Added on September 7, 2026. Backdated to the account creation date.

I created a Gaia Online account on July 3, 2007.

The world was fairly static, with an isometric view reminiscent of Ultima Online to add depth to a 3D space, but with sharper angles. Animations were fairly limited and reminded me of Anime characters.

I didn’t play much. I was mostly there to see what it was about. Reviewing the profile, I can see my interests at the time:

What a memory. This must have been around the time the Sci-Fi channel had its Sci-Fi Fridays, packed back-to-back with great shows.

The Avatar itself was a paper doll made of layered images. You could then export your avatar to show it off as a badge, avatar, headshot, or multiple poses from different angles.

The poses felt a bit limited. You were kneeling or standing, with your arms at your sides, raised to shake or fight, or outstretched to hug, point, or punch.

It added a blog-like platform with its journal feature, but I only used it once, about a year later, when revisiting the platform.

The journal had only one entry a year later, mentioning a Virtual World Special Interest Group discussing the platform. I commented that the platform had many addictive elements. Back then, the term “Gamification” was a pretty big buzzword, and just about everyone was trying to jump onto the hype and wire in addictive elements into their websites.

One thing that interested me was the ability to design your home. It reminded me of The Sims, but the room was very small, and you didn’t have much to start with. You couldn’t change the house layout or add walls. Even the window and door choices were limited to one of each.

The frustrating part about this website is that it is full of advertisements. The place seems empty in 2026, but from what I recall, it was pretty popular in its heyday. What attracted me was not only the ability to create a home, but also the anime features and the ability to play RPG games together as our own characters to form a party. Unfortunately, it didn’t click for me, and I was more focused on Second Life.