Gaia is Dying, I know there's other threads.

[Winter Hue]

I have been a member for almost 5 years. Five beautiful years. Through those years I have gone from a very confused newbie to a GCD lurker into an avid member of the Gaia Online community. I love this site. I love the users. Gaia may have been through some rough patches over the years, but not an ounce of my being believes it will be closing down any time soon.

Am I sad that Gaia has had to let many beloved artists go? Yes of course. I loved their work. In the conversations I have had with said artists over the years, I can tell you that they are some lovely people. I believe they were left go because it was absolutely necessary. I do not believe that the new CEO made the decision easily and without thought. GaiaOnline was obviously in financial trouble, so it did its best to rectify the situation. As a community, we should remember that this site is run by a company. For it to stay afloat, we need to continue being its supporters. Spreading around "Gaia is dying" threads and messages is nothing but creating a self fulfilling prophecy and sending users into fear, doubt, and freaking them out into not supporting the site.

Throughout my years on this site, I have seen several "Gaia is dying" threads, several cash shop sales, and neither had much to do with the either. Gaia is shutting down because they were offering the extremely rare and coveted Angelic Halo? Why? Because it is so rare? Because it was being sold for nearly $1000? Hell, Gaia should sell it more often if it made them a lot of money. I saw the halo's re-release as a special Halo Anniversary promotion. Nothing more. I think everyone needs to take a step back and squeeze some of that paranoia out.

For that is all I see this thread as. Paranoia.

[leaf]

ROMVLVS

As always, tell my why I'm wrong

*me. Consider yourself told. emotion_awesome





Seriously though, I don't think Gaia's dying any time soon, it is definitely quieter than it has been in past years(yes, I know a lot of anti-botting things were done, but even accounting for that, there are less active-users). They just recently got a new CEO and I think it's too soon to say whether that will make a difference or not, for all we know, he might have some great ideas that'll pull in tons of new users, etc. I think the halo sale was a good idea, as it happens. They also seem to be listening to feedback, which is always good for retaining users.

I'll be here until I'm the last person left, everybody send me your cool stuff as you leave, so I can be all rich by myself. emotion_donotwant

[Deletris]

Kain-Senpai

Eh... I dunno. It could be that this CEO just wants to monetize as much as he can, by pushing the envelope a little farther every day. That's not bad. Gaia is a business and frankly, business run on money. To say they're money-hungry is ridiculous. California, in general, isn't in the best of shapes. Hell, New Jersey, my home state, is in better shape than California. New Jersey is near the very bottom in a lot of categories.

I digress...

Anyway, I don't see this site falling. Sure, it's not a popular is it used to be, but during the times when there was A LOT of account activity, was during the days when bots ran rampant on the site. Right now, we're seeing a lot of core users. Users who have been here for several years and enjoy the site for their own personal reasons. They'll keep coming here for those enjoyments.

Frankly, Gaia needs something new to not only bring the community closer, but to make more care about some of the core features of the site: manga, plot, store updates, forum events, etc. That stuff really needs to be updated and update frequently. I know they can only do so much, but they gotta do more with less. Lots of business are doing it, and may be doing it successfully.



I like this site. I'll stay to the very end.

If you Gaia is bad, look at Menewsha.

This.

__________

It would be nice if they released less cash shop oriented things.

I haven't been on meneshwa for a couple of years now, and I don't plan on returning ouo

[ROMVLVS]

Existential Existence

Someone at Gaia finally has the cojones to charge users for stuff people are willing to pay for, and monetize extra features.

If only someone had the balls to do the same thing with zOMG, maybe zOMG might've been able to support itself enough to continue development.

Your post and the previous poster have actually brought up another point.

Gaia used to limit the amount users could make in polls, way back when. The first polls would net ten whole gold, while subsequent polls would produce less and less, as far as I know it is still thus.

My story continues, how ever, my point is as always at the end. Not long ago, or perhaps even before many joined, there was an abatement to stop the rampant inflation caused by bootygrab and dolphin mania, something many of us will remember fondly. Even after, the inflation had not subset, and there were many ways put in place to curb the inflation, and to cause a deflation of the economy.

This deflation of the economy they wanted came with the added displeasurement of limiting the amount of resources users could garner from the many different flash games available on the site, while continuing to not update the prices of older games making them less viable and this less played.

Essentially, while combating inflation, they actually increased the likelyhood of users becoming cash users, or possibly decreased the likelyhood of the retention of non cash buying users. Why this is, is simply that there is an actual glass ceiling of earning potential for every game. While users in the past would spend 7-8 hours a day clicking on polls for the one gold--at the time similar to maybe 80-150 gold today, players are not like rewarded for their time, and as such, less likely to spend it. This means in order to obtain certain goals users might be forced to spend cash where as they would otherwise not, which would leave a distasteful feeling to many a user.

While attempting to appease their users and fight bots, they have actually done something that may have hurt their users instead.

A lot of prices are dropping, and others have been completely stable where they should be expected to rise, if even slightly. The number of sales on new items aren't as high as they had been in ages passed.

Users are buying less, becausethey're playing less. Their favorite parts of the site are limiting them.

Gaia has literally limited it's customers as to what they can do. This isn't a reason why it's dying, but if you think about how some peoples usage of the site changed after these features were limited, it's not hard to see a lot of them not continuing to come back. I know the last time I played zOMG it was practically dead, and I know there were a lot of users who really loved that game. I just don't see the majority of them doing something else whentheir time or gold limit has expired.

[Catena Carswell]

Gaia is not dying because things are changing.

Gaia would be dying if it refused to change.

That, I think, is why it has continued to persist as a website against astronomical odds for ten whole years. Because Gaia changes. Perhaps not always for the better, yes- and god knows we tell 'em when they're getting it wrong. But they change, in an effort to keep up with the times and continue to turn profit and keep the doors open. And they've even avoided the trap that youtube and tumblr have fallen into recently, making meaningless and hassling changes in basic UI just to keep their developers busy. ...Granted I think they might be a little too ambitious for their actual ability when it comes to games, but at least they're *trying*. Maybe one day they might even get it right.

(they should listen to me more. I told them HoC would flop. Coulda saved you a lot of time and money, Pan.)

Take off the goggles. Nostalgia is a useless emotion.

[Hi-Potion]

ROMVLVS

Hi-Potion

ROMVLVS

Jin Love

ROMVLVS

Jin Love

If they released the halo out of being desperate for money, why would they not have just made it stay longer in the cashshop? It was there at random times for a short time. If they really needed to pump money from it they would of just left it there for the whole sale without removing it.

Plus it was the 10th year anniversary for the halo, I kinda see that as a big enough reason to want to re-release it. There aren't many either and it is something that a lot of people have asked for over the years. Companies to tend to hold sales to fork in extra money, just business really.

I don't think any user can fully say if gaia is dying for sure or not. Sure somethings might seem a bit slower in some areas but we don't know how well they are doing financially (yes there were layoffs but there are times when companies need to downsize when things hit them hard). My point short is though that unless we see posts rarely ever being made in any forum, and hardly any activity at all, I don't think we can be so certain about how long it may be around.

There have been threads as far back as 2005 (or more) saying gaia would shut down in 1-4 years, and yet here it is still going.

That'sthe thing though, I don't really remember users asking for it. They wanted them, but that was because it was a status symbol. The ultimate quest, the I only knew 4 users who had one kind of special. They didn't need to re-release it, people are perfectly happy buying new RIGs every month, new bundles, recolored EIs, etc. There really shouldn't be any reason that there were summer sales to begin with, theoretically, they shouldn't need it.

But, the thing is, the forums are slow. This thread went 12 minutes before it got a single reply. Spam threads used to get 10 posts in 5 minutes by people telling them not to spam, at 3 AM.

The GCD is so slow now that a snail is a poor metaphor for it. It needed it's oil changed 20 years ago and now the engine is seized. Even the CB is slow compared to how it used to be. Rally is even dead.

I've been a regular in SF since I joined, I haven't seen it much this year but before I would see a lot of threads asking about re-relasing older MCs, sometimes asking for all the older ones or just the halo. Whether you remember or not, it's not an idea that hasn't been brought but a few times.

All businesses whether we like it or not will do things to make extra money, and re-releasing older items does make the users who wanted them happy. Not everyone is happy with RIGs, it's all just a matter of opinion really. But the point is, if it will sell well or if they can have any sale to bring in anymore cash then they will do it, they can;t please everyone.

I do agree that the GCD is slower, why? I couldn't say for sure, could be the lack of interest in the manga or as you've said gaia is dying. I just don't think that's something someone who doesn't know everything that's going on at gaia HQ can answer.

I played an online game for many years, the population died down at times but it was mostly always packed and I'd see tons of items (cash ones) being sold. It shut down without any warning or big signs. Why? The company wanted to work on other games. Point is, even if gaia is doing better than ever it could shut down simply because they just didn't want to work on it anymore or that they wanted to work on other things. That being said, it's why I don't think anyone could say when because there's just no way in knowing that fully.

You're saying that I can't possibly know that Gaia is hurting, but honestly, How can you not?

When a business, a show, a store, etcetera begins to fail, they take drastic actions, it's called jumping the shark.

Gaia jumped the shark. You ******** watched it.

Sure, one or two morons asked for everything, there were people who wanted the halo released, but not in any significant numbers. There are people who will always want everything, and then they want it for free, on top of that.

You all saw Gaia jump the shark, the re-released the halo, they literally said 'we need money so bad, we're selling an item for $1,000, please, please buy it so we don't have to fire Reapersun.'

You honestly think they'd sell an item for that much if they didn't need to?

What's more sad, Gaia selling the Halo/their word as a business, or the people who shelled out $1,000 for it?

DUDE.
Seriously.
They NEVER told us they were hard up for money and begged us to buy a halo. $1000 is A LOT to spend on a site and they put it so high because they figured AS LITTLE PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE would buy the thing then, which wouldnt cause too much damage to the halos price. If Gaia were REALLY hard up for cash, they woulda sold more desirable items. ALL companies go through lay-offs and higher new blood.

Of course companies always are letting go of employees, but the sheer amount of employees for how small Gaia actually is, well..

And honestly, I just really see the signs that say 'goodbye!' all around. It's not just one thing, it's all of them. One or two, maybe, but all of them together means that a coincidence isn't likely.

You're saying that they didn't need the money, well, they really didn't need to re-release it, but they chose to, there must really be a good reason for them to have, no?

You do realize that Gaia isnt that small? Gaia has a decent number of employees.

... No good reason to release the halo? Other than it being the 10th anniversary of the Halo's release? Other than 10 years of Gaia existing? No. No good reason at all.

[ROMVLVS]

Hi-Potion

ROMVLVS

Hi-Potion

ROMVLVS

Jin Love

I've been a regular in SF since I joined, I haven't seen it much this year but before I would see a lot of threads asking about re-relasing older MCs, sometimes asking for all the older ones or just the halo. Whether you remember or not, it's not an idea that hasn't been brought but a few times.

All businesses whether we like it or not will do things to make extra money, and re-releasing older items does make the users who wanted them happy. Not everyone is happy with RIGs, it's all just a matter of opinion really. But the point is, if it will sell well or if they can have any sale to bring in anymore cash then they will do it, they can;t please everyone.

I do agree that the GCD is slower, why? I couldn't say for sure, could be the lack of interest in the manga or as you've said gaia is dying. I just don't think that's something someone who doesn't know everything that's going on at gaia HQ can answer.

I played an online game for many years, the population died down at times but it was mostly always packed and I'd see tons of items (cash ones) being sold. It shut down without any warning or big signs. Why? The company wanted to work on other games. Point is, even if gaia is doing better than ever it could shut down simply because they just didn't want to work on it anymore or that they wanted to work on other things. That being said, it's why I don't think anyone could say when because there's just no way in knowing that fully.

You're saying that I can't possibly know that Gaia is hurting, but honestly, How can you not?

When a business, a show, a store, etcetera begins to fail, they take drastic actions, it's called jumping the shark.

Gaia jumped the shark. You ******** watched it.

Sure, one or two morons asked for everything, there were people who wanted the halo released, but not in any significant numbers. There are people who will always want everything, and then they want it for free, on top of that.

You all saw Gaia jump the shark, the re-released the halo, they literally said 'we need money so bad, we're selling an item for $1,000, please, please buy it so we don't have to fire Reapersun.'

You honestly think they'd sell an item for that much if they didn't need to?

What's more sad, Gaia selling the Halo/their word as a business, or the people who shelled out $1,000 for it?

DUDE.
Seriously.
They NEVER told us they were hard up for money and begged us to buy a halo. $1000 is A LOT to spend on a site and they put it so high because they figured AS LITTLE PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE would buy the thing then, which wouldnt cause too much damage to the halos price. If Gaia were REALLY hard up for cash, they woulda sold more desirable items. ALL companies go through lay-offs and higher new blood.

Of course companies always are letting go of employees, but the sheer amount of employees for how small Gaia actually is, well..

And honestly, I just really see the signs that say 'goodbye!' all around. It's not just one thing, it's all of them. One or two, maybe, but all of them together means that a coincidence isn't likely.

You're saying that they didn't need the money, well, they really didn't need to re-release it, but they chose to, there must really be a good reason for them to have, no?

You do realize that Gaia isnt that small? Gaia has a decent number of employees.

... No good reason to release the halo? Other than it being the 10th anniversary of the Halo's release? Other than 10 years of Gaia existing? No. No good reason at all.

From a business stand point, considering what the halo is to Gaia, no, not really, those are terrible reasons. Considering especially how many different ways they could have made an item for the anniversary, like the white rose corsage, a remake of an item I always wanted and would never own, the red rose corsage. Of course, it wasn't on sale for minimum wage's monthly income.

I really have to wonder if you really think there are twice the people that would buy it at $500 rather than $1,000? If someone can justify $500 on Gaia, 10X the amount any item has gone for on this site before, that couldn't justify $1,000?

[Labtech Soosh]

The site is showing symptoms of financial collapse, but they claim they aren't dying, so I'm just going to pretend financial collapse isn't an issue here and watch it. Terrifyingly close. Like a man watching a termites nest slowly being pumped with poison with claims that the termites aren't dying.

Do I always believe what I'm told? No.
But I'll still nod my head and pretend I do.

As for whether I'm jumping ship or not... a captain always goes down with the ship.

[ROMVLVS]

You do know why they released the halo in the first place, right?

Honestly, I would think they might do better if they sold stock.

[Labtech Soosh]

ROMVLVS

You do know why they released the halo in the first place, right?

Honestly, I would think they might do better if they sold stock.

I'd actually invest in this.
I want to be a shareholder and have a say in what goes into the site with some actual goddamn weight to my words.

[Ysavvryl]

When I see threads like this, I can't help but think of the plans they have for the future. Like Towns 2, which is going to take a couple years at least to complete. Or this new Pet system, which is a big and radical change. If they really thought they were dying, why would they invest in projects that would take that much time?

[Kain-Senpai]

Plus, didn't Sisky put that rumor to rest?

She did:

siskataya

Regarding the notion that this sale indicates that Gaia is going to close:
As far as I am aware, this is not the case! We're doing ok, and shall continue rolling along in our fabulous way. Is this a tough economy for all businesses? Yes, it is, and Gaia feels the effects of that economic downturn like any other company. That said, feeling effects does NOT equal going down the toilet. So, unless I am completely blindsided by something myself, I'd like this rumor to be put to rest. I feel that Gaia has a bright future, and will continue to be an amazing place for all of us.


Well, I think that about covers it! Thanks for taking the time to read this post. If I've missed anything, please feel free to post in this thread with your questions, comments, and feedback. I'd love to get a dialogue going!

[Randy Jenkins]

Oh boy, I reallllyyy hope you're wrong about it dying. I don't really do much on the site, I basically lurk around the CB and don't do much of anything else. I like the avatars though, I get a simple satisfaction out of looking at my badass avatar...

But you're definitely right about the battle system. It would have helped a lot if they would have capitalized on the weapons and various avatar accessories. There's hope still, I think. I don't know. Virtual reality? One can dream, although such a thing would have a lot of competition and whatnot. Hell, if Gaia lasts long enough then it might even be possible.

[Kain-Senpai]

Pirate Captain Sushi

ROMVLVS

You do know why they released the halo in the first place, right?

Honestly, I would think they might do better if they sold stock.

I'd actually invest in this.
I want to be a shareholder and have a say in what goes into the site with some actual goddamn weight to my words.

Me, too. Having an actual say in a company you love is double the amount of effort made to make it better. At least, that was what I was told a long time ago. Har har.

[Exploding Tofu]

Winter Hue

Spreading around "Gaia is dying" threads and messages is nothing but creating a self fulfilling prophecy and sending users into fear, doubt, and freaking them out into not supporting the site.

I just find this a ridiculously important point???
Rumors like these are really bad for gaia as a business.