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Perfect Bloodsucker
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I've already posted this in SF, but Gaia saw fit to move this to the Chatterbox for some reason emotion_facepalm
So, for a recap of everything we've had to deal with the past few years (and for those of you who are not entirely convinced that Gaia's actions were not with positive intent), here ya go:
I'm sure some of you are confused as to why the zOMG! community is making such an enormous uproar about the whole thing and calling out Gaia. The thing is, unless you've paid close attention to zOMG! and what Gaia has done the past few years, it's going to be hard to understand why people (including myself) are calling BS on this "maintenance."
Let me break it down for you (this may be somewhat out of order and I may not be 100% correct on some of these dates, but you get the idea):
-In 2011, the zOMG! community was informed that zOMG! would possibly be taken down if the game did not start generating more revenue- we were introduced buddies as well as a pass that would allow early access to the next area in the game, both of which could be purchased with GCash. Enough were sold, and we got to keep the game.
-This "pass" system was once again implemented for the next area to be introduced to zOMG!, and Bloodstone Amulets were sold and would grant early access to DMS. There was be a limited number of 5,000 to be sold, all of which were purchased in under a week, if I'm correct. Once the area was finally released, people could purchase Bloodstone Gems at a higher price to gain access.
-By the end of 2011, only one developer still remained on the zOMG! team- all the others had quit, been laid off, or been moved to another part of Gaia.
-It was until not some time later that DMS became open to the public permanently- up until then, DMS was exclusive to amulet/gem owners. The only time that anyone else could get in was whenever the zOMG! forum became active enough- a bar was shown at the top of the forum to show progress. Everyone, whether or not they owned a bloodstone, posted whenever they could.
-DMS itself was very challenging and skyrocketed the purchase of power-ups, also leading to some new and more expensive bundles.
-The final developer is laid off, and later one of the devs who used to code for zOMG! is laid off from Gaia entirely. There are now no more developers to work on the game, and Gaia claims that the coding language of the game is too ancient to try and find people who can try and fix some of the issues with the game.
-It is announced that zOMG! has gone into "maintenance mode" and will no longer receive any further development. A thread is created in the zOMG! forum by Gaia to ask users which glitches are prominent in the game. These glitches are never fixed. Gaia makes it clear that zOMG! is not making them the profit they had hoped for.
-Despite the fact that zOMG! will no longer be updated, the community continues to flourish- we help new people out, hold quite a few user events, and hold weekly meetings in-game with one of the developers who used to work on the game (which are still going on, only now in Towns 2).
-Before the summer, it is announced that zOMG! will temporarily be down for some time due to maintenance as a result of some serious problems that are not explicitly described in any way. A few months later this maintenance begins, and on November 7th, it was announced that zOMG! would not be returning due to a severe security issue.
-Gaia claims that this is not about money and that they loved the game and its community, despite the fact that they did not attempt to hire anybody who could take a crack at fixing the code. Not to mention, there were no developers left for zOMG! to even really look at the code- unless there's something I'm missing or there's something Gaia didn't tell us, there shouldn't have been much of a reason for Gaia to have been looking at zOMG! code in the first place.
In summary, the community poured its heart, soul and wallet into the game- we gave and we gave whenever we were asked to, and yet it became apparent that what was given in return could not make up for what was being taken away. the zOMG! community became a victim to unfulfilled promises and Gaia's contradicting statements about how "it's not about the money"/"zOMG! isn't pulling in as much money as we would like." By the time the maintenance was announced, many of us even joked that Gaia would use this as an excuse to take the game down (some believed this to be the truth). Some of us were shocked to see that this was the case- others, not so much.
Combine all this with the fact that Gaia has been making it very clear since the start of 2014 that they care more about the users' wallets than the people they belong to, Gaia finding an excuse to trash something that was not pulling in any profit doesn't seem all that crazy of a conspiracy (not to mention, it's somewhat implied that they knew about this glitch for quite some time, and yet continued to let the game stay up instead of immediately taking it down).
Taking all this into consideration, it should at the very least be somewhat understandable why some people have taken to these "conspiracy theories" about why zOMG! was taken down.
User posts:
So, for a recap of everything we've had to deal with the past few years (and for those of you who are not entirely convinced that Gaia's actions were not with positive intent), here ya go:
I'm sure some of you are confused as to why the zOMG! community is making such an enormous uproar about the whole thing and calling out Gaia. The thing is, unless you've paid close attention to zOMG! and what Gaia has done the past few years, it's going to be hard to understand why people (including myself) are calling BS on this "maintenance."
Let me break it down for you (this may be somewhat out of order and I may not be 100% correct on some of these dates, but you get the idea):
-In 2011, the zOMG! community was informed that zOMG! would possibly be taken down if the game did not start generating more revenue- we were introduced buddies as well as a pass that would allow early access to the next area in the game, both of which could be purchased with GCash. Enough were sold, and we got to keep the game.
-This "pass" system was once again implemented for the next area to be introduced to zOMG!, and Bloodstone Amulets were sold and would grant early access to DMS. There was be a limited number of 5,000 to be sold, all of which were purchased in under a week, if I'm correct. Once the area was finally released, people could purchase Bloodstone Gems at a higher price to gain access.
-By the end of 2011, only one developer still remained on the zOMG! team- all the others had quit, been laid off, or been moved to another part of Gaia.
-It was until not some time later that DMS became open to the public permanently- up until then, DMS was exclusive to amulet/gem owners. The only time that anyone else could get in was whenever the zOMG! forum became active enough- a bar was shown at the top of the forum to show progress. Everyone, whether or not they owned a bloodstone, posted whenever they could.
-DMS itself was very challenging and skyrocketed the purchase of power-ups, also leading to some new and more expensive bundles.
-The final developer is laid off, and later one of the devs who used to code for zOMG! is laid off from Gaia entirely. There are now no more developers to work on the game, and Gaia claims that the coding language of the game is too ancient to try and find people who can try and fix some of the issues with the game.
-It is announced that zOMG! has gone into "maintenance mode" and will no longer receive any further development. A thread is created in the zOMG! forum by Gaia to ask users which glitches are prominent in the game. These glitches are never fixed. Gaia makes it clear that zOMG! is not making them the profit they had hoped for.
-Despite the fact that zOMG! will no longer be updated, the community continues to flourish- we help new people out, hold quite a few user events, and hold weekly meetings in-game with one of the developers who used to work on the game (which are still going on, only now in Towns 2).
-Before the summer, it is announced that zOMG! will temporarily be down for some time due to maintenance as a result of some serious problems that are not explicitly described in any way. A few months later this maintenance begins, and on November 7th, it was announced that zOMG! would not be returning due to a severe security issue.
-Gaia claims that this is not about money and that they loved the game and its community, despite the fact that they did not attempt to hire anybody who could take a crack at fixing the code. Not to mention, there were no developers left for zOMG! to even really look at the code- unless there's something I'm missing or there's something Gaia didn't tell us, there shouldn't have been much of a reason for Gaia to have been looking at zOMG! code in the first place.
In summary, the community poured its heart, soul and wallet into the game- we gave and we gave whenever we were asked to, and yet it became apparent that what was given in return could not make up for what was being taken away. the zOMG! community became a victim to unfulfilled promises and Gaia's contradicting statements about how "it's not about the money"/"zOMG! isn't pulling in as much money as we would like." By the time the maintenance was announced, many of us even joked that Gaia would use this as an excuse to take the game down (some believed this to be the truth). Some of us were shocked to see that this was the case- others, not so much.
Combine all this with the fact that Gaia has been making it very clear since the start of 2014 that they care more about the users' wallets than the people they belong to, Gaia finding an excuse to trash something that was not pulling in any profit doesn't seem all that crazy of a conspiracy (not to mention, it's somewhat implied that they knew about this glitch for quite some time, and yet continued to let the game stay up instead of immediately taking it down).
Taking all this into consideration, it should at the very least be somewhat understandable why some people have taken to these "conspiracy theories" about why zOMG! was taken down.
User posts:
MistressMinako
I would like to point out that we were granted 2 devs after the Boardwalk opened and Gaia decided to go forward with Deadman's Shadow. Those two devs were given four months to code a new area into "outdated" code. Once finished and after the Amulets sold out in four days, our two devs were moved back to the project they were borrowed from: Heralds of Chaos.
Aseres
the obvious bullshit point where they claim to "love" the game - the only people that worked at gaia that played the game no longer work there.
- JK, Kuzun, s2b2 and Swarf played through most of the game and all have a CL of 10+
- Mlos, Mav and Bron played the game as well, but to which extend I don't know
- Sagger-AT3 (the 2% guy) and fin (old old CEO) played the game to around CL5+ and made an effort to mingle with the community and run pugs
And that is literally it.
None of the above listed people work for Gaia anymore. I wonder how much the people working at Gaia now have to love a game to actually try it!
- JK, Kuzun, s2b2 and Swarf played through most of the game and all have a CL of 10+
- Mlos, Mav and Bron played the game as well, but to which extend I don't know
- Sagger-AT3 (the 2% guy) and fin (old old CEO) played the game to around CL5+ and made an effort to mingle with the community and run pugs
And that is literally it.
None of the above listed people work for Gaia anymore. I wonder how much the people working at Gaia now have to love a game to actually try it!
Gothic Rebecca
You bring up a valid point that I've been wanting to address since I returned to find zOMG! had been s**t-canned. I will concede that zOMG! was not a money-maker. However, it was not designed to be. zOMG! was developed to attract and retain customers to Gaia. In fact, for the first couple years you didn't even need an account to play. It was distributed to several free-to-play game sites and allowed you to log in as a guest. You could choose from a few different avis and were assigned a 'Guest' name followed by an alphanumeric sequence. You could potentially play through the entire game as a guest, but if you log out your progress was not saved, but you were offered the opportunity to create an account where your progress could be saved.
The idea was to draw new members into Gaia so that they would then get comfortable and perhaps purchase pixels. The other idea was to retain the current client-base, to inspire them to login more frequently, stay longer, and be more inclined to purchase pixels. zOMG! was, in essence, a hook. And it worked. It drew in new members and kept people around far longer than they otherwise would have.
Gaia has been telling us for the past four years that zOMG! was not making, and was in fact, costing them money. Okay, I get that. What they're not taking into account is the fact that scores of people stayed on Gaia or returned from hiatus just because of zOMG!. I'm certainly one of them. The other thing they're not considering when they say, "zOMG! doesn't make any money", is that many of those who are here just because of zOMG! often do spend money. They either buy zOMG!-related boosters or main site items such as MCs, EIs, and the like. Happy customers spend money. That's economics 101. You take the one thing away that's keeping those people here regularly, or at all, you eliminate their contribution to the economy. Unhappy customers seek happiness elsewhere.
Wait and watch. People may not leave immediately; humans are fascinated by chaos and will often linger around to watch things burn, but they will eventually leave. In the coming weeks they'll get bored. Their attentions will be drawn to other things and eventually Gaia will become something they'll recall once in a while. They may pop in just to see if there's anything going on, and then they'll leave again. That's when Gaia will begin to see what an impact zOMG! had on this site. That's when Gaia may realize just how much money zOMG! made for them. By then though, the damage will be done and it may be too late to do anything about it.
The idea was to draw new members into Gaia so that they would then get comfortable and perhaps purchase pixels. The other idea was to retain the current client-base, to inspire them to login more frequently, stay longer, and be more inclined to purchase pixels. zOMG! was, in essence, a hook. And it worked. It drew in new members and kept people around far longer than they otherwise would have.
Gaia has been telling us for the past four years that zOMG! was not making, and was in fact, costing them money. Okay, I get that. What they're not taking into account is the fact that scores of people stayed on Gaia or returned from hiatus just because of zOMG!. I'm certainly one of them. The other thing they're not considering when they say, "zOMG! doesn't make any money", is that many of those who are here just because of zOMG! often do spend money. They either buy zOMG!-related boosters or main site items such as MCs, EIs, and the like. Happy customers spend money. That's economics 101. You take the one thing away that's keeping those people here regularly, or at all, you eliminate their contribution to the economy. Unhappy customers seek happiness elsewhere.
Wait and watch. People may not leave immediately; humans are fascinated by chaos and will often linger around to watch things burn, but they will eventually leave. In the coming weeks they'll get bored. Their attentions will be drawn to other things and eventually Gaia will become something they'll recall once in a while. They may pop in just to see if there's anything going on, and then they'll leave again. That's when Gaia will begin to see what an impact zOMG! had on this site. That's when Gaia may realize just how much money zOMG! made for them. By then though, the damage will be done and it may be too late to do anything about it.
