Welcome to Gaia! ::

Firstly, are prices rising mainly because of people buying low and selling high? Honestly, it is NOT the main reason but it IS a reason. Let me say, Gaia users have been doing investment ever since and it has never affected prices drastically. Prices would rise naturally in a steady rate (or not rise at all) because items become rarer over a long period of time (in economics, supply falls, thus increasing its price) due to it not being available in the store or items being "lost" in inactive accounts. Thus, people can buy items for a low price and wait for a few months, and sell it for a higher price.

But, wait....what if some greedy clever trickster tries to buy all of the supply available on the market and then tries to sell them all again for an even higher price the following days? It seems that users don't have the choice but to buy at that price....but, WRONG. Sellers will quickly realize that people generally do NOT have the money or are not willing to buy an item that was artificially inflated (meaning, an item whose price dramatically increases without its worth really increasing). Thus, usually, they would try to get back their money by selling at the price they bought it or at least a price that was close to it.

However, notice that it is way easier now for people to suddenly buy things even if people artificially inflated them. Why? Because people have tons and tons of coins.The main culprit? The sudden influx of gold through easy means of acquirement such as items like Make it Rain. Since users have so much coins, demand goes up for items and people keep spending and spending and therefore increasing the price for almost EVERYTHING in such a short period of time, something you call hyperinflation. Thus, this gives a good market for those clever tricksters who want to artificially increase prices.

Naturally, to combat inflation, Gaia has gold sinks to take away the excess money of the Gaian economy. They have Gaia gold shops, the 2% transaction tax, prices for name change, etc, etc. This is what Gaia has been doing in the past years and has really helped the economy be stable despite numerous gold generators (ways to make money) such as coins from making posts, commenting, playing games, etc.

However, for the past months, I honestly think Gaia has let all of this stability go and REALLY knows it is inflating prices in exchange for real cash for the business Gaia really is.

Right before this crisis Gaia offered cheap gold generators that allowed users to win incredible amounts of money for in-world cash. This, in my opinion, triggered this crisis and set prices skyrocketing.

However, the real question is, is Gaia doing anything about it?

Just a day ago and right in the middle of this crisis, Gaia has made this announcement:
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/community-announcements/win-oodles-of-gold-with-make-it-hurricane/t.91465281/

Instead of trying to address this inflation problem, Gaia is making it worse by offering a 30% discount for gold generators which means that even more and more gold is going in the Gaian economy.

And, I know the Gaia staff aren't stupid to not know the negative effects of these gold generators. They know in the back of their minds that this would happen. However, why would they still continue with this?

Easy, people would be lured into buying these gold generators because they are so cheap and because of this, Gaia would earn a ton of cash.

It's a win-win situation for some users and Gaia.

But, it's not going to be good for many newbie users who wish to rely on the natural means of earning gold (commenting, posting, etc) in order to get a decent amount of coins. Of course though, there are some new newbies who can choose to buy gcash to get gold generators.

However, in the end, it's many hardworking Gaia users (many are veterans) who are the true victims of this crisis. You see, for example, I had a Gaia friend who had 10 mil and items worth 2 mil around 8 months ago. He earned this money of course through many means, through artwork, etc. He logged out and just got back in again. Now, his items are priced at 500 mil (virtually the real value of items are worth 2.5x more than they were counting inflation) but his 10 mil won't really buy him that much anymore (hard work for nothing). Of course, he could always buy a gold generator too! (which would of course still lead to even more inflation)

And, it can also be not good for all of us in the end. I mean, do you really want prices gaining or losing 30% of their value the next day?

Really, what can we do to stop this? People have been suggesting to start buying shop items using coins. Of course, that would just be a grain of sand on the beach. There's really nothing you can do about it and just hope Gaia would stop with these schemes and listen to the majority of its users.

I wouldn't really dismiss it as "another one of those topics" or "rant" as it just explains the cause of why it's happening with just a few suggestions.

Okay, suit yourself. Just sharing my opinion.

It's alright, like I said in my post to wizardeiges, I had just come back after 4 months of being inactive and I just came back really really shocked so I decided to write this article because I've been researching on what has been happening for the past few days and just applying what I learned from economics/business courses. I know a lot wouldn't care but at least I tried sweatdrop sweatdrop sweatdrop

I think we actually need many more threads like this,the calm and collected kind. We get to many RAHRAHRAH ******** THIS SITE U DON ******** IT UP RAHRAH.
Perhaps if the forums became flooded,there would be a slightly higher chance of them seeing these threads.
They currently ignore them but go straight to any cash related threads,it's bullshit,right?

Oh the things you've missed buddy.
Short Recap:
3/4 founders are gone. (only lanzer remains currently)
Most Programmers were replaced with artists.
All games are shelved,at least those that matter anyway.
They sent out a fat shaming survey - that day the forums learned what unfiltered rage was. (Calledspecific body types such lovely things as whale,fatass etc.)
Images got out of the coo standing in front of a slide of images with flynns booty,describing how we can be made addicted to buying by understanding how lab rats get addicted to drugs..I'm not ******** kidding. (Shortly after we had staff in a panic trying to remove everything related to it in the forums)
Some users took it upon themselves to track down the newest ceo and screw with him and his personal info even though the ceo isn't the one to blame here.(Narumi oversees all teams including marketing team and marketing team decides what goes into the cash shop)
Uncle kenny,our event maker and awesome programmer left after finally finding a new job to leave this poorly run place.
Uhhhhh I think you know everything else.


I wish they'd hire you,they could use someone with some brain power and a education.
It makes me wonder if they'd listen to someone who understands economics though since it would go against their whole "lets try out best to piss everyone off" tactics. xd
Sometimes I get the feeling they just pick people off the street and have them run this place.

I think it's good that you're showing concern even if it's not the first thread of it's nature in this here forum. Try not to get discouraged about it, mmmkay :U ?

I would like to direct your attention to this thread, you may find it useful!

Anyway, Uncle PP OUT!