Some things about Club Verge.

[Kandreil Hulduin]

I don't have too much against this club verge, however, the execution is lacking.

I've spent well over 100 in my whole 5 years of being on this site, it seems kinda bonkers that it can only be recent purchases...

[jellyfishlace]

Nice-looking idea, but a bit too kitschy. Overall, not my thing. There are other things that I enjoy here, being not that active here.

[Siege Machine]

The idea of Club Verge is neat to me, it's the execution that I think has people freaking out.

The prices are just so misaligned with what the membership "fee" is.

"Oh, you spent 100 bucks worth of cash in a year? Here is the privilege of spending twice that on a single item!" 100 bucks a year is like...8 bucks a month. I imagine there is a lot of people too who are getting that 100 dollars via offers.

Like I find the items nice, but I am in no way willing to spend 250 bucks on a pair of single pose wings. s**t, I'm a college student with minimum bills right now. My tuition is taken care of, my bills are not very pricy, and I'm employed by an oil company in the summer. I have no debt. I could afford the bigass bundle if I really wanted to, but I don't want to at that price tag.

I can only imagine how it feels for people who would want the items, but have no desire to compromise more important things to get them.
confused

[Beast Henshin]

I was disconnected from the world when Club verge was rolled out. Looking it over, I do kinda hate it. And a lot of it is the perks that come with it.

Free pin, okay, gold accent item for chump change in the MP, that's okay. But the gripe with me starts with perk #2; the birthday item. This was an idea I remember was pitched years ago, and I remember fully supporting it. It was something I actually wanted. Now in order to do so, I have to spend $100. If it's anything like the crown, that alone is no where near that price tag. Numero tres; Access to the shop. Aside from the Wings (which, in my opinion, look even higher quality than the ones available for Alchemy) there's nothing that catches my attention. It's all rather gaudy, actually. So there's another pass that squeaks by. Perk four; Direct contact with artists for future releases. This I have to say makes me uneasy. I suppose they work on bribes now. When the average Gaian has more pull than another, it's when it starts getting bad. And I know how a lot of you work, you should understand why i'm uncomfortable. Then last is more of a personal one, as someone who actually loves the artists on Gaia, and being an artwhore.

And that's why I should be elected president.

[Slick Southpaw]

Yaaahh, execution of this club feels questionable at best

Now if they brought back cash discounts for spending X amount of dollars (thereby giving incentive to buy GCash and dangling carrot of exclusiveness), I'd be more inclined to warm up to the concept.

Feels like it was half-assed. Still not angry about the release of the club, I just wish there was something more to it.

[Grandloves]

I don't like it. I don't find exclusivity to be a reward for supporting the site, and those price tags? Nah, man, I ain't paying that much for a single pose item that I could get from an RIG for far less. I have no incentive to purchase anything from that club when there are bills to pay. Hell, the wings would cost me five months worth of my entertainment budget. :I

[chaos butterfly]

Beast Henshin

I was disconnected from the world when Club verge was rolled out. Looking it over, I do kinda hate it. And a lot of it is the perks that come with it.

Perk four; Direct contact with artists for future releases. This I have to say makes me uneasy. I suppose they work on bribes now. When the average Gaian has more pull than another, it's when it starts getting bad. And I know how a lot of you work, you should understand why i'm uncomfortable.

This is something that worries me. Gaia is segregating users and allowing users with big wallets to decide which items get released, without any input from other users. The Ang. Halo thing was bad enough, when one of the excuses given was that some users had asked for it (over the years several times, and were resoundly told 'no' - you know, back in the neanderthal age when everyone thought it was a bad idea to rerelease MCs) so users in Club pretty much have open rein to ask for anything and no one else (outside the club) is going to have the foggiest idea or any way to influence the decision making process.

I think we all know that some users have very bad ideas, and while it's all nice and dandy if they want to buy some overpriced halo or wings for a squillion real life dollars, more power to them. But what happens when Gaia starts entertaining some of the more questionable requests from users, like:

*Paying money to get their banned accounts back (has been asked for in AtA)
*Paying money to get access to usernames from old 'abandoned' accounts (also asked for)
*Paying money to get items from banned accounts (a sort of Gaia based storage wars)
*Asking to 'buy' Achievements from past events on Gaia (has been asked for in SF)
*Asking for rereleases of rare items that were never previously sold, like Art Medals, Fishing Trophies, event items, any and all old DIs (minis, bear hats, etc)

Most of these are really, really, really bad ideas. They would not benefit the Gaian community or the economy of Gaia, and would do more harm to more users than they'd help. I'd like the opportunity to say so if another user suggests them, but won't have the opportunity to do so.

I'm sure someone is going to say 'Well, but Gaia would never do that!'. Well, that's what some of us said about them ever selling the Ang. Halo in the cash shop for $990 USD, and look where that got us.

[Beast Henshin]

chaos butterfly

Beast Henshin

I was disconnected from the world when Club verge was rolled out. Looking it over, I do kinda hate it. And a lot of it is the perks that come with it.

Perk four; Direct contact with artists for future releases. This I have to say makes me uneasy. I suppose they work on bribes now. When the average Gaian has more pull than another, it's when it starts getting bad. And I know how a lot of you work, you should understand why i'm uncomfortable.

This is something that worries me. Gaia is segregating users and allowing users with big wallets to decide which items get released, without any input from other users. The Ang. Halo thing was bad enough, when one of the excuses given was that some users had asked for it (over the years several times, and were resoundly told 'no' - you know, back in the neanderthal age when everyone thought it was a bad idea to rerelease MCs) so users in Club pretty much have open rein to ask for anything and no one else (outside the club) is going to have the foggiest idea or any way to influence the decision making process.

I think we all know that some users have very bad ideas, and while it's all nice and dandy if they want to buy some overpriced halo or wings for a squillion real life dollars, more power to them. But what happens when Gaia starts entertaining some of the more questionable requests from users, like:

*Paying money to get their banned accounts back (has been asked for in AtA)
*Paying money to get access to usernames from old 'abandoned' accounts (also asked for)
*Paying money to get items from banned accounts (a sort of Gaia based storage wars)
*Asking for rereleases of rare items that were never previously sold, like Art Medals, Fishing Trophies, event items, any and all old DIs (minis, bear hats, etc)

Most of these are really, really, really bad ideas. They would not benefit the Gaian community or the economy of Gaia, and would do more harm to more users than they'd help. I'd like the opportunity to say so if another user suggests them, but won't have the opportunity to do so.

I'm sure someone is going to say 'Well, but Gaia would never do that!'. Well, that's what some of us said about them ever selling the Ang. Halo in the cash shop for $990 USD, and look where that got us.

Thank you for putting it so well. My mantra lately for this site has been "They'll do whatever they want as long as it benefits them more than anyone else." And it can easily come to all that. They've really decided to take a bad road here.

On top of this, I don't care how much you like Gaia, paying $100+ for a single pose item is really dumb. Especially considering I remember the flack Solia? got for trying to pull something similar, I think? I actually can't believe there's a legit support base for this. But considering the power it gives you, I guess i'm lying by saying that i'm surprised.

And Gaia's fanbase is the wrong group of people to give power to.

[SugarplumSweetheart]

Beast Henshin

chaos butterfly

Beast Henshin

I was disconnected from the world when Club verge was rolled out. Looking it over, I do kinda hate it. And a lot of it is the perks that come with it.

Perk four; Direct contact with artists for future releases. This I have to say makes me uneasy. I suppose they work on bribes now. When the average Gaian has more pull than another, it's when it starts getting bad. And I know how a lot of you work, you should understand why i'm uncomfortable.

This is something that worries me. Gaia is segregating users and allowing users with big wallets to decide which items get released, without any input from other users. The Ang. Halo thing was bad enough, when one of the excuses given was that some users had asked for it (over the years several times, and were resoundly told 'no' - you know, back in the neanderthal age when everyone thought it was a bad idea to rerelease MCs) so users in Club pretty much have open rein to ask for anything and no one else (outside the club) is going to have the foggiest idea or any way to influence the decision making process.

I think we all know that some users have very bad ideas, and while it's all nice and dandy if they want to buy some overpriced halo or wings for a squillion real life dollars, more power to them. But what happens when Gaia starts entertaining some of the more questionable requests from users, like:

*Paying money to get their banned accounts back (has been asked for in AtA)
*Paying money to get access to usernames from old 'abandoned' accounts (also asked for)
*Paying money to get items from banned accounts (a sort of Gaia based storage wars)
*Asking for rereleases of rare items that were never previously sold, like Art Medals, Fishing Trophies, event items, any and all old DIs (minis, bear hats, etc)

Most of these are really, really, really bad ideas. They would not benefit the Gaian community or the economy of Gaia, and would do more harm to more users than they'd help. I'd like the opportunity to say so if another user suggests them, but won't have the opportunity to do so.

I'm sure someone is going to say 'Well, but Gaia would never do that!'. Well, that's what some of us said about them ever selling the Ang. Halo in the cash shop for $990 USD, and look where that got us.

Thank you for putting it so well. My mantra lately for this site has been "They'll do whatever they want as long as it benefits them more than anyone else." And it can easily come to all that. They've really decided to take a bad road here.

On top of this, I don't care how much you like Gaia, paying $100+ for a single pose item is really dumb. Especially considering I remember the flack Solia? got for trying to pull something similar, I think? I actually can't believe there's a legit support base for this. But considering the power it gives you, I guess i'm lying by saying that i'm surprised.

And Gaia's fanbase is the wrong group of people to give power to.

I've been staying out of it, but I'm kinda uneasy here, too, so I think I'll speak up. I don't mind Gaia making money, or being a business, but I think they need to consider presenting a good image, not just rolling features like Verge, which only seem to benefit THEM...at least to my naked eye. In fact, the halo, the event bundle release and now this make me kinda nervous about the direction Gaia's heading in...

[-Elie-]

I've been reading the pros and cons (heavily cons) but honestly it didn't bother me when I saw the announcement and it still doesn't bother me confused

I understand the massive negative feedback tho I think people are overreacting. The benefits of the club are so insubstantial that people spend more time arguing if there really is a benefit after all. Most of the items in the shop have much cheaper (and arguably nicer) equivalents that only those few handfuls who feel the need for pricey labels would have bought them anyways in the regular cash shop. Plus the Club items are still available in the marketplace.

And the whole "segregating users" argument... do you think Gaia doesn't listen to regular user feedback? I understand users want to be heard. But we have regular outlets and if ideas are seriously good ideas they will be heard.

Then there is the issue about poor execution. I will admit this is subjective so if you really believe so, I won't argue. I will say that personally it still doesn't bother me. I don't mind that features are released as they are available instead of all at once. Given the cost and time to produce new features, if every company waited to release all their products at the same time, I'd imagine that would result in serious a cut of sales.

I have no problem with Gaia making monnies. I also worry about Gaia hanging on for another 10 years, so anything that brings in money to Gaia is fine with me. I see no problem rewarding users that actually spend money on this site.

Bottom line, I think users are arguing for the sake of arguing.

[Elegana]

I wasn't worried about Gaia's status during the sale, but this? This is damn worrying-ish. It's an ingenious idea to get more money; put in exclusive items for a price. However, the glaring issue with Club Verge is the prices. Holy s**t, $1000 for the wings? $500 for the Custom SDPlus Doll? s**t, I could get an artist to make a pixelated me in the form of an SDPlus for way cheaper than that, and it's in the form of gold.

If they lowered the prices, then yeah, it would bring in a lot of cash. However, people would then be complaining that the rarity of certain items has gone down. Also: A birthday item? They should have had this sooner and for people who paid $5+ in GC, as a thank you for supporting Gaia (based on the amount. Higher amount = better item).

This whole thing is just... unsettling.

[jettisoned corpse]

In my case, it isn't about that some people can have more expensive items than me, it's about Gaia dividing the users and a** patting those who spend absurd amounts of money here.

The problem is "normal" support (aka spending reasonable amounts of money on Gaia a per month) isn't being acknowledged compared to those who spend several hundred a month. So I feel less important (even ignored) even though I do spend money here, and I'd spend even MORE money here if Gaia hadn't catered to overly feminine girly outfits for 2 years straight.

My conclusion for that is that it's the norm for the average user to spend money here now (unlike back in the early days). Back in Gaia's early days, spending money here was frowned upon (even just on a single MC letter). It was the "norm" not to spend money. Now it's the norm to spend money but the minority to not spend money or to spend too much money.

And I'd like to put emphasis on "absurd amounts of money". While it is reasonable to spend a certain amount of money "monthly", (such as buying $50 worth of RIG bundles a month - it's no different than if I bought a brand new video game a month or went to the movies a couple times a month), it's not the same as dropping $100 or $200+ on a single item - on top of that.

If I spend around $10 (give or take) a month on Gaia, I might be able to buy a few MCs or couple RIE, vend to get gold for something else I want in the MP. It's not the same as spending all of $50, $100, $200, etc, on a single item ALL the time, which feels like Gaia is trying to do now, sell this stuff at these prices on a regular basis.

It bothers me because no other hobby I am apart of (and my hobbies are pretty pricey), have I ever felt like the majority of users were being alienated, and only the richer users were being catered to and appreciated. And I do consider these people rich because they're dropping the price of an LCD HD TV every month on Gaia. I don't see most people being able to do that for any hobby of theirs.

If Gaia is struggling so much for money, there has to be a better way to support themselves while supporting their user base as a whole, not making anyone feel like a less important customer.

[jettisoned corpse]

Elegana

I wasn't worried about Gaia's status during the sale, but this? This is damn worrying-ish. It's an ingenious idea to get more money; put in exclusive items for a price. However, the glaring issue with Club Verge is the prices. Holy s**t, $1000 for the wings? $500 for the Custom SDPlus Doll? s**t, I could get an artist to make a pixelated me in the form of an SDPlus for way cheaper than that, and it's in the form of gold.

If they lowered the prices, then yeah, it would bring in a lot of cash. However, people would then be complaining that the rarity of certain items has gone down. Also: A birthday item? They should have had this sooner and for people who paid $5+ in GC, as a thank you for supporting Gaia (based on the amount. Higher amount = better item).

This whole thing is just... unsettling.

Completely agree with you with everything you said.

On the SDPlus doll in particular, that is just ridiculous and insulting. The thing is smaller than an avatar by a lot, and is f'n pixel art. I love pixel art, I really really do, but no pixel art, custom or not, should ever be worth $500, and this is coming from an artist who completely supports artists making a living off of their work. Talk about screwing over a customer and major elitism. To add insult to injury, it's stuck on this site only and if Gaia ever does close down, say bye bye to it all.

If the rarity of the item is important, than just make each item limited.

[Captain Dory]

Personally as awesome as some of the items are, they're just pixels and I don't see the point in spending my own money just to buy pixels. And yet as I say this, there is a twinge of bitterness deep down in my pixilated avatar.

I feel it's basically a reward to the supposed "elite," of Gaia.