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Thank you for this!
razz
~ We're plotting our demise; of perspiration and alcohol ~




Grunny Plushie is coming on Halloween whee



~ As I introduce the bedroom brawl ~
lol ask me i am the admin

Nerd

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writing arena?

I just died and went to the fields of paradise!

THANK YOU LANZER! A reason for me to use the arena!
This thread rocks my world! Good job on it! *sends virtual high fives*

Eloquent Informer

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For no real reason, I'm going to bring back this topic a bit earlier this week than I normally do. Gaze upon the questions that have been answered before, and please try not to ask the same things tonight! (Unless Lanzer misunderstood the question last time. He does that every now and then.)

Casrial's Bae

Salty Titan

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Platonix
For no real reason, I'm going to bring back this topic a bit earlier this week than I normally do. Gaze upon the questions that have been answered before, and please try not to ask the same things tonight! (Unless Lanzer misunderstood the question last time. He does that every now and then.)

Like answering "yes" to a "when?" question. xd

I was actually looking for this. >.<

Eloquent Informer

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October 1st

Keep your eyes peeled, loyal Askers, because today Lanzer answered another question about which questions he prefers to answer!

Lanzer
Purple Hair Spray
Yay!

I can't wait to see this Halloween's items. X3

Edit: Is the avatar background going to be changed like during the grunny '05?
Gameplay element's going to be different this year. Though I can't spoil it for everyone. smile


Lanzer
Yukiko-sama89
i have been waiting for you to sign on so i could as some questions

1) where is the von helson castle that gino and liam or trapped in located?

2) when will be get to see MMVII part 2
We're building a castle that should show up later, not Halloween though, probably in early 2008.

Currently working on bringing up the quality on part 2. I think we should have it ready later this month.


Lanzer
Fortenra Askasa
Lanzer-panzer.

What is your favorite animal?
Dogs, and cows, for different reasons. biggrin


Lanzer
Emergency Rations
Can more than one account that uses the same computer use the Daily Chance every day or would that be considered a form of botting (or just be considered unfair and not allowed)?
No botting only counts when you're using scripts, or anything that make gold for you when you're away from the computer in general.


Lanzer
Cid High-Wind
Hi Lanzer!

I have some more questions...

1. Is there going to be a section added to the site about Gaia's history and the people behind it?
2. Is the Gaia Guild Network going to get revamped?
3. Can you act?
4. Are you EVER going to accept a proposal?
5. Do passionate Gaia fans creep you out? Or do you see them as more of a benefit to the community?
Yes, yes, no, not likely, and no. I like hanging out with all other Gaians, otherwise working on Gaia would not be a lot of fun. biggrin


crazy spork i am
Purple Hair Spray
biggrin Sporkums!

Since it happened to me today..

Have you ever read a book that you couldn't finish because it was so poorly written?
hmm not that i've encountered. but i have stopped reading books because they either don't appeal to me or because they're too sad and depressing (i had this one happen to me recently). back in high school i'd give up reading a book if it was too complicated or if i couldn't concentrate on the story. trying to make it a point now to go back and reread some of those books and see if i can get through them now :3


Lanzer
Fading Antique Rose
Hello Lanzer,

I wanted to ask you how do you and the others who work on Gaia know if someone has been botting? I have a friend who was banned because someone reported him for botting. I don’t believe he did. I believe someone only reported him because he had a great deal of rare items. Do the mods make sure that someone has REALLY DONE what they are being reported for before banning? Or do they just ban anyone reported for botting with out checking?


Please reply.

Thanks!
We usually don't take reports, we go with what our internal system tell us, and we do a lot of verify if it's for real.


kirbyUFO
LokiLB
kirbyUFO
what's up people! =)
out of curiosity, is your screen name from the ufo in Kirby Airride...or just kirby and ufo stuck together?
haha, not specifically from airride.. though i've been a fan of the kirby series since kirby's dreamland for the original gameboy XD

i picked UFO because it's the best power-up he can get =) back on IRC i used to change suffixes depending on my mode.. e.g. kirby_warpstar if i was AFK or kirby_fireball or whatevers


kirbyUFO
Purple Hair Spray
kirbyUFO
what's up people! =)
Not much. X3

Um.. what was the scariest movie that you have seen?
scarrrriest... let's see.. "aliens" freaked me out because i saw it when i was like 9 years old haha.. i think that was the first time i was introduced to the concept of human parasites too, yum! still love the movie now though. more recently, i thought "the descent" was pretty harrowing. generally though i find playing survival horror games to be much creepier, because there's no end to the atmosphere until you make a move, and there's always the chance that you'll actually die, whereas watching a movie is a much more passive experience.


fulltimefailure
spike_sp
fulltimefailure
spike_sp
hello fulltimefailure ^^ may i ask what is your job on gaiaonline ?
yes you may biggrin

I am an artist who is working on Battle, and Rally. Both are very fun projects.
how do you like working on battle and rally ?
Both great experiences. Battle is a great project to be on, trying to do our best to please everyone and add tons of fun for everyone. Rally is a fun project because I can make things for the xB that I can't get in real life.


crazy spork i am
Hana Maehata
If there was one item you could get from any anime/game/whatever, without worrying about copyright, what would it be?

Do you play Harvest Moon, Kingdom Hearts, or Pokemon?
for the first one, something sailormoon related!
i don't really play harvest moon or pokemon, although i do have the games...i like watching people play because i have this awful habit of being a backseat game player, hehehe. kingdom hearts i've played i really enjoy the whole look and feel they developed for that game :3


fulltimefailure
[.The.Flying.Potato.]
Also, what are your favorite foods, and what are your favorite potato dishes?
Hashbrowns are the way to go! Crunchy on the outside, and nice and mushy on the inside :O


crazy spork i am
bsbartgurl
any staff members using tektek to create Halloween avies.
nope, i know i don't :/


Lanzer
Cube B
Lanzer! Hey Lanzer!

How are you? ^^

Ok, I've only got a few questions to ask you.

1. When the store update Jakobo is working on is finished, will there be backgrounds in shops again? I want them...
2. Will interaction start soon? I've PMed Edmund like, 5 times and he never replies. XD
3. Would it be possible for more of the NPC's to have journals? I'd love to read them. 3nodding
We are working on a store environment that is flash based, and other than that, we're having a longer term plan to expand on the store interface to once again have backgrounds back.

Interactions will only be limited and haven't been decided yet... more work need to be done!


kirbyUFO
Platonix
Question about how Gaia Battle is going to work: will there be different attack types, or elements, like fire, ice, lightning...with monsters taking extra damage from attack types they're vulnerable to, and taking reduced damage from attack types they're resistant to?
spork and i animated a series of pretty fun elemental attack overlays, similar to how they work in diablo ii - i.e., stacking on top of the original attack effects. i'm not sure how exactly they're going to work, but i think they're gonna end up in there.


kirbyUFO
Cube B
fulltimefailure
crazy spork i am
Fernape
Also, do you guys at the office ever sit around and play videogames with each other?
If so, what do you play?
And what is Snacktopia like?
i don't think i've ever had the opportunity to play video games here, but i do play games once i'm home. right now it's all about team fortress 2, and i play that a lot with kirbyufo, fulltimefailure, and your-father's-belt whenever we get the chance!

snacktopia is heaven for the times one gets hungry. that is, if it's still well stocked :3
Me and your-father's-belt play the arcade here, which consists of Last Blade 2, Warzard, Samurai Showdown, Street Fighter 2 (we keep bugging co-workers for SF3, freaking love that game)
Oooh... willl Hadouken and Shun Goku Satsu rings make an appearance in the battle system?
maybe not exactly hadouken rings, but i've definitely taken some influence from capcom and snk game animation in creating ring effects =)


Lanzer
Fernape
Dear Lanzer,
Do you think we will ever have userbased items?
Not made by a user, but based on one.
Also, do you perfer posts with multiple questions, especially when numbered?
Also, do you guys at the office ever sit around and play videogames with each other?
If so, what do you play?
And what is Snacktopia like?
Yeah one of next year's focus is on user made items and services. Everything is still planning phase.

Shorter ones definitely are easier to answer, gives me a chance to get to more people.

Yeah we do play games. We have PS3, Wii, and even an arcade machine with NeoGeo and a few Capcom games.

Snacktopia is like... 7-eleven, without the cash register smile


Lanzer
Kalos Niteshadow
OOOO OOO!! I got a question!

LANZER! I read that you were excited about the Halo 3, am I correct? What edition did you get? Also, what's your favorite vechile and weapon in the game? And map?
I'm not that big of a fan, so I just got the standard one. I don't need a Master Chief helmet sitting on my desk. biggrin I like to dual wield the plasma gun, though they don't appear often enough...

I'm more interested in building a new Gundam, which I am. XD


Lanzer
Purple Hair Spray
For a seriously serious question, Lanzer, do you think the trolling is going to get worse as the site continues to grow? For example, the GD prommie status taken too seriously and the common phrase of "The GCD is like high school all over again."
I think there's going to be some sort of status system where trollers won't get their posts to show up as often or something. The system is still in planning, but we hope to have someone that will enhance the overall quality of the site.


crazy spork i am
Nuire
And lastly, do you guys plan to dress up for Halloween? <3
y'know, i love dressing up every halloween if possible. last time i went in total geisha garb and hit up the ginormous hollywood block party :3


Lanzer
Nuire
Will we have to wait for Word Bump's botting problem to be fixed before we get the items exhanged by the credits?

Why are the world map images lower quality lately? D:

And lastly, do you guys plan to dress up for Halloween? <3
We're trying to get the word bump problems fixed, though it's taking some time...

The quality of the images went down to try to make things faster to load, and the map system will be re-worked pretty soon.

Yeah, I'll be dressing up for Halloween. Nothing too fancy probably biggrin

Time for dinner! Nice talking to everyone today!


kirbyUFO
Hana Maehata
If there was one item you could get from any anime/game/whatever, without worrying about copyright, what would it be?

Do you play Harvest Moon, Kingdom Hearts, or Pokemon?
hmmm ANY anime/game, such a broad range to choose from! i wouldn't mind having lain's computer hehe, that's a pretty nerdy one. okay, maybe my own chobits chii, lol. does that still count as an item? ><

i've been playing harvest moon:innocent life on psp a bit lately. such a relaxing game =) i watched spork play kingdom hearts, i love the visual style of that series. the music is pretty fun too, hearing those sort of squaresoft style remixes of songs i remember from my childhood

Eloquent Informer

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October 8th

crazy spork i am
Magical Spork
crazy spork i am
Magical Spork
Hey Lanzer, another question.
Better suited for a mod, but I'm scared of them, and they never reply to me...


Let's say there's a girl, and she's dating a gaian.
The guy gives the girl his password.
They break up some time later.
The girl, out of anger changes the guy's account password and takes his items.
The guy reports the girl for hacking/scamming, and the girl's account is banned.

Is that really fair?
I mean, the guy DID give her the password, so...

(And yes... this happened to one of my friends recently.)



AND OMG SPORK CONTEST ENTRY.
It's not gonna win though, no one likes it... emo
i think from my perspective (and my morals) i would feel that she hacked him. maybe not the true definition of doing it, but more because she took advantage of someone's trust and crossed the line. i don't think that being broken up or being angry or mad ever justifies breaking a rule :/
Ah.
True I suppose.
It wasn't nice to do, but still. I guess I'm a bit biased because she's my friend.
i can sympathize with you on that one. sometimes it can be hard to pick the best choice of action when it concerns someone you care about :/


crazy spork i am
Cid High-Wind
And to any artists that happen in the thread this time...

What made you pick the items for the item contest? I'm seeing some pretty mixed reactions on what's been put up for voting.
truthfully i wanted to go with the ones who were more original and innovative. there were a lot of repeats in what people put in, and to me it would make it difficult on who would get the credit if that item was released.


crazy spork i am
Split_Personality
Hiya Lanzer and staff members! How are you?
This is the first time I've posted in an Ask The Admin, so I feel special. ^^

Anyways, I have a few random questions.
a. Are you surprised at the disappointment in the contest finalists?
b. If someone were to send you a halloween costume via gift system, would you wear it just for them?
c. How are you today?
a. i think i'm a little more disappointed at how some users are acting towards other fellow users. or that more people are focusing on the negative rather than seeing the contest for what it really is; a way for users to have a say and an opportunity of creating an item. and that putting down someone else's hard work and/or effort really doesn't create an environment for inspiration and motivation. i would have liked to see a little more support for the people who were chosed, in addition to the fact that they went out of their way to put in their thoughts and ideas. sometimes that can be a difficult thing to do, especially with the high level of expectations people look to when items are being created :/

b. i probably would :3

c. doin' alright. kinda tired since my weekend was kind of busy. this week looks to be about the same.


Lanzer
Magical Spork
Hey Lanzer, another question.
Better suited for a mod, but I'm scared of them, and they never reply to me...


Let's say there's a girl, and she's dating a gaian.
The guy gives the girl his password.
They break up some time later.
The girl, out of anger changes the guy's account password and takes his items.
The guy reports the girl for hacking/scamming, and the girl's account is banned.

Is that really fair?
I mean, the guy DID give her the password, so...

(And yes... this happened to one of my friends recently.)



AND OMG SPORK CONTEST ENTRY.
It's not gonna win though, no one likes it... emo
I can't say if it's a fair situation or not, as it's mostly likely not going to be fair. What I can state is that our mods did what the police would do: person A taking person B's stuff without asking would be considered as stealing and will be prosecuted, whether or not person A has the key to person B's house. eek

In situations like these, we can only work by the rules and regulations of Gaia. I'm sorry if things turns out sour between your friends. sweatdrop


crazy spork i am
Platonix
N-finiteFangirl
crazy spork i am
Maril
What the hell is snacktopia? It's spoken of every week in these things, and I had never heard of it before. Is it like, a catering thing?
snacktopia is a room that has a whole bunch of snacks and drinks for whenever we're feeling the slightest bit of the munchies. :3
That's right...I think Fleep posted some pics for it some months back...
I haven't seen those pics, but last week Lanzer said something that really helped me get a mental image of Snacktopia. He described it as like a 7-11 (a chain of convenience stores) without the cash register.
that's a good way to describe it, although if it were truly like a 7-11, i'd want a slurpee machine :3 *hint* *hint* 4laugh


Lanzer
Riftwar_Slave
Lanzer, will we ever be able to donate via paypal e-checks again?
Oh wow, I did not know that is a problem, let me look into that.


crazy spork i am
Coyotecom
crazy spork i am
Coyotecom
Will we ever have the ability to change mouth and arm poses while in Towns? Like a menu that lets you choose which way they pose, that wouldn't effect your avatar on the rest of the site.

Oh, and hello to Lanzer and Sporki!
that sound pretty cool :3 wish i could tell you an answer. i'm speculating that it wouldn't be an easy feat to accomplish...
Gah, I didn't think so, or it would have already been there. Each pose would have to load, clothing, layering, all kids of things. Some MCs have totally different poses depending on how you have your arms even! gonk

I love the idea because ten you'd be able to make animations using Towns. They'd still be a little choppy, and there's better ways to do it, but I just wanted to use it for that. :3

Also being able to make actions like that would make it somewhat more fun I think. sweatdrop

Thank you!
that would be an awesome thing to do. right now kirby and i try and make do with the capabilities we have at the moment. like for the summer event we added some animated effects on the pools and the special emotes related to it. the tiki torches were also animated to add more of a sense of environment to towns. it would be cool to do something like that though :3

...so it turns out the new posting system has a limit on the number of quotes you can nest. This conversation continues below.

kirbyUFO
Coyotecom
kirbyUFO
Coyotecom
crazy spork i am
that would be an awesome thing to do. right now kirby and i try and make do with the capabilities we have at the moment. like for the summer event we added some animated effects on the pools and the special emotes related to it. the tiki torches were also animated to add more of a sense of environment to towns. it would be cool to do something like that though :3
There's a few of us that want to see Towns (and all of Gaia as a game) become as big or bigger than mainstream MMORPGS. Weather, environmental movement, animations, the works! It wouldn't matter if it was still 2D Gaia style, I know you guys can make it look awesome. I also understand it takes time and money$
that'd be so much fun =) i'd love to just sit there and crank out new towns effects and emotes all day, hehe. it'd also be pretty sweet if we could get each body part of an avatar as a separate image into flash. it'd open up so many possibilities for animation.
You can do that? surprised

It'd be bigger and laggier though wouldn't it?
i don't know much about the technical side of it since i just work on art and animation. i can definitely say that adding more moving graphics on-screen adds to the areas that flash has to redraw, and large areas with multiple transparent layers can really slow things down (e.g. magical effects on top of raindrops on top of water on top of glass or something). i wouldn't imagine that larger maps would create slowdown since you can still only see one screen at a time (and afaik it'd only be transferring data to you about the piece of the map that you're on). of course load time would increase as well with more animations and layers of stuff, but we always do our best to keep our graphics optimized for filesize and try to be conscious of the range of cpu limitations.


Lanzer
Split_Personality
Hiya Lanzer and staff members! How are you?
This is the first time I've posted in an Ask The Admin, so I feel special. ^^

Anyways, I have a few random questions.
a. Are you surprised at the disappointment in the contest finalists?
b. If someone were to send you a halloween costume via gift system, would you wear it just for them?
c. How are you today?
I think that the contest finalists are great, there's a good variety, and some items aren't listed but only because they're going to be released soon. biggrin

I would definitely consider since I don't have a costume yet.

I'm feeling great!


Lanzer
Hyperdryve
I apologize if this has been asked before, I hadn't finished reading through the old 'Ask the admin' threads before this week's opened up.

What I am curious to know is what is to be done about members who have been falsely banned for botting?

Right now if people move too quickly around the site it seems to automatically ban them as a bot, more often those who have multiple accounts and are on several at once.
Will there eventually be a way for telling who is and isn't a bot that is more clear and infallible?

Will those falsely banned ever get their accounts back?

Thank you in advance for giving me this opportunity to voice my concerns.
I'm personally involved in a number of cases, and so far we haven't found specific ones that point to the script not working right, but as soon as we do, we'll fix the problem and return any falsely banned accounts if they come up.


Lanzer
Cube B
Hello! *tackle Glomp*

I have a new costume this week. XD

Ok, I only have a few questions this week. ^^

1. Will there be the "Make an NPC" Contest after the current one ends? And will it require concept art?
2. If Liam is chained to a wall... how is he making announcements? Magic? Robot Clone? XD
3. In a completely random question, is G-Corp hiring? I'd Love working in a secret underground test facility! blaugh
Yeah that idea had been going around. Soon we should have a contest for an NPC

Liam's announcement? It's pre-recorded. smile

Yeah I think that G-corp is still alive. Hiring? Well it won't be a public enrollment. wink


ChibiChibi42
Lanzer
ChibiChibi42
First of all, Hello Lanzer and staff!

Are Mrs. Von Helson and Mrs. Gambino the same Person?
eek
*Sigh* Somehow I knew this answer wouldn't involve words...

Stay tuned, folks, because Lanzer later answers the same question, this time using words.

Lanzer
Maniacal Mongoose
Do you like goldfish crackers?
Too salty! biggrin

I'm locking the topic soon, but I'll be answering more questions later tonight.

Actually, he didn't get around to posting the rest of these until the next afternoon, but better late than never...

Lanzer
ChibiChibi42
First of all, Hello Lanzer and staff!

My only question: Are Mrs. Von Helson and Mrs. Gambino the same Person?
That, I believe, will be answered in this comic saga. :O

See? Words! :3
:is shot:
:is then shot a second time for stealing the "is shot" joke:


Lanzer
Shivel
Hi Lanzer and Developers! surprised

I have one question:

Will the Monthly Collectibles for this month be Halloween-ish at all?
Yes, at least one should be. :O


Lanzer
Platonix
When Word Bump is restored will Edmund's Credit Exchange be restored along with it?

Why does the map of Gaia on the World landing page leave out Barton South and Barton Trench?
Yes, and as for the second question, I believe it's an error on our side... ^^;


Lanzer
Sgt.PepperHat
Hello Gaia Staffer type folk! : DDD

First Question!
How famous am I at the office? D:<
No, no.
I kiiid. : DDD

Mmm, care to explain the types of jobs that each person is expected to do at Gaia?
Not really so much developers and artists, but more so public service type folk and financial/market people.

=) <3
Iluall.
Gaia today has more than 90 people, and everyone's roles go way beyond development. To name some staff members that do more than the jobs that get mentioned daily, here are some positions that normally don't get mentioned:

finance group - handles everyone's paychecks! Also keep track of all income and expenses. When we buy a computer, or if we spend money on food to feed the devs, things need to be counted differently!
human resource - handles benefits, make sure that people with their families are taken care of while working at Gaia, and also make sure that personal differences are resolved.
Business development - handles any communication between Gaia and other businesses. For example, Paypal would be a company that we talk to, also companies that have the potential to partner with us for their services.
product managers - juggles ideas from everyone, does a ton of write-up to make sure that details are thought through, then work very closely with devs in keeping everyone on track with timelines.

These are just some of many different positions that are absolutely necessary in Gaia. It actually takes a lot to let a large amount of people working together, and making sure that everyone get to be creative and have fun in Gaia is another focus all by itself. :O


Lanzer
Purple Hair Spray
Are we going to get more original images for puzzles?

Because eventually, the mini comic images and the images that used to be in the left corner of the screen. :/ I also don't think they're as challenging as something that I haven't seen before.
Yes, and what I want is for people to be able to create their own puzzles. Hope we'll get to do that soon!

For the time being, we're definitely adding more images from Gaia.


Lanzer
Dignity of Wrath
Hello, and good evening Staff! smile

I'd like to ask, what is the current progress on the Battle System? :3

We haven't had an update in quite a long while!
Some big update, like converting the whole language form Actionscript 2 to Actionscript 3 got in the way, so the recent update had been a little slow, but monsters are still being drawn, and effects are still on-track! I'll bug Qixter to post something for everyone. wink


Lanzer
Wisco
Hello!
Since I'm such a Poke`nerd, I have this question:
Would you ever attempt to get Gaia Sponsored by the Poke`mon Company?
That would be Nintendo! We all really like Nintendo as a company and Wii as a console. Don't think they spend that much money on advertising though. If the opportunity comes by, that will be a fun sponsorship event.


Lanzer
Dignity of Wrath
Lanzer
Coyotecom
Will we ever have the ability to change mouth and arm poses while in Towns? Like a menu that lets you choose which way they pose, that wouldn't effect your avatar on the rest of the site.

Oh, and hello to Lanzer and Sporki!
Changing poses in Towns is potentially really tough because it's the difference between loading the entire item poses that everyone in the flash client are wearing. Imagine 50 people, each with 1 to 5 multipose items, we'll have to load all 200+ items with all their variations into Towns! Kind of scary. But one day we might have a client software, and that will work.
A client software?

You mean to say that someday Towns may not be in flash? :3

If so, would the site also (possibly) make this conversion as well?
#1 goal of Gaia is still to be accessible to as many people as possible. Things like client software would only be an option for a small part of the site, so nope, there isn't a big focus on making a Gaia client for the whole site.

Sorry I was late in answering the rest of the questions. See you all next Monday!

I have been asked where this thread was all day! So forgive me but it was easier to bump it back up so people could find it.
Thank you .

Sparkly Bunny

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what a great idea surprised heart

Eloquent Informer

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silvernightshade

I have been asked where this thread was all day! So forgive me but it was easier to bump it back up so people could find it.
Thank you .

Not a problem. Note, however, that I post a link to it near the beginning of every Ask The Admin session (lately I've been lucky and have gotten that post as the first reply.) So you can get there by visiting the last Ask The Admin topic.

It's also included in triskdaemon's "[INFO] - Community Resources" sticky, under the category "Information and History Threads". In fact, since AskED starts with an A, it's the first one listed in that category. biggrin

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