Welcome to Gaia! :: Posts By User Unknown User | Forum

I think it was just an easy way to package up and end the event with no loose strings.

This goes beyond the "good old days" bullshit.
4 years from now we will not remember this event fondly.

So screw them! They're not here for the plot, now are they?
Release the plot through a guild-like thing.
After it's all over, draw a manga describing it!

Remember http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewforum.php?f=1736 ? Remember sitting there watching and waiting for the NPC's to post, grasping at straws, and desperately trying to make contact?
Remember the 1,000 speculation threads we had?
Remember the blueprints, the little clues, the newsbreaks, and the thrill of the appearance of a new post?

Gaia, you had something there. You really did. A new, innovative way to release a story. A new way to tell it. Using a new medium.

But you threw it away. You haven't done anything remotely close to it.
There's no discovery. It's in your face, quick and dirty, and done.
The last few events have been so self-contained you could erase them from Gaia's history and it wouldn't make a difference.
The ending to this last event was pitiful and despicable and absolutely horrid.
Sorry.

I miss secret underground test facilities.
I miss giant towers for no reason.
I miss the insanity that actually left us wondering what would happen next.
04-06, maybe 07 were the best times for plot.
But now, if it still actually exists, it's in zOMG.

Please. I'm begging.
Give us something like the G-CORP guild.
Don't announce it, just leave the link with some GCD'er that'll make a topic about it.
Viral market your plot a little. I mean, geeze. You had the concept of viral marketing right there before it was popular.
Give us something to wonder about.
Instead of introducing new characters that aren't really important, go back to what worked.
Crazy Gambino s**t!

Make us work for the plot.
And work for the plot, yourselves. Stop pitting us against each other, and give us something to unite against. Give us something to become a community about, rather than fight about. Don't focus entirely on the items or the minigame. Focus on the story. Once the event is over, all that's left is the story.

The Overseer story is embarassing.
Sorry.
I love you guys, but...
This event sucked. And I don't think I've ever come outright and said that before.
The mechanics were alright, but the story was absolutely terrible, because of the ending.

What was your favorite plotline, guys? What did you think of the guild plots? Would you like to see something like that again?
Other thoughts/views?

That's unfortunate.

Is it possible to restart zOMG from the very beginning?
I want to play with someone, but my account is sorta weird and whatnot because I started and restarted while rings could still be traded and whatnot...

Anyway, how would I go about restarting?

Hrm.
I'm wondering if there were a way to make a forum that had all of the same boards and whatnot, and have these avatars load into the avatar slot.
If you want to change your avatar, there's a button for that; but it takes you to this site to change it.
It'd be like, Gaialite.
Forums based. No MMO, no Towns, no Cash Shop, nothing like that.
It could stream plot updates and important announcements into an announcement forum.

Does anyone else get what I'm getting at?

NuGaia.
Interesting idea.

We've all seen it happen. A once popular website, abandoned, left with a few disoriented stragglers who are struggling to hang on to something they once loved.
A guild, started with good intentions and a lively group of people, dwindling away to nothing.
You can see the metaphorical tumbleweed blow across the deserted pages.
Without new blood to fuel a website, it will eventually die, as the old blood dries up and is gone.
Can you imagine if Gaia become deserted?
People posting less and less.
Rules barely enforced.
Once enthusiastic users, now lethargic and disheartened.

We can see it already in certain forums.
One glance in either of the homes forums shows disjointed topics, and topics that are months old still on the first page. Many topics have little or no replies.
Even the GCD seems choked. Once, you were lucky if your topic stayed on the front page longer than 5 minutes. Now, it's not uncommon to see topics hours old still poking around.
Discussion stalls.
Focus changes.
Bloodflow is directed to other areas; games, zOMG, individual play, guilds.
What happens when there's no one left in the forums?
When there's a little bit of anarchy, but no one seems to care - even the anarchists?

Could you imagine a dying Gaia?
How long can Gaia exist in a changing internet and world?
How will it start?
Will people just... stop coming?
Or will the company itself shut down, little by little?
When will the quality of the website decline?
How have other web communities died? Poor Friendster...
Will something bigger and better come along, draining Gaia of its userbase?
In its death throes, what will Gaia do to try to stay alive? Sell out to advertisers? Some sort of crazy publicity stunt?
How long will Gaia live for?

All great things must come to an end.
What will Gaia's end be like?

Language is a really cool thing. It evolves to meet the needs of its users.
This is especially true in the age of the internet. Look at all the internet jargon that's evolved! Someone from the 60's would be so terribly lost in a chatroom.