Gaia Online is one of the longest running social game virtual worlds on the web. It was one of the first games to leverage sponsored virtual goods and has continued to succeed as the social gaming space has exploded. Mike Sego is their Chief Product Officer, and also the former founder of (fluff) Friends, one of the first viral social games on Facebook. We sit down and talk with him about the differences between social games on Facebook and gaming portals like Gaia Online. See the videos after the jump.

Mike Sego, Chief Product Officer for Gaia Online at the Social Gaming Summit 2010 [1 of 2] from Neil Vidyarthi on Vimeo.

Mike Sego, Chief Product Officer for Gaia Online at the Social Gaming Summit 2010 [2 of 2] from Neil Vidyarthi on Vimeo.

Mike discusses several elements relating to social games and the Gaia world, including:

• The change in persepective over the last few years related to social games and virtual goods
• The difference between creating a social game and a games portal
• Gaia’s development of their own games and the advantage of developing the games in house
• Gaia user behavior in relation to Facebook
• Gaia’s Facebook game and their key learnings
• and more! Check out the interview above, and check out Gaia Online as well.