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Time-traveling Senshi

          Where's the money going? It's going into everything. We don't see a huge influx of money, say after a high end sale, and then suddenly a feature gets fixed because seriously it doesn't work that way. People who think it does or should either might not understand fully how a business works or are still under the assumption that features pay for themselves and the money they make go right back into that feature. Nope, the money we're spending on the site doesn't stay with Cash updates nor does it get earmarked for one project and one project alone. That money is, boringly enough, distributed between salaries, pet snacks, pet food, pet playpens, pet beds, Nerf ammo, server upkeep, computer upkeep, software, lights, cameras, sending DJ to the cons, the phones, the fridge in Sanactopia, the microwave in Snacktopia, the food in Snacktopia, the chairs, the desks, the tablets, the white boards, the conference room table, the cubicle dividers, the postage, the phone bills, the light bulbs, the water cooler, the TP, the paper towels, the cleaning supplies, the legal advice, the accountants, the next big project for the site, the time spent tweaking the site backend, insurance, etc. There's so much that goes into running a business that every last penny they take in is spread over a whole heck of a lot of things. The budget for Gaia isn't just salaries, art software, and new games it's probably three or four pages long when you break down everything between one time costs, ongoing costs, and unexpected costs. Because believe it or not every time we have an "Uh oh Lanzer tripped over the cord again" site outage or slowdown it costs them money. They have the same basic costs any business has, even the one my family used to have.

          I guess that's why when they come out with ways to motivate people to keep spending money on the site or start spending money I don't get overly upset about it. I understand what it's like to be a part of a business that's going through a very rough period of time. I know how bad it hurts to have to let people go in order to get to a point where you're not losing money just by paying excess employees that might not be doing very much for the company. Plus, if Gaia was really in as much trouble as some are scaring themselves to believe a lot of the little updates we've been getting and will continue to get this year would stop dead in their tracks. So seeing someone like codemonkey come into the SF and make a thread saying they made an update to Towns 2 and want our feedback on it is a reassurance that there's still things being produced on Gaia that isn't just items.

In a relationship with Redstar Galaxy

Unholy Lightbringer

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How many of you will still continue to support Gaia financially; whether they're right or wrong; buying up RIGs and MC's and Bundles, and EI's and REI's, just to keep the site alive and kicking?

Technically, I still am, as I have bought the newest EI, Aria Dannata (although, I used the gCa$h from my AutoCa$h $ubscription that I didn't spend in June on the RIG bundle, because it turned out that all the items I would want/afford were easily obtainable without me playing the RIG) cat_rolleyes

As for it keeping the site alive and kicking, I have to wonder if the patient isn't trying to just euthanize itself cat_stare

Is it even needed at this point, when Gaia's releasing all these cash "perks" and making money more easily, now, than ever before?

Well, truth be told, I have been wondering about this, since being an AutoCa$h $ubscriber almost feels like a curse, because while some, like myself, want our money going back to the community they care about (typically in the updating of features everyone uses or gold shop updates), it seems that by "giving generously" (albeit, in a small monthly sense compared to some "high rollers" wink the opposite seems to be occurring: More and more gCa$h is being asked for and exclusiveness is being pushed over inclusiveness cat_sad

Where do you think this money is going, since we're not seeing it being used to update and better the forgotten features that need it.

Well, considering that artists and staff need to be paid and they're spending all this time on Club Verge, and having to explain their actions, I imagine... Club Verge is really expensive, not just for us, but for them as well cat_xp

New games?

Well, they laid everyone else off, is there even staff still left to canmake games?

paid vacations?

I believe those Glassdoor reviews said they were cutting back on employee benefits and privileges... Oh, wait, I suppose the CEO and the BoD will be cat_rolleyes

A lifetime supply of Nerf Guns?

Nah, I'm sure management cut this when they were curbing the rest of the employee benefits and privileges cat_xp

Kibble for the pets they're bringing in the office?

Unless Waffles has gotten the sack too (since when was the last time you saw him?) cat_stare

How many of you have said they'd cut their financial support, but will likely forget, and cave under the pressure of shiny new item releases, later?

I haven't cut my financial support... Yet... Because I'm still trying to weigh the pros/cons... Besides... Even if I do cut my support, the only option for me after that is to just quit Gaia altogether, because not enough Gaians are, and can, vote with their pocketbooks to make a serious enough dent that Gaia will take notice, so... My lone act of no longer supporting this site will go unnoticed and, like so many who have already left recently, quickly forgotten cat_emo

So... I don't know... The few things I'm clinging to on this site to mentally justify why I'm here and why I'm still an AutoCa$h $ubscriber is getting harder and harder these days cat_sad

Opinions on how the staff are handling the 'damage control' that users are concerned about?

As if cat_rolleyes Damage controls implies not shooting yourself in the foot... Explaining the money situation only to change the shops landing page to force us to always land on the Ca$h $hops not only is self-defeating, but undermined all the effort put into creating that thread in a single swoop cat_xp

Furthermore, thanks to the Teal Box fiasco, it is only a matter of time before those same staff have to write up a thread explain to us what the ToS means/doesn't mean, because apparently we're all wrong about that too cat_rolleyes

How many years do you think Gaia has left, with the way things are being done, depending on your perspective?

...I don't know... But if Gaia told me they were shutting down next month, it probably wouldn't phase me... I just had hoped they would invest in business actions that focus more on the long-term versus the short-term, since most of these "perks" as they call them and "changes" they're making don't seem very enticing, at least, from a newbie perspective (it makes me feel like we're not far off from becoming more like TinierMe, where IRL money was everything) cat_sad
At the moment
I can't see me going about any differently than I did with tinierme
which was
-doing significantly less until I noticed some huge ********
-trying to talk about it/try to do something after the shock and rage wore off
-realizing only lobotomized fanboys hold any strong opinions/interest anymore
-and so being driven to doing even less
rinse and repeat!

the cycle went faster and faster
with me really just going "...wow" at my screen near the end

until the horrible, shocking news came
which led to one of the best months I ever spent on the site

Fluff Cutie-Pie

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Jin Love
I Sinistro I
☠ ☠ "Ring a bell so the serpent hears us, let her know that we're tried and true. ." ☠ ☠

I've been here for eight years, and this is the first time- for me- that I've ever seen people SO angry. This is the first time I've ever seen so many arguments erupt like this. People are saying Gaia is going under, others are saying it's not. And as I've said before in another thread, I'm scared for us. I'm scared of the direction we're going in. After seeing one bad decision after another, and after seeing a couple of my friends quit over this, I know now just how serious this all is. And now I can't trust the CEO. Too many shady things are happening, and rather than hearing it FROM HIM he's got people doing the talking. For all we know, he's making the admins lie to us; Telling us we're fine, and all that when in actuality we may not be fine. Like I said, it's FOR ALL WE KNOW. I don't know what the hell goes on in those offices, but to be honest I want to know where my money is going now. Because I don't know where it goes, and I never used to worry about it because I thought that I could trust them. Now I'm not so sure.
Until I know for sure what is going on FOR REAL, I don't want to purchase any GC or anything GC-related. Not until I know where my money is going to, what they're using it for, etc.
I never used to be so mistrusting of Gaia, but after everything that's been happening, and after seeing so many of my favourite GCDers FIGHTING each other the way that they've been fighting. . I can't. I just can't. I can't care about someone who seems like they will never care about us. And I can only listen to fake reassurance for so long. I want proof that they care. I want proof that we're not going under. I want proof that WE ARE being listened to. . Because this doesn't feel friendly to me anymore.

☠ ☠ ". .No the beasts, they won't get near us- And we're not scared of You." ☠ ☠
I honestly had hope that they cared. But after Sisky said that sending the 500k bonus from any mules you get it on to your main is ok, and that they are basically risking our economy to chance. No I'm saddened to say they don't seem to care anymore. All the suggestions that have been in Site Feedback about the current issues are being completely brushed off. They are even answering out questions with a question.

All these huge cash releases and so close together make me feel like they are either gonna pull a TinerMe incident, dump this site for their new 18+ site whenever that gets released, or they are just hoping to do what many places had done, and that is screw the economy up so bad that even though it's free to play, you have to spend cash to even make any decent amount of gold.

i think that too crying and it scares me

Lonely Athlete

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Hello there!

I will answer this with memes
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have a nice day

Fluff Powerhouse

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I've often made claims that I've cut my financial support...

But this Easter I had to break down.
The event was good, really good.
The items were good, really good.
I felt Gaia deserved some sort of thanks at that time.

But I'm done for good this time, no really. I mean it.
Never again.
Not even once.
Nope.


Watch when I say this, they re-release the Grombie skin.

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