When you leave for a little while...

[a vanilla cupcake]

So with more important things taking over your life than Gaia, you start to go on far less. Eventually you take a break from Gaia. But, like most, you come back after x amount of time. This just happened to me and I noticed so many of my items that I had in my inventory just a year back have went down in price by hundreds of thousands. (An item that used to be 300k now is 13k) eek But I also noticed some items I got cheap are now extremely inflated. People are willing to pay so much more for art. Many people I used to know on here don't go on anymore either. It's as if it's a different place.



For the people that have had this happen to them (depending on how long you were gone) here are some discussion questions:
What made you come back?
Did you find yourself shocked at some of the changes?
Did you notice some item's prices skyrocket?
Do you regret missing some of the events?
Anything in regards to leaving and coming back to gaia (:

[monochrome spring]

I recently came back after a hiatus. I came back simply because I had more time and needed something to take it.

I did notice that my account inflated a bit, but I was never one to worry about my account's worth. I usually have one avatar that I keep for a year at a time.

And I do regret missing some of the events and the excitement of new item releases. But it's pretty easy to catch up on what happened; and tektek is definitely a life saver.

[Hasuki Aatisuto]

I took a hiatus from GaiaOnline because I had other things to focus on, such as work and school which is perfectly understandable. I am back because I don't have school anymore and I only work once a week.

It was nice to see the value of several of my items inflate in price since I last left, though... but it also made me wish I held onto my Ninja Headband and Golden Laurels back then. emotion_sweatdrop

You live and learn, I guess! XP

[Teavana Del Rey]

I leave when I'm busy and come back when I'm not.

A few of my items have gone up since I left just a year ago. :'o

[August Star Of Heaven]

Had my on/off moments here in Gaia. Working in a hospital can screw up your time. I went back cause FB is a betch and I miss cosplaying so badly but no longer have the time, status and body for it >_<. Not a big fan of tailing item prices, if I like it I buy it in a heartbeat if I can afford it

[chocolate drizzles]

i've never really taken a hiatus before, so i can't say.
but i'm just curious what item you have that was worth 300k before and has deflated to 13k now ? o u o

[Cyriistar]

I noticed a lot of events come and go during my hiatuses, but most of them seemed too tedious to get involved with. What I regret about skipping events is that I'll never be able to get those achievements and achievement titles. Like, I still get crazy jealous when I see people with "Star" in their title emo

[Narcissistic Tendencies]

Sometimes I'll leave for a couple of weeks because Gaia gets boring. You never notice just how fast it changes until you come back. I've never left long enough to see significant changes, but it's always interesting to see what's new upon returning.

[Hyderiffic]

I've had a weird relationship with Gaia for a long time. For my first year or two I would come on here all the time, but then for 5-6 years or so it'd just be in short bursts, I'd pop in once every few months and post on the forums a bit, maybe participate in an event, but not concern myself with items or how much gold I had or what was going on. And then an interesting thing happened this February--I got the email about the 10th anniversary and hey that was cool and I wanted to check it out and be nostalgic. And then at the same time I was very fondly following Reapersun on tumblr and she was rather excited about having worked on Ships Happen, so I really wanted to check that out, which meant I had to stick around long enough to rack up 149 cash from Daily Treats. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have stuck around like I have if not for two big things like that coinciding. And just within the past month, I've started actually getting excited about items and wanting to change my avatar for the first time in ages and trying to catch up with the community/NPC stories/new games and coming here every day for the first time in years.
(my abridged explanation for getting back into Gaia this year tends to be "because Reapersun" )

It's weird getting really into Gaia again for the first time since middle school--it feels like suddenly everything has changed, but I think it's more just that I was hearing bits and pieces of news for all those years but not following along at all. When I came back in February and heard people talking about RIGs I had no clue what they were, even though I vaguely recalled seeing the Fortune Egg and Suspicious Package talked about way back when (and now I've kind of fallen in love with RIGs in general). Also, I remember Booty Grab being something I might get a few hundred gold from now and then, so it was really strange hearing people talk about it now as being the best way to rack up gold.

But as for item worth--the last time I even paid attention to that kind of thing, EIs and RIGs were either nonexistent or just starting to become a thing. My only legitimately valuable item was a Winter Rose, which I thought was a pretty big deal, and I was kind of shocked to do some price comparisons this year and realize it's pretty unimpressive now.
...or maybe it was never a big deal I was just out of touch.

Eheh sorry I ended up giving you my entire Gaia life story.

[Atom Dataverse]

What made you come back?
Curiosity, boredom, nothing to do... and slightly procrastinating on doing other things.

Did you find yourself shocked at some of the changes?
Not really, the site didn't look like it changed at all to me, which is rather a disappointment in some areas that they didn't add to, or improve on some things after so long and it's just same old same old. But I suppose there were some pleasant surprises, like some games to try out and play (only to be irked and find out that they aren't working on those games anymore when I come across a glitch/problem). And surprised by the amount of GCash items there are now.

Did you notice some item's prices skyrocket?
No, I more noticed the amount of items that are actually rather cheap now for their quality and how much easier it is to get gold now these days to get so many nice looking items (I actually have a wishlist for once now.. a very... long wishlist). Everything is more attainable... yet I'm also surprised on having to wait till someone puts an item in the MP too for some items. I've never had to wait for someone to simply sell an item before when I had the gold for it (neither had I ever posted in the exchange to see if anyone is selling). So... that's new.

Do you regret missing some of the events?
I don't regret missing anything on this site, but I do find it unfortunate that I missed out on more events with Diedrich.

Anything in regards to leaving and coming back to gaia (:
Nope~

[HootiHoo]

What made you come back?

Boredom, curiosity.

Did you find yourself shocked at some of the changes?

No, nothing really changed.

Did you notice some item's prices skyrocket?

A few but nothing outrageous.

Do you regret missing some of the events?

No. Never been into the events.

Anything in regards to leaving and coming back to gaia

More items. Nice items.

[I Sinistro I]

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

Thinking about this makes me feel so old. . XD
The last time I took a Hiatus from Gaia was back in '06; My first year here. And I took that hiatus because I just didn't know what the ******** to do on here. I didn't know how to use the MP, I didn't have any Gold to spend (and Gold wasn't THAT easy to accumulate back then as it is now, but it was easier than those that came here in '03- Which makes me seem like a whiner now XD). At the time there wasn't TOO much to do, and it didn't hold my interest. A good friend of mine introduced me to Gaia, and after a. . . Six month? Seven month? hiatus I came back and I felt ready to just give it a little go. To just give it a small chance.
At the time I still didn't know how to use the MP properly, so I didn't see how my items were doing price-wise. I think there was a Christmas event that I missed, aaaand I think there was the Halloween event that I missed. . . . Yeah, I missed it, because I came here November 11th in '06. So I was very late! XD But from what I understand I didn't miss much that year. So, I'm pretty relieved. XD
What made me come back to Gaia was. . I just wanted to see what it was all about, really. And I wanted to see what the Role Plays were like, and really I just missed messing with my Avatar. Then after a while Gaia added more to the site, and the rest is History! I do regret leaving before I explored more. And if I knew then what I know now, I definitely would've stayed longer than I did. Ever since then I haven't left. You could say I have a very bad case of FOMO now- For those of you who have no clue what that is, it's short for: Fear Of Missing Out. Lol I don't want to miss anything, so I keep coming back!

☠ ☠ ". .No the beasts, they won't get near us- And we're not scared of You." ☠ ☠

[Belle Bonjour]

I always log in everyday just to check announcements and items, but I don't spend too much time unlike before.

[WhipWhip]

I don't think you even have to leave to find out stuff's inflated or deflated on your account!

You just have to be really unaware of what you have or what those items are selling for.

I've got a few items that suddenly were selling for a lot more or a lot less. It's always a little disappointing, but that's life.

[xcrimsonlegendx]

Wait, we're allowed to leave?

I've never taken a break in over seven years, I don't see why I would. Gaia is a hobby of mine, no girlfriend/boyfriend, job, video game, obligation is going to take up so much of my time that I can't take half an hour out of each day to check out what's going on with Gaia. During any times of less activity, I still find the time to log in and check the announcements and keep up with current events, even if I don't post.

It's always annoyed the heck out of me when friends or loved ones totally change for some reason, giving up things that they love because they "don't have time" yet they manage to make time for all sorts of other equally frivolous uses of their time. If you like something, make time for it.