GAIA: The long picture (forever lost or not?)

I am for:

The long haulER	28.8%	[ 21 ]
The short sprintER	0.0%	[ 0 ]
The devoted follower	9.6%	[ 7 ]
The skeptic	28.8%	[ 21 ]
The fickle consumer	11.0%	[ 8 ]
The deals wrangler	2.7%	[ 2 ]
THE POLL WHORE	19.2%	[ 14 ]
Total Votes:			[ 73 ]

[Yorugami]

As I was eating yesterday for lunch and derping around watching CNN ( I love NEWS channels ok?)
I saw a scene where they were interviewing Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezo and heard him say
some of the best bits of advice I've ever heard from a business. It lends even more credence
for him to be saying that for the sole reason that Amazon.com is one of the most successful
businesses online ever. Then, as I read through some of his quotes,
this particularly struck me when he said:

"You can do the math 15 different ways, and every time the math tells you that you shouldn’t lower prices because you’re going to make less money. That’s undoubtedly true in the current quarter, in the current year. But it’s probably not true over a 10-year period, when the benefit is going to increase the frequency with which your customers shop with you, the fraction of their purchases they do with you as opposed to other places. Their overall satisfaction is going to go up."

Source: HERE

And I can't help but agree whole-heartedly.

So GCD:

⚠ Do you think that the need to push up their quarterly and yearly numbers
has made Gaia loose sight of the long picture?

⚠ Do you think Gaia should start lowering prices and put back the less than 50$ pricetags
for cash shop or even Verge items? (make the 500$-1000$ a rare super special price)

⚠ Most importantly: would you, as a consumer, buy more and spend more on Gaia if
they released more items in the lower price range rather than the 50$ prictetags now?
Or would you still be the same and just close your wallet?

⚠ Is it too late for Gaia to change? Has it crossed your BIG RED LINE as a consumer?

[the christmas art fairy]

I don't think Gaia is in this for the long run.

[Rabid-Turtle]

More affordable items would garner them more satisfied customers if they continue at their current frequency for sales. As of now I have a lock down on my wallet. I wont be able to get all those shiny new pixels but I'm used to that anyways and with this inflation, upcoming gold sink or no I can't say I feel like playing the market game anymore. When a 2k item is now 200k and I can't continue with alchemy due to the ridiculous mark ups its time to start enjoying my inventory for what it is and getting creative.

[John Columbo]

Welcome to the age of instant gratification. Where people can only see the short-term.

Seriously though, some people must be paying these prices, or Gaia wouldn't be charging them.
Unless they're trying to see just how far they can push the bar before even the die-hard Gaians snap their wallets shut?

[Yorugami]

Lyllisa

I don't think Gaia is in this for the long run.

The way they are running it these past few months.
It really seems more like a quarterly push to get big
numbers up for this year's earning rather than a sustainable
income good for Gaia in the long run. : /

I am saddened and I wish Gaia would take a longer look and
keep the site alive.

Alas...maybe there might be a tiny grain of truth for the 18+ new site
being a replacement but for now they are still rumors and I wish
are false.

[Yorugami]

John Columbo

Welcome to the age of instant gratification. Where people can only see the short-term.

Seriously though, some people must be paying these prices, or Gaia wouldn't be charging them.
Unless they're trying to see just how far they can push the bar before even the die-hard Gaians snap their wallets shut?

Aye but as a company they should look at the long picture or else
they will have nothing to retire on. : /

I think you may be right. I have a feeling the release of the Angelic Halo was something
like a foot testing the waters of Gaia's consumer wallet capacity rather than an honest
celebration of their 10th year anniversary.

They found out Gaians were so very VERY WILLING to spend that much...
and there goes the avalanche of 500-1000$ Verge items and more.
Unless Gaians stop spending 50$ is now what 10$ in the cash shop was.

[Illucio]

From my point of view, Gaia is trying to pull in major profits then pull the "It's easier to ask for forgiveness then it is to ask for it."

Basically sometime in the future Gaia is going to apologize for it's market strategy in someway, give us a crappy item, and expect us to forgive them.
So expect as much pushing, and items thrown in your face more then ever before. Nothing is sacred during this period, and just watch as they will pretend to be sorry. -.- I've seen companies pull this schnitzel all the time.

But the problem with Gaia members is that members are too overly attached and don't know how to quit Gaia in general, that's what is making this whole profit push so successful is because it's cashing on someone's weakness.

If you looked at my comments from around the beginning of the year, I was actually stating that Gaia has been a much better site, and that we were in a golden age of the site. My only complaint 8 months ago was that Gaia was still a little too Gaia Cashed focus, and that if they were to be a little more indirect about it I'd actually start donating regularly again.
So.. Long story short, you can easily tell that Gaia had passed my red line superbly. Well out of my expectations.

[Yorugami]

Illucio

From my point of view, Gaia is trying to pull in major profits then pull the "It's easier to ask for forgiveness then it is to ask for it."

But the problem with Gaia members is that members are too overly attached and don't know how to quit Gaia in general, that's what is making this whole profit push so successful is because it's cashing on someone's weakness.

That's certainly another way of looking at it.
But from what I also read around the forums. It certainly seems to be a major
part of why even some of these boycotting measures might now work
because Gaians are just too attached and would continue to spend
and support Gaia even through some pretty questionable business
practices.

I just hope to weather the storm and cross my fingers and hope Gaia listens
finally this time and moves on for the better for both the company and its userbase.

[FI0]

This made me think maybe gaia realizes that they aren't really hauling in newer users in this site, and after some years pass
the number of
those who leave (bec of age/ irl reasons/loss of interest) > new members they are ever going to get.
So what is happening now, they wouldn't strive for trying to make everyone happy (because that would be difficult and less profitable)they know the site wont last for longer than what they expect.
Its kind of like,hey, we're going to die in some years anyway ******** it.
I'll drink til my liver gives out and smoke til my lungs shrivel up. Atleast Ill get some sort of joy out of it.
So no, I think they know this site has like x number of years left so why not do what they are doing.
Its probably better starting out with another site that doesnt have any "bad" anything related to it and build things from there, rather than trying to fix something super ******** up ( something most netizens have a bad notion about)

[Illucio]

FI0

This made me think maybe gaia realizes that they aren't really hauling in newer users in this site, and after some years pass
the number of
those who leave (bec of age/ irl reasons/loss of interest) > new members they are ever going to get.
So what is happening now, they wouldn't strive for trying to make everyone happy (because that would be difficult and less profitable)they know the site wont last for longer than what they expect.
Its kind of like,hey, we're going to die in some years anyway ******** it.
I'll drink til my liver gives out and smoke til my lungs shrivel up.
So no, I think they know this site has like x number of years left so why not do what they are doing?

But the site is still pulling in new members, but Gaia has lost touch with integrating new members into the site. If that was the case, you could easily notice that anything super cashed focused is scaring away new members.

Now I have to truly question if they will question how long they have left to be relevant, Gaia never thought their site would take off like it did and be successful for all these years. I'm pretty sure they had this feeling for years, and never knew where the future would take them but they simply went with it.
But this does go back to a conversation I was having on another site, Avatar sites are dying. More and more are closing down, as the focus of avatar customization is more towards video games and Virtual Reality. Games like Littlebigplanet are the future of Avatar Sites, because if anyone had noticed the problem with any site in general is if it's interactive enough. Without interactivity between people that fun is lost, and Littlebigplanet is full of it. That's why the game was so successful with it's costume DLC's, and why it's spawning a free version of the game but with a more cash focus. In the next 20 years we will see a huge push for virtual reality, and creating custom avatars that you can free roam in worlds and explore.
The best examples I can show you guys is all Anime too; Accel World,PSYCHO-PASS, Summer Wars, and Sword Art Online showed this.

Long story short, Gaia will either die off or become something new.

[Sage Feathers]

They need to start making more awesome items for the gold shops at higher prices à la Ania's Wedding Gown vs. small clusters of chump items for chump change if we're going to get anywhere near that fight against inflation. I'm talking omega gold shop overhaul here in every single gold shop with quality designs. I also wouldn't have a problem paying a bit more for some of those already existing items. Some of the starters items are only 5 gold. It wouldn't hurt to add some zeros onto them.

[Erogenous Jones]

The days when corporations had 10 and 20 year plans are a thing of the past and have been for quite some time.
High Level executives have become a nomadic culture in Western business and it's rare to ever see a CEO or company President remain longer than 5 years at any company.
3 to 5 years is the norm nowadays after which time the executive updates his resume with his most recent success story (basically, how he gutted the company and maximized return to shareholders in his brief tenure) and peddles his virtues to the next company in line.
Because executives look only as far ahead as their next position, their vision for the future also looks only to their next job, rather then the far flung future of their current employer.

Where we are in Gaia right now is where we will continue to be for the foreseeable future because Gaia has smelled the blood in the water and, like any predator living only for its next meal, will feed until there's nothing left to eat, at which point they will abandon the waters they have left devoid of life and move on to more fertile hunting grounds.

[T y l e n o l.]

it hurts my marketing degree to see Gaia pulling this s**t. short term big payoff plans are literally the worst. the whole point of business is to make money and you know, continue existing. without longevity they're ********. I mean the site lasted ten years but who to say how quickly they'll run themselves into the ground once the userbase has been exhausted?

if prices came down I would've been willing to spend more a few months ago but my disgust has reached the level of no return.

[FI0]

Illucio

But the site is still pulling in new members, but Gaia has lost touch with integrating new members into the site. If that was the case, you could easily notice that anything super cashed focused is scaring away new members.

Now I have to truly question if they will question how long they have left to be relevant, Gaia never thought their site would take off like it did and be successful for all these years. I'm pretty sure they had this feeling for years, and never knew where the future would take them but they simply went with it.
But this does go back to a conversation I was having on another site, Avatar sites are dying. More and more are closing down, as the focus of avatar customization is more towards video games and Virtual Reality. Games like Littlebigplanet are the future of Avatar Sites, because if anyone had noticed the problem with any site in general is if it's interactive enough. Without interactivity between people that fun is lost, and Littlebigplanet is full of it. That's why the game was so successful with it's costume DLC's, and why it's spawning a free version of the game but with a more cash focus. In the next 20 years we will see a huge push for virtual reality, and creating custom avatars that you can free roam in worlds and explore.
The best examples I can show you guys is all Anime too; Accel World,PSYCHO-PASS, Summer Wars, and Sword Art Online showed this.

Long story short, Gaia will either die off or become something new.

They took the bait, but can gaia reel em in like they did long ago.

Its just speculation anyways. We need cold hard data to compare the loss or gain of members
per year or something. Its just how gaia seems like to me. Acting like someone who saw their end or predicted, and doing whatever it is that would bring them much happiness even if they crush some toes along the way.
Hmm I'll try experiencing that myself thanks. LBP I mean
I agree, dont forget the .hack//sign series
Im not sure if it will die to give way to something (entirely) new /ahem 18+ site

[Naladi]

I would definitely buy more items and very likely spend more money if Gaia went back to releasing items in the $10 and under category, and I don't mean just RIGs and REIs/EIs but also the bundles and regular items that they used to release. I can justify three $10 purchases in the span of a month easier than I can justify one $30 purchase in the same amount of time, and I know a lot of other people are the same way.

Gaia seems to be trying to appeal to impulse buyers with all of their flash sales, but they're forgetting that people are more likely to impulsively buy cheaper items than more expensive ones. The higher the price goes, the more of your consumer base you lose. Several hundred people might buy a five dollar item, but only a handful are likely to make an impulse purchase of a hundred dollars or more. Gaia would likely make more of a profit if, while still having flash sales of more expensive items, they didn't neglect their smaller budget buyers.