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We'll see. As it is, I was one of the first people to post in the forums that something seemed fishy when the glitch first showed up, and I still haven't gotten my trades or MP selling privileges back.

I've unequipped everything and sat down as kind of a way to protest. What's happening is not very cool, and so neither is my avatar at the moment. sad

I'm still waiting. sad

:: head + desk ::

Both!

Jeebus!

...and this is where you lost me.

I'm going to just leave it right there, because any answer I give might be perceived as condescending or uncivil.

See, this is what I mean. It seems condescending to you only because it's not your field. If it was, you wouldn't even be having this argument, and if you were, you'd have a better argument than "because I see..."

What you see is only a fraction of what's going on. The motivations for creating news skins and feature changing items, and maintaining continuity, is perfectly understandable to anyone who's ever run a website with a reasonably sized user base, or been an artist for one.

Layering and glitch issues are a completely different thing from design issues.

Why should they not do what they can do? Is there some reason that isn't based on your perception?

How you see things is from the point of view of someone who is neither an artist nor a developer. You have no experience with any of this, and just don't want them to do something because...I don't know. Maybe you're arguing against because you're as bored as I am, arguing for, even though this debate caught my eye because it actually has to do with something in my field.

...and I'm sorry, but your assertion that not many people are using the skins doesn't match the reality of the marketplace statistics and simple observation of the slew of people running around Gaia as vampires, centaurs, Zurg, and the die-hards who have kept their Grombie skins for years.

Apparently, skins are so popular that they came out with body dyes and EI's that allow people to change their avatars' physical features. Even el cheapo Experiment has one.

What is so wrong about being able to coordinate?

Well, that's why there are artists, and then there are developers.

The design and drawing work for one pose took 10 minutes. Now imagine what I could do with 8 hours if I was actually getting paid for it.

I don't work for GaiaOnline, but I could...and I've been doing both the art and the development for most of my websites likely since before you were born.

So I know what I'm talking about...and trust me, it's not that hard if you know what you're doing.

The problem is that the people arguing against special items or more versatility don't know what they are talking about. They're just complaining to have something to complain about.

Okay, if you want to nitpick, then that's fine. Just be aware that it won't help your argument to be pedantic.

The artists here work very hard to keep current users happy, but they have more on their plate than that. They're also supposed to attract new users.

A lack of versatility and/or ability to coordinate items or skins makes them less popular, and fewer people will be wearing them, which means fewer people displaying them in their blogs and websites.

So making some specific items and making universal items more species versatile is good for the users and good for business.

Whether or not you see that, you'll reap the benefits of it, since they're going to do it anyway.

I'm starting to see a clear line between webmasters/developers/artists and non web oriented people in this debate.

If you had to do this kind of thing for a living, you'd probably see things very differently.

The arguments against items that match new skins all boil down to one thing: "Don't give them special items because it hasn't been done before (to our knowledge)."

Hello...Wild Things Armor anyone?

There's already a precedent for this, and some items like the Wild Things Armor, Alruna's Rose, and Kelp o th'Loch have been made with skins in mind.

So the artists are already attempting to at least coordinate some poses/items.

Get over yourselves. More creativity is a good thing.

Oh, and before you start griping at me about how much time and energy it takes, I made two usable designs for centaurs while the thread on that specifically was still fresh. It only took me 10 minutes on my crappy old software.

I stopped spending real $ here back when they instituted the 2% fee in marketplace. That was a sure sign to me that something was terribly wrong with Gaia's ideas about "customer service".

Initially, paying users were the ones blamed for creating an "inflation problem" that it turned out didn't exist. Excess gold in the system could have been solved by many other means, which were suggested by the paying users during the beta testing. Some of us run websites of our own with fairly large user bases, and we knew that was a harbinger of things to come.

So the way the glitched games items issue is being handled is no surprise to me. My only regret is that I was lazy and didn't use a marketplace mule as a buffer.

In the end, for me it really is just an online community with related games, so that's why I'm still here. It has the same fun factor that it did before because I stopped spending money on it...and the only reason I did before the fee started was to help out friends and family who didn't have PayPal, to get them collectibles and cash shop items.

I understand that Gaia staff is working hard, and the site is for the most part, successful at nurturing a community aspect. That's why we feel free to post here our good feelings and our bad. It hasn't gone totally to hell because I don't think it's only about the money.

The problem is that there's a difference between working hard and working effectively. I hope that one day they'll understand that, and then I could feel comfortable spending $ here again.

...but that's got to happen at a company level. Almost nothing we (users/customers) say here is going to sink in except symptomatically. There will be more problems on this level until GaiaOnline successfully navigates the transition from a cool idea to a multimillion dollar corporation.

Yahoo had issues way back in the day. So did Google. Gaia is going through her growing pains too.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't speak up about what's going on. Honest dialogue will give, and h as given Gaia an advantage over other virtual communities.

What I'm saying is that while they're working on their growth as a business, we as community members have to consider our balance between community member and customer. As community members, we should understand that our role as customers is crucial to the business, and address the staff with some understanding that they are in transition.

It's not that they don't care. It's just that they don't know what to do. So they're doing the best they can with what they know.

In time I trust they'll get it right. When they do, my $ are waiting. smile