Annual Ball F.A.Q.

Q)Who is running the ball this year?

It is currently unknown who the new host will be, but Dolly14 will announce it when she has picked the new host!

Q)What is the Annual Gaian Ball?
The Annual Gaian Ball is an event made by and for the users of Gaia Online. It's about hanging out and having fun, RPing a bit and getting to know the other users in this huge community we call Gaia.

In 2003, Misao made the first ever Annual Ball. The admins were so impressed with what she'd done that they released the red rose corsage and black bow tie for her ball. Note that these were the first non-store items on Gaia ever!

In 2004, Misao refused to make the next annual ball convinced that the greed on Gaia was far too much to yield it. In light of that challenge, Setzer appeared. He made a topic in QnF calling for people to help out and make the 2nd Annual Ball. This year, instead of one host there were many each with their own distinct rooms. It gained so much popularity amongst the users that Setzer decided to ask for our own forum to party in. As some of you know, the answer was yes. This was the first time Gaia had ever opened a Forum up for a user run event. Really this ball is extraordinary. Not only that, but again the admins seemed to be impressed and decided to release the G-pins (much to everyone's surprise since we (the hosts) didn't think there would be ANY items involved.

In 2005, it was that time again. Setzer passed the torch onto Razumi Yazura to host the 3rd Annual Ball since Setz thought that it would be best to change the main hosts every year (a very wise decision). That year we developed a theme which was planetary. All the rooms were based off of planets, but they each had their own underlying themes. Again the ball gained popularity and of course we asked for a forum. But this time we were getting the mansion! This of course was the first and last time the mansion was going to be opened for a User event. No items this year, but it was still a HUGE success!

In 2006, the fourth annual ball was hosted in a guild since the admins didn't want to open up the mansion any more for the ball. Needless to say it was a quiet year that year, but it was the first ball that had a plot totally made by the users! Quiet but still a success and fun!

In 2007, Leyna hosted this year's ball and the moderators allowed the ball the have it's own forum for the 5th Annual Ball for the public to join in on the fun. The Ball's theme this year was Elements and it was quite exciting being able to make it public once more to a new generation of Gaians. It was a huge success and helped to open up the Ball to more people to help.

In 2008, with the Ball so successful as the year before everyone wanted to make this year's the biggest and best of them all. This year's host was chosen to be Freaksrus! Again for the 2nd time in a row the Ball was able to successfully gain a forum for the6th Annual Ball. The ball was able to gain new ideas with the publicity of the last year and the ball's theme was chosen to be Time Periods after a quick change. Despite being a previous theme chosen for the 2ndd Annual Ball all that participated had a ton of fun especially with a fun twist on the plot and the Ball's first time have it drawn out Manga style!

In this wonderful year of 2009 we plan to make the ball bigger than it has ever been! With more new people and more new ideas the ball has gotten off to a great start! The theme has been picked this year to be Fairytales and so many can't wait to see how everything with unfold! (To be written up.)

Q) Is this an official event?
This isn't an official event from Gaia as it is user-run. We are merely supported by the admins (ie. the forums).

And for the LAST time. This is not the anniversary ball, that's in February and is an actual Gaia Online admin-run event.

Q) Will I get a free item?
That is a tricky question to answer since the first two years yielded items, yet the last few years didn't.

BUT it is safe to say that NO you will most likely not be getting items. The choice to give out items for this ball is purely up to the administration and we have no say in that (as far as anyone knows).

The Ball has plenty of games with a ton of neat prizes though, so don't worry you will still have a chance at some prizes.

Q)What have the past Balls been like?
The first annual ball, at the time were the Gaia population was tiny compared to what it is now, was held in Barton town and treated like a typical role playing ball thread. Then there was the surprised of the red rose corsage and the black bow ties!

The second year was much different, not only did we have our own forum, but multiple threads/rooms to hang out in each with a different atmosphere. This ensured that EVERYONE had at least one room they felt at home in. And then Gino decided to pass around G-pins, another huge surprise!

The third year was much like the second, multiple rooms and such. But this year had a theme that was planetary, but each of the rooms still had their own type of atmosphere.

The fourth year was held in a Guild, so it wasn't quite as busy and hectic as it is with the balls that had their own forums. It also had a story line that had you on the edge of your seat the whole way through!

The fifth year the ball had a chance to go public even though there were some troubles finding out who was host. Though the generations of Gaians had changed there were still many of the older generations that remembered the ball. The ball withstood many changes and continued to withstand the test of time.

The sixth annual ball was a chance for the user-run event to really shine with all the new members giving their ideas and helping out. Again a forum was open and this year instead of just a regular written plot the plot was drawn out Manga style giving a new spin to the ball.

Q)What is this years theme?

We aren't sure who knows! We'll be choosing in about a month or so.