If there's one thing anime fans love, besides watching anime of course, is designing their own avatars. I'm not talking about the blue aliens James Cameron has a chubby for, I'm talking about your own unique virtual character. For years, Gaia Online has been the haven for anime fans craving the chance to make an avatar that is unique to them. UnWiredTV got a chance to catch up with Gaia's panel at the Anime Expo to see what the developers at Gaia have lined up for their fans.

Gaia Online started in 2003. It began as a social networking, forum-based anime website, before venturing into social gaming territory. The in-game economy will have players performing events, and making real-world transactions, in order to get the gaia gold needed to buy items for their avatars. The game also features a host of mini-games, and in-game activities that will have you bonding with your Gaia friends.

The Gaia developers started the panel with a host of different contest. From best hat, to best prop weapon. Honestly, this seemed like what fans were really anticipating, since every contest gave attendees a free special in-game item. What better way to prove that you went to the Gaia Anime Expo panel than bragging to your Gaia friends about your cool avatar swag? I personally won the fake weapon to cause a bomb scare contest. The prize was incarceration, although I would have rather gotten some in-game items instead.

On the news front, they began with discussing their manga series. Apparently, the manga had not had a consistent level of updates in the past, but they have been on a constant streak of updating recently, and will continue to keep this streak of manga updates going for as long as they can.

They will also be releasing the “Outfit Marketplace,” where users can post their avatar's costumes, and others can vote on their favorites. The marketplace will also allow gamers to sell their outfits, and the selling mechanics for the marketplace allows each item to sell with the outfit. This will save users from posting an outfit schematic, then tediously selling it piece-by-piece. Now they can sell it as a one whole item, instead of in fragments. Besides using the marketplace as a source to buy and sell outfits, the Gaia developers also said it will be a great source of inspiration for those aspiring to make their own unique outfits. Although, I'd fear that people will just copy other people's work.

If that wasn't enough to quench the thirst of the most addictive shopper, the developers at Gaia also plan to release “Bid Blast,” which will be an auction house for very rare items. Unlike eBay, every time someone makes a bid, a minute is added to the timer to ensure equal opportunity. I feel this is a fair way to make sure everyone is able to safely bid, even with the distraction of lag, and I wish eBay would adopt a similar system instead of allowing bidders to “snipe.”

For those who just don't have money, which may be a lot of people in this economy, they are also releasing “Dumpster Drive,” which will give players the chance to donate the items they do not want, to players that are trash collecting junkies. This is an attempt to unclog the game from useless items, though I will be surprise if people come racing to collect items of no value. I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure.

The developers announced an update to the popular Gaia mini-game, Frontier Skies. Frontier Skies 2.0 will fix all the annoying bugs that plagued the launch version of the mini-game. The game, for those new to Gaia, shares a lot of similarities with Oregon Trail. However, no word if explosive diarrhea will be implemented as a way to die.

The friend chat system is getting a revamp. It will become password protected so that only the friends you allow to enter will be able to join. Sorry Chuck, my annoying neighbor who keeps asking me to borrow my ladder via Gaia Online. Why do you need a ladder? You're in a wheelchair... The developers promises that this should be beneficial to guilds that need a clear channel to chat in, and reveals it will be released with three different backgrounds.

After the announcement that they are working on an iPhone app for Gaia, they announced the news that every anxious fan was waiting to hear: Monster Galaxy. After showing a trailer, the developers talked about the game, explaining that it is a role-playing game that will have players training monsters and fighting them with other creatures, as well as other players. Npcs will give out quest, and there will be over 120 unique monsters, including a rainbow unicorn for those who thought just a regular unicorn was not manly enough.

The panel ended with Q &A, most of the questions being more fan based than anything crucial, but judging from how the developers answered, Gaia fans can expect more goodies to come, and can trust that their developers are willing to adapt to whatever demands the players need.