RevvRaptor
(?)Community Member
Offline
- Posted: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 07:19:29 +0000
So in browsing the recent Ask The Staff, I came across at least a couple people asking if Gaia was on the verge of shutting down. Two of these questions were answered in a way that caught my attention.
Sorry, I don't see that as a plausible reality. Users aplenty have been outraged in ways they never had before, simply because a change in management to someone with a very dubious record of 'reconstruction' has rent this site to pieces, removing its vital structure one portion at a time, then stitching it back together when the outcry reaches its most ear-shattering into some abomination that would even make Eldritch flinch. To the two quoted above, take a look at Site Feedback, Chatterbox, and more, and tell me it looks as though a positive outlook on the future of the site is warranted.
The heads at Interactive seem to require a refresher course as to exactly why there is so much consumer outrage that their bogus talking points are seen as obviously unmerited the moment they're posted. Why is it that more people are resorting to AdBlock services, leaving the site altogether, or taking the GamerGate approach and discussing issues with Gaia's sponsors which in turn causes a level of increased apprehension in their outlook of Interactive as a company? Simple.
It all began with a change in corporate management. This change led to a number of controversial moves right at the onset. Massive layoffs of seasoned (and in many cases, vital) staff members, borderline-illegal changes to the Terms of Service, and an uptake in the number of Gaia Cash item sales. The anger was there, but it stewed over promises of proposed changes that "would benefit the whole of the Gaia Online community."
Not long after, a vital promise was broken in a way that raised the anger steadily. The Angelic Halo, a collectible item that had been given for pocket change to those who had been willing to support this site at its earliest and (arguably) greatest point, which had been discontinued from Cash sales with a stern promise that it and other Monthly Collectible items would never again be re-sold, was re-sold during the first large-scale Summer Sale, for a price so ridiculous it quite literally boggled all imagination. While the anger was on a steady boil, it kept to manageable levels for a short time, until the next batch of bats*t began.
That next batch came in the form of quite possibly the worst feature of this website that is still in operation today: Gold Generators. Economists had been brought in to fix a breaking economy once before, and they succeeded. They then proposed a test, releasing the first Gold Generators years ago, ones which were far more mild than those being sold rampantly today. Their findings were that, while these Generators could be sold reasonably well, in the interest of economic stability it would be preferential to abstain from overuse of sales, and eventually the practice was stopped until the new management found it 'prudent' to begin re-selling them, in much more vast quantities with equally outrageous payouts. The stabilized Marketplace economy crashed, and the massive amounts of newly-acquired Gold required an insane extension in the overall Gold cap. And as site-based advertisements continue to this day to persistently push the sale of Cash while Gold has become effectively the same as the Zimbabwean Dollar in terms of overall viability, those currently in charge who caused this mess decide that their talking point will be "There is no problem with the Marketplace economy.", something effectively thrown out the window when a certain individual gives the infamous speech comparing Gaia's userbase to 'lab rats' as he showcased the 'success' of Gold Generator sales, among other things.
And of course, during this time, numerous site functions (mostly in the form of Games) begin to undergo egregious change for the worse. Frontier Skies is removed, for reasons that could only be considered laughably false. Developers and other staff are moved from zOMG! to work on Monster Galaxy, a joint Facebook/Gaia gaming project which in a matter of a couple short weeks went from almost entirely Free-to-Play to almost entirely Pay-to-Play. Oh sure, you could still play for free, assuming you didn't mind grinding for hours or waiting more hours for the most basic of functions to cool down. Within a few months of this, it went belly-up due to a mix of corporate mismanagement and user disdain aimed at said corporate mismanagement, and the next project these staffers and more were moved to was Heralds of Chaos. An ambitious project, new and unique to Gaia, which even offered a proper PvP function players of zOMG! had been practically begging for over a very lengthy period of time. However, despite the ambitious nature and the overall fun-factor of the content enjoyed by players and staff alike, once more corporate mismanagement reared its ugly head, and Heralds of Chaos was shelved after an accidental slip about the status of the game and its staff required Gaia to force an emergency announcement confirming this slip as factually accurate, and releasing details regarding the highly-controversial issue. If not for that slip, the staff associated would've been fired almost entirely in secret and the game shelved for a completely asinine reason. The countdown to removal began, and eventually the game was removed entirely from the site, though a link still exists to the game but is known to only a portion of users and the game itself which has been devoid of upkeep has declined in playability.
Towns 2 was slowly but surely built-up, as a "bug-free expansive replacement to Towns", which it turned out to be anything but in a very short time. This was especially noticeable during the What The Fluff? event, in which an inconceivable amount of game-breaking glitches occurred everywhere, drawing a large amount of ire. And the Pet system that this event was supposed to usher-in never happened. As well, despite the statements that Towns 1 would be greatly phased-out in favor of Towns 2, to this day Towns 1 continues to exist in very plain sight on the site, and continues to enjoy more popularity than its highly-acclaimed 'replacement'. This despite the age and problems associated with Towns 1 by the users themselves.
Also, it was discovered that an 18+-themed sister-variant to Gaia, Tentacl, was not only in production but well on its way to becoming the 'next big thing'. It was discovered not long after that Tentacl, often advertised not only on Gaia but elsewhere (YouTube, Google, etc.) with adult themes, had been founded and funded by the money that had been spent by Gaians believing they were doing so for the upkeep and management of Gaia Online. This caused already-bubbling user rage to boil to an unmanageable level, as speculation began on how many jobs were lost needlessly and how much content had been removed or 'adjusted' equally needlessly that could very well have potentially stayed and grown had the money remained here rather than funding an unwanted new off-site project that stood to potentially replace Gaia Online. Or at least, it stood with such potential until it shot itself in the kneecaps, multiple times. Users who believed (especially with the inclusion of an NSFW Forum) that anything went began to fill the site with pornographic content, and as well the Tentacl Terms of Service were obviously copy-pasted from Gaia's own which created a massive conflict. Not to mention the whole "No members of Gaia Online's staff will be present working on the Tentacl staff." bit was thrown out the window with the force of a Randy Johnson snap-fastball when Lanzer and members of staff began showing up as Tentacl staff. Conveniently enough, when I showed this off not long after, these individuals all seemed to 'lose' their staff positions on Tentacl with a large amount of speed. And now Tentacl is shutting down, leaving users aplenty to ponder just how much of the collective money spent on Gaia before, during, and after Tentacl's announced opening was wasted, and how much could've been spared/revitalized here by comparison.
And now we have the removal of zOMG!, a cornerstone staple of this website which held the record until its removal for being the largest flash-space on Gaia in terms of user count, often tied with Rally and Towns 1 in that regard. Numerous detractors have often claimed that zOMG! was "simply not profitable enough to warrant staying", as someone who works on MMO gaming I know that that is a cold hard lie, more devoid of facts than a typical Fox News piece. I've even pointed it out numerous times previously, and there was certainly no shortage of loyal fans proposing hundreds or more good and wholly-profitable ideas that would've certainly kept zOMG! afloat and handily maintained with the recognizable staff who made it great for years to come. The removal of its staff under various circumstances and the shelving of the game to run under maintenance mode gave it the same countdown clock outlook Heralds of Chaos had received under effectively the same conditions. When it was proposed that Interactive had finally heard its consumers and was going to take zOMG! down for repairs, this announcement was met with a mix of doomsday cynicism and hope, unfortunately the cynical aspect won after the game was completely removed due to the sudden discovery of a "security-threatening exploit". As I've said before, people aplenty have already found numerous exploits since the maintenance-shelving of zOMG!, mostly loot-farming botting hacks, it would be immensely naive of anyone to believe that if those exploits had been found and used that the proposed glitch which warranted the removal of zOMG! would not have already been found and exploited to the highest degree as well. It has even been speculated by people familiar with game coding and programming that not only is the claim entirely dubious (or more accurately "reeking of some fresh s*t"..), it's likely that something akin to the programmers' back-door found in many MMO games for use in easily and directly fixing game-breaking glitches was used as the red herring in the removal process.
And of course, let us not forget that two of the three founders of Gaia left for different reasons, both of which were tied to the dubious nature of the current corporate management. The third left the site and corporate behind to work on projects and the like from behind the scenes.
So it's really no wonder Gaians are leaving in droves, the last straw having been applied to an already-quadriplegic camel, and taking sponsor support with them. Currently there are 17,497 online. This number has been fluctuating more wildly than a drunkard at a lectern, and of those online one has to wonder how many are mule accounts being used to help their mains keep up with the long-ruined economy (which has already been described as "irreversibly broken"..) and how many others are new players eager to join and grow with the community, but quickly finding themselves unable to cope due to said ruined economic state and the overly-abundant push for Gaia Cash sales.
"The site should still be around for a long time to come." The same exact thing was said about zOMG! and other site features, so unless "a long time to come." is the new way of saying "You only have a few months left to live.", Gaia Online will be gone by next year, if not this Christmas. And the blame can be, will be, and in fact already has been put exactly where it belongs: Corporate (mis)Management.
With that said, I now perform my solemn duty and start the countdown clock once again. Place your bets ladies and gentlemen.
meemsalman
No need to fret, there are NO plans for Gaia to shut down. heart
Princess Angelishia
We have no plans to shut down. This site should still be around for a long time to come.
Sorry, I don't see that as a plausible reality. Users aplenty have been outraged in ways they never had before, simply because a change in management to someone with a very dubious record of 'reconstruction' has rent this site to pieces, removing its vital structure one portion at a time, then stitching it back together when the outcry reaches its most ear-shattering into some abomination that would even make Eldritch flinch. To the two quoted above, take a look at Site Feedback, Chatterbox, and more, and tell me it looks as though a positive outlook on the future of the site is warranted.
The heads at Interactive seem to require a refresher course as to exactly why there is so much consumer outrage that their bogus talking points are seen as obviously unmerited the moment they're posted. Why is it that more people are resorting to AdBlock services, leaving the site altogether, or taking the GamerGate approach and discussing issues with Gaia's sponsors which in turn causes a level of increased apprehension in their outlook of Interactive as a company? Simple.
It all began with a change in corporate management. This change led to a number of controversial moves right at the onset. Massive layoffs of seasoned (and in many cases, vital) staff members, borderline-illegal changes to the Terms of Service, and an uptake in the number of Gaia Cash item sales. The anger was there, but it stewed over promises of proposed changes that "would benefit the whole of the Gaia Online community."
Not long after, a vital promise was broken in a way that raised the anger steadily. The Angelic Halo, a collectible item that had been given for pocket change to those who had been willing to support this site at its earliest and (arguably) greatest point, which had been discontinued from Cash sales with a stern promise that it and other Monthly Collectible items would never again be re-sold, was re-sold during the first large-scale Summer Sale, for a price so ridiculous it quite literally boggled all imagination. While the anger was on a steady boil, it kept to manageable levels for a short time, until the next batch of bats*t began.
That next batch came in the form of quite possibly the worst feature of this website that is still in operation today: Gold Generators. Economists had been brought in to fix a breaking economy once before, and they succeeded. They then proposed a test, releasing the first Gold Generators years ago, ones which were far more mild than those being sold rampantly today. Their findings were that, while these Generators could be sold reasonably well, in the interest of economic stability it would be preferential to abstain from overuse of sales, and eventually the practice was stopped until the new management found it 'prudent' to begin re-selling them, in much more vast quantities with equally outrageous payouts. The stabilized Marketplace economy crashed, and the massive amounts of newly-acquired Gold required an insane extension in the overall Gold cap. And as site-based advertisements continue to this day to persistently push the sale of Cash while Gold has become effectively the same as the Zimbabwean Dollar in terms of overall viability, those currently in charge who caused this mess decide that their talking point will be "There is no problem with the Marketplace economy.", something effectively thrown out the window when a certain individual gives the infamous speech comparing Gaia's userbase to 'lab rats' as he showcased the 'success' of Gold Generator sales, among other things.
And of course, during this time, numerous site functions (mostly in the form of Games) begin to undergo egregious change for the worse. Frontier Skies is removed, for reasons that could only be considered laughably false. Developers and other staff are moved from zOMG! to work on Monster Galaxy, a joint Facebook/Gaia gaming project which in a matter of a couple short weeks went from almost entirely Free-to-Play to almost entirely Pay-to-Play. Oh sure, you could still play for free, assuming you didn't mind grinding for hours or waiting more hours for the most basic of functions to cool down. Within a few months of this, it went belly-up due to a mix of corporate mismanagement and user disdain aimed at said corporate mismanagement, and the next project these staffers and more were moved to was Heralds of Chaos. An ambitious project, new and unique to Gaia, which even offered a proper PvP function players of zOMG! had been practically begging for over a very lengthy period of time. However, despite the ambitious nature and the overall fun-factor of the content enjoyed by players and staff alike, once more corporate mismanagement reared its ugly head, and Heralds of Chaos was shelved after an accidental slip about the status of the game and its staff required Gaia to force an emergency announcement confirming this slip as factually accurate, and releasing details regarding the highly-controversial issue. If not for that slip, the staff associated would've been fired almost entirely in secret and the game shelved for a completely asinine reason. The countdown to removal began, and eventually the game was removed entirely from the site, though a link still exists to the game but is known to only a portion of users and the game itself which has been devoid of upkeep has declined in playability.
Towns 2 was slowly but surely built-up, as a "bug-free expansive replacement to Towns", which it turned out to be anything but in a very short time. This was especially noticeable during the What The Fluff? event, in which an inconceivable amount of game-breaking glitches occurred everywhere, drawing a large amount of ire. And the Pet system that this event was supposed to usher-in never happened. As well, despite the statements that Towns 1 would be greatly phased-out in favor of Towns 2, to this day Towns 1 continues to exist in very plain sight on the site, and continues to enjoy more popularity than its highly-acclaimed 'replacement'. This despite the age and problems associated with Towns 1 by the users themselves.
Also, it was discovered that an 18+-themed sister-variant to Gaia, Tentacl, was not only in production but well on its way to becoming the 'next big thing'. It was discovered not long after that Tentacl, often advertised not only on Gaia but elsewhere (YouTube, Google, etc.) with adult themes, had been founded and funded by the money that had been spent by Gaians believing they were doing so for the upkeep and management of Gaia Online. This caused already-bubbling user rage to boil to an unmanageable level, as speculation began on how many jobs were lost needlessly and how much content had been removed or 'adjusted' equally needlessly that could very well have potentially stayed and grown had the money remained here rather than funding an unwanted new off-site project that stood to potentially replace Gaia Online. Or at least, it stood with such potential until it shot itself in the kneecaps, multiple times. Users who believed (especially with the inclusion of an NSFW Forum) that anything went began to fill the site with pornographic content, and as well the Tentacl Terms of Service were obviously copy-pasted from Gaia's own which created a massive conflict. Not to mention the whole "No members of Gaia Online's staff will be present working on the Tentacl staff." bit was thrown out the window with the force of a Randy Johnson snap-fastball when Lanzer and members of staff began showing up as Tentacl staff. Conveniently enough, when I showed this off not long after, these individuals all seemed to 'lose' their staff positions on Tentacl with a large amount of speed. And now Tentacl is shutting down, leaving users aplenty to ponder just how much of the collective money spent on Gaia before, during, and after Tentacl's announced opening was wasted, and how much could've been spared/revitalized here by comparison.
And now we have the removal of zOMG!, a cornerstone staple of this website which held the record until its removal for being the largest flash-space on Gaia in terms of user count, often tied with Rally and Towns 1 in that regard. Numerous detractors have often claimed that zOMG! was "simply not profitable enough to warrant staying", as someone who works on MMO gaming I know that that is a cold hard lie, more devoid of facts than a typical Fox News piece. I've even pointed it out numerous times previously, and there was certainly no shortage of loyal fans proposing hundreds or more good and wholly-profitable ideas that would've certainly kept zOMG! afloat and handily maintained with the recognizable staff who made it great for years to come. The removal of its staff under various circumstances and the shelving of the game to run under maintenance mode gave it the same countdown clock outlook Heralds of Chaos had received under effectively the same conditions. When it was proposed that Interactive had finally heard its consumers and was going to take zOMG! down for repairs, this announcement was met with a mix of doomsday cynicism and hope, unfortunately the cynical aspect won after the game was completely removed due to the sudden discovery of a "security-threatening exploit". As I've said before, people aplenty have already found numerous exploits since the maintenance-shelving of zOMG!, mostly loot-farming botting hacks, it would be immensely naive of anyone to believe that if those exploits had been found and used that the proposed glitch which warranted the removal of zOMG! would not have already been found and exploited to the highest degree as well. It has even been speculated by people familiar with game coding and programming that not only is the claim entirely dubious (or more accurately "reeking of some fresh s*t"..), it's likely that something akin to the programmers' back-door found in many MMO games for use in easily and directly fixing game-breaking glitches was used as the red herring in the removal process.
And of course, let us not forget that two of the three founders of Gaia left for different reasons, both of which were tied to the dubious nature of the current corporate management. The third left the site and corporate behind to work on projects and the like from behind the scenes.
So it's really no wonder Gaians are leaving in droves, the last straw having been applied to an already-quadriplegic camel, and taking sponsor support with them. Currently there are 17,497 online. This number has been fluctuating more wildly than a drunkard at a lectern, and of those online one has to wonder how many are mule accounts being used to help their mains keep up with the long-ruined economy (which has already been described as "irreversibly broken"..) and how many others are new players eager to join and grow with the community, but quickly finding themselves unable to cope due to said ruined economic state and the overly-abundant push for Gaia Cash sales.
"The site should still be around for a long time to come." The same exact thing was said about zOMG! and other site features, so unless "a long time to come." is the new way of saying "You only have a few months left to live.", Gaia Online will be gone by next year, if not this Christmas. And the blame can be, will be, and in fact already has been put exactly where it belongs: Corporate (mis)Management.
With that said, I now perform my solemn duty and start the countdown clock once again. Place your bets ladies and gentlemen.
