Fans of Gaia Online, a sort of geeky, Anime, virtual-reality cousin of Facebook, gathered at Lucky Strike Lanes last Saturday to actually meet each other in the flesh. Users spend countless hours customizing their avatars, playing various interactive games, and messaging in forums, all in the hopes of accumulating digital gold, which is just what these photos are. Digital gold.

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This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2010.