You guys are so damn cheap. Don8 GoldGen $$$

[AishiSo]

I have a tissue

AishiSo

But that makes the complaints even worse, because the staff (not millionairs I believe) want to do something good. They probably donate as much as they can - so critising an amount is not nice. I would even call it offensive, but that might be a too strong of a word.

And my opinion still stands - kickstarter with gold gives the community a sense of inclusion - people without IRL money can participate and the levels are resonable, so even those without a lot of gold can win the awards (apart from the Gold Ticket one - it shouldn't be too cheap).

No one is forced to buy GGs - if someone does that to donate, it's that person's problem not exactly the staff's fault.

It's staff's fault for putting out an excessively unnecessary kickstarter where the profits from it are not going to charity as they have disclosed so far. We shouldn't have to buy Gaia's Gold Generators to feel "included" when nothing outside of that $1000 was initially going to be given. That's just disgusting and takes away from the whole idea that this is good will toward men.

Further, as a small business owner, I give more than $1000 at the holidays. Gaia is at least 5x my size, and they have given $10k in the past. This reeks of bullshit and a lack of foresight into how it will affect their PR. This is not as "charitable" as what you may want to think. It's not like we are paying that gold to send the CEO to a soup kitchen to cook on Christmas Day.

If you find it so great then please do me a favor and go make your own thread praising the decision to take advantage of their members. You're not invalidating anything that I've said, here.

I don't understand this aversion you seem to have towards discussion. I have no problem with people who disagree with me. I had a thread about trashing all items where people (including you) came to express their disagreement, and I don't remember asking anyone to stop posting or go start their own threads.
Because that's discussion.

Please, make up your mind - once you say it's the staff donating, then you criticise the amount saying that the company can give more - so which version is it? Staff or company? Because I am pretty sure that the staff can't just dish out $10000 out of their pockets just to appease the tough crowd.

I won't spam SF with "Thank you" thread, I am just expressing my opinion, that is different from yours without resorting to insults. It's a civil conversation. But if you don't want to have it, then that's ok. I'll leave.

But my opinion still stands - I think what they are doing is nice.

[AishiSo]

Gilbert Nightray

What charity will they donate to anyway?
And how are we sure they >actually< do donate?
I'd rather donate myself to a charity of my likes, than "trust" in Gaia to do this for me.
It all looks very suspicious. <.<
I swear if they really are using a fake charity to sell their gold gens and make profit ...
But then again even if it WAS a real one, this is not fair. Like OP said, they should donate the profit they made from the gold gens during this event instead of donating a measly 1k IF we even reach the tiers.
Gaia is horrible. :/

They have mentioned real charities they will donate to, including Toys for Tots.
I think that what is horrible are the accusation in your post.
This supposed to be a staff donation - not a company one, they cannot donate the profit from GGs, because those money are not theirs. They donate as much as they can.
I think it is not fair to demand more of them.
I for one appreciate it.
And I think that most of the criticism stems from the hate people have towards Gaia.

[O.T.L.]

I have a tissue

Only $1000? You've got to be kidding.

You've sold the 2003 halo for the exact same amount. That and I can smell the Gold Generators from here.

It's low to use one of your Gold Traps to get users to get you to donate. You've taken away the main point of the holiday season. I thought you were better than this.

For being so "charitable" you sure ask a lot of your members. Why don't you increase that amount so it looks like you mean it? From my perspective this is just another Cash grab, and a pretty bad one, at that.

Thanks.


New inclusion:
For this to be worthwhile, you should donate the money made from the Gold Generators that have been released since this Kickstart has been active. This is currently in circulation and in your "Tier Spender". All of the profit from this should also be given.

If you really want to make people feel like they are "participating" then don't hide a Kickstart meant for profit behind good intention.

Otherwise, I would appreciate if you don't do this EVER again. It's not right and down-right despicable that you take advantage of your members' giving nature over the holiday season with your sneakiness. You didn't need this damn Kickstart to get this $1000 to these charities and you know it.

Other than the miniscule amount they're offering, what also bothers me is this part of the announcement:

Quote:

We'll be using 100% of the virtual funds collected from this Kickstarter to give real life support to these local charity organizations

100% of the virtual funds? You mean the Gaia Gold that you claim has no cash value whatsoever? So, basically, no matter how much is "donated" to this "kickstarter", you'll be donating exactly nothing beyond the $1000? Gosh, how f***ing generous of you, Gaia...

[Jean Noh]

I'm having an incredibly difficult time understanding users who are still defending Gaia from the perspective of "but staff are donating," "what they're doing is nice," "charity is charity," and so forth. Yes, it's nice when anyone donates to charity. Yes, staff are donating personally, in addition to but separate from this kickstart. But not all charity efforts are alike.

I am discussing the fact that the timing of tiered spending event and new gold generators came out virtually back-to-back with this kickstart. I'm certain most can put these together rationally, but in the event of confusion this kind of timing is usually a tactic to increase the sale of gold gens because kickstarts encourage people to dump gold - the cycle continues. This casts the charity event in a bad light as a way to disguise business as usual and some people dislike that.

I am discussing the fact that to place the onus on the userbase to sink in-game "virtual" currency to assure Gaia's promise of donating real-life money as a middleman is, in my opinion, souring the spirit of holiday-driven charity. There are a dozen* other more direct ways Gaia could have asked users to donate to local area charities that did not require a kickstart.

It is unfortunate that trust in Gaia continues to erode because of poor planning and timing. I really want this to be the case - maybe the charity idea was tacked onto an already-planned kickstart? But the longer I'm on the site, the more critical I become of Gaia's practices. I believe more users ought to view Gaia with this critical eye because doing so could ultimately lead to beneficial changes, such as keeping charity separate from "business as usual."

* including linking those three charities directly which at this point in time they have yet to do!

P.S. - coming back on people with "well why don't YOU go donate then" is derailing the point. Gaia is asking users to donate in a roundabout way, and that way for most users is obtaining gold gens to produce that 100 billion. Why should people spend money on gold gens or items to dump gold when they could donate that same money DIRECTLY TO THE CHARITY?

[Knight of Britannia]

Jean Noh

I'm having an incredibly difficult time understanding users who are still defending Gaia from the perspective of "but staff are donating," "what they're doing is nice," "charity is charity," and so forth. Yes, it's nice when anyone donates to charity. Yes, staff are donating personally, in addition to but separate from this kickstart. But not all charity efforts are alike.

I am discussing the fact that the timing of tiered spending event and new gold generators came out virtually back-to-back with this kickstart. I'm certain most can put these together rationally, but in the event of confusion this kind of timing is usually a tactic to increase the sale of gold gens because kickstarts encourage people to dump gold - the cycle continues. This casts the charity event in a bad light as a way to disguise business as usual and some people dislike that.

I am discussing the fact that to place the onus on the userbase to sink in-game "virtual" currency to assure Gaia's promise of donating real-life money as a middleman is, in my opinion, souring the spirit of holiday-driven charity. There are a dozen* other more direct ways Gaia could have asked users to donate to local area charities that did not require a kickstart.

It is unfortunate that trust in Gaia continues to erode because of poor planning and timing. I really want this to be the case - maybe the charity idea was tacked onto an already-planned kickstart? But the longer I'm on the site, the more critical I become of Gaia's practices. I believe more users ought to view Gaia with this critical eye because doing so could ultimately lead to beneficial changes, such as keeping charity separate from "business as usual."

* including linking those three charities directly which at this point in time they have yet to do!

P.S. - coming back on people with "well why don't YOU go donate then" is derailing the point. Gaia is asking users to donate in a roundabout way, and that way for most users is obtaining gold gens to produce that 100 billion. Why should people spend money on gold gens or items to dump gold when they could donate that same money DIRECTLY TO THE CHARITY?

I find it more unfortunate that trust is so low, people are automatically jumping to the conclusion that this is yet another cash grab and that staff's intentions are clearly evil. Yes, you can cite gold gens, I get it. But I find it ridiculous that everyone always assumes people are buying gold gens to dump into the kickstart when A) payouts on golden gens are so terrifically low and B) even if people are doing that, Gaia's still deciding to donate money. I would LOVE for that number to be larger. I have no complaints with people asking for them to donate more to whatever the cause-- asking in a way that creates discussion, not automatically calling them f***ing cheapskates because that's not productive whatsoever. But consider this-- People asked for a kickstart, they could have just as easily made something else up to coincide with the Christmas event, but no, instead they chose to do something charitable. I have no problem with being critical, but this aversion to people deciding to take it as is and not jump to conclusions about staff's intentions doesn't seem right to me either.

[Asitokia]

1,000 really isn't much and from a site who took money from its user base and they probably have way more they can give....I had not read that far into the charity drive because I did the smallest tiers, but really Gaia? 10k would be right to give. razz

[Gilbert Nightray]

AishiSo

Gilbert Nightray

What charity will they donate to anyway?
And how are we sure they >actually< do donate?
I'd rather donate myself to a charity of my likes, than "trust" in Gaia to do this for me.
It all looks very suspicious. <.<
I swear if they really are using a fake charity to sell their gold gens and make profit ...
But then again even if it WAS a real one, this is not fair. Like OP said, they should donate the profit they made from the gold gens during this event instead of donating a measly 1k IF we even reach the tiers.
Gaia is horrible. :/

They have mentioned real charities they will donate to, including Toys for Tots.
I think that what is horrible are the accusation in your post.
This supposed to be a staff donation - not a company one, they cannot donate the profit from GGs, because those money are not theirs. They donate as much as they can.
I think it is not fair to demand more of them.
I for one appreciate it.
And I think that most of the criticism stems from the hate people have towards Gaia.

Well okay, I read it wrongly then.
I am sorry I just don't trust a company that changes their ToS behind users back, deletes evidence, denies truths ...

I will still blame the marketing then, for coming up with the plan to put this charity into a kickstarter that is made to get more money by selling gold gens. :/

Honestly, its even using staff's good will for their profit then.
I do not support it.
I will rather spend stuff to those charities myself, personally,

If Gaia would still be like it was before Goldemord took over, I would have thought it was good. Remember like when they did charity for japan way back 2011? And the ACTUAL COMPANY was behind this, and they ment it? And they even donated way more?

Yeah that was a gaia where I'd rather give my money and trust to.

But now? Nope.

[Disciple of Sakura]

Reading the announcement and the update from ZeroOmega, it sounds more like "the company will donate this much via the kickstarter, but please remember that employees may also be making donations too" rather than "the employees are making this donation, it's not from the company itself."

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but it does indeed sound like Gaia as a company is only going to donate $1k. Employees also making donations is great and all, but that's beside the point. It feels extremely on the low-end. Halos and Win Gaia bundles have sold for that much on this site, and about 99.9999% of each of those transactions was profit, because the items had already previously been released. It certainly feels like they could do more. I'd prefer if they did more. But at least the tiers that I care to maybe hit aren't that expensive, so I'll pour a bit of gold into it and then wash my hands of the thing. I remember prior charity effors on this site, before it became so prone to garnering cash, being much more charitable, and that's pretty sad.

[Yvvki]

Druddigon

Think about this for a minute.

Where do most users get their gold from?
Selling items.
Where do they get their items?
The cash shop.
How much are people going to buy from the cash shop to raise the rig?
A very good amount.
How many people play Gaia Online?
A s**t-ton.
How much money will Gaia make from us buying cash shop items to sell for virtual currency?
A s**t-ton.
How much virtual currency are they asking us to put into the new sink?
Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy more then a s**t-ton.
How much are they going to donate from all the money we put into buying their cash shop items to sell for the new sink when we can just donate ourselves and give the charity like 50 times more money then Gaia ever will in 5 years?
Pretty much %0.000000000001 of the money they make off of us to put gold into their sheit.

HOW MUCH ARE THEY GIVING AWAY TO MULTIPLE LUCKY PEOPLE WITH THE NEW RIG GRANTS PRIZE!?
One trillion gold OR $100 in Gaia Cash.

Gee, I wonder where our money is really going. >_>;

[Druddigon]

Lady Yuuki Syth

Druddigon

Think about this for a minute.

Where do most users get their gold from?
Selling items.
Where do they get their items?
The cash shop.
How much are people going to buy from the cash shop to raise the rig?
A very good amount.
How many people play Gaia Online?
A s**t-ton.
How much money will Gaia make from us buying cash shop items to sell for virtual currency?
A s**t-ton.
How much virtual currency are they asking us to put into the new sink?
Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy more then a s**t-ton.
How much are they going to donate from all the money we put into buying their cash shop items to sell for the new sink when we can just donate ourselves and give the charity like 50 times more money then Gaia ever will in 5 years?
Pretty much %0.000000000001 of the money they make off of us to put gold into their sheit.

HOW MUCH ARE THEY GIVING AWAY TO MULTIPLE LUCKY PEOPLE WITH THE NEW RIG GRANTS PRIZE!?
One trillion gold OR $100 in Gaia Cash.

Gee, I wonder where our money is really going. >_>;

Your forgetting that Gaia has had rigs before where 10% of the profit from them went to charity. (Revolution of dawn items) so it's not the first time they wanted some profit while doing charity wok. Lots of businesses do this, you buy an item and they will give away a bit of the money from it too charity.

You can all donate 50 times more than Gaia ever would in 5 years? Then I like to see that myself which I know it's made up BS to improve your argument and moral. Sorry, but your entire post is made with assumptions.

[Yvvki]

Druddigon

Lady Yuuki Syth

Druddigon

Think about this for a minute.

Where do most users get their gold from?
Selling items.
Where do they get their items?
The cash shop.
How much are people going to buy from the cash shop to raise the rig?
A very good amount.
How many people play Gaia Online?
A s**t-ton.
How much money will Gaia make from us buying cash shop items to sell for virtual currency?
A s**t-ton.
How much virtual currency are they asking us to put into the new sink?
Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy more then a s**t-ton.
How much are they going to donate from all the money we put into buying their cash shop items to sell for the new sink when we can just donate ourselves and give the charity like 50 times more money then Gaia ever will in 5 years?
Pretty much %0.000000000001 of the money they make off of us to put gold into their sheit.

HOW MUCH ARE THEY GIVING AWAY TO MULTIPLE LUCKY PEOPLE WITH THE NEW RIG GRANTS PRIZE!?
One trillion gold OR $100 in Gaia Cash.

Gee, I wonder where our money is really going. >_>;

Your forgetting that Gaia has had rigs before where 10% of the profit from them went to charity. (Revolution of dawn items) so it's not the first time they wanted some profit while doing charity wok. Lots of businesses do this, you buy an item and they will give away a bit of the money from it too charity.

You can all donate 50 times more than Gaia ever would in 5 years? Then I like to see that myself which I know it's made up BS to improve your argument and moral. Sorry, but your entire post is made with assumptions.

Dude. Gaia won't even Link us to the charity page so we can donate ourselves. <_<;

In the past they did, and this was before the cash shop was a thing. They also gave $10,000 for it And still gave the option for us to donate more.

Also if you even read my post, I said 'we' Meaning not just me but everyone on gaia. If we could raise 10 grand roughly 5 years ago, i'm pretty sure we can raise a hell of a lot more this coming up Christmas. Instead of relying on Gaia to only pitch in 1k.

[peachcrisp]

Gaia is using a gold sink for virtual currency to determine how much real currency will be used for charity. As in, there is no guarantee that the entire $1000 will be used in charity. s**t, they released cash shop items for the red cross after japan's earthquake and tsunami thing. Why not dedicate some items like that for charity during the holidays? Gaia Cash for the most part requires real currency, so it's so much more closer than Gaia Gold, which is just virtual currency all in all.

[mill glitch]

I'm not ok with forcing people to dump their gold into a gold sink just to get the company to give out $1000 to charity let alone less than that if we don't dump enough. And on top of that they have it set up to profit from it. Not cool Gaia. Not cool at all.

[DYRL]

mill glitch

I'm not ok with forcing people to dump their gold into a gold sink just to get the company to give out $1000 to charity let alone less than that if we don't dump enough. And on top of that they have it set up to profit from it. Not cool Gaia. Not cool at all.

How do they profit from this. How?

Unless you can prove that people donating are buying GG to fuel this kickstarter, you really have nothing to go on about

And no one is being "forced" to do this gold sink. As far as I can tell, half the people here refused to donated even 1g to it. Are they being "forced" to donate?