I found this gem in the Gaia Exchange Rules & Guidelines.
I must admit, I had a really good cackle.
Yes, why indeed?
I have no expectations for Gaia anymore. It's really gone
downhill. Since its main focus is now GC and CS items,
everything else has been put on the back burner. What
happened to the housing? What about all the cars and
racing? I mean, I haven't wandered the Towns in years.
It's a shame. Even the quality of Barton Town has gone
down.
When a company doesn't care for itself, the users won't
either. A lot of people who have been here since the very
beginning are leaving because they can't stomach what
Gaia has become. *blah blah blah*
I found this gem in the Gaia Exchange Rules & Guidelines.
I must admit, I had a really good cackle.
Yes, why indeed?
I have no expectations for Gaia anymore. It's really gone
downhill. Since its main focus is now GC and CS items,
everything else has been put on the back burner. What
happened to the housing? What about all the cars and
racing? I mean, I haven't wandered the Towns in years.
It's a shame. Even the quality of Barton Town has gone
down.
When a company doesn't care for itself, the users won't
either. A lot of people who have been here since the very
beginning are leaving because they can't stomach what
Gaia has become. *blah blah blah*
I have been a loyal member of this site since I was about 15 years old. I am now 25. In that time I have seen "the hangout" feature vanish, which held a "kiss me" option, "hug me" option and a message feature. That was my most cherished feature on this site. Then THE most played game where people actually played instead of hung out zOMG was taken down. However I have to say the biggest shame was the marketplace. Instead of everything being a reasonable price and teaching youth the principle of supply and exchange we've now taught them "inflation". With that you figure that MASSIVE inflation was a great way to teach them which in turn set off a site depression. A lot of my friends are not happy with this. The fact we can afford our dream items with the help ... or shall I say express use of cash is idiotic. Not even working adults can afford them anymore since we all have bills that vastly outweigh the need of gaia items. This was once a glorious site and now it's dying. You're lucky you've made it this long but I doubt it'll last for very much longer. I've seen less and less of my friends on and I'm about to quit this site too, I only come back hoping that you've come to your senses and returned things to normal. Until that time I guess I shall see more and more of my friends leave along with me. I'm sorry that you felt the need to teach those "lessons". If it's any help to you... I THINK the population of GaiaOnline has received and understood the point.
When a company doesn't care for itself, the users won't
either. A lot of people who have been here since the very
beginning are leaving because they can't stomach what
Gaia has become. *blah blah blah*
This. I'm going to words for quite a while. My apologies. I will be polite and spoiler it though.
The 25th officially marks my 11th year of being registered on this site. I was 14. I grew up here, and it really hurts to see something that I used to care about so much devolve into this. I know it sounds dramatic, but this place was extremely important to me during a very trying and influential portion of my life. I spent hundreds of dollars and thousands of hours here, and I just feel like it was all wasted at this point.
I was most active from 2004 to early 2009. The biggest reason why I fell out of it was that I had other, more important obligations (school, job) and I didn't have the time or energy to keep up with it any more. Back then, the cash shop was a fairly new feature. Updates were slow, and the selections were small. It was reasonable. Gaia's userbase exploded around mid-2005 thanks to advertising in Shonen Jump and banner ads. More users means more staff, better servers, and new features, and the $2.50 Donation Letter/Monthly Collectible probably wasn't cutting it.
I donated to Gaia for years as often as I could, and with the introduction of Gaia Cash, I would buy $25 or $50 worth every couple of months or so because it was a lot easier than dealing with bank cards and paypal and what have you. As previously mentioned, I loved the site, and had absolutely no issues chipping in to keep it afloat. Admittedly, there were a few times where I was more interested in the items than the sentiment (those Evolving Items tho), but still. Around the time that I stopped visiting frequently, the Cash Shops were getting more and more updates, Evolving Items were popping up every couple of weeks, and Random Item Generators were few and far between. No biggie.
Except it was. It was extremely biggie. Every time that I would log in every couple of days, there were more and more Cash Shop spotlights. I got a little annoyed, but advertising is important, I get it. Every couple of days grew into weeks, which then became months. My friends were also grown up and busy, and they stopped logging in, too, which made me let my account idle further. The announcements for new Cash items seemed to happen daily, and it just turned me off further. Nowadays, I log in maybe once every 6 to 8 months, if that. There's just nothing to really do any more--the non forum/Cash Shop aspects of the site were pretty much exactly the same since the last time I logged on. The games were boring or broken, and Towns were empty, save for those looking for somebody to press random numbers to cyber. There's the forums, but most of them are either complete garbage or practically dead.
The state of the site is also shamefully neglected when it comes to the staff. The weekly Q&A threads slowed down and became pointless before closing them down entirely. Members were getting banned suddenly for all sorts of reasons, a good chunk caused by things outside of their control. The lack of communication obviously became extremely frustrating far too quickly, and a large number of older users abandoned the site. With the constant influx of Cash items, Gaia essentially became pay to play, which drove off even more users.
And speaking of which, the economy is--for a lack of a better term--completely ********. Many of the RIGs threw items that only a small handful of users were lucky enough to get, and once they started throwing massive amounts of Gold into the mix? Basically fanning flames while insisting that it was helping. Items are now commonly in the hundred thousands, hundred millions, and a few even going for TRILLIONS. Last time I was around, they also apparently introduced an option to buy items that had been discontinued years ago, the most insulting of which being the Halo. For $150, you could instantly own the original, most iconic limited item on the site. People spent years working to save up for one, while others could just get it instantaneously. It's just sad.
IDK. Maybe I'm just being nostalgic and jaded, but the point I'm trying to make here is that things have been run into the ground and there doesn't seem to be any intent on picking it up and dusting it off any time soon, if at all. It's upsetting, and I'm at a point where I just don't want to even bother any more.
New CEO, new objectives. Gaia is no longer a communnity it is just a site in which they want to profit off of. Get your friends contact info, people can't be stupid enough to drop money on this site for long
New CEO, new objectives. Gaia is no longer a communnity it is just a site in which they want to profit off of. Get your friends contact info, people can't be stupid enough to drop money on this site for long
I agree, and it's sad. As for people spending money on this site, I would hope not, parents won't be dishing out money for this for long since Gaia cards are $10 to $25. Best of luck to you.
New CEO, new objectives. Gaia is no longer a communnity it is just a site in which they want to profit off of. Get your friends contact info, people can't be stupid enough to drop money on this site for long
I agree, and it's sad. As for people spending money on this site, I would hope not, parents won't be dishing out money for this for long since Gaia cards are $10 to $25. Best of luck to you.
I think kids with allowances have been the main spenders on this site. sweatdrop
All the old Gaians have grown up and have bills to pay. I joined when I was in university, I'm a working lady now. Don't get me wrong, I still spend money on games, but it has to be worth it to me, and I have to save up.
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