Our ideas: How Gaia can help us and how we can help Gaia.
Gaia is looking to make a profit. They are a business, and a business is run by money. That is something we all have to understand. Now then. Gaia already pulls in cash through the amps that they sell in Back Alley Bargains. But what if Gaia sold exclusive rings in the Cash Shop? I don't mean in Back Alley Bargains. Not only would Cash Shop regulars see the rings and a seed of interest would be planted - if they don't already play zOMG! - but they might be more inclined to buy them.
How this helps Gaia: Rings are a very important part of zOMG!. They allow us to hunt the animated for badges, earn gold, and have fun. Limited time rings would draw a massive amount of attention. IE, Sweetheart ring was sold for a short amount of time last year for Valentines Day. How many of those sold? I have no idea, but they sold. Selling = money. Money = being able to expand even further.
What would Gaia need to do to put out Rings in the GCS? For one, put people to work on coding the rings! Gaia does not need to put them on it full time. That's not necessary. But if they divided up the time evenly, then nothing would stop them from putting out new rings and new things. For example: Say a zOMG! team member worked on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, from 9am-4pm. Have that person work on zOMG! on Monday and Thursday, and on other products Tuesday and Friday. The time is divided up, Gaia still has the opportunity to put out new products, and the keep the zOMG! frequenters happy.
How could we help Gaia? First and foremost, buy the rings that they put out. Second, offer ideas for rings. Instead of leaving all the creativity up to the devs, let us put in some of our ideas. IE, like what they did for the loading screens on zOMG!. They invited people to draw pictures of their favorite areas, and now they are the front page of every loading screen in zOMG! The difference of the loading screens and the rings is: Rings will get Gaia money. Entering the loading screen contest didn't cost anything, so it didn't make anything.
Make an EI based on zOMG! areas and adventures. We already have zOMG! items, I know, but making an EI that sells in the cash shop would be a good way to market zOMG! and make some cash in the process. Each area of zOMG! has something that could be turned into a new item for an EI. For example; In Village Greens, there are mushrooms, flamingos and garden gnomes. We already have Garden Gnome beards, flamingos that hang around our neck, and even silly mushroom caps that go on our head. But what about I AM poses? We have a lot of cats around. We have a few dogs. What about a flamingo? Dashing around on those silly stick legs, squatting among a heard of them to fool n00bs, seeing our rings animate from that strange pink bird.. That would be a lot of fun for zOMG!ers and for people who are looking for something different, out of the ordinary, and flat out silly. Other poses could include: Flamingo Pink Skin [with some feathers for decoration], Mushroom Cannon explosions [grenades that are themed for the Mushroom Cannon] etc.
This not only would get Gaia some more cash, it would also cause interest in zOMG! itself as a feature. Interest would be planted and more people would start to play.
These are only a few ideas from the people of z!F! There are so many more, that I would run out of space before I named them all. The citizens of Gaia that love zOMG! and want to see it prosper have numerous ideas that would help zOMG! and help Gaia in the process.