Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of Gaia Online! First of all I’d like to thank you for signing up, and hope that you enjoy your stay. My name is [Eisen Droselmeyer], but you can call me [Eisen] or [Drossel.] I'll act as your tour guide throughout this explanation. It's a long read, but it covers the basics of what Gaia Online is all about.

Gaia is a fairly big place, and sometimes it’s easy to get lost! I’m going to take you through the different areas one at a time, just to give you a general overview of what this community has to offer. Are you ready? Let’s begin!

This is the first area you'll arrive at after signing up, where you will see a lot of different links and images. I’m going to tell you the basics of what everything is.



[HOME] – This link will return you to the main page of the site.
[MY GAIA] – This link takes you to the “My Gaia” page, where you can see which of your friends are online, update your status, view what your friends are up to and various other things.
[SHOPS] – This link will take you to the different NPC shops. A menu at the right side of this screen scrolls to show you the different shops. (Note: Some shops will be unavailable upon first registering and must be unlocked!)
[FORUMS] – This link takes you to the message boards. There are many different areas to discuss pretty much anything. Each forum has its own set of rules to follow, so be sure to check up on them before posting!
[WORLD] – This link takes you to a Gaia Site Map, as well as links to Gaia’s Manga and Towns.
[GAMES] – This link will take you to a list of mini games that can be played to win [Gaia Gold.] This [Gold] is the currency of Gaia and is used to purchase items for your [Avatar]

You'll notice that most of these links have a sub-menu with different little links. There are a lot and it would take time to go into detail for each one, so it's best to just experiment with them. wink

In the top right corner you will see a display with "Welcome back (your name here)!" along with "Logout", "Account", and "Help". Logout does what it says, "Account" will take you to the [Account Preferences] page, where you can edit various things to customize your experience, and "Help" will take you to the [Gaia Online Help] area. This place has an extensive amount of information on multiple topics.

The top right also shows your current amount of [Gold,] [Gaia Cash,] and [Achievement Points.] [Gaia Cash] can be purchased with real money, or earned by completing special offers. (NOTE: Please be extremely careful when doing offers for [Gaia Cash], as these are offers from companies that may not be affiliated with Gaia Online. Always review every last detail about what offer you're doing, and be careful about what information you put in!) It is another form of currency used to purchase things from the [Cash Shop]. [Gaia Cash] cannot be traded directly from user to user.


You may have noticed a little claw machine game in the corner of some pages of the site. This appears once per day and is known as the Daily Chance. Whenever you find it and click on it, you'll be granted a random prize. It can range from gold shops items, to [Gold,] to [Tokens] used for playing certain games.


Ah yes, the [Marketplace]...This is a wonderful area of Gaia where you can buy and sell a large assortment of items. Some items are special and are not found in any of the Gold shops. The prices of the marketplace are user-run, as it's the economy of Gaia. Be careful, mispricing and scamming attempts happen now and then, so be sure you're getting what you paid for and you list items for the correct price. You will need a [trading pass] in order to trade with other members.



Now that you know where the basic things are, let's take a look at your [Profile], your little corner of the Gaia universe. You can set your profile to two different options - "Classic" and "Current."

Taken directly from the [Profile Preferences] page:

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* Classic is the original and allows you to embed a Flash (like a YouTube video).
* Current is highly customizable... both on this page and the "Edit Profile Layout" link.
* Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in "Theme Override" to customize both styles.
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There's a lot more to it than that, and parts of it can be confusing at times. Specific questions are always welcome if something isn't working right or you can't figure something out, and there's always someone looking to help out in the [Questions & Assistance] forum.



With the basics in mind, now you can go explore. If you have any questions along the way, you know who to go to. Most importantly, have a good time!

~[Eisen Drosselmeyer]