[NPC] Cindy Donovinh
Gaia Staff
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Welcome to the very first edition of Gaia Insider! Each month we'll be interviewing a member of the Gaia Staff to learn a little more about what they do and how they do it. Naturally, we're starting with the big guy himself: Lanzer, who founded Gaia in 2003 and has worked tirelessly ever since to build it up into the huge, amazing thing it is today.
Getting to Know Lanzer
Tell us a little about yourself... where were you born? What's your family like?
My father was a director who lived in Taiwan, but had to work on a show in Hong Kong for two weeks. During the filming he met my mother for the first time and his two weeks trip turned out to be twenty years. I grew up in Hong Kong watching my mother on television. smile
Where did you work before Gaia?
I worked in networking companies, so I can operate giant refrigerator sized machines that sit inside telephone companies.
Tell us the entire story of how Gaia started... in ten words or less.
Friends, comic, anime, games, bored, brainstorm, program, bugfix.
Besides you, who had a hand in creating Gaia at the very start?
My closest friends Vo, L0cke, CP, and Saka. Ling helped out too.
When did Gaia become a full-time pursuit?
Since day one. I was not working at the time, so I was spending 20 hours a day on Gaia.
How has your role at Gaia changed since the beginning?
Yes, I used to spend my hours coding, now I spend all my time in meetings. Somehow that ends up being more stressful.
Where do you see Gaia in the near future? What new features are you most excited about?
Gaia will be even more focused on our community. The concept of the Gaia world to explore will be much better defined, which will be thematic and possibly customizable.
Q&A from Gaia's Members
When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to work on cars. Somehow taking things apart and putting back together was amazingly fun.
Name the most embarrassing moment of your life.
The phone at home was ringing, I picked it up to hear my sister's friend crying, saying that her dad hit her, and it took me 5 minutes to finally tell her that my sister's not home... I think I was 9 at the time.
What were you like in High School?
A big nerd. Woodworking, metal working, electronics, and the library were all my hideouts. And I also ended up in the salmon hatchery club somehow.
Did you ever get in trouble at school for doing something totally hilarious?
I deflated the tires of my friend's bike for fun, but turns out I had the wrong bike...
What's your favorite Anime, Manga and/or Comic Book?
I love science fiction, and one of my favorite manga is Parasite.
What were your favorite childhood cartoons? Do you think any of these childhood influences had a hand in the themes you bring to Gaia?
It was an anime called Doraemon. A robot cat from the future that introduces a futuristic gadget to solve a problem every episode. But Gaia was totally influenced by MMORPG games, like how the avatars look in 2D, the alternative fantasy setting for Barton is derived from fantasy RPG games, and the whole gold and item collection ideas are all core aspects of RPG games.
Gaia was started originally as a community for those you knew and relatively small at first. Was it made with the intent to grow so large, or did it just manage to take off?
Let's just say that I thought we were capping out at 150 new users a day. Yesterday we had 118,000 new members.
Who was your first big sponsor? And at what point did you guys go from "just a forum community" to a full out business with offices and all the additional formalities?
We got our first office a year after Gaia started. It was all thanks to donations from Gaians. We didn't have our first sponsorship (Mimzy movie sponsorship) years later. Gaia's biggest sponsors are Gaians themselves supporting the site.
Where did you get your Gaia username?
I picked "Lancer" from a dictionary 20 years ago, maybe because I'm as skinny as one. smile But a few years later when I first got on the Internet, there was already a person using the name Lancer. Back then the Internet was still tiny and it was believed that everyone should have their unique nickname, so I changed mine to "Lanzer" to avoid duplicates.
Can you describe one working day?
Between the development group, the art team, the community/admin team, marketing and sales I meet with everyone on a regular basis to go over our projects and goals. After dinner I head home to work on email and other stuff I can do sitting on my couch.
Out of all the events Gaia's ever done, which was your favorite? (What year?)
I think it's the first Halloween zombie event. We scripted a dynamic story before the event which unleashed a zombie outbreak during the actual event and took everyone by surprise as Gaians slowly turn into zombie through infection.
What's your favorite Gaia item? If you could create the perfect item, what would it be?
Perfect item would be the magic pencil that help you answer every PM intelligently. Then I could stop feeling bad for not answering everyone's PM. biggrin
What do you love about Gaia?
The love from Gaians.
What do you think your life would be like without Gaia?
Peaceful smile but boring.
For other news and gossip from Lanzer, check out Lanzer's journal.
You can also catch him live, every Monday at 6pm, PST.
Look for the "Ask The Admin" sticky thread inside the GDC forum.
Next time on Gaia Insider, we'll be talking to reapersun, one of Gaia's mega-talented artists. You may know her as a creator of some excellent EIs, or as a tireless journal updater. If you'd like to ask reapersun about art, working at Gaia, or life in general, just visit this thread to post your questions.
dei-chan watches you all... 
