before Lanzer's last answer (or, sometimes, last few answers.)

[M370-D]

And with the advent of the new Christmas Item contest, a trend is born.

[Glasya]

I just wanted to say, Thanks Platonix, for keeping this thread up.
Its very nice if you cant get to the Ask the Admin threads to do a review of the answered questions, to be able to read over the answers here. You rule.