Welcome to Gaia! ::

While at the official (as opposed to fan-run) Gaia panel at Acen, I heard (from DJ Hellsing, himself, in person) about some new things that are coming down the line to Gaia and I'll be sharing it all with you, my disciples... But you'll have to wait until tomorrow.
Tomorrow is going to be another early morning, with another Gaia panel (feedback, this time) to attend. I'll tell you all that I remember from the first and maybe even jot down a few notes from this one.
If there's anything you want to know about the panel or my experience with it, let me know. I'll also be more inclined to think on it longer if I return to this and see some people assure me that they're interested, so even if you just pop in to let me know that you're looking forward to hearing about it, I want to hear from you.

Unfortunately, I was forced by a horrible and corrupt little dwarf that absconded with me to miss the second Gaia panel, but I still remember plenty of the first.
The first feature that you may have already noticed is "Achievements." If not, click on the MyGaia page and in the above bar, click on the new, trophy-shaped icon to check it out, for yourself. They didn't announce it, yet, because they wanted it to trickle in, slowly, so they said. Consider this the most warning you're likely to get (next to simply noticing the icon there, on your own).
They talked about manga updates, too. This year they promised that there will be more than ever before. They'll also introduce a new character called "Lady Hands" who is this big, massive, muscular guy with tiny, dainty little hands. They wouldn't tell us more than that about it.
They made the promise of new plot and zOMG updates. DJ Hellsing showed us a picture of a planet and something far larger, shrouded in violet light and debris and detrius but told us that he wasn't allowed to tell us (and I got the impression that he didn't know) anymore than that the planet was Gaia. You can look for it on-line, but I get the feeling that it's no where to be found... Yet.
Also, they're finally opening up a new area in the Bucaneer Boardwalk. He didn't say whether or not they'd announce anything, but I think that Gaia knows better; if they say something, it only means that the servers are about to crash. I suggest poking around the next time that you get your freebies and see if they've updated it. I hear that it's coming soon.
Also soon will be the change and improvements to the training portion of zOMG, so if you haven't started playing, now might be the time. They're also revamping the Gnome general fight so that he has (what they called) an "Instance," meaning that he has a lair that you go inside of, just like all of the other bosses.
Another zOMG update is the vampires that they're considering adding to dead man's pass. I hope that I can get a bunch of you in my crew to help me get the badge for killing 5000 vampires, if they do implement this. There are a few more monsters on the way too, so keep an eye out for them, too.
Dumpster Diving is another new feature. We were told that the items in trash soon won't just be deleted, but put into a giant dumpster, and several times a day, you'll be able to click on something and get a random item from this big "Dumpster" and possibly get some really nice stuff, that way.
That's all I can remember from the first, and I'm sorry that I wasn't able to attend the second one, but make sure that you guys tell me what you thing and let me know if you notice anything.

They've been talking on and off about achievements since 2005. I guess it's finally popular enough for them to implement it. I gave up on zomg, they nerfed the ability to get orbs and after several weeks of "farming" I gave up. Lady hands could be interesting but I'd viciously murder several people if they could develop the characters they've already introduced, or at least put together a story that makes sense every now and again. They have plot holes big enough I could drive a gas giant through it and still have room.

The most flagrant disregard was when the killed off the Von Helsons after introducing them a mere 2 weeks before hand then resurrected them as vampires because it was the most popular "crackpot theory" then made that horrible animation that's hopefully been purged from the internet. I mean, Louie gets thrown in and an all of a sudden Ian is a vamp? Oh and Louie is dating Moira but then magically isn't as soon as the event is over. Then there's been the many attempts to make a cohesive Gaian Pantheon or creation story, the latest being Overseer and Sin. Oh and the mother of all ******** story lines...the Zurg. Especially Flarn. I just dare you to try and make sense out of that. It was so unpopular they just gave up and dropped it.

The world is so loosely held together I'm pretty sure a good sneeze would take whatever drunken storytelling they've given us and just blow it away. I see it as plot holes because we are supposed to accept the comics as cannon. However the stories just don't mesh at all and so you can't even take the creative source as cannon. It's stupid. As for the RIG's, whatever I've given up on even caring about the fact that while the site itself is free, any good pixel art means you pay for it with real money or ridiculously inflated MP prices. I used to look forward to Gold Shop updates, they used to be worth it, you could buy a couple new outfits for a pretty reasonable price, but now we don't even get outfit sets anymore, it's random crap to appease the masses. I'm pretty sure I'm in my end days here at Gaia, there's just not enough to hold me here anymore. All my friends have left the site, most of the people I talked to in the forums are gone, the site has changed so much from 03 to now that it's mind blowing. Some changes are really fantastic, others aren't I feel.

Here the achievements are, in full. The "Beta" achievements (formerly known as "Achievements") have all been zeroed out (which, incidentally, I am not entirely thrilled with, as the time I put into achieving them hasn't been returned to me) but these ones are (maybe?) here to stay.
Parenthetical grievances aside, I am pleased enough with the variety available. What do you think of them?

I really like the new tile game they came up with.
Its a lot easier to win tickets now.
Plus there are more seats in the room.

The " coming soon to gaia" section
was a nice add as well.

It does get a little annoying
its overly sensitive.

but I have used it before.
I just wish more popular items were involved or they had a search bar.