This post is part question, and part feedback, so I apologize for the wall of text.
- The zOMG community paid you. A lot. Where did that money go? From the state of zOMG, the fact that you're essentially abandoning the project if only for an undermined period of time; appears to be proof that the money gained through zOMG item sales, in just the last six months, did not all go back into the game.
Calling in [ JK ] on a sick day to cycle the servers,
leaving the quest chain in DMS (which is paid-for content) broken; how is this worth the money given to Gaia in good faith that zOMG would be taken care of on some level? How can you expect the user base to support new ventures if old features are left for dead?
Why did you not even pay zOMG the respect of making a site-wide announcement regarding its state? Why was it left to [ JK ] and swarf to take the heat from the announcement? Why are users constantly blamed for the failure of zOMG both by staff and by other users, but Gaia has never taken the time to address its own lack of action concerning the game (advertising, utilizing opportunities and user's ideas to generate income)? Why were MAJOR glitches left unfixed until the staff used them to distract from other issues? I feel that you have disrespected your employees and your users with the way the issues surrounding zOMG have been handled for quite a long time.
- Alchemy. It has been the staff's claim that Alchemy is designed,
by the staff's own definition, to be a dead feature. As it stands now, Alchemy can only realistically support those top 3% who have obscene amounts of gold and real life cash, while at the same time completely screwing over those not involved in Alchemy by raising the prices on cash-based and one-time grant items.
Why design a feature that is only for a few, while involving everyone?
Those that have no interest in Alchemy are suffering higher prices on items as previously discussed. Additionally, this system that you've designed that literally runs off the random generation of components is faulty in another way in that users who are attempting Alchemy are finding themselves at a dead-end because high prices are being set by users fortunate enough to obtain the more sought-after components. So we have a system that by all accounts was designed to be limited in its appeal, but is available to be used by everyone, making it very difficult and expensive for anyone who wants to genuinely advance through the system. The crux of the matter being, in my opinion, the method by which components are released in that many of the more usable components have failed to saturate the market in any real way because of the way components are generated.
I understand that Alchemy is being looked at, and that the current line of thought is one small change to Alchemy will have a big impact. I am very grateful for the work of Narumi and others who are reading feedback and doing what they can to report back on the recent meetings on Alchemy. I have high hopes for the lite fish. However, at this point, based on the actions taken so far, I do have my doubts about Gaia's ability to manage Alchemy in light of the situation with zOMG and Gaia's reputation for taking care of features once they're out of the gate. I really have strong feelings against getting more involved with Alchemy or any of Gaia's future ventures because of the way zOMG has been handled not just recently, but throughout the entire course of its lifetime.
Finally: Why don't the final-form back wings contain all the previous forms? Lanzer said last week that it was to adhere to the theme of Alchemy (transmutation as far as I can tell from Fullmetal Alchemist, because anime isn't the same as the writings of Paracelsus, Rulandus and other German guys with too much time on their hands). However,
Gaia has previously established that items which change through time, Evolving and Rapid Evolving, always regain their poses with the final stage/form. How then, can you justify the back wings as a thematic concept while taking into account your own intentions concerning the difficulty of the entire quest, and the stories seen circulating of user's own experiences in crafting the
coveted back wings?
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