| 1 | [[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Gaia_Online_logo_8987.png]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[http://gaiaonline.com/ Gaia Online]] was founded in February 2003 by Derek "Lanzer" Liu and a group of friends as "Go-Gaia", an {{Animesque}} Avatar Roleplaying Community and link list. They've ditched the Link List since then, but Go-Gaia continued to grow, eventually changing its name to "Gaia Online". |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Initial drawings point of the site were its focus on fashion and collectable fashion items. By posting on the forums, users could collect points, which they could in turn use to buy clothes for their forum avatars. Many forum sub-communities and groups were started, and the shopkeepers and site characters began to star in their own plotlines. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | Gaia's storyline quickly became one of the distinguishing features of the site. Since the plot's beginnings in 2004, Gaia has had two {{Zombie Apocalypse}}s, an AlienInvasion, a Vampire Attack, and more NoOneCouldSurviveThat moments than you can shake a pixelated stick at. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | It's come a long way since its humble beginnings, going from a simple forum to an enormous multi-faceted community. With the release of "zOMG!", Gaia also gained its own {{MMORPG}} -- zOMG! was temporarily shut down in late 2014, due to major security bugs and lost code, but was revived in 2017. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Recently, after three years of blatant economic mismanagement, the site was repurchased by Lanzer and other members of the original team, who are currently trying to rehab the site back to its old glory. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ---- |
| 14 | !!This website provides examples of: |
| 15 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 16 | |
| 17 | [[folder:General Tropes]] |
| 18 | * AmbidextrousSprite: Your items will switch hands depending on which way you're facing. Perhaps most easily seen by bumping your own posts. |
| 19 | ** It also swaps the placing of wings, among other things. |
| 20 | * ArtisticLicenseEconomics: For some time, they employed a pair of economists to keep the system stable. However, after a change of management in 2013, the economists were fired and [[BribingYourWayToVictory items that give players millions, billions, and trillions of gold instantly]] began to be released, leading to [[RidiculousFutureInflation out-of-control hyperinflation]]. Some junk items now sell for thousands of in-game currency. |
| 21 | ** Their response to the inflation was to encourage further inflation by releasing higher-valued gold generators -- at one point the gold cap was 2,147,483,647 gold, and when users started reaching the cap they increased the cap, then released generators that were worth ''more than the old cap''. |
| 22 | ** The situation is bad enough to warrant [[http://books.google.com/books?id=nYyJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA219 being mentioned as an example in a textbook]]. |
| 23 | ** The former COO himself says: |
| 24 | -->[[http://youtu.be/Ny5IyKHmSSY?t=11m07s We’re actually okay with inflation. If the money supply is growing, that’s just virtual currency, but the virtual currency means that if people’s balances are growing, it means people are getting richer in our community, and they’re able to afford more stuff, right?]] |
| 25 | ** They've been trying to remedy this as of late, however, through GoldSink events and shop items, and various nerfs on the features that can be exploited for easy gold (mainly Booty Grab and zOMG!). |
| 26 | * BadassNormal: In some events, Moira. [[BadassDecay In others]]... |
| 27 | ** Edmund, who used to belong to a superhero team. The other members? [[{{Expy}} Old Man]] [[ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} Logan]] and [[AGodAmI Johnny freakin' Gambino]]. |
| 28 | ** Leon has joined the G-Team in more recent updates. His power? "Um... [[MadeOfIron being really tough]], I guess." |
| 29 | ** Josie then terrifies Leon by demonstrating her [[ImprobableWeaponUser earring-fu]]. "Watch out! She has another earring!" She also used to be an amateur boxer, and until her makeover for Global Imports, she [[SleevesAreForWimps had the buff arms to prove it]]. |
| 30 | * BarbieDollAnatomy: WHERE ARE YOUR NIPPLES NOW |
| 31 | * BribingYourWayToVictory: |
| 32 | ** ZOMG powerups were all Gaia Cash (bought with real money) only. |
| 33 | ** In the 2009 Halloween event, certain amounts of followers are needed to perform specific actions. Usually, you get followers by having people on the forums choose to follow you. However, if you'd rather not go to all that trouble, you could ''buy'' virtual followers with ''real money.'' |
| 34 | ** 2013 saw the release of two new cash items, Flynn's Booty and Flynn's Chest, that instantly generate a random large amount of gold, originally generating up to 100 million gold. Many similar gold generators have followed suit, to the point that [[RidiculousFutureInflation the inflation caused by them]] has effectively turned Gaia into an AllegedlyFreeGame. |
| 35 | ** 2015 saw the addition of the ability to buy gold items with Gaia Cash at the rate of 1 Gaia Cash to 50 million gold. To compare values your first forum post of the day was at the time worth 100 gold (unchanged from the pre-inflation value when it was actually useful) with the value decreasing each time you post that day or you can spend under a penny and get something worth 50 million gold right away. If someone buys an item from another player for Gaia Cash the seller gets gold instead which only further devalues Gold. When faced with grinding for months to get a single item or paying fifty cents most people bribe their way to victory. |
| 36 | * ChurchOfHappyology: [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/community-announcements/ei-report-dappy-dandy-shadowlegend/t.58080661/ In this EI report]], Ron Bruise tries to get Timmy into some kind of expensive treatment to get rid of anxiety caused by aliens in his past. It doesn't really work out, since it costs 350,000 gold, and Timmy only gets an allowance of 25 gold a week. |
| 37 | * {{Cult}}: The "Universal Transcendent Spirit Collective", a group of believers who awaited the emergence of special beings called the Core People, who would take the believers to a paradise in outer space by use of a tremendous golden spaceship. Of course the only way to get there was to drink a [[DrinkingTheKoolAid delicious fruit beverage]]. |
| 38 | ** This lead to a DudeNotFunny moment during one of Timmy's encounter with a cultist who offered him the nice refreshing ''drink'', Timmy rejects the offer so in another EI Report it is obvious the cultist took the drink himself. This got a reaction from quite a few people. |
| 39 | ** Benevolent Order of the Overseer (B.O.O.) and Sentinel's Infernal Nation (S.I.N.), though now discontinued due to interference by Jack (King of Halloween). |
| 40 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/profiles/?u=20762543 S.I.N.]] and [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/profiles/?u=20762493 B.O.O.]], the two warring factions of the 2009 Halloween event. No points for guessing which is the "good" side and which is the "evil" side. |
| 41 | ** Angelic items are usually colored in shades of white, blue (especially this particular shade that's been known as "Angelic blue") and gold, while demonic items are in shades of red and black; Nitemare/Nightmare items, a cousin to the Demonic items, utilize red and purple, although their secondary color switches often. |
| 42 | * CrystalDragonJesus: Parodied by the Gaian Church of Non-Specific Worship. |
| 43 | * DoubleEntendre: Booty Grab, Ruby's Rack. |
| 44 | ** Lampshaded by one of Ruby's lines: "It refers to the clothing racks!" |
| 45 | ** Sam's Body & Parts. Sam herself does not get the joke. |
| 46 | ** Promageddon Part 3 lampshades it as well... |
| 47 | --> '''Cindy:''' It's... huge! I can't believe the size of it, towering into the stratosphere like that... It's like nothing I've ever seen! |
| 48 | --> '''Edmund:''' * BeatPanel, AsideGlance* ThatsWhatSheSaid. |
| 49 | * DrawSwordDrawBlood: The Muramasa sword cannot be sheathed until it has drawn blood. |
| 50 | * EverybodyKnewAlready: Devin's sexuality. Apparently they're not allowed to ''say'' that he's gay on a PG-13 site, so instead the comics and some events imply it with all the subtlety of a brick. It's pretty openly discussed on the forums, though. |
| 51 | ** [[ChattyHairdresser Vanessa]] will tell you that Devin is into Lance though if you push the Talk button. |
| 52 | * ExecutiveMeddling: See Artistic License--Economics, above. Many "old-guard" users left the site permanently over this, while the few who remain all agree that TheyChangedItNowItSucks |
| 53 | * EyeScream: The new eyes at the salon are ''not'' contacts... but at least Vanessa uses anesthesia (we think). |
| 54 | -->'''Vanessa:''' ''Now operating on your eyes...'' |
| 55 | * FanArt: ''Tons'' of it. There is even a small industry around creating commissioned "avi art". |
| 56 | * FandomNod: Players have appeared in the comics now and then. |
| 57 | * [[FanSub Fandub]]: The awful Halloween 2007 animated shorts got fandubbed quite a bit. (This was encouraged by Gaia, who actually provided downloads of the shorts for members to take.) |
| 58 | ** A group had made a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jy3NgsVj6s fandub]] using the plot manga "Gunshow," and nailed the voices pretty well. Needless to say, even Gaia themselves took notice and featured the thread with the original link. |
| 59 | * FanDisservice: When Timmy was [[PlotRelevantAgeUp aged to adulthood,]] players were eagerly hoping for a hot bishounen who could woo the ladies. What they were ''not'' expecting was a tall, gangly, mustachioed man who resembled Edgar Allan Poe and/or Borat. |
| 60 | ** Some people actually liked that they didn't turn Timmy into a bishounen, and preferred the HollywoodHomely version. |
| 61 | %%** One word. "Sagatha". |
| 62 | * {{Fanservice}}: And plenty of it! {{Stripperiffic}} clothing and innuendos abound, most famously [[YumYum hot dogs]]. |
| 63 | ** Lots of items can make your avatar show a lot of skin, from pasties to sling bikinis. |
| 64 | ** The rampant fanservice is one of the reasons Gaia gets a lot of flack from people who think Gaia is [[AnimationAgeGhetto a kids' website]]. |
| 65 | ** Some rare item drops that are... the underwear of various hot [=NPCs=] on gaia. Frilly bras from the girl characters, and the men apparently all wear bikini briefs. |
| 66 | * FantasticRacism: In the Halloween '08 plot, a group of humans pretty much freaked out when they saw a vampire "attacking" another human and assumed the worst. (In reality, the human was allowing the vampire to bite him.) An elf pointed out that "elves aren't ''people,''" implying racial tension (perhaps even oppression?). In which direction is harder to say, since it seemed the elves meant it in a "We're ''better'' than ''people!''" way. |
| 67 | ** Parodied and lampshaded by Louie Von Helson complaining that ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' references are [[TakeThat racist]]. |
| 68 | -->'''Louie:''' No, I do not sparkle in the sunlight. Why do people keep asking me that? It's borderline racist. |
| 69 | ** And subverted with HypocriticalHumor in the 2009 Valentine's event, where Louie would reject valentines from users with human avatars. |
| 70 | * FantasyGunControl: Some characters in the storyline had guns, but players weren't given permanent gun items until January of '08. |
| 71 | * FantasyKitchenSink: Let's see... vampires, elves, centaurs, robots, aliens, tentacled beasties, trolls, plant monsters... |
| 72 | ** And don't forget that with the multitude of items right now, anybody can make up their own race or mix and match to imitate an existing one. So it's really more like a Fantasy Ocean. |
| 73 | * FunnyOctopus: |
| 74 | ** Aquarium Cuttlefish are as difficult to please as they are adorable. One of the items they can drop when they die suggests that they are {{Emo}}. In addition, the Squid set and The Experiment play tentacles [[BlackComedyRape for laughs]]. |
| 75 | ** The Yemaya's Pearl item has a pose in which purple tentacles replace the wearer's legs. Yeah. |
| 76 | * HalfHumanHybrid: No. 9, the alien/human hybrid. |
| 77 | * HonestJohnsDealership: Back Alley Bargains. |
| 78 | --> '''Nicolae:''' Remember to tell all your friends about this place. Unless they're guards. |
| 79 | * InstantFanClub: A lot of characters that become popular, even without ANY background story whatsoever (here's looking at you, [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Stein]]) gets a fan club. Even items get fan clubs, especially those with pretty or sexy companions. |
| 80 | * KillerRabbit: Grunnies. |
| 81 | ** Don't forget the Easter Bunny... |
| 82 | * LampshadeHanging: Rampant, in both items and manga. |
| 83 | * TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: La Victoire is a questionable example. Much of its stock is... questionable (Want to buy an ArtifactOfDoom? Only 749 Cash!). But La Victoire doesn't move around because ''no one knows where it is''. It's the only shop on the site without a set location, and WordOfGod says it's like an "online store". |
| 84 | ** After a storefront makeover, La Victoire looks like a genuine store, but it could be placed in Barton judging by its ground and comparing it with Barton Boutique's. |
| 85 | *** YMMV on that one, but the ground seems to resemble more the one seen on Isle de Gambino's stores... |
| 86 | ** Again, Back Alley Bargains also qualifies. Justified here, as it's run out of a horse-drawn wagon by an opportunistic con-man. |
| 87 | ** Sunset Couture doesn't have a known location, either, but then, it is [[ProductPlacement Sunset Couture]]. |
| 88 | ** [=Dernier* Cri=] ''definitely'' qualifies; justified, as it's on an airship and does travel away now and then so its proprietor can design new merch. Eventually averted, as certain [=D*C=] items are now used as Alchemy components, and this trope would lead to aggravated players sick of waiting too long or shelling out tons of gold for what they need. |
| 89 | * MegaCorp: G-Corp. |
| 90 | ** And Christmas-Themed S-Corp, and [[spoiler:The evil [=NeXuS=] Corp]] |
| 91 | ** And [=OmniDrink=], which took over Gaia Online April 1st, 2009. It came back for the Halloween 2010 event, where it was revealed to be responsible for the events that drove all the ghosts insane. |
| 92 | * MoeAnthropomorphism: During the Great Plot Drought of 2007, some [=GCDers=] decided to start a project by creating their own plot manga. How? They took some of Gaia's many forums and turned them into anthro'd girls ala the OS-tans, each with personalities fitting the general view of the forum they're based on. Examples include GD-tan, who looks rather trashy and talks like it; Exchange-tan, who wears expensive clothing as a result of her experiences... exchanging; and even Chatterbox-tan, who dresses "randomly" and talks semi-literately. (Accounts based on these characters are actually out there and did interact with the forums at some point, perhaps an homage to the old Gaia days where NPC accounts posted in the forums alongside actual Gaians.) It was such a huge success that Gaia took notice and mentioned the comic's website in an announcement. This was the beginning for Gaia's first Summer Festival. |
| 93 | ** With the same inspiration as the above, a Gaia-tan item has been created based on the classic girl n00b image, with better assets, [[GenkiGirl cheerful attitude,]] ZettaiRyouiki, {{BFS}}, an old-school G-Hairpin and GratuitousJapanese included. |
| 94 | ** Followed by Gaia-sama, a BizarroUniverse OfficeLady equivalent. |
| 95 | *** And [[SpearCounterpart Gaia-kun]]. |
| 96 | * MoralGuardians: In order to keep its image as a 13+ friendly website, the rules and guidelines specifically forbade erotic roleplay, even privately between users. Though for awhile a large underground community existed, it was eventually stamped out rather thoroughly. |
| 97 | * NinjaPirateZombieRobot: A few... |
| 98 | ** The Halloween '08 event can be summed up thusly: Humans vs. Vampires vs. Elves vs. Zombies!!! |
| 99 | ** Dark elf gangsters!! |
| 100 | ** James Bond-like sword-fighting genius ex-scientist shopkeeper! |
| 101 | ** Zombie [[KillerRabbit Killer Rabbits]] in mecha submarines! |
| 102 | * NoFourthWall: The Gee Boi Turbo item is a minigame wherein the dark elves and their pet owl go to a Gaia-centric anime convention. Kuro sets a cosplayer on fire and [[ShipSinking sets the book straight on his relationship with Devin]], Cordell sings karaoke and embarrasses her brother with cuteness, and Caesar (the owl) commissions some HeadTiltinglyKinky fanart of "Devin and the delivery guy doing WHAT?!" |
| 103 | ** Don't forget the YaoiFangirl who invaded the track at the '08 Rejected Olympics. |
| 104 | ** "[[LampshadeHanging Lex is breaking the fourth wall!]]", from the Lexbox RIG. How is this an example? Well, not only is it lampshading itself, but the art is of Lex using a tablet stylus to draw the stage of the Lexbox (creating an infinite loop)! |
| 105 | * NoSmoking: On November 20, 2009, as part of an ill-conceived sponsorship deal with the American Cancer Society, all cigarettes and related items were pulled from Gaia shops and owned ones were soulbound to the players so they couldn't be sold in the marketplace. It was repealed three days later by [[WordOfGod Lanzer]], so Gaia has learned a moral from this: Censorship = backlash.\ |
| 106 | Despite returning the smoking items, the most common one, "The Cig," now comes with a few new poses which serve as a TakeThat to the people who demanded their return. They include a [[http://lolblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/gentlemen.jpg certain smoking meme]], and it's horrendous after effect, complete with bloodshot eyes, dead expression, and tons of black smoke spewing from the lungs. The new poses were generally pretty well received, especially since many users had suggested something like that as an alternative to the poorly-communicated and poorly-implemented ban.\ |
| 107 | Many users had equipped items to make it look like their avatar was smoking and an sign that read S.O.S. (i.e. Save Our Smokes). Not to mention the fact that it was one employee who implemented the ban. Lanzer removed the ban after the weekend, no one at Gaia HQ works weekends, and most users spent 3 days, as the ban started on a Friday, protesting. |
| 108 | * OurElvesAreDifferent: ChristmasElves have been around for a few years now. Dark elves were introduced in the comic during the '08 Rejected Olympics event. Rather than living underground like typical dark elves, they ''are'' [[TheMafia the underground.]] Elves of a few other shades appeared in the '08 Halloween comics. |
| 109 | * OurOrcsAreDifferent: Although at the moment, not much is known about Gaia's orcs except that some of them smoke, wear leather, and live in caves. |
| 110 | ** So what you're saying is...that the orcs are [[Literature/TheOutsiders Greasers]]. |
| 111 | * OurVampiresAreDifferent: Gaian vampires have pale skin, fangs, and drink blood. They usually have gray catlike eyes, except when they're at full strength, at which point they turn yellow. They can take a fair amount of sunlight, although [[http://w.cdn.gaiaonline.com/imaging/dt/olympics204lg_announce_none_20090430_500x747.jpg according to Louie]] they get really, really bad sunburns really easily, and ''sometimes'' catch fire (and in a 4koma, it makes Louie himself "[[CensoredForComedy sweary as $@%#!]]"). Vampirism also seems to be no obstacle in fathering children. |
| 112 | ** One of The Nightmare's evolutions has variant vampires from other cultures, such as the [[BodyHorror Penanggalan]] mentioned above. And who could forget the ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' [[ShoutOut Sparkling Skin]] [[ProductPlacement sponsor item]]? |
| 113 | *** Let's not forget the Halloween 2K9 ''zOMG!'' event. It's not really clear why they were floating around surrounded by rings of blood with which they also attack, other than the fact that it looks [[RuleOfCool cool]]. It's been suggested that the BigBad of a future story arc in ''zOMG!'' will be a lady vampire. |
| 114 | ** According to Frontier Skies, vampires can sometimes crave cheeseburgers. |
| 115 | * OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Currently the known way of creating a Gaian werewolf is induced by the drug Gro-Gain Max. When it comes to colors, there are four types of normal, while the others are colorful, in particular the Sparkledog type. |
| 116 | * OurZombiesAreDifferent: There are three species of zombie on Gaia, from the events: the Grombies, caused by infectious bites from the [[KillerRabbit Grunnies]], and Glompies, from the failed Serum 3A (named as such because they like to, well, [[TheGlomp glomp]]). The original Zombies [[ContinuityReboot were all wiped out due to a server problem]]. And if these skins don't suit you, then there are plenty of zombie alternatives: from the [[{{Pirate}} Captain Ara's Nestegg]] zombies from the bottom of the sea, to the Death Whisper's Drone zombies. The latter looks suspiciously like a Grombie, though. |
| 117 | ** The original Zombie skin has returned as a bonus pose in one of the Easter 2010 egg hunt prizes. |
| 118 | * ProductPlacement: Various companies help sponsor Gaia in exchange for the right of advertising there, most prominently Skittles and MTV, whose involvement has rubbed Gaians the wrong way most of all. The Facebook promotion also had a lot of users up in arms as well. |
| 119 | ** It's even present ''in the report system''. Want to report someone for breaking a rule? Be prepared to type in whatever ad the ad wants you to |
| 120 | ** For a more humorous in-universe example, Jenzee urges you to BUY FREMERE'S GUARD!!!! (Her [=SDPlus=] doll even has that in its description!) |
| 121 | * SeriousBusiness: Matching and coordinating your avatar ''just right'' is extremely serious business to some players. |
| 122 | ** Also, the NPC characters tend to freak out over rather trivial matters in the comics. |
| 123 | ** [[ScheduleSlip Evolving item schedules.]] |
| 124 | * SortingAlgorithmOfMortality: If you run a shop, you're functionally immortal, or will have a very low score on the SortingAlgorithmOfDeadness. If your name is actually an assigned number and you work for anything that ends in "Corp", start writing your will now [[spoiler: unless you join the bad guys]]. |
| 125 | ** [[spoiler: Gambino family members are no longer safe.]] |
| 126 | * SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Anybody else notice that the club music in Virtual Hollywood sounds eerily similar to the music heard in ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'' when selecting cars or the like? |
| 127 | * TakeThat: Tons. |
| 128 | ** Louie's dialogue in H&R Wesley: "No, [[Literature/{TheTwilightSaga I don't sparkle in the sunlight]]. Why do people keep asking me that? It's borderline racist!" |
| 129 | ** The Fremere's Guard Evolving Item is just one TakeThat after another... ''to Gaia's own UnpleasableFanbase'', especially the [[SeriousBusiness GCD]]. |
| 130 | ** The players who speculated upon how gorgeous Timmy would be when he grew up got a slap in the face: When Timmy came down with megapuberty, Gaia gave users the option to let Timmy stay a child forever or be instantly aged to adulthood. Most players chose the second option. [[FanDisservice The results weren't pretty.]] Literally. |
| 131 | ** The "cardboard back wings," a jab at the players who keep demanding "back wings" (basically huge, avatar-sized [=angel/demon=] wings, which were finally attainable through alchemy in 2012.) And, despite that, sells for a pretty good price. |
| 132 | ** "[[ScheduleSlip The]] [[{{Pun}} Cold Case]] [[ScheduleSlip of Pietro]]". However, since the artist didn't make it clear it was ''herself'' [[TakeThatMe she was dissing]], this was taken the wrong way by [[SeriousBusiness the GCD]], who freaked out. |
| 133 | ** In response the huge backdraft recieved from the removal of smoking items, Gaia returned them, with a slight alteration of "The Cig," which includes new poses showcasing a [[http://lolblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/gentlemen.jpg certain meme]] as well the horrible aftereffects of smoking, to jab at the people who wanted them back. (This backfired; the fans enjoyed the new poses immensely.) |
| 134 | *** Admittedly, the smoke ban had been done by a staff member gone rogue, so it might just have been a TakeThat to ''them''. |
| 135 | * TechnicolorEyes: Bright colors in themselves, in an Animesque do-it-yourself character creator like Gaia, are nothing new. However, the artists can be incredibly inconsistent with the [=NPCs=]' eye colors from update to update, unless said eye colors are a plot point (Johnny Gambino always has red eyes, vampires always have gray eyes, etc.). |
| 136 | ** Gino Gambino has been seen with red, maroon-ish, royal purple, brown, or ''lilac'' eyes. Since he appears in almost every plot update, it's kind of funny to see what color his eyes will be ''this'' time. |
| 137 | *** It's almost accepted though that his "default" eye color is a kind of purplish-red. Lighting may also be a culprit in the changing eye colors. |
| 138 | *** Except that his new doll has him with reddish eyes... |
| 139 | ** Rina's eyes have been purple, Pepto-Bismol pink, brown, or green. |
| 140 | ** Lex's dark red eyes were light blue for some reason during the non-canon '08 Prom comic. This alone has probably caused more outrage on the GCD than any of Gino's eye-color charades, as Lex's eye color is fairly well-known for such a minor character. |
| 141 | ** Ian's eyes changing color is handwaved to a certain degree-- his brown eyes as a "human" were probably contacts, and until the official decision that [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Our Vampires Have Gray Eyes]], ''all'' the Von Helsons were drawn with pale blue eyes. Or they might have been in disguise as well. |
| 142 | * ThatsWhatSheSaid: See the DoubleEntendre example above. |
| 143 | ** There's also a site achievement ("The Perfect Setup") for getting someone else to give you this comeback. |
| 144 | * TheScottishTrope: The former CEO ([[spoiler:[[HeWhoMustNotBeNamed Gary Schofield]]]]) and the former COO ([[spoiler:[[HeWhoMustNotBeNamed Jason Loia]]]]) gained the reputation of [[ExecutiveMeddling being too profit-minded]]. Once users discovered [[spoiler:Loia]]'s presentation about the use of Skinner box methods in designing games, which mentioned as an example [[BribingYourWayToVictory a cash-only product whose only purpose is to generate gold]], Gaia's users were pushed off the edge and [[InternetCounterattack demanded their resignation]]. They responded by threatening to ban anyone who mentioned them by their names or titles, which earned [[spoiler:Schofield]] in particular the nicknames of "[[Franchise/HarryPotter Goldemort]]" and "he-who-must-not-be-named". Even after they handed Gaia back to Lanzer, the use of the nickname "Goldemort" was met with censorship until it was put to an end. |
| 145 | * {{Troperiffic}} |
| 146 | * UnsettlingGenderReveal: Around 30% of the members use avatars that doesn't match their gender. The trope comes into play on a regular basis. |
| 147 | ** There was a time when an avatar's gender was completely distinguishable. Once the kilts and the Sasha wig came out, though, [[strike: all hell broke loose]] the staff started making everything unisex after seeing most of the male avatars on all of freakin' Gaia wearing them. Wonder how much extra work it is for the artists... |
| 148 | *** Meriko, one of Gaia's many artists, is working on this project (although no one knows if there are others); she keeps a journal entry of what she unisexes updated every time new items are available for both genders. |
| 149 | ** Cordell the dark elf. Hello, [[SamusIsAGirl Samus]]. |
| 150 | ** Jaws from the ''[[ProductPlacement Venus Garden]]'', later to appear in the Aquariums. |
| 151 | ** Subverted by Prince Enki in the Poseidon's Legacy RIG, who outright introduces himself as male, goes topless (er... naked), and ''still'' gets mistaken for a mer''maid''. |
| 152 | ** Gino's SD Plus Doll description ("Gambino's son, sometimes mistaken for daughter...") indicates that this happens to Gino sometimes. |
| 153 | * UrbanFantasy: The world of Gaia seems to be fairly modern with a lot of fantastical trappings. |
| 154 | * {{Vaporware}}: If you go to Durem on the world map, go left and then down, you'll find Halloweentown. It's been there for a couple of years, and nothing has been done with it. |
| 155 | * VirtualPaperDoll |
| 156 | * WillTheyOrWontThey |
| 157 | * WingedHumanoid: The angel imps and devil imps are slightly unusual examples of this, as their wings are on their heads. |
| 158 | * WitnessProtection: Ian - his cover was blown during the Halloween 2007 storyline. |
| 159 | * WrenchWench: Sam, the young lady who runs the automotive shop "Sam's Body and Parts". |
| 160 | * WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: The staff have stated that they don't really plan out the plot too far in advance. This didn't stop [[spoiler:the ending of ''zOMG!'']] from tying up four years' worth of loose plot threads and unanswered questions. |
| 161 | * YaoiFangirl: Buckets full, including one of the sites artists (although denial is involved). |
| 162 | ** Lampshaded hard in the Olympics comics, when [[NoFourthWall a fangirl invades the track]]. HilarityEnsues. |
| 163 | [[/folder]] |
| 164 | |
| 165 | [[folder:Gaia Events]] |
| 166 | * AnalProbing: The 2006 Halloween event centered around the themes of AlienAbduction and AliensStealCattle with probing devices becoming available items with which to decorate user avatars. |
| 167 | * ApocalypticLog: The [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewforum.php?f=13292 journals of the S-Corp elves]] during the '05 X-Mas storyline. May also verge into horror, after the assorted little elves and their toy-making go horribly, horribly wrong, hitting standards such as 'waking up somewhere strange after a blackout,' '[[DrowningPit drowning]] in a [[LockedInARoom locked room]],' '[[BetterToDieThanBeKilled suicide with a rusty scalpel to avoid drowning]] after hearing your crush drown,' 'mauled to death by [[FluffyTheTerrible adorable yetis]],' and 'anyone remaining vaporizing in a nuclear blast.' |
| 168 | ** S-Corp was also a reference to the original [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewforum.php?f=1736 G-Corp Halloween plot]] in '04, which followed the same setup. In that case, it was a ZombieApocalypse reminiscent of Resident Evil. |
| 169 | * AprilFoolsDay: Every April 1st, someone explodes. Either the users get an exploding present, or several plot characters get it. Fact: They only update the plot every few months, so we were all left hanging? :P |
| 170 | ** There have also been two April Fools "takeovers". In 2009, Gaia was taken over by the fictitious company Omni-Drink, which has since been seen in another event. 2011 saw Meowbook, a feline spoof of Facebook. |
| 171 | * ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The Overseer and Sentinel attempted to recover their godhoods by [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly getting Gaians to worship them again]]. This was subverted when [[spoiler:it didn't work]]. |
| 172 | * CoolAirship: Cresento has an amazingly cool airship that he loves to show off. Brennivin's ''entire'' store is on an airship. And then you have the Overseer and Sentinel's airship...which probably doesn't qualify until Brennivin helps out. |
| 173 | ** The entire event of Summer 2k10: [[VideoGame/TheOregonTrail Frontier Skies]]. Which consist of some Tropes such as... |
| 174 | *** [[GoddamnedBats Vampires in bat-form]] causing all kinds of trouble from beginning to end. |
| 175 | *** CutenessProximity: Brennivin's reaction to the jellyfish-like demigod. |
| 176 | *** ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Carl the Elk's stats? "No Advantages, Too many disadvantages". |
| 177 | *** BraggingRightsReward: Winning with Carl as your guide. Killing half your crew is usually a vital part of the strategy. |
| 178 | *** EpicFail: The situations your Crewmates can get into is just ridiculous. For example: Moth + Airship + Running after said Moth = TooDumbToLive. |
| 179 | *** TooDumbToLive + CarnivoreConfusion: If you're playing with Carl as your guide, for the love of life and limb, ''do not shoot the blue elk while hunting.'' Curiously, Diedrich says nothing about you hunting Grunnies. |
| 180 | *** BrickJoke: Playing with Louie/Edmund as the guide, you can play pranks on Edmund/Louie. Playing with Edmund/Louie as your guide, you can suffer the effects of Louie's/Edmund's pranking. Likewise, the Dog In A Shoe (which was rumored to teleport you to the end of the game if your LuckStat was high enough). |
| 181 | *** IDoNotDrinkWine: Averted, one possible event is that Louie of all people [[BigEater gets a massive craving for cheeseburgers and depletes your food stores]]. |
| 182 | *** ViolationOfCommonSense: Just as often as not, the TooDumbToLive moments actually ''rewarded'' you, despite how utterly stupid you would need to be to try any of them in real life. Having a crewmate test out some pills he found in an unlabeled bottle inside a sock, for example, healed him, and cutting some moss off the bilge pump to share with the whole crew healed everybody. |
| 183 | * DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: In Halloween '08, a vampire gets caught biting a human. Both are flushed, sweaty, and quick to insist that "it's consensual! Yeah!" |
| 184 | ** SIN's portal and BOO's trident. Consider that their leaders are female and male respectively. |
| 185 | * DroppedABridgeOnHim: Vladmir Von Helson. There was a huge setup for a climactic battle in the Halloween '07 plot... and then he got shot. This is what we get for trying to animate the storyline... |
| 186 | ** The Demonbusters (Halloween '09) plot was all set up for a climactic finale - then Jack came and stripped the two warring demigods of their powers. And it wasn't even animated this time. |
| 187 | * FreakyFridayFlip: Santa's mind was swapped with a cow's a few years ago. He's better now, though. |
| 188 | ** And then it's implied he had the cow for Christmas Dinner. |
| 189 | *** Santa probably didn't eat ''that'' cow. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Beef must be aged awhile or it doesn't taste very good at all]]. |
| 190 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: Several plotlines would simply have ''not'' taken place if the Gaians, who are ''supposed'' to be citizens of this world, had their way. One example includes the Sentinel and the Overseer being reduced to homeless bums. Any number of Gaians who were their devoted followers during the Demonbusters event would have taken them in. |
| 191 | ** And then there's the one where [[AlienInvasion they did just that]]. It's still the favourite storyline of those that could be bothered to participate in it, while everybody else hates it because they weren't handed every detail of the plot on a silver platter like every other time. |
| 192 | *** Or, you know, because the plot showed blatant favoritism for some fans while [[{{Pun}} alienating]] others who tried just as hard to be involved? |
| 193 | * SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The music that plays in Towns during Halloween events since 2008 sounds remarkably like the Film/{{Beetlejuice}} theme. |
| 194 | * SavingChristmas: The '08 Christmas event had Gaians raising enough cheer to power a machine to put Santa's mind back in his own body. The '09 event had Gaians raising enough cheer to power the airship of the Overseer, who was attempting to regain his godhood by delivering presents during Santa's mysterious disappearance. The '10 event had users finding safety equipment for a TooDumbToLive Santa doing various household activities. |
| 195 | * StatusQuoIsGod: The 2009 Halloween event featured an epic battle between two demigods. It was good vs. evil, the outcome of this battle would change Gaia as we know it! Then Jack steps in and hits the ResetButton by de-powering both demigods. What makes this example particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} is that the side of evil did win the event. |
| 196 | ** Arguably the same thing happens with ''every'' Gaia-wide battle. Humans versus vampires, humans vs. vampires. vs. elves vs. zombies, the Gaia Olympics, all of them just pass on after the event is concluded with the manga maybe providing some backstory. At least the demigods are still around. |
| 197 | * ThisIsNoTimeForKnitting: During the Halloween 2k7 storyline, Liam demonstrates the correct method of dealing with hostile vampires... lame come-ons. |
| 198 | -->'''Gino''': Liam, now is ''not'' the time for... |
| 199 | * YourHeadAsplode: What part of "[[SchmuckBait don't drink OmniDrink]]" don't you understand? |
| 200 | ** Easter 08. |
| 201 | ** April Fools 04! |
| 202 | * YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: The 'cheer meter' in the [[SavingChristmas Christmas 2K9]] event managed to get filled up to 75% on its first day ... so Gaia responded by dropping Cresento's airship on the Overseer's and resetting the meter to 0% again. Spawned the "Cresento landed on it" meme. |
| 203 | ** The Save Our Shops event had an example, too. The devs kept increasing the amounts Ruby and Liam owed because they were planning redesigns and new shops for them, and needed them to fail so these could be implemented. However, the users had been convinced that [[SeriousBusiness their beloved characters would be removed from Gaia, permanently, if they didn't make it]], and were just as determined to save them. The result? Supposedly, both shopkeepers had debts in the ''trillions'' by the time the event ended. |
| 204 | * ZombieApocalypse: Twice! And counting! |
| 205 | [[/folder]] |
| 206 | |
| 207 | [[folder:Gaia Forums]] |
| 208 | * PlayByPostGames: The Barton Town forum, there are literate RP that lasted over 100 pages, with a lot of fancy thread layouts and even more fancy post layouts |
| 209 | * WildMassGuessing: And ''how''! The purpose of an entire subforum, Gaia Community Discussion (GCD). |
| 210 | [[/folder]] |
| 211 | |
| 212 | [[folder:Gaia Games]] |
| 213 | * {{Pun}}: In Lake Kindred for Valentine's 2k16, a new creature was released called the Lovebug. It turned out it had glitched and was stuck at level 2 for a bit... [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/gaia-news-updates/staff-updates/t.63632027_1506/#1505 or bugged.]] |
| 214 | * GrailInTheGarbage: Dumpster Dive, where Gaians can go and pick through a dumpster for donated items. Functions similar to Daily Chance only having a tad bit more variety as the items are all from user inventory. At times a newbie user will pull up an item and [[WorthlessYellowRocks not realize its value]] and merely toss it back into the dumpster as they didn't get what they wanted. |
| 215 | * TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Gaia Cards aka Blackjack, each challenger faced has a cheat and although the player has one themselves... it isn't much in the ways of an advantage. |
| 216 | ** Just to clarify, your options are to make the dealer choose a new card or to look at one of their cards to see what your odds against them are. The first opponent has the ability to guarantee an Ace, which he will typically use if his hand equals 10 (guaranteeing him victory), the second opponent has the ability to throw out her hand and redraw, which she will typically use in the case of a bad hand, and the third opponent can use either of those abilities. |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | [[folder:Gaia Items]] |
| 220 | * AmuletOfConcentratedAwesome: Gaia loves to use this trope in its items. |
| 221 | * AscendedMeme: The Gino Gambino doll includes a "[[BigOlEyebrows Twinkie Brows]]" pose. |
| 222 | ** "Fremere's Copyright Infringement". GCD [=McSourface=] was not particularly displeased with that pose. |
| 223 | ** "The Cake of Pietro": now no longer [[TheCakeIsALie a lie!]] |
| 224 | * {{BFS}}: Several, including the Flame Sword, the Death Whisper's Claymore, the Red Sword of War, the Fremere's Guard Giga Blade, and the Onyx Bolster sword, obviously made to resemble [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud's]] BFS. |
| 225 | * {{BFG}}: The [[EvolvingWeapon Nano-C]] had given these out, although an older Monthly Collectible, the Assassin's Guise, had its sniper rifle based on the plot line. |
| 226 | * BilingualBonus: Several, of note is the "Untoten Gegner", which is German for 'undead opponent'. [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Hint hint.]] |
| 227 | * BloodKnight: From the Checkmate, we have the Black King, who enters battle with a sadistic expression on his face. |
| 228 | * BodyHorror: Penanggalan, a pose for the Nightmare EI, is the head of a cute young girl... and a string of exposed internal organs. [[{{Squick}} Euuugh.]] |
| 229 | ** Which is, actually, true to the mythical Penanggalan. |
| 230 | *** In fact, Gaia's Penanggalan is downright ''cute'' compared to some of the Penanggalan pictures you can find on the internet. |
| 231 | ** The Death Whisper embodies this trope so, so much. Would you like some bleeding eye sockets to go with that horribly mutilated zombie-like skin? |
| 232 | ** And from the Wrath of Gaia RIG, we have the Quintessence of Decay, which has a pose that gives your avatar ''rotting flesh''. |
| 233 | ** The aptly named [[http://www.tektek.org/gaia/price/9771/nightmare_fuel Nightmare Fuel item]], with such [[SarcasmMode wonderful poses]] as marred legs and your torso becoming a huge pair of jaws, among other things. |
| 234 | * BoomHeadshot: Referring to the Nano-C again, one of its poses from its final stage is, indeed, [[YourHeadAsplode your head being blown away]] and left with [[ChunkySalsaRule chunky salsa]]. |
| 235 | * BrainFood: "Monkey Brains" lets you hold the mutilated monkey head plus straw, as well as the ability to give your own head the same treatment. |
| 236 | * BuryYourGays: The original forms of [[LesYay Sainte Ciel]] got some accusations of this, since one path ended with Ciel [[MoreThanMindControl becoming]] [[PsychoLesbian evil]] and the other with a HeroicSacrifice. Gaia later released a third path which gives Ciel and Rosamund a happy ending. |
| 237 | * ChainsawGood: The Reve Rouille has one made out of a '''[[NinjaPirateZombieRobot mechanical shark]]'''! |
| 238 | * CircusOfFear - The Cirque du Gothique CI. |
| 239 | * ClockworkCreature: The mechanical shark from the Reve Rouille comes to mind. |
| 240 | * ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: The Bento Bunny controversy. |
| 241 | ** Utility Belt of August 2010. Though without the roughness. |
| 242 | * CuteKitten: [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/marketplace/itemdetail/45201 And]] [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/marketplace/itemdetail/40922 rarer]], [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/marketplace/itemdetail/43598 apparently]], to the ire of cat lovers across the site. Unsurprisingly, all three of those have come from [=RIGs=] (though later ones have came up with different animals as the rare prize, the kittens are the most well-remembered -- some even approaching [[LootDrama Ridill]] status.) |
| 243 | * DatingSim: The Love Charm RIG and its sequel. |
| 244 | * {{Defictionalization}}: Plenty of the pixel items on Gaia have been made into real products available through the Gaia store. |
| 245 | * DidNotGetTheGirl: Both outcomes for the Rapid EI Sainte Ciel; in Agape, Ciel [[HeroicSacrifice dies saving]] [[TakingtheBullet her princess]], while in Eros, she is seduced by a [[EvilTwin false princess]] and presumably killed... Averted in the new recolor [[HappilyMarried Storge]]. |
| 246 | * DuctTapeForEverything: An item from one of the Random Item Generators, including a pose where the avatar is apparently taped to the screen. |
| 247 | * ElementalHairComposition: Named literally "Elemental Hair", with FlamingHair, wind (and the softer, curlier breeze), earth, ice, water and life for choices. |
| 248 | * EscapedFromHell: The Hell Prison RIG is about Azrael trying to escape during a prison riot in the Underworld. |
| 249 | * EverythingsBetterWithSparkles: This is Rigel and Mintaka's philosophy on life, extending from the fictional Gaia world to users' inventories (where the sparkles are [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience color-coded]] to mark premium items.) |
| 250 | * EverythingsDeaderWithZombies: Gaia loves zombies. And now there's a potion item turning your avatar into a zombie! |
| 251 | ** The best item for this trope is George's Pipe. Comes complete with an ImprovisedWeapon (already well used, given the blood dripping from it), a zombie bite mark, a lady police zombie Heather and a business-casual zombie Harry. When your avatar is standing, Harry is just creeping up behind you. When kneeling and faced forward, Harry will be posed closer with his hand on your head. With your back turned, you get a very lovely pose where Harry is quite clearly nomming on your [[BrainFood sweet avatar think tank.]] |
| 252 | * FairyTale: The theme of the Snow Apple RIG, which features an Eskimo-themed [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/gaia-community-discussion/snow-apple-images-with-story-done/t.57104889/ retelling]] of ''Literature/SnowWhite'', and grants items based on classic tales such as "Donkeyskin" and "Literature/PussInBoots". |
| 253 | * FeatherBoaConstrictor: David Boa, Alruna's living feathered boa. |
| 254 | * FictionalCounterpart: Gaia tries very hard to have an item for everything, even and especially licensed things. |
| 255 | * FireAndBrimstoneHell: The Hell Prison CI featured a maximum security prison for the most evil things in Gaia. [[FallenAngel Azrael]] is one of them, and you must help him escape for a shot at a rare prize. |
| 256 | * TheFourGods: The Wrath of Gaia CI had the first few stages pit Gaia-tan against the polluted beasts Genbu (earth/trash), Byakko (fire/smoke), Suzaku (air/smog), and Seiryu (water/oil spills) attacking the city. Gaia-tan defeats them by cleaning them up. |
| 257 | * FrustratedOverheadScribble: Gaia Online has an equipable item called the Frustrated Mood Bubble which is a speech balloon containing a scribble. |
| 258 | * [[GaiasVengeance Gaia's Vengance]]: The Wrath of Gaia CI had you take [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Gaia-tan]] and destroy four beasts named after TheFourGods that were polluting the cities of Gaia. |
| 259 | * GratuitousForeignLanguage: "Centre de la Terre" - center of the Earth in French, although there is no other reason for this than because the poses 'Foret de Champignons' and 'Queue de Ichthyosaure' sound cooler than 'Forest of Mushrooms' and 'Ichthyosaurus Tail'... |
| 260 | ** The Lucha items are given Spanish names. 'El Dualidad de la Furia' - The Duality of Fury, a black and white lucha outfit. |
| 261 | ** Some of the Japanese mythology-influenced items, like the [[AsianFoxSpirit Inari's Beads]] and the [[{{Youkai}} Yama no (Kami no) Tamago]] have their pose names all in Japanese, among certain other items... |
| 262 | * HandCannon: A leaked future RIG features a ''[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Bolt Pistol]]'' among its possible items. |
| 263 | ** The Race Gun revolver is ''huge''. |
| 264 | ** Parodied hilariously with the "90's Comic Book Hero" item, which is based off of Creator/RobLiefeld's love of big guns, pouches and [[HandsInPockets convenient rocks]]. |
| 265 | ** The [[Franchise/BlackRockShooter Blue Rubble]] [[Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt Stocking]] item contains a huge gun that can only be held in one pose. Why? It's as tall as your avatar. |
| 266 | * HandsomeLech: An item bearing [[http://www.tektek.org/gaia/price/1001759/handsome_lech the same name]] can be yours, complete with grabby hands pose on the jacket and a treasure chest full of stolen lady's goods. |
| 267 | * HenshinHero: Reiko (Anima Adamantea) and the [[Franchise/SuperSentai G-]][[Franchise/PowerRangers Rangers]]. |
| 268 | * HerCodeNameWasMarySue: The Crystal Overdrive RIG took the form of Rina and Kanoko's attempt to co-write a fanfiction. Kanoko tried to center it around her character, an amalgamation of Mary Sue traits, while Rina tried to tone it down (mainly by shifting the focus to her version of Ian) and stick to the original story. |
| 269 | * HolyHalo: Many items, though the Angelic Halo was the first and most famous. |
| 270 | * IdiotHair: There is an item on Gaia [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin named this]] and has only one pose considered to be the generic idiot hair. Everything else is based on [[Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers Hetalia]]; what made this obvious was the white flag it came with. |
| 271 | ** Peyo has one, too. His doll refers to it as a "duck curl", which is fitting given Peyo's obsession with ducks. |
| 272 | * InnocentInnuendo: Subverted. Nobody's sure if delivery man Lance is aware of all the package-related innuendos he's saying or not. Lampshaded by Devin's over-the-top reactions to said innuendos. |
| 273 | ** Then again, Lance doesn't seem to be [[MrFanservice aware of his appearance's effects on straight girls and gay guys ]][[IDidntMeanToTurnYouOn (especially with Devin).]] |
| 274 | ** [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/marketplace/itemdetail/49005 Winter Groom]] and [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/marketplace/itemdetail/48935 Winter Bride]] are two items that come with a key pose and a lock pose, respectively. It doesn't seem like much when you first look at it, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic but once you think about it...]] |
| 275 | *** The Spring, Summer and Fall wedding sets have similar poses, going with the OldNewBorrowedAndBlue theme. |
| 276 | ** The Easter 09 item Fondue the Chocolate Bunny had as it's description "Let me coat your strawberries with my white chocolate." It has since been changed due to the obvious innuendo, as was his female counterpart, Sundae's Treat's description. |
| 277 | ** Note SDPlus #281 Fondue, Fondue's doll, has a description that says "My original offer still stands." Now think back on what his original description said... Oh yeah. |
| 278 | * KatanasAreJustBetter: The Ancient Katana, one of the earliest weapons, and also one of the most desired (and thus ''expensive''). |
| 279 | ** The katana from the Yama no Tamago might count, but it's longer and doesn't look as sharp as the very first katana. Nor is it anywhere near as popular/costly. |
| 280 | *** Gaia-sama, the BizarroWorld counterpart of [[MoeAnthropomorphism Gaia-tan]] has a katana as well. Considering that the aforementioned Gaia-tan has a sword with quite the girth... |
| 281 | * LetsMeetTheMeat: Sundae and Fondue, slutty anthropomorphic chocolate bunnies for Easter. Fondue's item description (now removed) about wanting to "cover your strawberries in my sweet white chocolate" is easily enough interpreted as sexual, but when FridgeLogic reminds you that he's ''made of said white chocolate'', things get a little more [[{{Squick}} disturbing]]. |
| 282 | * LifeMeter: [[LeetLingo "L33t Gamer"]] lets you have one. |
| 283 | * MaleGaze: Lampshaded by one of Ruby's old lines, which is retained by the doll in her likeness. |
| 284 | -->'''Ruby:''' MyEyesAreUpHere. |
| 285 | * MoodWhiplash: After a week filled with weird, rainbow-colored item updates (including one based off of Robot Unicorn Attack,) great EI evolutions and much-lauded site fixes, we got manga! [[spoiler:Gambino gets murdered!]] '''Goddamn'''. |
| 286 | ** [[http://gaia-artists.blogspot.com/2010/03/now-you-can-hate-me-again.html Parodied by Reapersun.]] |
| 287 | * MaskedLuchador: Now possible through the Lucha Libre outfits. |
| 288 | * MercurysWings: Has a few of these for items. The headwings and the feetwings are, naturally, separate items that must be purchased separately. |
| 289 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: Hey, Gaia! You know those Azrael's Trickboxes you were feverishly opening in October '09 in the pursuit of rare cats and dolls? [[spoiler:You unleashed [[http://s.cdn.gaiaonline.com/images/publishing/manga/984135259/55a586a2dba97df2814e05492b53147d.jpg an evil demigod]] while you were at it!]] |
| 290 | * NonhumanHumanoidHybrid: Gimpi, the hybrid angel/devil imp. |
| 291 | * PimpedOutDress: Gaia also has a lot of these. What really comes to mind is the white and gold dress from the Enchanted Book, a Cinderella-themed Evolving Item (which also happened to be obvious). The Picolitrosso's Urn also has two parts of a REALLY shiny pimped out dress. |
| 292 | ** Neither of which [[{{Pun}} hold a candle to]] the ridiculousness that is the [[http://www.tektek.org/gaia/price/?p=8871 Chandelier Gown]]. |
| 293 | ** Pretty much anything from Dernier* Cri. |
| 294 | ** And if you can't afford Gaia Cash or Dernier* Cri, the Victorian-themed dresses are pretty blingy, too. |
| 295 | * PowerCrystal: The Anima Adamantea and Fremere's Guard |
| 296 | ** In an artpiece released by the Anima's artist, it shows a girl (her name being Reiko, confirmed by Anima's final evolution) transforming into an Ultraman-like warrior, fighting bad guys and whatnot. Another art piece by the Fremere's Guard artist shows a male warrior standing alongside her. |
| 297 | *** And in a rather... touching mini-volution of the Fremere, the front reveals a flower with orange and blue petals, the very same found in one of the earlier arts of Fremere. But if you unequip everything except that pose and turn around, you can see both the Power Crystals of Fremere and Anima, one above the other. The name of the pose is "Caret initio et fine", or "It lacks a beginning and end", perhaps to show that the two souls are indeed intertwined. |
| 298 | *** Another pose involves a hairclip with the regular orange Fremere crystal, and two blue crystals (perhaps to show just how deeply Fremere and Reiko are intertwined). Eventually, it finishes with one of the new poses being a blue Fremere's Guard. |
| 299 | ** Jenzee, arist of the aforementioned Fremere's Guard, is at it again with her work on some poses for The Nightmare, an EI whose artist is always changing, with poses having quite a few power crystals: a blue-green crystal in the "Invidia" vest, a pink crystal inside the "Gula" beard-thing, and a headdress that is basically an accessory to Fremere (with its signature orange crystal). When the Nightmare ended its evolving, Jenzee snuck in one last pose, the missing "Pride" pose of her Sins theme. What does it look like, you ask? A gold lion head ornament and jewels hanging in the background, of all shapes and colors! |
| 300 | ** The headress quickly becomes more meaningful when one remembers that Fremere (of Fremere's Guard) is described as vehement and wrathful. The headress pose's name? ''Ira,'' the Latin word for wrath. |
| 301 | * PrinceCharming: Quite often male companions found in various items. |
| 302 | %%* ProngsOfPoseidon: Water Trident. |
| 303 | * RandomlyDrops: [=RIGs=] (Random Item Generators; Gaia's technical term for them is Chance Items, or [=CIs=], but [[FunWithAcronyms everyone loves a good acronym.]]) |
| 304 | ** RIG [[DoubleEntendre also works]] as a [[TakeThat reference to the obnoxious win/lose rates.]] Probably why the company pushes the term CI. |
| 305 | * RidiculouslyCuteCritter: The angel and devil imps in their 'plushie' forms. |
| 306 | ** Gaia has a LOT of these. Phee-chan, the cute little winged animal that comes with the Magical Girl monthly collectible, is a parody of this. Then again, the Magical Girl itself is a parody of the whole friggin' genre. |
| 307 | ** Radio Jack the doll as well as the real deal. [[KillerRabbit But you didn't hear it from me]]. |
| 308 | ** A staple of [=RIGs=], and invariably one of the very rarest prizes per RIG. |
| 309 | * ScheduleSlip: If an EI doesn't evolve the day it's supposed to, even ''with'' sufficient excuses as to why, expect ''nonstop bitching''. The Case of Pietro is the most infamous example, having undergone ''five'' evolutions between it's introduction and one year later(currently at 7 evos), though the Reve Rouille, Lyndexer's Journal and Hidden Ace got hit with this as well near their finales (all have since completed.) |
| 310 | * ShoulderCannon: Preda-Armor and a few versions of Nano-C have these |
| 311 | * ShoutOut: Man, ''many'' of the avatar items are tributes to some anime, game, movie, novel, or comic book. The monthly collectibles and RIG-only items in particular are based off of pre-existing properties and even memes; some are rather obvious, while a few are more obscure. |
| 312 | * SignatureStyle: Sometimes it's easy to guess which artists have worked on which items, due to common recurring elements; pepper-tea's items, for example, are usually filled with intricate gold details, Jenzee has a penchant for [[PowerCrystal Power Crystals]], and [=DrinkyTengu's=] items are mostly [[AuthorAppeal based off of Japanese myths.]] |
| 313 | * SmokingIsCool: There are a few tobacco-related items on sale in Gaia. A brief attempt at banning them caused Gaia a great deal of backlash, mostly because of the poor communication involved in the ban. Not to mention the incredibly poor implementation. Sure, you couldn't buy cigarettes in the gold shops... but there were far, ''far'' more offensive items available across the site. During the backdraft, it was a pretty common sight to see people displaying the most outrageously inappropriate avatars they could put together, while sarcastically claiming that it was obviously okay because at least they weren't ''smoking''. |
| 314 | * SpacePirates: The theme for the Neon Core CI. [[spoiler:Flynn]] is the heroine pirate. |
| 315 | [[/folder]] |
| 316 | |
| 317 | [[folder:Gaia Manga / Mini comics]] |
| 318 | * BlackComedyRape: Becky's fear of Halloween comes from getting assaulted by a stallion as a child while in a horse costume with a friend. The horse now appears as the bonus pose in Becky's doll. |
| 319 | * GratuitousJapanese: The storyline comics, which are referred to as manga for no sensible reason. |
| 320 | * InstantDeathBullet: Vladimir Von Helson. Averted by Gambino and Ian, excused by a FusionDance subplot and by spending the next update bedridden in a hospital, respectively (how Ian's vampirism wasn't exposed at this time is a mystery). |
| 321 | ** Rosalie in a flashback. Possibly subverted depending on how clearly Ian remembers the event. |
| 322 | ** [[spoiler: Done correctly by Gambino the second time around. The ChunkySalsaRule comes into play.]] |
| 323 | * ImportantHaircut: Gino Gambino cut off his yard-long hair in the manga that is conveniently titled "A New Man". Though he failed at making it look remotely decent, he later got it styled at Brennivin's shop. |
| 324 | * NoOneCouldSurviveThat: You'd think being shot and then falling off a tower would kill you. You'd be wrong. And don't even get me started on the people the tower ''fell on''. |
| 325 | ** How about that EarthShatteringKaboom that, with over half a dozen people at Ground Zero, had only one casualty? [[spoiler: Or did it?]] |
| 326 | ** Lampshaded in the manga "A New Man", in which Gino talks about some of Gaia's history, and states that Gaians are just really hard to kill. |
| 327 | *** Which still doesn't explain how ''other Gaians'' thought he was dead at one point... |
| 328 | * OddJobGods: Many of Gaia's demigods are in charge of things like lost change or stylish facial hair. The one who Gaians raced to save in the [[VideoGame/TheOregonTrail Summer 2010 event]] is in charge of [[spoiler: spoilage. As in, curdled milk and moldy leftovers.]] Edmund and Brennivan decide it'd be best [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain not to tell anyone,]] given how [[NintendoHard arduous and often downright lethal]] the quest had been. |
| 329 | * ParentalIncest: The 2008 prom manga showed Timmy trying to build up the courage to ask Dr Singh to be his date for the prom, and his anger at being pipped to the post by Lance. It was revealed much later that Singh has actually raised Timmy from an early age, which might hint towards an unintentional gender-flipped WifeHusbandry by Singh. |
| 330 | * PlotRelevantAgeUp: Gino - after an incident that [[FusionDance merged him with his father]], he was aged up from 16 to 19-ish so he could go and woo Sasha. Gino and Johnny ''separated'' later, putting him back at his original age. |
| 331 | ** Gino's profile originally included a date of birth for him. Gino is actually in his early twenties, making him college age. After profile format changed, things like date of birth were not visible to general public on the default setting. Most NPC profiles haven't changed the default settings so many forget Gino's age and base in on appearance. It's not that he's not aging, just that the artists are slow on updating his design. |
| 332 | ** Timmy, who went through megapuberty and was age-accelerated to adulthood. |
| 333 | * PlotHole: A lot of them. It's been joked in the GCD that even the writers don't follow the storyline any more. |
| 334 | * SelfFulfillingProphecy: The Halloween '08 plot was launched when an old FortuneTeller peered into her CrystalBall and proclaimed that doom would fall upon Gaia and that only one "group" would survive or all would die. Four of Gaia's races assumed that "group" referred to race and immediately fell at each others' throats. Turned out they [[ProphecyTwist misunderstood the meaning of the prophecy]] - it referred to the appearance of the Animated. |
| 335 | * StripPoker: How does the "plot" behind the [=LeXBox=] RIG get kickstarted? This was suggested (and later played on) by, out of all things, the ''Cardbot''. |
| 336 | * {{Stripperiffic}}: The Overseer and the Sentinel in the "When Gods Fall" minigame. |
| 337 | ** Somewhat justified; their crash course in Homelessness 101 did involve a search for clothing...however, the game portrayed Sentinel as a compulsive pyromaniac, so they never really got to keep anything they found. |
| 338 | * TongueOnTheFlagpole: The "[=FanservICE=]" mini-comic. |
| 339 | * ViolationOfCommonSense: Rosalie's death resulted from one. Trying to kidnap her babies away from Vladimir is kind of stupid and dramatic, but understandable. Bitching at him about it when she got caught? Less so. |
| 340 | ** Arguably, most of the comics violate common sense in some way. |
| 341 | * TheVirus: The G-Virus. Possibly Serum 3A as well, as Gambino mentions it's one of his [[http://i44.tinypic.com/2cfwion.jpg "early failures."]] |
| 342 | ** 3A is a subversion; [[EvilutionaryBiologist Gambino]] considers it a failure because it ''didn't make the subjects aggressive enough.'' |
| 343 | * WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler: Edmund, for giving his best friend Johnny Gambino's growing paranoia a cold dismissal.]] |
| 344 | * {{Yonkoma}}: The mini-comics. |
| 345 | [[/folder]] |
| 346 | |
| 347 | [[folder:Gaia [=NPCs=] ]] |
| 348 | * AerithAndBob: The cast of [=NPCs=] averted this for a while, mostly consisting of names like Ian and Johnny, with the least "normal" probably being Moira or Anna Corinne. Later additions like Cresento and Nicolae eventually shoved Gaia into this trope. Then you have the vast collection of usernames; many people think of their avatars as characters with some place in TheVerse, and even if you only count the three users who have definitively become part of canon, none of them had particularly average names. |
| 349 | ** Nicolae isn't not too bad, just a variant of Nicholas. |
| 350 | * AmbiguouslyGay: Lance |
| 351 | * AnthropomorphicPersonification: The holiday spirits, as well as Saiph and [[http://i495.photobucket.com/albums/rr316/glamorousthorn/lonelystar_stars.jpg his]] [[http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs46/f/2009/203/c/a/Lonely_Star___Gemini_Twins_by_junosama.jpg fellow]] [[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v259/monsu/con_hatsya.jpg stars]] from the Fallen Wish and Lonely Star items. |
| 352 | ** Since then, Saiph's and Hatsya's siblings [[http://i48.tinypic.com/2hs2es2.jpg Mintaka and Rigel]] have appeared, and they all come from the same constellation: Orion ([[http://i50.tinypic.com/160d8jk.jpg who also happens to be their dad]]). |
| 353 | * AntiVillain: While still arguably the Halloween '09 villain, Sentinel ''has'' garnered respect and sympathy from B.O.O. and S.I.N. members alike because of her troubles. |
| 354 | * AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Timmy, after becoming an evolving item. |
| 355 | * AxCrazy: After being locked up and tortured by demons for 1000 years, the Sentinel wasn't exactly playing with a full deck after she was released, though she has calmed down somewhat since then. |
| 356 | * BadassNormal: Edmund, also a BadassBookworm. |
| 357 | ** Moira, until her {{badass decay}}ed in 2007. She's never really recovered it. |
| 358 | ** Many Gaians, if they make their avatars as their original characters, can be Badass Normal as well. Considering that many others tend to be non-human in general... |
| 359 | * BalladOfX: Ballad of the Overseer; can be considered Overseer's {{Leitmotif}}. |
| 360 | * BeardOfEvil: Timmy and Labtech Gene. Dr. Singh wore a fake one to stop them from being suspicious of her. |
| 361 | ** Vladimir Von Helson had a goatee with a skunk stripe in it. |
| 362 | * {{Bifauxnen}}: Cordell. |
| 363 | * BigBad: Mr. Gambino at first before Von Helson |
| 364 | * TheBigGuy: Bucho, an imposing figure and head of security for the Gambino Family. |
| 365 | * BigOlEyebrows: Gambino family trademark, source of the "twinkie brows" meme. Especially noticeable with Gino when he was little, but pretty hard to miss with either of them. |
| 366 | * BindleStick: Adult Timmy used one of these when he had to climb a mountain in search of Spirutal Enlightenment. |
| 367 | * BizarroUniverse: One of Gaia's RIG's, the "Dark Reflection," shows many AU Gaians, from Rufus being the human and Ian as the cat, to Nice Girl Moira and Punk Sasha (throwbacks to an old thread in the GCD where users would give [=NPCs=] "makeovers" by editing their sprites). It also includes "Alrunette," everyone's favorite succubus except [[LighterAndSofter nice and innocent]], [[SnakeOilSalesman Nicolae]] as a priest, and much much more. The star of this EI is Kanoko again, except now she plays an [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Alice-like role, with Radio Jack as the White Rabbit]], [[{{Pun}} mirroring]] the story of ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There''. |
| 368 | * BumblingDad: Johnny K. Gambino. He's a [[GeniusDitz brilliant man]] who can play the stock market like nobody's business, but he cannot for the life of him remember to keep an eye on his only son and future heir, even after said son has already been kidnapped by vampires ''twice'', [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat jumped headfirst off a collapsing skyscraper]], and [[EarthShatteringKaboom kersploded with enough force to attract the attention of aliens from halfway across the galaxy]] [[spoiler: and [[EarthShatteringKaboom tear a hole in reality]] ]]. |
| 369 | ** Even more impressive? Being a BumblingDad is a step ''up'' for Gambino. He'd previously been seen openly abusing/neglecting his son, up to and including sponsoring development of [[TheVirus the G-Virus]] to toughen him up. |
| 370 | * CampGay: Devin's latest art update put him in a pink blouse. |
| 371 | * CanonDisContinuity: The Moira/Louie Relationship from the animated shorts was ''so awkward'' that Gaia had Moira take the vampire cure and break up with Louie by the next update. |
| 372 | ** Though that's since been mended to a "love-hate" relationship; rumor has it Moira's profile lists Louie as both "Like" and "Dislike". |
| 373 | * CaptainErsatz: Old man [[ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} Logan]], that is all. |
| 374 | ** Peyo, is the creator of [[ComicBook/TheSmurfs those little blue and white creatures]] in the forest. |
| 375 | ** Vladimir Von Helson, lord of Gaia's vampires [[strike: until his [[DroppedABridgeOnHim untimely demise]]]], had the voice actor of Dracula from ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight''. |
| 376 | ** Quite a few items make it easy for your avatar to become a CaptainErsatz. [[http://www.tektek.org/avatar/33149145 Say hello]] to the [[VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou Shibuya]] [[Franchise/KingdomHearts Nobody]] and the Keytarblade. That is just one of many. In fact, "cosplay" is a category in the Avatar Arena. |
| 377 | ** Rigel, Mintaka, and their pet Dark Kitten Star: a grown man, woman, and their talking animal sidekick planning something to defeat the "heroes" by cheating. [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Now why does that sound familiar...]] |
| 378 | * CatchPhrase: |
| 379 | ** Timmy says JEEPERS! |
| 380 | ** Gambino's EvilLaugh. To the point that [[LampshadeHanging he gets offended when other people start doing it]]. |
| 381 | %%* CheerfulChild: Rina. |
| 382 | %%** Now that Rina's hit puberty, Peyo's taken on the role. |
| 383 | %%* TheChewToy: Gino. But before that, Ian took up the honor of being gaia's ButtMonkey. |
| 384 | %%** Timmy also carried the role in the Evolving Item subplots. |
| 385 | * ClingyJealousGirl: Anne and Marie Von Helson have pretty much been stalking Liam non-stop since he seduced them in '07, driving away any girl he so much as looks at. Since this is [[HandsomeLech Liam]] we're talking about, they have their work cut out for them... |
| 386 | * EvilTwin + Clone = T-Bone aka Evil Timmy, who is currently under house arrest for being an ''endearing'' kind of evil who just wanted to take over the world and shroud it in the eternal pain and darkness of smooth jazz. |
| 387 | %%* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Johnny K. Gambino |
| 388 | %%* CreepyChild: Timmy and Peyo, after Timmy's... infection. |
| 389 | %%* CuteClumsyGirl: Kanoko, particularly in the beginning of the Dark Reflection RIG. |
| 390 | %%* DeadpanSnarker: Gino's been edging toward this role since '07. |
| 391 | %%* DevilsPitchfork: Demonic Pitchfork. |
| 392 | %%* TheDitz: Sasha and Liam. Mostly Sasha, as Liam builds robots and is seen often to be well aware of his image. |
| 393 | * EarlyBirdCameo: |
| 394 | ** Brennivin first appeared as the 'mysterious man' in the Dark Reflection's GameOver scenario. |
| 395 | ** Kanoko was introduced in [=RIGs=] months before the luxury shop opened. |
| 396 | ** Nicolae appeared in the '08 Olympics comics, and again in the comics for Halloween '08, before formally being introduced in the ''zOMG!'' intro manga and setting up shop to sell [[PowerUp Power-Ups]]. |
| 397 | ** The Perfect Tragedy RIG brought with it two [=SDPlus=] dolls of characters named Rigel and Mintaka -- both named after [[StellarName stars in Orion]], and both dressed similarly to Saiph and Hatsya. The "Sparkilicious" manga later revealed them to be their [[LargeHam overdramatic]] older siblings. |
| 398 | * EmergencyTransformation: Moira was turned into a vampire after falling from a falling Ferris wheel during the Halloween '07 plot. (However, she was later cured.) |
| 399 | * EnemyWithout: Timmy. He was infected and taken over by [[ManOfWealthAndTaste pure evil]], then later separated from it with a giant centrifuge. |
| 400 | * EveryoneIsBi: |
| 401 | ** In 2009's Valentine's Day event, only Devin, Vanessa, and Liam showed any gender preference ([[PetHomosexual Devin]] and Vanessa refused valentines from users with female avatars, Liam refused valentines from users with male avatars). |
| 402 | ** Since 2010, a series of DatingSim-themed Chance Items have consistently had the same partner options/dialogue regardless of the player's gender. |
| 403 | * EvilLaugh: Somewhat justified, since Gambino originally was a BigBad. He's since mellowed somewhat, but is still prone to cutting loose if he's coming up with "a scheme". |
| 404 | * EvilMakeover: After being infected with pure evil, Timmy [[EvilCostumeSwitch started wearing a suit]], [[GoodHairEvilHair slicked his hair back]], and [[BeardOfEvil grew a beard.]] Basically, he morphed into a ManOfWealthAndTaste. Except he was still a child. |
| 405 | * EvilutionaryBiologist: Johnny K. Gambino, the man responsible for the dreaded G-virus. |
| 406 | ** Not to mention Dr. Singh, who got annoyed with her young assistant Timmy and put him in a barrel of G-Corp waste, then spent the next few weeks gleefully observing his mutation. And promptly paid the price when he nearly ate her. |
| 407 | * FallenAngel: Azrael. There are also items based on his attire named "Fall of the [[Literature/ParadiseLost Morning Star]]"/"Fall of the Evening Star" (nods to [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]], as he is associated with Venus, the Morning Star). |
| 408 | * {{Flanderization}}: Timmy started out as Dr. Singh's [[ThePollyanna upbeat]], ditzy but fairly smart, {{Keet}} assistant. He's now rather clueless, compared to his original persona. As a result, a lot of fans have [[TheScrappy gotten tired of him]]. |
| 409 | ** Devin's [[PetHomosexual sexuality]]. Seriously, guys. He's gay. Can we focus on somebody else now? Please? |
| 410 | ** Gino started out as a shy little boy who had terrible things happen to him. But then bad things started piling on to him more and more to the point where he's now just considered a whiny ButtMonkey who seems to just be destiny's joke. |
| 411 | *** Possibly subverted; Gino's the focal point of the current storyline and is ''trying'', bless his heart, to get some serious CharacterDevelopment. |
| 412 | %%* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires: Louie and Ian. |
| 413 | * FunnyForeigner: Brennivin has very broken English... and an obsession with fashion that sometimes leads him to gush over outfits while ignoring the person wearing them. |
| 414 | ** During the Christmas 2K9 event, he wanted to use the Sentinel's hair for a scarf. |
| 415 | * FusionDance: Gambino and Gino fused after one was assassinated (don't ask), which wasn't revealed until Labtech X injected Gino with a catalyst that ultimately separated them. This is the event that resulted in Gino's PlotRelevantAgeUp. |
| 416 | %%* GenkiGirl: Rina. And Candice (or as she prefers to be called, "Kandi".) |
| 417 | * GranolaGirl: Devin. He's what's known as an ultra-vegan; he'll only eat plants if they died a natural death without human interference, but he'll make an exception for chicken pot pies ("Pie Hard"). |
| 418 | * HandsomeLech: Liam and Edmund both seem to have a way with the ladies. |
| 419 | %%* HeterosexualLifePartners: Liam and Gino (Who moved in for a week in 2007... it's 2009.) Though in the "Fallen Gods" manga, Liam kicked him out... [[DisproportionateRetribution for embarrassing him while]] ''[[DisproportionateRetribution possessed]]''. |
| 420 | * {{Hobos}}: Good Ole Pete, who has a taste for brass polish and discarded sandwichs which he finds on bus seats. |
| 421 | ** The Overseer and Sentinel were this too after being de-powered but before getting their airship. |
| 422 | * HollywoodGenetics: Vladimir Von Helson had dark brown hair. Rosalie had blonde hair. Their sons Ian and Louie have pure black hair. Louie could be [[HandWave explained]] as dying it for the goth aesthetic, but Ian has ''stated'' that this is his natural hair color. |
| 423 | * HotLibrarian: Cindy Donovinh apparently runs the archives where records of past events are kept. |
| 424 | * IDoNotDrinkWine: Averted and explained in "Pie Hard" (Louie and Ian were finalists in the pie-eating contest). Gaian vampires ''can'' eat human-style food, they just find it unpleasant. By [[FridgeBrilliance some miracle]], this also justifies an unused storyline where Louie was shilling a [[VegetarianVampire soy-based blood substitute]]. |
| 425 | * InnocentFlowerGirl: Averted by Rina, who is a GenkiGirl and also a bit of a CovertPervert. |
| 426 | ** Let's not forget that she joined S.I.N. in the 2009 Halloween event. |
| 427 | * {{Jerkass}}: Dr Singh, who often abuses Timmy. She seemed to be turning into a JerkWithAHeartOfGold for a short while after Timmy was separated from his evil counterpart, but returned to her old Jerkass self after Timmy was jailed, to the extent where she left him to walk fifty miles while bleeding from stab wounds, made him continue to present the show with her before he had any medical attention, told him off for his lackluster performance and then claimed he was ungrateful when he called her out on it. |
| 428 | ** Singh seems to have reached KarmaHoudini status since Timmy became an Evolving Item. |
| 429 | ** Cresento. He crushes the Hoboverseer's puny ship and does not give a flying crap about it or its pilot. |
| 430 | * KissingCousins: Ivan and Meredith in the [[BizarroUniverse Dark Reflection]]. Subverted when main-Ivan gives [[{{Squick}} his opinion on the subject]]. |
| 431 | * TheKlutz: Prakash Singh, Dr. Singh's younger eccentric brother. He opens doors on his own face and when he gets too excited... he faints. |
| 432 | * LargeAndInCharge: Johnny K. Gambino, though his actual height and proportions vary with the artist. |
| 433 | %%** Labtech X, [[spoiler: justified]] |
| 434 | * LargeHam: The Overseer. [[NakedPeopleAreFunny FEELS GOOD, MAN!]] |
| 435 | %%** Gambino, minus the clamminess. [[EvilLaugh BWA HA HA HA HAAAAA!]] |
| 436 | * LetXBeTheUnknown: Labtech X, who was Gaia's biggest enigma for ''four years'' until [[spoiler: we learned a bit more about him in zOMG!]] |
| 437 | * LoveMakesYouEvil: Most prominently, Vladimir Von Helson and Johnny K. Gambino, who went from a rivalry to full-blown war when Rosalie got involved. To a lesser extent, Ian and Gino also got much more unstable when Sasha was on the line (Gino had an [[FusionDance excuse]]). |
| 438 | * MadScientist: |
| 439 | ** Gambino ''started'' G-Corp [[spoiler: and created at least one clone of himself.]] |
| 440 | %%** Edmund led G-Corp at one point. |
| 441 | %%** [[spoiler: Labtech 123, aka Frank]] |
| 442 | %%* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Gino Gambino - even though he's male. |
| 443 | * TheMafia: The Kuro Gang, which is basically a mafia of dark elves. (Apparently, instead of living underground, dark elves ''are'' the underground.) |
| 444 | * MayDecemberRomance: Edmund (old enough that he knew Old Man Logan when he was Young Man Logan) and Vanessa (hangs out with teenagers and doesn't look a day over twenty-five) |
| 445 | * MrFanservice: Believe it or not, among all the macho bishie pretty boys on the site, ''Edmund'' is the character all the girls want. Apparently battle scarred old stuffy men is in now amongst teenage girls. |
| 446 | * MsFanservice: Almost all of the female [=NPCs=] show copious amounts of skin or wear very tight clothing. |
| 447 | * NoAccountingForTaste: Apparently Agatha and Logan were a couple once. Their daughter opened a pet store for fish. The mind boggles. |
| 448 | * NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Ron Bruise, a boxer-shorts-clad stand-in for Tom Cruise. |
| 449 | ** And the [[strike: Hilton]] Von Helson sisters. |
| 450 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: Quite possibly invoked by Labtech 123. In under a year, he went from completely clueless to competent enough to re-engineer the lost G-Virus. |
| 451 | ** [[spoiler: He gets away with it ''again'' in zOMG!]] |
| 452 | * OneWingedAngel: Gino, after an injection from X. |
| 453 | * PerkyGoth: Moira, with a touch of {{tsundere}}. |
| 454 | * PetHomosexual: Devin. Upsetting because [[{{Flanderization}} there USED to be more to him...]] |
| 455 | ** [[LivingProp No. There wasn't.]] |
| 456 | * PluckyOfficeGirl and OfficeLady: Meredith is one. She mentions during Ian's trial that she graduated from college at the age of fifteen, proving that she has the intelligence and motivation to do greater things, but after all these years she's still just a half-forgotten bank teller. |
| 457 | ** Additionally, one of her lines, back when she had NPC dialogue, stated that she'd developed SuperStrength from hauling sacks of gold around. And let's not forget that during [[CanonDisContinuity Prom '08]], she was scripted to be the only one brave enough to dance with [[AndCallHimGeorge Bludeau]]. |
| 458 | *** A RIG has her going full Superhero for a while. |
| 459 | * PowersThatBe: The "Giant Holy Head" a {{God}}-type being that appeared to Adult Timmy as a... giant human head, who [[YouLookFamiliar looked rather familiar]] by the way. The Giant Holy Head took pity upon Timmy and his unfortunate life (mainly due to Dr. Singh's [[SarcasmMode wonderful parental skills]]), and gave him three arbitrary options to change it (with the help of his fellow Gaians!!). The choices were 1) [[DeusExMachina Become a child]] again and be placed with a suitable guardian, 2) Shed his mortal form and [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence become an Evolving Item]] or 3) Divine punishment for Dr. Singh. |
| 460 | * PreacherMan: Pastor Gork, the holy person and follower of the "Universal Fellowship of Nonspecific Worship". He witnessed the awesome power of The Sentinel and was openly honest about telling Adult Timmy he didn't have a soul (due to [[ScienceIsBad genetic tampering]]). |
| 461 | * ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[http://www.gaiaonline.com/newsroom/index.php?type=manga&id=984135226&page=9&start=1#reading Don Kuro]] the dark elf. Despite looking like a five-year-old, he's actually 800 years old. |
| 462 | * RedEyesTakeWarning: Johnny K. Gambino is the most obvious, appropriate since he was originally a BigBad [[VillainWithGoodPublicity with good publicity]]. |
| 463 | ** Lex is a perfect aversion. His red eyes get him a lot of questions about Gambino, but he just works at the casino and sometimes does Elvis impersonations. |
| 464 | ** Of course, since Johnny has red eyes, [[spoiler:that means current BigBad Labtech X has them too, being his clone. You never see them though.]] |
| 465 | ** Vladimir Von Helson's doll confirms him to have (had?) heterochromatic eyes, one of which is red. |
| 466 | * ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Johnny K. Gambino. Oh, the shenanigans he's gotten into over the years. Interestingly enough, he began life penniless and made his fortune gambling ... |
| 467 | ** [[ScrewTheRulesIHavePlot ... in one day.]] |
| 468 | * ScoutOut: The Wing Scouts, [[CallBack made up of some of the orphans from the Christmas 2007 event]], who can exchange Wing Stickers for items. |
| 469 | * SheIsAllGrownUp: Rina. [[http://s.cdn.gaiaonline.com/images/store2/xmas_rina.png?4/ Just, Rina]]. |
| 470 | * ShipSinking: Mainly Ian/Louie/Gino (all outed as siblings in '07, amidst drama), Kuro/Devin ("[[BreakingTheFourthWall Seriously, guys. This isn't canon.]]"), Ivan/Meredith ("... she's my ''[[{{Squick}} cousin]]''."), and Jaws/Overseer ("WTF is this $#17"). |
| 471 | * SocialServicesDoesNotExist: Inverted. There is apparently some kind of Child Protection Services in the Gaia universe, but it ''sucks''. Examples: |
| 472 | ** A Christmas event in 2007 had users fostering orphans, who had it so badly at the orphanage that they could only stomach crappy food (or food substitutes: genuine imitation gruel, anybody?). |
| 473 | ** Liam has apparently been completely on his own since age five. Some fans have theorized that he grew up at the abovementioned orphanage. |
| 474 | ** Gino Gambino, full stop. |
| 475 | *** Debatable, since he grew up before Gaia's social services were introduced. He was playing the trope straight at the time. |
| 476 | ** Timmy being fostered/adopted by Doctor Singh, who abused him and subjected him to zany experiments. |
| 477 | * TalkingAnimal: Rufus and Radio Jack. Subverted with Carl the Elk, who's not even a talking elk, just a regular old elk that runs a thrift store for some reason... (with the exception of stock NPC messages, such as for Halloween and Christmas events) |
| 478 | * TwoferTokenMinority: Josie, the former real estate agent (now the store NPC for Global Imports,) is black and female. |
| 479 | ** Devin is nonwhite, vegan, and gay. Threefer! |
| 480 | * ValleyGirl: [[TheDitz Sasha]], but only in her shop dialogue. In the manga, she's pretty coherent and occasionally even shows some common sense. This seems to have been toned down a bit since her shop's updating. Except when she shows off the poem she wrote for her community college course. |
| 481 | * TheVamp: The Von Helson twins. At least, until they were swayed by the power of Liam's "pythons." (For those who are confused, the illustration showed him flexing his biceps.) |
| 482 | * VegetarianVampire: Almost. An officially-unreleased (but [[CanonDisContinuity unofficially-released]]) comic had Louie sponsoring a soy-based blood substitute. Had this comic been canon, Louie would have been a ''literal'' vegetarian vampire. |
| 483 | * VillainWithGoodPublicity: Johnny K. Gambino, most of the Von Helson family until Halloween '07 ended (Vlad [[DroppedABridgeOnHim died]], the Twins and Louie got a case of BadassDecay, and Zhivago's on the run). |
| 484 | [[/folder]] |
| 485 | |
| 486 | ---- |
| 487 | !!''zOMG!'', Gaia's MMORPG contains examples of these tropes: |
| 488 | |
| 489 | [[folder:zOMG!]] |
| 490 | * AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The Barton Sewers, which are also the game's NoobCave. |
| 491 | * ActionGirl: Blaze. |
| 492 | * AffectionateParody: The entire Old Aqueduct area is an extended parody of the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' and ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' franchises, with other scatterd homages to other Sc-Fi franchises such as Film/MenInBlack, Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}, and ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. Dying in the Hive Mini Game results in a "GAME OVER MAN!" Message, and even mentions nuking the place from Orbit. They even have Face Huggers and Chest Bursters as items! |
| 493 | * AnchorsAway: Anchor Bugs and Sea Anchor Bugs, which can launch their anchor heads at you. You can also get a recipe to make an anchor for your avatar to wield too. |
| 494 | * AppliedPhlebotinum: Null crystals. They fuel your weapons and teleport you from place to place. One quest even charges you with bringing an Animated-influenced item to the Null Chamber in order to revert it back to normal. |
| 495 | * AprilFoolsDay: The [=OmniDrink=]-sponsored quest and new area. [[spoiler:The game crashed when you tried to travel to the new area, after the LoadingScreen mocked you for five minutes.]] |
| 496 | ** Can't forget Airshark can we? It's practically what made the event. |
| 497 | * AssKicksYou: The Bump ring, according to flavor text ("Turn that hip around and bump your enemies away!"). |
| 498 | %%* BeeAfraid: Hornet's Nest. |
| 499 | * BeehiveBarrier: The Improbability Sphere. |
| 500 | * BerserkButton: Go to the forums and [[ReadTheFreakingManual ask how to sell rings]]. HilarityEnsues. |
| 501 | * {{BFG}}: Guns Guns Guns, mostly as you use 3/4 to all of your rage with it. |
| 502 | * BossInMookClothing: |
| 503 | ** Otherwise known as "those damn Masks". The early October 2009 update made Masks of Death and Rebirth extremely dangerous to fight due to their spamming of three status effects depending on its current state. The first pins you to the spot, the second puts you to sleep, the third makes you lose all control of your character and rings while it is free to chip away at your health. Woe to you if you have to fight one (or a group!) alone without the willpower to resist those effects. |
| 504 | ** Mother Fluffs may also qualify, since they can incite other usually-docile fluffs to attack you as well. |
| 505 | * BreastPlate: Played straight by Lin. |
| 506 | ** Averted by the female members of the Barton Guard, who wear the same armor as their male counterparts. This CAN lead to ViewerGenderConfusion since some of the male faces can look very feminine and the female faces can look very masculine. |
| 507 | * BribingYourWayToVictory: Power-ups are primarily bought with Gaia Cash, which requires real monies. Though they are also allowed to be resold on the Marketplace, inevitably for high amounts of Gaia Gold. Rings also used to be allowed to be freely sold, before the [[ArtisticLicenseEconomics massive backlash of this trope]]. |
| 508 | * CallBack: Pay attention to the intro, it will be on the exam. While you're at it, read all the old comics too. |
| 509 | * CharacterSelectForcing: Downplayed. In Dead Man's Shadow, a [[VideoGame/{{Zork}} Grue]] can randomly attack your party. This is not an actual enemy encounter, but a rare scripted event. If you are not carrying Solar Rays when the Grue strikes, you are instantly KO'd. However, you only need Solar Rays if you are in the area during a rather short window of time. The best way to get around the Grue is by simply not being in Dead Man's Shadow during the time frame he's known to strike: midnight to 1 AM Gaia time. Avoiding the area for what translates into ten real life minutes allows you to easily avoid taking Solar Rays. |
| 510 | * CognizantLimbs: [[spoiler:Sealab X. It's got the tail, the body, the left arm, the right arm, and the head.]] |
| 511 | ** [[spoiler: The body-and-arms phase of the fight is probably the best example, since you fight them all at once. Note that the phase ends when the body is destroyed, whether or not you've killed the arms, so most crews will just aim for the body.]] |
| 512 | * ContinuityNod: The True Believers and the GIB at the Old Aqueduct were both originally founded by players. |
| 513 | ** Air Shark, originally a fan elaboration on the AprilFoolsDay joke, has become an actual Animated monster that occasionally drops bombs on Barton Town. |
| 514 | ** Not to mention the Chyaku Norisu Clan, which was named after a Monthly Collectible scarf. (Which was named after... [[Creator/ChuckNorris You know...]]) |
| 515 | * CosmeticAward: More specifically, often as not quests are rewarded with a "recipe" that you can take to the local tinker to make into some spiffy item you can [[AndYourRewardIsClothes wear]] or carry around, but doesn't actually affect your stats. |
| 516 | ** Done for a reason -- they didn't want to go through every single item Gaia Online had and add stats to it. |
| 517 | * CollectionSidequest: Not as rampant as in some other [=MMOs=], but still there. |
| 518 | ** The repeatable quests include quite a few of this nature, edging into TwentyBearAsses territory. |
| 519 | ** The badges. The main site will track the ones for killing certain numbers of each type of enemy, but other flavors (such as finding a certain location of the map) aren't hinted at. There are also the holiday-only badges, which may or may not be lost depending on whether the same type of activity is repeated next year. |
| 520 | *** Also with a hint of GuideDangIt: The Tiny Terrors at the Old Aqueduct and the Anchor Bugs on the Buccaneer Boardwalk do NOT count toward their respective kill badges. |
| 521 | * CoolAirship: Captain Cresento's airship, which appeared for the April Fool's Day event. |
| 522 | * CriticalAnnoyance: A heartbeat sound if you're low on health, heavy panting if you're low on Stamina. And they don't get muted if you turn off game sounds or turn down the volume in the options menu. |
| 523 | * CuteMonsterGirl: Multiple: |
| 524 | ** The Water Spouts, which are all extremely curvaceous humanoid females formed of Animated water, and turned up to 11 with the pictures of them that are shown on the loading screens. |
| 525 | ** The vampiresses in Dead Man's Shadow. Few are the crews who can completely avoid cracking at least one suggestive joke about them during a run. |
| 526 | * DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Getting KO'd by Animated, of course. In a more meta example, WordOfGod is that the death of [[spoiler:Johnny K. Gambino]] in the comic will not keep him from being involved in ''[=zOMG!=]'' [[spoiler: Though this may be a HalfTruth, since ''his clone'' is plotting to take over Gaia with the Animated, which means he's already involved.]] |
| 527 | * DerelictGraveyard: Deadman's Pass. |
| 528 | * DevelopmentHell: Now officially on the back-burner due to lack of interest (read, [[MoneyDearBoy revenue]]). |
| 529 | * DevelopersRoom: The bar in Barton Town. |
| 530 | * DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: The Taunt ring is a literal example, at higher rage ranks your avatar will perform mosaic'd hand gestures and even shout bleeped obscenities at the Animated. |
| 531 | * DuctTapeForEverything: The Duct Tape ring allows you to bind your enemies for a short while. |
| 532 | * DudeWheresMyRespect: Averted. Once you reach a high enough level, the [=NPCs=] handing out the repeatable quests go, "I should stop wasting your time here, you probably have better things to do. I'll handle the rest myself." Then you can [[WillfullyWeak suppress your level]] and they'll conveniently forget that you have better things to do. |
| 533 | * EnoughToGoAround: Happens in a few quests, such as rescuing Farmer Bill's prize cow. Personal experience includes seeing a half-dozen cows labeled "Stoocie" gathered around Bill after a crew had just turned in the quest. Other supposedly unique items exist only in text, such as Mark's ring and Klaus's "clocken". |
| 534 | * EverythingTryingToKillYou: The Animated. Bet you never thought you could get killed by a horde of lawn gnomes. This is a case taken to the extreme: if it isn't naturally sentient, chances are it is now and is trying to kill you. |
| 535 | * FinalBoss: [[spoiler:Labtech X and his living mecha, the Mechlab Bot.]] |
| 536 | * FirstTown: Barton. Also the first town to be created on the site in general. |
| 537 | * GameBreakingBug: It seems there's always one quest giver or another that glitches up and won't talk to players, preventing them from turning in a quest. Especially irritating when it's part of a quest chain and thus forces the player to grind another way to become strong enough to continue on. |
| 538 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: Manages to be averted and played straight at the ''same time.'' Nearly every gameplay aspect of ''zOMG!'' is explained in the plot itself, from the Respawn Points, to the SocializationBonus, to the rings themselves. However, the massive changes to Gaia's world that have appeared in ''zOMG!'' are rarely (if ever) mentioned on the site proper. [=NPCs=] can travel from town to town with ease, despite passage supposedly being impossible. The Animated are almost ''never'' mentioned, and everyone can still find time to attend Prom, or Summer Camp without having to worry about monster attacks. |
| 539 | ** Then, there is also a case of Gameplay And ''Gameplay'' Segregation. As Gaia's main site revolves around avatar customization, players can dress up their avatars however they like. However, none of your items offer any bonuses. A player walking around in PoweredArmor is just as susceptible to damage as someone wearing nothing but a loin cloth. An Alien with sticks for arms is just as effective in combat as an Orc capable of lifting a car on his shoulder. Vampires can run around in the sunlight and kill Animated Garlic. Basically, players receive no advantages or disadvantages based on appearance. |
| 540 | *** Which was, of course, lampshaded in the intro comic to ''zOMG!''. A hotshot guard, idolized by everyone else, announces that he will slay the Animated easily with his '''Ancient Katana!!'''... The mundane weapon proves totally worthless against the Animated, and judging from the subsequent GoryDiscretionShot, so was his armor. It has to do with [[AppliedPhlebotinum Ghi]]. |
| 541 | * GangplankGalleon: Buccaneer Boardwalk. |
| 542 | * GenreBlindness: After you defeat the Chapter Boss [[spoiler:the [=NPCs=] you've helped through out the game congratulate you, and are under the impression that Labtech X has been killed. ...Even though it's been established that a visit to the Null Chamber makes you functionally immortal. Labtech X has been studying Ghi longer than anyone, and is surely aware of the Null Chamber's existence. Not to mention the fact that he's a clone of the man with the lowest score on the SortingAlgorithmOfDeadness in the history of Gaia. Seriously, if he wasn't dead before, what makes you think he's dead now?]] |
| 543 | * GreenHillZone: The Village Greens, a ''golf course'' inhabited by killer lawns gnomes and plastic flamingos. If you go far enough in, you get rained on by Gnomish flak cannons. |
| 544 | * GuideDangIt: The beginning in-game tutorials have been altered so much that they no longer tell you much of anything about ''how to play the damn game''. |
| 545 | * HolidayMode: For quite a few major holidays. The holiday events can even give out exclusive rings to participants. It gets hectic. |
| 546 | * HumongousMecha: [[spoiler:The Mechlab Bot. X plans to create an entire army of these.]] |
| 547 | * ImprobableWeapon: To be sure, all of the weapons are pretty much AppliedPhlebotinum Rings, but some of their effects are a little... unconventional. Picture lobbing wasp hives at your enemies or coating yourself with a protective coat of Teflon. |
| 548 | * ItemCrafting: Yup. The items you craft are only for cosmetic purposes, however. |
| 549 | * JungleJapes: Otami Ruins. |
| 550 | * KatanasAreJustBetter: Averted in the comic. One of the guards boasts that his Ancient Katana will destroy the Animated... and then it gets sawn to bits by one of the Buzz Saws. A GoryDiscretionShot suggests that the wielder was quick to follow. |
| 551 | ** Played straight by the Mantis ring, though. Short cooldown time, and a very low Stamina cost. It's one of the best melee rings, although it doesn't deliver the punch Hack does. |
| 552 | * KillerRabbit: Gramsters and cherry fluffs, the former of which are killer ''hamsters'' and the latter of which resemble pink wads of cotton. After attacking the Cherry Fluffs once, they (and any other cherry fluffs nearby) descend upon you and kamikaze attack with an explosion that can take half the life of a low level player easily. Also, the Grunny Subs (Killer Rabbits ''in submarines''). |
| 553 | * LethalChef: Leon's mother. It's stated that one of the cookies is apparently concrete, the other is poisoned from batteries, and the other... well, you get the deal. Subverted, since Leon not only eats but enjoys his mother's cooking despite apparently being a good cook himself. |
| 554 | * FakeUltimateMook: An OMG jumps out at you about the time you cross the bridge in Deadman's Pass... but he's a remarkably wimpy little OMG. |
| 555 | ** Now these wandering encounters each consist of an OMFG with two Bootsnakes. Still not much of a threat due to the universal nerfing of enemies. |
| 556 | ** And in the ([[RetCon current]]) introduction, you find yourself facing three [=OMGs=] who all go down in one attack. The OMFG you face immediately afterward goes down in two. |
| 557 | * LevelGrinding: Orb farming is the term used by most. |
| 558 | * LimitBreak: Rage attacks. |
| 559 | * LimitedMoveArsenal: You can equip up to eight rings. |
| 560 | * LivingStatue: Most monsters in the game - the cause of a panic in the storyline. |
| 561 | * LoadingScreen |
| 562 | * LuckStat: Affects item drops. |
| 563 | * MediumAwareness: Your character can, at one point, make a reference to only being able to see one screen's worth of scenery at a time. |
| 564 | ** Another point at which this happened was during the April Fool's Day event, where your character tells a confused Cresento that the airship "crashed", meaning the game refused to load the area (because it never existed in the first place). |
| 565 | * MonsterIsAMommy: Plenty. Kat's Kokeshi Doll originally had some lines suggesting that it considered the lesser Kokeshis its children. Then you have the Shewolf, Papa Saw and his wives, and Mother Fluffs in Bassken Lake... |
| 566 | * MoreDakka: The more rage used on Guns Guns Guns, the more dakka is produced. |
| 567 | * MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: A [[UsefulNotes/{{Tanabata}} Wish Tree]] in the Zen Gardens is inhabited by Animated written wishes with a HiveMind. Since it has been imbued with the goodwill of humanity, it is benevolent. |
| 568 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: Ghi powers the Animated. By using the rings to fight the Animated, you're releasing more Ghi into Gaia, creating more Animated.]] |
| 569 | * NoFairCheating: For a while, it was possible to exploit a glitch in the final area to gain rings with a level higher than 10. When the devs removed this, they added one of two new rings to the inventory of everyone with Level 10 rings. Those with glitch-obtained rings were given the ring Abuse, which afflicts the wearer/owner with a multi-stat debuff. |
| 570 | --->'''Description:''' You didn't think your questionable behavior would go unnoticed, did you? |
| 571 | ** This ring was later renamed "Kamila's Curse", when DMS boss Kamila began [[RandomlyDrops dropping it upon defeat]]. |
| 572 | * [[NoSelfBuffs No Self Heals]]: You can't use Wish, the strongest and most Stamina-effective heal in the game, on yourself. |
| 573 | * NonLethalKO: When your HP reaches zero, you are "Dazed." Someone can bring you out of it with a "defibrillator ring", or you can wake up in the null chamber and head back to wherever you were. |
| 574 | ** Or you can just bring along a relatively new powerup known as Revive. Saves you the trip from the null chamber and even unlocks your other rings immediately. |
| 575 | %%* NoobCave: [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer The Barton Sewers]]. |
| 576 | %%* MineralMacGuffin: Null crystals. |
| 577 | * ParentalBonus: More like a Grandparent Bonus, but there's a parody [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave Burma-Shave]] jingle on the garbage cans in the Bassken Lake area. |
| 578 | --> To kiss a mug / That's like a cactus / Takes more nerve / Than it does practice / Burpa-Shave |
| 579 | %%* PlayingWithFire: Fire Rain and Hot Foot. And possibly Solar Rays. |
| 580 | * {{Polyamory}}: Papa Saw in the Bassken Saw Mill apparently has two wives, known as "Big Mama" and "Little Mama". |
| 581 | %%* PowerUp |
| 582 | * PracticalTaunt: The Taunt ring is used to draw enemies' attention. |
| 583 | * {{Pun}}: One item gives you a hairstyle like the first hero of ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'', with [[{{Hentai}} A chicken on his head]]. The pose is actually labeled "The worst joke on the Internet" |
| 584 | ** Admittedly, it's also a very old joke, so there were many Gaians who actually didn't get the joke. |
| 585 | ** Alrunette's "I Am" pose is called "Lol i can" |
| 586 | ** "Soh Sari", "Veli Sari", and "Rili Sari". Say them out loud. |
| 587 | * PunnyName: One of the Believers at the Old Aqueduct is named "Hairy". And is conveniently located right next to a Believer named "Dick"... who is, in turn, standing beside someone named Tom. |
| 588 | * RandomlyDrops: Lots of random drops. Even the items that allow you to level up are random drops, which makes the entire level system a LuckBasedMission, which the devs attempted to mitigate with repeatable quests, since nearly all quests feature the level-up items as rewards. Also, the further you are in the game, the more of the item you get when a monster drops them or you complete a quest. Now the problem is stopping players from farming the items to grind past the game's content... |
| 589 | ** This problem is still in full force when it comes to quests in the vein of TwentyBearAsses. Gramster Goo, Mushroom Tops, and Iron Ore seem to be the items that cause the most frustration on the forums. |
| 590 | * ReadTheFreakingManual: ALL YOUR RINGS ARE SOULBOUND. YOU CANNOT SELL THEM ON THE MARKETPLACE/GIVE THEM TO YOUR FRIENDS ANY MORE. If you check your inventory, you'll know this. There's a note there, saying "Rings are soulbound and cannot be sold, with certain grandfathered exceptions". Half the threads on the zOMG! forum are STILL people who don't understand that their rings are tied to their accounts, thanks partially to the fact that rings created before a certain date can still be sold/traded until they're equipped. People who ''have'' read the aforementioned inventory message, but who don't know what "grandfathered" means, sometimes post on the forums saying they don't know how to grandfather their rings so they can sell them... |
| 591 | ** There's also "How do I get stronger?" and "How do I unsuppress my CL?". Although the latter isn't/wasn't readily available in the in-game help, there are enough existing topics for this to become Search The Freaking Forums or Read The Freaking Stickies. |
| 592 | * RealMenWearPink: One of the "random events" has Zhivago, AxeCrazy vampire PsychoForHire, siccing ''ladies' handbags'' on you in the Zen Gardens. |
| 593 | %%* RespawningEnemies: Justified in the storyline. |
| 594 | * {{Retcon}}: You used to begin the game on a train, greeted by a character named Frank who gave you your first rings. They took that beginning sequence out, and now it makes [[FridgeLogic no sense]] that a labtech with suspiciously similar bandaid and glasses greets you with "Hello again!... I mean, hello!" |
| 595 | ** [[spoiler: This also spoils what was probably the most awesome [[TheReveal reveal]] in the game.]] |
| 596 | %%* RingOfPower: Well, duh! |
| 597 | * SequenceBreaking: If you are crewing with people who have defeated the Stone Coatl, you yourself do not need to do so and get the water-breathing ability to go into the Shallow Seas, etc. |
| 598 | * ShowsDamage: When fighting the Stone Coatl, as you whittle down his HP, he slowly appears to be more chipped and overall breaking down. |
| 599 | * ShoutOut: The writers love these. From Rubella's [[Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire dependence on the kindness of strangers]], to various Guards acting like their namesakes, to a big Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}} stand-in in one area. Not to mention everything Anniedroid says. |
| 600 | ** The best one has to be in Dead Man's Pass when the game [[VideoGame/{{Zork}} warns you to watch out for Grues]]. A Grue can actually attack your party in Dead Man's Shadow. |
| 601 | ** The My Density ring is a shout-out to ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'' when George [=McFly=] accidentally substitutes the word "density" for "destiny." |
| 602 | ** The Improbability Sphere ring is a shout-out to Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy and its [[ItRunsOnNonsensoleum Infinite Improbability Drive]]. |
| 603 | ** [[Series/SaturdayNightLive The Land Shark.]] |
| 604 | ** The Halloween event for 2009 included numerous shout-outs to different vampires and werewolves, from [[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Edward Cullen]] to [[WolfMan Lon Chaney Jr.]] |
| 605 | ** The best one has to be the symbol for the willpower boost: A [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann drill.]] |
| 606 | ** There are entire threads devoted to identifying these in the zOMG! forums. |
| 607 | * ShootTheMedicFirst: Healers tend to garner a lot of aggro in crew play, making CombatMedic builds almost necessary in the absence of tanks. Diagnose is particularly dangerous for this; using it at Rage Rank 4 ''will'' result in EverythingTryingToKillYou. Averted so far with the Animated, since none of the bosses have {{Mook}} squads that are capable of healing (though healing-capable DemonicSpiders do exist, and they are a priority target in most cases for this reason). |
| 608 | * ShownTheirWork: Most of the plot is a huge CallBack to a story arc from 2004. ''Almost none of the people who worked on [=zOMG!=] were around during the 2004 storyline.'' 'nuff said. |
| 609 | * SocializationBonus: The game practically requires you to interact with other players in order to proceed. Several quests require cooperation between players, and the game generally is much easier when in a group. In addition, Ghi bonuses can be obtained by interacting with other players. But if you stay isolated for too long, your bonuses will vanish until you recharge. |
| 610 | ** The developers have confirmed that certain parts of the game, such as the Shallow Seas, are in fact impossible without a group. |
| 611 | *** Very difficult, perhaps, but there is only one part that is 100% ''impossible'' to solo. Which, of course, is the part you need in order to get into the end boss chamber. |
| 612 | *** And even then, once past that part, there IS a video of someone soloing the end boss. |
| 613 | * SprintShoes: The Fleet Feet ring gives you a huge footspeed boost for 30 seconds. The Coyote Spirit ring and the Medic ring set work as well. |
| 614 | * {{Squee}}: Rina will teach you how! |
| 615 | * StealthPun: It probably wasn't deliberate, but the Turtle ring recharges slowly. In fact, if I was so bold, I'd say it recharges [[{{Pun}} at the pace of a turtle]]. |
| 616 | * {{Superboss}}: |
| 617 | ** Landshark. |
| 618 | ** And Jack in the Halloween event of 2010. In Otami Ruins, he has 250,000 HP. CL of 15.0 AND every single attack of yours only takes off 1HP. Even if you use '''[=RR4=] Hack'''. He took an average of two hours to beat even with over a hundred players attacking him. Since then, he was nerfed; now his CL is 11.9 and takes less time to beat. |
| 619 | * SuperPrototype: Labtech X's [[spoiler: HumongousMecha, Sealab X,]] is intended to be the prototype for an army of Sealab Animated, which are programmed to obey him. |
| 620 | * TemporaryOnlineContent: Many sponsored events featured quests and items that are no longer available, though most items can be found on the marketplace. Some time-sensitive events or older [=UIs=] for stores and [=NPCs=] are no longer available. |
| 621 | * ThrowItIn: The first stage of the battle with [[spoiler: Sealab X]] has its enormous tail descend to attack the players, who are randomly scripted to shout lines like "Look out! It's huge!" Enough players replied "ThatsWhatSheSaid" that eventually the devs added that to the script, too. |
| 622 | * UnderwaterRuins: The fallen remains of Gambino's tower are scattered through the final three areas, which are at the bottom of the ocean. |
| 623 | * UnusualEuphemism: In the zOMG forums, expect to see "fluff" used instead of an F-Bomb. Especially in the form of "motherfluffing-!" (Considering how innocent the various fluffs look and how much damage they can do in later areas of the game, this makes some sense.) |
| 624 | * {{Unwinnable}}: The Hive, deliberately so. |
| 625 | * UselessUsefulSpell: Averted. Crowd Control rings and debuffs have a decent chance of working on everything in this game save for a few select bosses, and using such rings is encouraged as you advance through the game. Players are usually very outnumbered by enemies towards the later areas of the game (and by outnumbered we mean 1 VS 3+). Likewise, enemies tend to use the same effects against you. |
| 626 | ** Knife Sharpen and Adrenaline play the trope straight. They used to be good buffs for you and your allies; now they're mediocre debuffs for the opposition. |
| 627 | *** Subverted now with the release of Deadman's Shadow. Turns out Knife Sharpen and Adrenaline are very useful against vampires. Even Diagnose is now useful, since its [[ShootTheMedicFirst massive aggro-drawing power]] enables one brave soul to take the heat off the other players while they kill the monster. |
| 628 | * VideoGameCrueltyPotential: One minigame has you catching mutant/zombie green chickens and throwing them down a well. The chickens ''scream'' when you throw them down the well. |
| 629 | ** Similarly, the living enemies you encounter in the (underwater) last stages of the game visibly drown when defeated. |
| 630 | * VisualPun: The Heavy Water Balloon is a ring that throws giant water balloons to inflict [=AoE=] damage your target and any others surrounding it. In other words, you're inflicting ''splash damage''. |
| 631 | * WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Causes at least two known [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Big Lipped Alligator Moments]]. |
| 632 | ** Early on, one of the quests involving the gnomes in Village Greens includes a mention that the gnomes are learning tactics and behaviors from observing Gaians. The player inquires if they've learned violence from humans, too, and the NPC replies that while that would be great from a philosophical angle, Gaians originally found the gnomes adorable, but the gnomes began "the ankle-biting." |
| 633 | ** When you rescue Marshall from the Sea Spouts, he suggests that they were about to seduce him, drawing a comparison to [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent sirens]]. |
| 634 | * WillfullyWeak: You have the option to suppress your charge level so you can play in lower-leveled areas. Boss instances now automatically suppress your level to the maximum for that boss. |
| 635 | ** The auto-suppressing for bosses happened because people would take off their rings to have a lower CL then put them back on inside the bosses den. |
| 636 | * {{Wutai}}: Zen Gardens and the forest where the Chyaku Norisu ninja clan dwells. |
| 637 | * ZergRush: Most boss fights usually start like this, before getting to fight the actual boss... who then continues to throw mooks at you even while you're fighting it. |
| 638 | ** The Hive area is basically this: wave after wave of aliens, and it only stops when all your team members are all Dazed. |
| 639 | [[/folder]] |
| 640 |
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