Gaia, let us help zOMG!

Wouldn't you help zOMG! if you could?

Cookie!	100.0%	[ 56 ]
Total Votes:			[ 56 ]

[Kalon Ordona II]

Dear Gaia Staff,

I realize zOMG! by itself has not brought in enough revenue to cover its original development costs.

However, you have said before that that is not the way Gaia Online works.
All the money that is earned goes into the general pool of funds, which is then distributed to different areas.

Gaia is an organism made up of parts that work together, and zOMG! is a major part of what Gaia is.

Gaia Online has to its credit one of the best free-to-play browser MMORPG's in existence.
Aside from the artwork,
Aside from the animation,
Aside from the gameplay,
Aside from the writing,
Aside from the music,
Aside from the charm,
Aside from the players,
zOMG! has two things that put it ahead of the pack, in ways that no other game could match.

1. Customization.
2. Community.

Every time a new MMORPG comes out, what is the first thing people look for? What is the first thing on YouTube, what do people care about? Character Creation. Slider bars, presets, items, races, classes... The longer the list, the more people applaud it.

What does Gaia Online have that nobody can match?
An unprecedented amount of items. Of all ranges, colors, styles... and the list is ever expanding.
And where do the items go? The Avatar.
And what do you play as? The Avatar.

Just why is it that people are so concerned about character creation in a game?
Because they want to play as themselves, or as a persona they wish they could be.
And they want it to be as close to their vision as possible.

Gaia can fulfill this desire to a degree beyond anything else out there, because it has been making items constantly for many years!

Now, here's the great thing.
You know what brings in money on Gaia? You know what people spend Gaia Cash on?
Items!

Items!

For the Avatar!

So you see zOMG! can't bring in revenue on its own. Not really. Not on what matters, only on extras and peripherals. It's an unrealistic expectation, and an un-Gaia-like one at that.
zOMG! contributes to Gaia. zOMG! is part of Gaia.

Gaians spend money on items, not content.

Why items? To look awesome. To have what they want, either to look how they want, or to look as awesome as possible, or inevitably, both.

Why? Why look awesome?
Because other people see it. Because the user sees it.
It's the same reason people wear nice clothes.
They want to be seen wearing nice clothes.

zOMG! is a place for people to display their avatars, AND have fun, WITH other people, in real time. Everything that is great about Gaia, multiplied in zOMG!

People want to be in zOMG!
People want to look awesome in zOMG!
People buy items to look awesome while they are in zOMG!

zOMG! does not bring money for itself. zOMG! brings in money for Gaia.
Gaia should spend money on zOMG!

zOMG! is more than a game. It is part of a community. Other MMO's have communities. In Gaia, the community has the MMO. What other MMO can say that?
What other game can say that?

This is bigger than Gaia. zOMG! is amazing for more than just Gaians.

zOMG! should be known to the internet at large.

It was a terrible mistake and injustice that zOMG! was never advertised on a large scale.

Think about it!
People come in. They play zOMG! They have just starter outfits.
They visit Gaia.
They look at the shops.
They buy stuff.
They play zOMG!
They make friends.
They join the community, the forums, the guilds.
They become true Gaians.

zOMG! has that level of potential.
zOMG! is amazingly unique, intriguing, and fun.
zOMG! is worth it.

Now, obviously nothing in life is free.
Even if zOMG! is seen as a part of Gaia, Gaia can't continue on nothing. Staff needs preservation. Nobody should have to work for free.
Resources are always limited.

So we'll help!

Gaia, please call on us!
There are so many Gaians who are willing to help, if there was a way.
And not by buying things, because the money goes to Gaia in general.
We want to help zOMG! specifically.

But we have a problem.
The only other way right now that we can help is through word of mouth, telling other people to play.
The problem is, we can't tell them they should play, because we're having trouble wanting to play, because of the bugs and the lack of attention.

Yes, the bugs are being worked on, slowly.
Yes, we got a recycled easter event, which is something.
Baby steps. I understand.
But we need the next few steps. Fixing bugs only gets us back where we started.

After the bugs are fixed, development is not the main thing we need yet.
We need advertising.
We need people playing it.

Fix the bugs.
Advertise.

We will help, AND we'll help develop while you're advertising.
If only we could.

To advertise, you need selling points.
Your main selling points should be:

1. Browser based.
2. Not text based. An actual MMORPG.
3. Free-to-Play.
4. NO PREMIUM CONTENT (revenue comes through Gaia at large: the Avatars, and extras like orbs and power-ups)
5. Amazing Community (Gaia Online)
6. Extensive character customization.

Worded differently, of course, for maximum effect.

We can't pay companies to put the ads up. Only you can do that.
But we CAN advertise in other ways.
We can create art, banners, things like that.
We can create YouTube trailers, documentaries, channels, series.
We can help reviewers and websites make sure to list zOMG! as a great game.

And we can help come up with content to add to the game while you concentrate on putting up the actual ads in places people will see them.

Please let us help you come up with a way for us to help you help zOMG!

You could come up with a dedicated flash space. Maybe some contests.
A special forum or subforum that staff regularly participates in, to delegate or orchestrate efforts.
There could be items or achievements to people who help advertise or do art for or donate to zOMG!

I don't know. I don't have all the answers.
We have to work together.
We can brain-storm. We can meet with staff. Staff can meet with us.
Everybody is trying to voice solutions anyway. Think what ideas would flow if there was a dedicated place, certain of regular attention, where real results could be seen and real progress could be made?

Random posts, topics and proposals are too sporadic to get much done.
We need a place, a method, an access point, a to-do list, something that all this energy can be poured into, so that zOMG! can grow.

We can do it!
Gaia, let us help zOMG!

[UNSUB]

Seems a little too late. A good thought nevertheless.

[Kalon Ordona II]

It does, but it will only be even more too late if we don't try something as soon as possible. =)
To this day there is no zOMG equivalent on the internet, precisely because of the Gaia community to back it. The potential is there.

[abonai]

You have my sword.

[TragicExistence]

I like it emotion_dowant

[Crimson Velvet]

so inspirational ;w;
It makes me sad that a game I love is dying.

[oukashi okamii]

I will help anyway that i can powerup hoarding has got me only so far and sense their are no new summons to buy im hoarding gold for this vary thing. but how eless does one go about using gold for this purpose? 4laugh

[Kalon Ordona II]

Some people have suggested buying zOMG! powerups and items and then selling them in the marketplace. However, this doesn't necessarily help zOMG! specifically, since the Gaia staff has said that all the money Gaia generates as a whole goes into a central pool which is then redistributed. In other words, it doesn't go by what makes revenue, it goes by whatever they feel like spending the money on. <.<

Facebook games are not the answer. All they do is advertise for facebook, not gaia, and they pollute the site with their aimless, money-grabbing gameplay. zOMG! on the other hand is a 100% Gaia creation, is unique across the internet, and supports the lifeblood of Gaia: it's community via its users' avatars. Even with Monster Galaxy, all you have is a Pokemon ripoff where you can name your pets. You yourself don't even appear in the game, much less interact with others. All you do with other people is click on their tree. <.< That's facebook for you. It's not supposed to be Gaia.

[Berryfarmer]

Kalon Ordona II

Can't tip you hard enough. I offer my support in any way I can.

[kdrama and cry]

So inspirational cry

[Kalon Ordona II]

Many thanks, everyone so far.

When zOMG! was first in development, and then when it came out, I just knew it was going to be the greatest thing ever. Here the internet finally had a real free-to-play MMORPG, not one of tthese text-based things. And you used your Gaia avatar!

It has that gameplay-over-graphics mentality. It overflows with charm, and it's genuinely fun. And it's wonderful that you don't need a higher-end computer to play it. Anyone with flash and a decent amount of RAM can play it no-sweat. It'll even play on library computers, and you CAN play it at library computers because you don't need a download!

Elsword doesn't have characters or community.
Adventure Quest is basically single-player.
Runescape takes too much time, has little customization, more complicated to play.
There's other ones out there. There's even one that's a lot like zOMG, but it just doesn't have something like Gaia backing it, so there's no reason to play it over zOMG.
Unless zOMG fizzles and dies, like it's doing. -_-

Back when it came out, I didn't realize how little advertising zOMG got. Which was none, really, outside of Gaia.
Maybe it was taken for granted.
Or maybe it just needed the time to develop the new areas and things.
I mean now we have the Otami ruins and everything, and there's still tons of areas on the map to fill in.
The mystery of the animated isn't even close to being solved yet.
There's plenty of room for growth, even if the game is years old.

I hope zOMG! and Gaia can be turned around in the right direction again. =)
You all should see the Spring Cleaning 2011 area.
The two top things everybody wants is:
#1 Avatar stuff.
#2 zOMG!

That's all the evidence the staff should need right there, really.
It does look like we're getting that one developer, and that's awesome, but again that just gets us up to speed. We still need to do what should have been done from the start.
The world must know about zOMG!

[Owlie]

Repost this in Site Feedback so I can tip you again.

[Kalon Ordona II]

Owlie

Repost this in Site Feedback.

Anything to help. =)

Same thread in Site Feedback

[x__s o y m i l k]

You're right. The main thing I love love love about zOMG is that you get to use your own avatar. No set of clothing to stick to. I can be a bunny if I wanted to! And also the no download is a HUGE plus. And the gameplay with the changing CLs...
WHY? WHY MUST GAIA CAST zOMG ASIDE? ;w;
Edit: To add on, I don't think I'd still be on gaia if it weren't for zOMG. I like the items, but honestly there's no motivation for me to get my items if me and the people I talk to occasionally are the only people who can appreciate it. I'm not much of a towns person so I don't show off my outfits there. And I'm too lazy for forums at times. zOMG gave me something I can engage in. It's what brought me back to gaia, and it's what's keeping me here.

[Hinterland Wayfinder]

I have to admit that I admire your thread.. but too lazy to read the entire thing. sweatdrop

There are a lot of us here that have a passion for zOMG! and its community. Believe me when I say this, I've seen and even taken part in many attempts on and off the net to save zOMG! and fight for it to be all that it can be. There is only so much we can do.. and HQ clearly has no intentions of returning to zOMG!.


I'm here, and i'm going to be around as long as zOMG! remains playable. But my current course of action is not to spend a penny on GC, which has been remarkably easier than I had previously thought. I'm not online nearly as much as I used to be either.. But i'm here, watching the community that I love. If HQ so much as hints that it might be interested in doing any real work on zOMG! again, you'll definitely see me posting again and encouraging zOMG! to grow.

Tarot Rune

abonai

You have my sword.

And my Axe.. Bow.. Cannon?... Nuke!