Welcome to Gaia! ::

We're excited to announce beta testing for Avatar Chat! Avatar Chat (or AviChat) is a new virtual space where you can hang out, show off your latest avatar creations, and chat with fellow Gaians.

Keep in mind that Avatar Chat is currently in beta testing, which means that it's still a work in a progress. We currently have two major goals for the beta phase: 1) test performance with a larger number of users, and 2) collect feedback from you, including what you'd most like to see from the feature.

Current Status: At the moment, there are two different maps you can explore. No matter which one you hang out on, you'll be able to collect platinum and chat with your fellow Gaians. There is also a general chat room that is not attached to either map.

Incoming Updates: We're mainly focused on making overall improvements to the UI, map(s), and chat elements. We'll also be adding usernames above avatars in the virtual space.

Long-term Goals: There are some additional functions that we're planning to implement, including private rooms, customizable maps, interactive events, and mobile support.

Known Bugs:

• All users can see the "mute" option from the message options window. (It doesn't work)
  
• Muted and Ignored users messages are currently being displayed as [CENSORED]. They should be entirely hidden.
  
• Collecting Platinum has been temporarily disabled while we work out some bugs.
  
• Accessing Avatar Chat with Firefox results in an error

If you encounter any issues, please share them in this thread (and include as many details as you can, including operating system and browser).

Getting started:

• Visit https://www.gaiaonline.com/avichat/ to launch Avatar Chat
  
• Choose your Room from the left-hand panel
  
• Use the WASD or the arrow keys to walk around and space bar to jump
  
• Use the enter key to change the focus to chat

ball get stuck sad

Its a very interesting concept and its cute but Idk how often I will be using it.

I think this is really fun and cute! The jumping was an immediate hit for me. I also like that it's possible to close the chat completely when not looking at it (I felt the transparent mode was distracting to the eye - perhaps because the chat is to the side instead of being horizontal at the bottom?).

If I were to name any features I'd like to see it would be sitting on the ground and some kind of objects you can interact with (in Towns I used to love aggressively shaking trees and bushes). It'd be neat too if what people say in the chat could appear above their avatar.

This is cool, I'm excited to see it develop heart