Gaia Online Gold, the world's most active online community, announced on 10/22 that its development team is making final preparations for the zOMG! Open Beta and will begin rolling out game access to Gaia Gold community members on October 27th. 8,500 lucky Golden Ticket holders will be the first entrants, scoring exclusive early playtime in the casual MMO before the first wave of Gaians flood the game's gates. zOMG! was created in response to requests from the Gaia Gold community, and their feedback has been the principal driving element in every step of the game's development. Fervent members participated in focus groups and closed beta testing sessions, and even held a contest to choose the game's name. Now, the community is getting an opportunity to explore the zOMG! Open Beta before anyone else.

"We received over 120,000 applications for the Closed Beta from our virtual world community, but obviously
couldn't let them all in," said Craig Sherman, CEO of Gaia Online. "Members complete hundreds of thousands
of micro-transactions per day in the marketplace, and we think the Golden Tickets are a great way to choose
which loyal users win this very cool opportunity."As Gaians begin lining up at the entry gates of zOMG!, the development team is busy making sure zOMG! can accommodate the rush of eager avatars. Everyone can't possibly fit through the door at once, so seniority will pay off big-time for Gaians when zOMG! begins rolling out its Open Beta next week. After Golden Ticket holders, virtual world community members with the longest active accounts (4+ years on Gaia) get the first spot in line. The complete rollout schedule will be announced shortly, and general public access will be established once the Gaia community is safely in-game. zOMG! will likely be out of Beta later this year and will continue to grow and evolve over time, as members offer feedback and continue to shape their world.