Welcome to Gaia! ::

The MMO project was begun after a virtual world-wide survey of Gaia users 2 years ago about the next feature they wanted in their space. The top choice was an MMOG. The second was pets, which may be coming down the line.

"That’s not a promise," said Sherman, "but that would be the next natural step."Gaiaonlinemmo_guildlogo

Part of the motivation, Sherman guesses, is simply that there's not much out there for teens wanting to play MMOs, in spite of the fact that his users, like most teens and young adults, are gamers. And they're incredibly active, too. Even before the MMO has launched publicly, users are forming guilds and rallying in support of the game. [Both this guild logo (right) and the image above the jump were designed by users/]

"There are very few teen, great, casual, beautiful, non-violent games in the MMO space," he explained. "There’s a hole they saw and wanted filled. I think the people that build the games are, in their hearts, hardcore. They build something that works for them, that’s extremely violent or high fantasy, men-in-tights stuff. Gaia is an alternate reality with a very reverent style and voice. That’s something that I think is more appealing to the younger group."

There are options, like MapleStory, that provide a casual MMO experience directed at youth, but Sherman argues that's one of the only examples out there compared to other fields--and still one that doesn't quite fill the gap Gaia is aiming at.

"If I picked something else and asked, 'Do sports fans have a range of options? Or kids? Or dance fans?' The answer is, 'Of course,'" he explained. "Our game, though, is much more social. MapleStory is a game where they’ve added social tools. We’re a social site that has a game. We think that’s a different direction."

A Hangout Space Instead of a Virtual World

The different direction comes, at least in part, to the perspective Sherman brings to Gaia Online. It's a creature unto itself. No matter what other features the company adds, Gaia is an essentially social experience.

"Gaia is not an MMO," said Sherman. "Gaia is evolving as an active platform for teens. It took us 5 years o build 7 games, and over the next months, we’ll add 30 Flash games. To do that we had the users vote for their favorites [in a competition through partner Mochi Media], and we got 1 million votes [compared to the cited 5 million users]. We’re wrapping our social tools around them. You earn Gaia Gold playing, there’s integrated chat, and you have your avatar as a way to bring your identity in."

That growth is near exponential. Working with third parties, from Mochi to Virtual Greats to Christian Siriano, Sherman hopes to continue to evolve past just the virtual world genre.

"We have huge ambitions," he said. "I think we can become the dominant online hangout for teens. To do that we need the best content available. We’re not a game title. We want to evolve with our users. Our site has actually grown a little older over the last few years. 30% of the users are now over 18 and the site’s, accordingly, grown a little edgier."

To me that sounds like Sherman wants to compete not just with MapleStory, Whirled, Habbo, and the horde of other youth-oriented worlds hitting the market, but even mammoth youth sites like Facebook or Myspace. But rather than compete with them, Sherman wants to cooperate, forming a unifying space for his users regardless of their other content choices.

"That’s why I call it an online hangout, like the mall or downtown," Sherman said. "It becomes your activity hub with like-minded friends. The mall and downtown are richer and more entertaining than a social network and last longer and are more accessible than a traditional game or MMOG. Just like at the real-world mall, kids are texting their friends and calling out. Our users are also on Myspace and Bebo. That’s not an either/or situation. The ‘or’ is TV. I’m convinced of that."

And Gaia is competing with TV--and Web video. Users can embed YouTube videos in the virtual world, make playlists, save them to feeders, and then most them back out to MySpace.

"We’ve transformed an individual experience on YouTube into a social experience, and we’ve transformed MySpace from a flat 2D space into a movie theatre," said Sherman. "It's one of the cool things on the site. I don't know why YouTube hasn't copied it. Maybe it's because you start with an avatar, and it's an embodiment thing that leads you there."

For all the content Sherman wants to add, it makes sense to actually go the Facebook and MySpace route and simply open a Gaia API up to any developer that wants to participate, letting others do the work to populate the site. It may not be soon, but that seems like the social hangout space will be taking a cue from the social networks.

"Yes," said Sherman. "Absolutely. It's in our long-term plan."

Prior to joining Gaia Interactive, the world's largest virtual world for teens as CEO, Craig was an Entrepreneur-in-residence at Benchmark Capital. Prior to Benchmark, Craig was COO of MyFamily.com, where he helped grow the company from $23 Million to $150 Million in sales. Prior to MyFamily.com, Craig was Regional Vice-President of American International Group (AIG), Craig ran AIG's marketing and e-business efforts in Japan and Korea resulting in over six billion dollars in annual revenues. Prior to his work at AIG, Craig was President and CEO of Cendant Japan where he launched the joint venture company, grew it to 500,000 paying customers and achieved operating profits ahead of schedule. Craig held various positions at Cendant including Vice President of Cendant's International Division and General Manager for a number of Cendant's US product lines. Craig graduated magna c** laude from Princeton University.

I wish he would just jump ship to the next company already like he always does then hell we might get just a little bit of old Gaia back.......

Am I the only one who wants to puke and/or have a screaming fit about this sort of thing?