Is boycotting GC really the answer?

[Scobre]

I've had a lot of broken promises given by Gaia in the past. Pretty much that powerups, Hoc, and Moga were going to make it so that development on zOMG! would continue when it just ended up getting rid of all the developer who had been involved with zOMG! Basically the lesson, don't spend GC expecting Gaia to fulfill promises because they'll end up breaking them.

I haven't bought GC since joining the site but I'm able to earn it through video offers. I try not to spend GC, but fail with things like scissor and nose mods. I guess best advice I could say, is don't expect to spend GC and not be able to keep your items forever. With how the site is set up, if a closure were to happen, you'll lose everything. Basically we are renting to use the items. So enjoy the items for your own personal enjoyment and creativity. I wish zOMG! would have gotten the new power-ups that were planned on. I guess with all the sales, I'm just tired of spam of items. I want perks for games, forums, guilds, cars, and houses now. Gaia rereleasing Halo started the MC broken promises and so did selling gold for cash which Gaia said they would never do. But yeah Panagrammic's journal is full of good information about inflation and promises that have been broken, so I'd recommend checking it out. I don't judge people who buy GC or GGs. I just think Gaia selling GGs was the worst decision that management agreed upon that affected the community badly.

[Sheshira]

I can understand where the non-GC people are coming from and their intent. Although I've come across some who I felt were doing a disservice to their "cause."

I sometimes feel as if we might be entering a point where to use an overused saying damned if we and damned if don't if we continue to have the current CEO and his people's toxic ideas permeate the site. So people choose not to spend GC? It will get worse. People choose to spend their GC? It will get worse.

Then it boils down to, at least to me, what people want to spend on. There's so many items now being shoved into our faces that people have to reevaluate how they will spend their money, how not to fall in the trappings of gamification addiction, and how to do so while still feeling good about their purchases. If was able I would use GC. However I would use GC the way I have come to use GC now: when I want to buy items that interest me.

In the past it was easier to buy items and then to buy them for an "investment" because we knew that we weren't going to get one item released one day, a recolor days later, a bundle, a RIG etc. People could "collect" all the items without feeling overwhelmed.

Now honestly it simply isn't a choice. It doesn't help that Gaia's adopting some ridiculous methods such as tiered sales, limited quantity items, gold generators, massive item dumps into the cash shop (yet neglecting features, gold shops--their updates are lacking even though we did just get one).

[mayakko]

I never thought that boycotting GC was the answer. GC is necessary to keep the site alive. Boycotting it would just cause them to push even harder to get people to buy stuff, which would essentially translate to more GGs, more announcements, more CS updates and more neglect for the free stuff because they would be too busy trying to regain the money that they lost. The idea that boycotting GC will somehow "wake them up" and make them change their ways is naive beyond belief. The old Gaia is dead and it's going to stay dead.

It's GGs that need to be boycotted, above all else. They're the real issue here. Every release should be met with relentless anger. Every announcement should be criticized. And above all, no one should buy them. But like the GC boycott, it won't happen -- the people who are buying GGs, they don't care about the community or the economy at all, so they wouldn't join the boycott. The people who care, the ones who understand, we're already not buying them, and it's obviously not having any effect because they're still selling them.