Gaia isn't being money hungry...Updated 12/16/08

Is the thread title accurate?

Yes	67.9%	[ 1187 ]
No, It should be Gaia isn't being greedy	32.1%	[ 560 ]
Total Votes:			[ 1747 ]

[karama]

But how were they running it before?

[Leena no Majo]

karama

But how were they running it before?

I'm sorry, I don't understand the question.

[OffSide7]

Leena_Rasui

We don't know for sure if they will, 100% be going with the limited items because there has been ALOT of negative feedback about that one single feature.

I don't think these items are going to cost hundreds of thousands of gold, Again I think that part is being blown waaayyy out of proportion.

I really don't see the big deal in how an item is obtained. It's pixels, you get it one way or another and thats that.

Just because someone can buy it, why does it take away from it.

I mean, to me thats like saying "No I won't take this free item, I'd rather by it instead"

Because when you get down to it, items on here are free because we pay from them with virtual currency.

I sincerely hope you're right. If they decide to not have more limited items, that'd be great. Then I wouldn't have to work up to buy stuff I'm not sure I want just because I might want them but they'll have inflated by the time I went for them. I will be super happy if they don't have more limited items.

I think there's a good chance they'll be super expensive, if not hundreds of thousands. I mean, Kaya started out hundreds of thousands, then dropped because it was unpopular. I could very easily see something starting out there and staying there because it's actually a very cute, popular item. Especially if it does new tricks, like "develop" or whatever it was.

...That said, I wouldn't be shocked if it dropped to where Kaya is now... but that's still pretty damn expensive. Not impossibly forever out of my range, but still.

The big deal about how the item is acquired, and why it matters that other people can pay for them, is because having them super easy to get by paying means they sell for very high in the marketplace, the only place to get them without paying. That means I have to spend tons of time earning the gold, which is generally not that fun for me- I don't like the games that much, and I'm not that into posting unless there's something specific I want to discuss. That means I have to spend a long time doing stuff I don't really like in order to enjoy the parts I do.

They're free, they just take tons and tons of time doing not so fun stuff.

[ItsTimeToLeave]

lol, free2play, pay2enjoy.

[Hugs of Spice]

Leena_Rasui

Gaia is still free.

It's not like Neopets, Wow or RO.

You don't have to pay to enjoy it. Sure you could enjoy it more if you had the money to spend but you don not need to pay to enjoy.

OK, OK, wait. I'm sorry, this is bugging me a little right here.

WoW is a pay site. You have to pay to play the game. I dunno anything about RO, but Neopets is not a pay site.

Neopets has free accounts, and you can pay to get an upgrade to your account. I know this because I have a free account, and my mother pays for hers.

Now, I'm not going to say that Gaia is becoming Neopets. Nothing like that. While the sites are compareable, they have different goals, set-ups, userbases, content, and themes. That's not the issue here. The issue is that Neopets is a free site. I just want to clear that up.

[Imaginary Phoenix]

Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU. FINALLY, someone has some SENSE.

I've been trying to get this point through to people for quite some time...unfortunately, some people don't like to listen. I was afraid to come to GCD after that announcement was made, actually. *shudder*

I'm glad I'm not the only one who realizes that giving people the OPTION to buy things with real money doesn't make someone a "greedy corporate whorebag" (no, seriously, I've seen that one tossed around). Honestly, if they were that greedy, they'd force us to pay to do EVERYTHING. Getting a signature would cost real money, gold would have to be bought in order to get more than 100 a day, you'd have to buy passes to get into certain forums...I could go on.

Instead, they give us the OPTION to buy things with real money, and suddenly that's "selling out?" EXCUSE ME? MMOs have cash shops. Some much smaller sites than this have cash shops. Except for where people are more or less forced to buy cash shop items in order to do anything worthwhile (*coughcough*FlyffV9*coughcoughhack*), I never see anyone complaining about those. neutral

[Bryan Bomber]

Leena_Rasui

Everything they do, however unlikely it seems, is for us. They are trying to make features that we want, they are trying to make items that we want, they are trying to take Gaia to the next level for US.

Here, here. I'm so sick of all of this. I just wish people would stop and realize that the administrators aren't out to get us; they're on our side.

[DJ Twissta]

I agree too, people don't know how hard it is to keep a very popular site (that still is growing ) free.

[RogueHobbit]

I completely agree with the first post. Finally, someone put it very elegantly! I think how Gaia is doing it is the best of any of the sites I've seen to raise money. I don't like how Neopets is trying to raise money, because the items you pay for disappear after a time. I'm not about to drop real dough on virtual items I don't even get to keep.

Augh, it makes me cringe every time I see some preteen screaming "free to play, pay to enjoy." That's such bull s**t. If you really think that you have to use the pay features to enjoy the site at all, you have a very limited imagination, to say the least. Besides, everyone bitching about how they won't be able to get the "pay" items really need to open their minds. Gaia staff have been kind enough to make it so the pay items can be sold in the MP or traded. They didn't have to do that - they could have made them account specific. If that was the case, then I could understand the complaints. But the only complaints I've seen have been the along the "down with capitalist Man" theme. Which make me rolleyes

I've been playing on this site for a VERY long time, and since Gaia has turned "money hungry," the updates and features have been astronomically better. I'm very happy with the way things are going.

[Jaysoko]

To me, it seems part of the problem is that they say in the newsletter how super-special-awesome the cash shop items are going to be, and all the super cool stuff that can be done with them. So in a sense, they ARE making you buy them, implying that all your items are s**t compared to these godly cash items and you're a supermega loser if you don't have them.

[Bassken Lake Monster]

I'd like to see people put in the company's situation make "better" calls. Nothing's free when it comes to maintaining a website this huge.

It's not like the items HAVE to be bought to use the site. I have no items on and I can use the site just fine.

x__x

[joseybird]

TONS of sites with high traffic are free and can easily afford to be free. Why? *Advertisements*

The more users Gaia has, the more easily they can attract advertisers/sponsers and the more they can charge. This is the very backbone of the magazine/newspaper publishing business, and this model has worked for websites as well.

I worry because I've seen what this slow introduction of pay-for-play features can do to a site. These aren't mindlessly indignant anti-capitalist concerns people are voicing; they're both perfectly legitimate and have a rational basis in real experiances.

That being said, I really hope that Gaia does not go corporate, like Neopets did =(

[f r u c t u o u s -]

If gaia wasn't merchandising then I'd be worried because that would mean the success wasn't growing.

It's common sense for a company to go industrial it makes it better.

[AriRashkae]

Zweizi Galon

People b***h about spending real money on Gaia-things, but honestly? In perspective? It's NOT THAT MUCH MONEY.

Think about how much money you can make by just collecting bottles and cans near the road in your community after a month?

I used to do that when I was a kid because my parents couldn't afford to give me an allowance. I'd rake in between $45.00 and at the highest $75.00 in a month.

People, especially teens these days (yes I'm stereotyping..*gasp*) are seemingly getting more and more lethargic, wanting to b***h and have everything handed to them. It only takes a little elbow grease to get the things you want in life guys!!

*cheers* I am so tired of Entitlement Whores (tm) who think everything should be handed to them.

Here's an idea, for those who think Gaia is money hungry: You pay the electric bill or buy servers and contracts. Move out there and volunteer. Do all that work for free. What's that? You can't pay your bills if you do that? Sucks, doesn't it?

[Leena no Majo]

Hugs of Spice

Leena_Rasui

Gaia is still free.

It's not like Neopets, Wow or RO.

You don't have to pay to enjoy it. Sure you could enjoy it more if you had the money to spend but you don not need to pay to enjoy.

OK, OK, wait. I'm sorry, this is bugging me a little right here.

WoW is a pay site. You have to pay to play the game. I dunno anything about RO, but Neopets is not a pay site.

Neopets has free accounts, and you can pay to get an upgrade to your account. I know this because I have a free account, and my mother pays for hers.

Now, I'm not going to say that Gaia is becoming Neopets. Nothing like that. While the sites are compareable, they have different goals, set-ups, userbases, content, and themes. That's not the issue here. The issue is that Neopets is a free site. I just want to clear that up.

That's my mistake then.

I've never played Neopets and my friends who do told me it was a pay site.