....and yet I STAY. (why do you stay?)

[VulcanPrincessKiki]

Habit? I'm a creature of habit, so I suppose that's why. As for may friends, I really don't know, but I assume at least one or two have. As for fond memories, events, mostly. The elf Christmas event was fun. I DID try ONE, but I think I'll stay until the ship sinks, as it were. No, I DID go on hiatus for a while, but then was drawn back. The biggest part for me, I have to say, though, was zOMG. Its' Easter Event was particularly enjoyable. I'm lucky this was a relatively simple avatar, but I think i've reached the end of what I can get without spending cash.

[Purrple Neko]

It's fun still! whee

[Aristeia]

Bowie-Spawan

The friends who quit all left long before the inflation hit, they simply grew out of the site with increasing irl responsibilities.
I'm an irresponsible person, so I stayed around razz

I still enjoy futzing around with my avatar, talking with people in the GCD and with the new friends I make. New items aren't everything, even if I enjoy them and look forward to all new releases personally.

I've ventured into other avatar communities before and except for the now defunct tinierme, the styles of them simply don't appeal to me aesthetically. Gaia is still the most appealing to me in that regard.

I doubt I'll consciously quit, as I never do that with any site I register on.
I do tend to take hiatuses and sometimes I simply don't return from them.
So far I've always come back to Gaia though.

I can just copy all this, except I never had many friends on Gaia.

The longest period of inactivity I had was 2010-2014 (though I might have logged in sporadically because this account is not deactivated -- thankfully!) but when my life got a bit of a steady rhythm at the beginning of this year, Gaia somehow attracts me again.

At the end of the day, it's the avatars. I like the dressing up aspect and I haven't found anything else with designs as appealing as Gaia's. The economy is a rough ride, but I did well enough in vending and investment to be able to afford a few new things once in a while. It also helps, I think, that I'm not really fixated on a dream avatar with very specific items, and when I do set my eye on items I'm realistic about what I can reach and what I can't (at least not without paying a lot of money or spending unhealthy amount of time).

[Tadashiini]

I stay for the few good friends I've made over the years. I've quit several times over but I keep coming back for them. The items are nice too.
My fond memories are always way back in the day. Back when I was brand new and gaia was still young. November of '04. I was so happy to get my first 1,000 gold.
I only have a few other sites I frequent. Mostly sites that I have friends on.
Almost all of my friends have left for the same reason: Gaia is dying. It has been for a couple of years. Slowly, at first. Now it seems they're trying to speed up the process..
I have quit before. Several times. I can't keep caring about a site that doesn't care about itself. It's too painful. I keep coming back because I truly do care and enjoy this site but.. I'm just a man. I can only take so much abuse at a time.

[TeriTeaRose]

I find joy in many ways on Gaia, maybe because I'm easy to please...But who knows really, haha. xd

Any hoo! I mostly love a gooood conversation that consists of throwing my ideas and opinions around to others. Usually doing this is very easy in the flash spaces like Towns 2 and such because your words can go by faster than in the forums, but forums also help when you need to look back on some thing from a long while ago. whee I stay because I haven't lost interest in it, that doesn't mean I haven't before. There was a time when all I really cared about was getting all the least items that I was attracted too, I didn't care too much about what others talked about or did with their Gaian life let alone real life. I grew bored and frustrated about things, got pretty greedy too...sometimes I feel those feelings slowly coming back, but when you catch them...ahh~ It makes you feel so glad that you did before you buried yourself again, I've learned to let go I guess. 3nodding Don't get me wrong I still care about things like quests and people, they just don't get to me like they used too. And when I say get to me I mean just bothering me to no end.

I've had friends come and go before, I've even cleaned out my friends list a little while ago as well. These things just happen just like real life so it doesn't bother me and if they ever come back you're always still on their list too... I think, or they'll remember you and seek you out. My friends list was getting too out of hand I just had to shorten it! xd Any way there is always more people to befriend and even though it seems like you lost old ones, they're not really gone because they're in your memories. I guess I say this because I've had a friend pass away that I knew on Gaia, we used to Skype chat with the rest of our friends as well. This is starting to get a bit personal so I'll have to stop the story here sadly. Basically what I'm saying I guess is that...I hope this helps in some way, just know that even if prices are inflated you can still have good old fashion Gaia fun and that you should always remember that. emotion_hug <3

[SakuraOHaruno]

okay sure price bit let down am not going quit just cause price is high i've started gaia cause i wanted meet new people and got away from imvu lol so am stay put.

[kanji96]

I went on a long hiatus, but when I got back, I realised how frequently Gaia was pushing out new and shiny items now. That's one of the main reasons why I came back. It's really amazing and I have a lot of respect for the artists who make it happen.

[Einrick]

I thought for sure that I was done after this Halloween and Thanksgiving. But guess what? I came back anyways. And I'm having fun just gifting freebies thanks to grab bags and stuff. I guess that's good enough for me.

Also, I guess Gaia is my solution to boredom. sweatdrop

[Myrielle]

I'm too heavily invested in this site to leave.

But that doesn't mean I can't meet other sites on the side, does it? ninja

[Lamiroir]

yum_strawberry What makes you stay?
The avatar. It's always the ******** avatar.

yum_strawberry What are your fond memories of this site?
I met wonderful people on this site. Unfortunately, that's like 1% of all the people I've met here. I've met more creeps and assholes than people who are actually worth it. I guess my view of the site is jaded, more because of the community than anything else.

yum_strawberry Do you find yourself drawn to other similar sites as a refugee?
No. Gaia was an accident. I didn't know what it was about until all of a sudden I'd find myself posting in forums and being a popular reg in one of them.

I tried going to other avatar based sites but I realized that if I wanted to get rid of the habit I shouldn't be replacing one site with another.

yum_strawberry Have you experienced friends quitting this site? Why did they leave?
Yes. Mainly Gaia becoming something to be ashamed of [pre-inflation], because they got better things to do, or because they got banned and they didn't want to start all over again.
Some others have been driven away by the community as well as me. Cases of harassment, people finding their new accounts and trying to get them banned by stalking their post history, etc.
To this day they still stalk post histories and stuff.

yum_strawberry Have you considered quitting? Why?
I guess you could say I "quit" in the sense that I'm not really active in forums anymore. I only log in to dress up my avatar, maybe check on some comments if I have any, and lurk every so often just to see what people are doing. Gaia was never meant to be a hobby to me, and like I said, the community has driven me away with people trying to get some users to harass/troll me, getting me involved in drama that I didn't have anything to do with, people trying to link personal information and links to Gaia in an attempt to troll me, etc.

All in all, the amount of negative experiences outgrows and overpowers the positive ones, and there's nothing left for me in here other than coming to see what can I do with the pretty pixels I own.

[Annoh]

yum_strawberry What makes you stay? Well i am kind of attached to my avatar, even though i usually can't dress myself worth s**t anymore. And gaia is also a habit that i've been into doing for years, that it feels wrong not to do.
yum_strawberry What are your fond memories of this site? Well back when guilds were really active, i used to have a lot of fun times in guilds. Until like 2010 i think. Guilds were always my home on gaia. Most of the friends i used to have on gaia quit gaia in around 2011. I have fond memories of my noob avatars too. Like 2006-7. Dressing up was so fun then because i was so new to it. (Even though i look back on most of them now and go "Wow why did i think that looked good?" wink Right now avi making feels sort of stale most of the time, because i have so much stuff and i don't always keep to the same kind of look anymore. I remember playing zomg way back when it first started, with a couple of friends, and i had a laptop that kept overheating. I have fond memories of meowbook and omnidrink and other april fools stuff where they actually had a prank gimmick. Speaking of that, the event that i will always remember most fondly is the 2006 halloween and christmas stuff. Those were my first ones, and i had fun. I used to draw shitty art for lots of people back in like 2008-2010, back when i actually used to draw. Those were always fun, even though they would look embarrassing now.
yum_strawberry Do you find yourself drawn to other similar sites as a refugee? Nah, what else is there that is good?
yum_strawberry Have you experienced friends quitting this site? Why did they leave? I feel like most of my friends i had on gaia quit gaia somewhere around 2011. I don't know why. Lost interest. Busy life. Drama. As of now, i think only 9 or 10 of the 64 people i have on my friendlist still log in anymore, and the rest probably don't. I only interact with like 4 of them anymore, by guilds.
yum_strawberry Have you considered quitting? Why? Actually, I was seriously considering it today because i was in a bad mood because i am terrible at handling people reacting badly to me, or unnecessary negative attention. But i don't think i will quit yet.

[rococobro]

I still enjoy the art shops and occasional chat with people so I haven't thought about quitting. I have slowed down on purchasing items from the mp tho. pre inflation I would get the urge to sell off my invo and make a whole new avi (rinse and repeat everytime a pretty new wig or eyes came along). now that I have character avi I love and with Gaia pumping out so many unfitting items (I mean unfitting in the sense that they just aren't workable for my character), I just goof around with what I have for the most part.

Despite the shittiness I'm actually happier personally. I don't stress about gold cause its value is shoddy, so I hang on to my items and have more to work with. I gift more and chat more. Weird how that is. Idk.

I do hope Gaia focuses on maintenance and features that were promised a long time ago. I do hope they quit selling ggs and realize that alienating your costumer base probably isn't the best practice in the end. I guess I'm trying to say I found my own silver lining in spite of all the bullshit.

I'm not leaving anytime soon. ive said it before, I'm gonna be here to play the fiddle while it burns.

[Andromeda Phoenix]

What makes you stay?
10 complicated reasons go!

1. There's no other site with avatars as good as Gaia. Some people don't like sites with ugly "realistic" avis taking up 2/3s of your comp screen a.k.a more vertical space than the average forum post on that site does.

2. No other site with an MP like Gaia's (ignoring the inflation bit), afaik. Those sites with the MP exchange forum only are boring as sin. -_-

3. No other site understands that wanting to dress up an avatar =/= wanting to talk on forums =/= wanting to talk to people at all. Sometimes people just wanna dress up a dang good looking avatar, kinda like they're six years old playing with a doll again, ya know? Gaia did.

4. Going back to point 3, other sites punish you for not talking on the forums, because that's the only way to earn currency, or participate in events, if you're not throwing real money at the site. Gaia does not. Enough said.

5. I have just enough items that I can still make nice avis when I'm bored.

6. Gaia fishing. Though I haven't touched it since captcha issues. When I fish, I want to relax, not want to increase my urge to flip a table. Plus the occasional gaian acquaintance keeps pulling me back to it.

7. Loyalty shop. I purposely haven't quit yet because I wanted to see if they were actually going to do this. It's exactly as I expected. No, that's not a positive thing.

8. I'm used to being poor as ******** and not being able to afford s**t, and adapting my usage of the site to that. Every once in a while something new comes along that makes this situation more of a bitchsmack, but I usually get used to it, adapting as well.

9. It's not "fully" pay to play yet.

10. I'll be tempted to try and find another site like Gaia, and over my dead body will I connect to another site just for them to potentially ******** my loyalty to them in the a** as Gaia has done. No thank you. Is this extreme loyalty, or stupidity, guys? *cough*

I used to replace Gaia with facebook. You got more for free from their apps, and none of those apps lied to you like Gaia did by not making it clear they wanted and only cared about your money from the getgo.

If I could find a site with cute avatars like Gaia's and a useful fishing game (the only one I found so far is a lame-ish app on facebook), I may be sold completely to jump ship.

What are your fond memories of this site?
Oldie memory: Just about all instances of Gaia fishing. That game's the only reason I didn't quit two days into my Gaian existence. Those "Quiet Rooms" were sooo nice.

Newish memory: Loyal Bazaar's easter grab bags. Holy s**t community. That was and still is beautiful. emotion_brofist emotion_hug Brought me back to when I first joined and folks were so generous they were gifting me things simply for having a fishing room open every day. *emotional tear*

Do you find yourself drawn to other similar sites as a refugee?
Absolutely not. *points to point 10 on my "Why do I stay" list. Gaia's made me not trust any of them. It took ten years for Gaia to get to this low point. I imagine it'll take the other upcoming sites as long too, maybe even shorter, considering inflation in the US. When you come across an abusive lover, you're supposed to get away and stay away, not get away and find yet another abusive lover. [/emotional trauma fail]

Have you experienced friends quitting this site? Why did they leave?
My Gaian "friends" disappear on me whenever I stop playing Gaia fishing for more than two days. I'm pretty sure they'll "quit" over anything. The majority of them however jumped ship the moment they realized Gaia's emphasis on the CS was growing to ridiculous proportions...way before summer 2013.

Have you considered quitting? Why?
Lotsa times. I usually hiatus and do a crapton of writing while I'm gone instead, because of "why do I stay" list.

RIGs pissed me off. ******** you item rarity. ******** you.
Bootygrab and zOMG used to piss me off. Gold Generators currently semi-piss me off. Stupid screwing up the delicate balance of gold earning and hard work on the site.
Gaia selling event items in the CS instead of chucking them into the Bazaar or the Wing Sticker treehouse for Wing Stickers is pissing me off. Gaia selling the occasional game exchange item in the CS is pissing me off too.

Club Verge made me wanna quit 'cause Gaia right then and there Gaia made it clear non-GC users weren't important and never would be anywhere near as important as GC users by not releasing it and the Loyalty shop at the same time. And on top of that, they shat on the GC users by making the majority of items in there more expensive than what the majority of CV members could even afford! Dafuq? The prices are better now, I hear, but that imbalance of GC vs Loyalty Loyalty still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

When this years Birthstone items came out, I truly attempted to quit. No intention of hiatus. Just...have me gone. (See how well that attempt did not work.) That 100% price increase was unnecessary and a complete greed grab. It still pisses me off to this day. Smh.

[Bea Bishop]

When you've put as much of time as some did in your Gaia Acc, it really isn't easy to just leave. The only times I would "left" was when I'd take a hiatus, purely because Gaia bored me at some points and my interest for it simply wasn't coming back.

It is not, however, the only reason I'm still here, despite the angry crowd there, protesting against inflation and whatnot. I've recently started being more active in forums, and I find it plenty of fun. I started re-visiting old games, which I haven' done in years, and those are again plenty of fun.

I've looked for other similar sites, but not because Gaia bored me or I wanted to leave, but because Gaia was so much fun that I wanted more of it, if that makes sense. xD I was on Solia for a while, still visit it occasionally.

IMO, Gaia should really do MUCH more wrong before it'd force me to leave. Pay-to-play, excessive cash advertising (the kind that actually pops up in he middle of something or genuinely ruins the looks of the site) or some major, capitalism-like changes would be some of shifts would made me think twice about why am I even here.

[Spyrite]

I still like this place. That's it.