Gaia really is Pay To Play now

[WhipWhip]

There are folks who will donate gold to other users during the event, just so they can participate in the gold sinks. I mean, they were going to donate it anyway, why not give it to someone so that they can enjoy themselves too!

I think I want to start a charity up just to do it this year. Im tired of seeing people miss out on the fun, and I only ever want to donate to get the bottom end gifts and titles... and even then I dont really care if I dont.

But in essence I do agree. In many ways, Gaia is `pay to play` as much as I also agree that it isnt.

Theoretically, yes, you can still use the forums and make okay avatars et al, without having to spend a cent on Gaia. But it so much less fun, especially when you consider that if you look like a new user, its less likely folks will donate to you, and if you open a quest and dont look like youre doing a good enough job of actually trying to get the item yourself, folks will also not donate to you... its like this deserving and undeserving poor. My only proviso for donation is that you acknowledge you received it so I know my gift didnt get lost in the mail. And even then, its not actually mandatory, if you dont even do that, I dont care.

I think as users, we kinda need to let Gaia do its thing and start creating more user run events around major holidays. I love spirit week, and how fun that is to participate in. I would love to see more of that happening. I would hope Gaia supported that, but I cant bank on it.

[XQZT]

I've been trying to get back into gaia over the past year or so but I can't seem to and it's only because I'm bombarded with GC this and GC that as soon as I log in from the announcements, events, and ******** everything.
It's too much.
I used to play gaia because it was fun.

[Stargaziey]

I dislike certain decisions that Gaia has made in the last couple years & thus I've chosen to longer use cash.

The result is that I can't buy all these sweet new items in the CS, but that's really about it. I can still change my avi into the items I can afford. (Which, even back in the day, were never uber rare or expensive, even with the help of cash.) I can still use the forums & games, etc, etc, etc.

I find the Kickstarters annoying, but only because I see it as a way to encourage folks to buy the oh-so-conveniently available gold gens. To me that's practically throwing your money away. Even if you do get an achievement or crappy item.

I was able to play the Halloween & Xmas events without the help of cash. In fact, while I didn't care for certain aspects of the events (particularly xmas), they were nothing that could be aided with cash boosts or power ups.

TL/DR, Gaia's not really pay-to-play...yet. But it is headed down that slippery slope.

[Makys]

I think we all agree you misused the word "pay to play" but I understand where you're coming from. It's more like you have to pay to enjoy the site more on a whole. Not a whole lot of people will acknowledge you if your avatar isn't worth a whole lot or if you can't put a decent cheap outfit together. When I came back with my old avi (which is considerably "cheaper" now) not a lot of people would reply to me in forums or talk back to me in towns. Ever since I got it updated more people have approached me and I've made more friends. Not sure if coincidence or fact tho? I remember seeing someone on a different forum make fun of an avatar arena winner because he/she used gold shop shoes. Imo that was so rude and out of place, and surely made me feel bad since I use gold shop items myself. Sure I'm still not worth "a lot" of gold these days and it gets depressing not only cause lots of people can afford to look downright amazing compared to you, but a lot of threads focus on discussing gcash items whether it be item discussion, vending, etc. As someone who has never bought gcash or been lucky enough to earn enough gcash from the daily videos (y u no work?? and why don't I ever get those ad prizes emotion_donotwant ) I feel out of place participating in them.

Imo it's not so bad that I'm going to turn away from Gaia. It's just a lot harder to earn gold. But booty grab, daily chance, and dumpster dive (which I literally do as often as possible - I've gotten some awesome things from it) all help a ton. If your quest isn't hard, why quest at all you know? It's half the fun. Only complaint is that you have to constantly watch the marketplace to be able to get good at earning gold. A lot of us don't have time cause of work & inrl priorities. It's a bummer but you deal.

[Antiq]

Although I don't like a lot of Gaia's new practices, I have to hold my hand up and say it's definitely NOT pat to play, in any sense. I've cried off buying cash or items with cash for a long time now, and you know what? It's actually more fun without it. Having to grind for gold is more amusing and challenging. I have to do stuff like playing games and collecting my DC and raiding the dumpster and all the things I wouldn't bother with if I was simply handing over cash, and I find that much more entertaining.

[Chibi Blaze]

I kind of rely on donations for the most part.

[petitefeet]

Until they charge me to even log in, I'd say it's far from pay to play. I can still do things for free and I'm not forced to buy any GC, even though they love to shove cash shop and GC stuff in my face left and right.

Until they charge you to simply be here, it's not pay to play. I doubt it will ever go that far. They have a pretty good thing going on with their business model, no matter how much of a pain in the a** it is to be slapped with advertisements everywhere you look.

[M00NDR0PS]

Braev Dullahan

But do you have to pay to post in forums or play games or change your avatar? No

So Gaia is not a Pay to Play website :/

It sucks they have a "minimum" amount of gold to donate. It's stupid, a donation is a donation. However, the goldsink isn't the event, you don't really have to donate to partake in. Would be nice to have the stuff that comes with it? Sure, but Gaia likes to throw freebies during the actual event.s

Magus

But yeah, the distance between both types of users is staggeringly far apart and efforts to close that gap are mediocre at best.

" A Houngan is wandering, away from its swarm. "

||| @ Braev Dullahan: People shouldn't have to resort to buying gold generators or spending money to buy items from the cash shop to sell to participate in events. And the freebie items aren't worth s**t, the freebies we used to get in the past were much higher in quality (but then again so was pretty much everything before Goldemort took over and ******** everything up).

Events USED to be free and fair-access, they're not anymore. Sure, you don't need to pay to post or pay to change your avatar but unless you can afford to upgrade your wardrobe every so often, even dressing your avatar can get boring when all you can wear is the same s**t you've had for years.

Even the newer games, you do essentially need to pay to play some of them (either gold or GC). You can't win everything in Switchem without paying money to get to the final levels. I'm a non-cash user and no matter how hard I try I can never move past level 7 on Switchem, and that's if I'm lucky enough to get there in the first place, which I'm usually not (usually don't make it past level 5-6).

This is hardly a matter of spending money making things easier. To participate in a lot of features on the site these days, you DO have to spend money or you're left behind. Any idiot can see that Gaia is exclusively catering to anyone willing to dish out on their bullshit, and ignoring everyone else. I won't say Gaia's pay to play but it's certainly not the community-centered place it once was.

The focus is pretty much entirely on the cash shop/spending money on the site these days.

@Magus: You say efforts to close the gap are mediocre at best, but... Is there truly even any effort to close the gap at all these days? confused

" The wandering Houngan logged out "

[Menstrual Cramps]

To be fair, I believe that Gaia is going to kinda steer back to the right direction of where to drive sales.
Sure they are making a big push in the Cash Shop with Gaia Cash but it's far from pay to win. It's also far from pay to play.
Until I have to actually subscribe to Gaia in order to access the site, I'm okay with what they do because this is a business. This isn't someone's love child anymore, this place gives people jobs that help support them IRL. Hugs and love don't pay the bills. (Although I wish I could hug my Mortgage Company and that would be sufficient payment..)

These are things Gaia has done to really improve things here compared to last year's hot mess:

• Steering far away from gold chance items. Sure, they still offer them but look at their cost. They are clearly offering them for a small minority and everything else are item gens or items. A year ago today we'd be looking at nothing but gold gens on top of gold gens.
  
  
• LOTS of requested recolors are becoming a reality. This is great for people who have been wanting these items. If you're patient enough, you'll be able to purchase them in the marketplace for a decent sum. I've gotta say lately the quality of items has been on the rise too. The January MC actually impressed me compared to past years which I thought were flops.
  
  
• A ton of little events are happening pretty regularly now. These are pretty cool, IMO. This does include kickstarters as well which are nice mini-events without much admin control. But mods have done their parts to hold small events as well which is cool.
  
  
• Consolidation of announcements. Thank.. god is really all I can say to this. While not everything is consolidated, they have made a pretty big effort to make most efforts truncated.
  

While we still have a long way to go (really sick of these coupons.. but at least the prizes give GC instead of gold.), the cost of items is going down. I know this just based on my vending habits. Some things are still expensive, yes but that probably comes with the territory of the items origin. I'm not usually one to praise Gaia, honestly I'm not but I have noticed these small things.

Now if only we could sell more things in the marketplace... Pls Gaia.

[NocturnFox]

It's more pay to win to me.
Pay to get more luxurious item and deck yourself easily with high quality item
Free user has to grind gold which isn't easy to be able to get what they want

[The Iron Magus]

I feel like there's been a real sea change around the site lately.

A few months ago, I think everyone would have pretty much been on OP's side, and this would have been a huge Gaia bash-fest. But now everyone has pretty much accepted the new status quo, and people like OP are "whining."

I wonder why this is. Has the site's new direction driven off people who are likeminded to the OP? Or has everyone just "gotten over it," and embraced the current site as the "new normal?"

I've noticed this change even in myself. Not too long ago, I would have joined OP in commiserating about how everything has gone to s**t. But now, my first instinct is to roll my eyes at yet another complaint thread, and nitpick OP's points.

For instance: I do understand the frustration in not being able to participate in gold sink events (I was in the exact same situation when I returned from my hiatus). But at the same time, they are designed to mitigate the very problem (inflation) that OP is complaining about. So... confused

[AKO_Slash]

Jumping Jehosaphat

All the events have become awful fighting events too where you have to pay GC for boosts or quick reload time. And then everyone complains when there is any level of difficulty. It's disgusting.

And to be fair, the donation items you get usually aren't that great. In fact, you could probably set up a donation board in the proper forum to get them for free. A lot of people just want the achievements and not the prizes.

W0t? That's like buying a Lego Deathstar set for the box and throwing away the contents after having your parents build it for you!?!

[The Iron Magus]

AKO_Slash

Jumping Jehosaphat

All the events have become awful fighting events too where you have to pay GC for boosts or quick reload time. And then everyone complains when there is any level of difficulty. It's disgusting.

And to be fair, the donation items you get usually aren't that great. In fact, you could probably set up a donation board in the proper forum to get them for free. A lot of people just want the achievements and not the prizes.

W0t? That's like buying a Lego Deathstar set for the box and throwing away the contents after having your parents build it for you!?!

Nah. Sometimes the achievements are just better than the prizes. For instance, I don't wear T-Shirts, but some of the titles you can get from the achievements are pretty nifty, so...

[AKO_Slash]

The Iron Magus

AKO_Slash

Jumping Jehosaphat

All the events have become awful fighting events too where you have to pay GC for boosts or quick reload time. And then everyone complains when there is any level of difficulty. It's disgusting.

And to be fair, the donation items you get usually aren't that great. In fact, you could probably set up a donation board in the proper forum to get them for free. A lot of people just want the achievements and not the prizes.

W0t? That's like buying a Lego Deathstar set for the box and throwing away the contents after having your parents build it for you!?!

Nah. Sometimes the achievements are just better than the prizes. For instance, I don't wear T-Shirts, but some of the titles you can get from the achievements are pretty nifty, so...

No, I have regrets too. I think the first pay achievement was for bookwork or time-something title . Now its a bargain at 100,000 gold I think. sad

[The Iron Magus]

AKO_Slash

The Iron Magus

AKO_Slash

Jumping Jehosaphat

All the events have become awful fighting events too where you have to pay GC for boosts or quick reload time. And then everyone complains when there is any level of difficulty. It's disgusting.

And to be fair, the donation items you get usually aren't that great. In fact, you could probably set up a donation board in the proper forum to get them for free. A lot of people just want the achievements and not the prizes.

W0t? That's like buying a Lego Deathstar set for the box and throwing away the contents after having your parents build it for you!?!

Nah. Sometimes the achievements are just better than the prizes. For instance, I don't wear T-Shirts, but some of the titles you can get from the achievements are pretty nifty, so...

No, I have regrets too. I think the first pay achievement was for bookwork or time-something title . Now its a bargain at 100,000 gold I think. sad

Yeah, that's another thing. You can almost always obtain an item after-the-fact if you're willing to pay enough. But if you miss out on an achievement, it's gone forever (usually). I wouldn't be surprised that people hoard them just on the off-chance that they'll think of the perfect title later on, which is ONLY available by using the words they won from random achievement #4583, you know?