Narumi Misuhara
(?)Community Member
Offline
- Posted: Thu, 07 Mar 2013 01:35:15 +0000
Due to the confusion going around about what is going on with zOMG! I've made this sticky to try to cover as much as I can, all in one place, so that future seekers of knowledge can hopefully more easily find/reference the information. I'll try to update it if I've missed anything major.
The below was taken from my journal:
zOMG! is currently in maintenance mode. What does that mean?
It means we are not actively doing any development for it.
Why aren't we actively developing for it?
Simple, the game did not accomplish the goals the managers at the time were hoping it would accomplish.
What were those goals?
*shrug* I wasn't managing at the time, I honestly couldn't tell you.
Why do we continue to keep it maintenance mode?
The game does not bring in enough income to justify hiring someone full time/part time to keep up with it.
If it's not bringing in enough money, why not completely get rid of it?
Plenty of people still play it, and something is better than nothing.
Is it possible the games status could be upgraded from maintenance mode?
Unlikely, but possible. It would require a significant and consistent income increase with the existing zOMG! items that are selling. (i.e. would have to stably make more money without us adding or doing anything new to the game.)
A question I've seen asked a few times around the forums is the "Why do you still charge for orbs etc. when the money doesn't go just to zOMG!?"
The answer to this is also simple, though apparently made complicated by things said in the past by....?
All income generated by all our products currently go to Gaia Interactive. That's how most businesses work, the money doesn't just go to one department or product. The money brought in by each product is tracked so we know how it's doing but the money goes to the business not whatever product generated it. The complication apparently comes from someone saying the money zOMG! generated would go straight back into zOMG!? I don't know who made that claim assuming anyone did at all, anytime I've asked for where this was stated no one seems to be able to provide a quotable source. The fact is that's simply not how it works so if that was promised somewhere, well then I'm sorry, that is simply a promise we can't keep.
Some Gaians are under the impression that doing anything for zOMG! is a matter of us simply wanting to prioritize it. I want to dispell that rumor here and now. The reality is there is no one on the Gaia Online team that knows how to do anything with zOMG! short of restarting the servers. The last two devs internally that used to work on the game now work for our social department. What does that mean exactly? It means we on the Gaia Online side have no say in getting them to work on anything related to zOMG! or Gaia Online. Any such work they do must be done on their free time. Luckily they are amazing and care a great deal for the zOMG! community, this has led to many instances in the past where they happily helped out. Recently however they have been very busy with their work on the social side of the house. In addition, a lot of smaller things we've wanted to do has required us to contact a dev who no longer even works for Gaia Interactive. Getting help like that is extremely difficult because it requires not only convincing them to help out but working outside of whatever job schedule they have at another company.
Something I mentioned in earlier journal entries is that I would really love to have someone on the Gaia Online side trained to work on zOMG!. So far however this has only been met with frustration as the person best suited for this no longer works at Gaia Interactive and has been too busy with other things to be able to come in and help us out.
So with all that we come to the "Will you recycle events for zOMG!"
Due to the situation mentioned above, no, I can't promise any events, recycled or otherwise for zOMG! in the foreseeable future.
Originally posted here
Older status update by Panagrammic
The below was taken from my journal:
Quote:
zOMG! is currently in maintenance mode. What does that mean?
It means we are not actively doing any development for it.
Why aren't we actively developing for it?
Simple, the game did not accomplish the goals the managers at the time were hoping it would accomplish.
What were those goals?
*shrug* I wasn't managing at the time, I honestly couldn't tell you.
Why do we continue to keep it maintenance mode?
The game does not bring in enough income to justify hiring someone full time/part time to keep up with it.
If it's not bringing in enough money, why not completely get rid of it?
Plenty of people still play it, and something is better than nothing.
Is it possible the games status could be upgraded from maintenance mode?
Unlikely, but possible. It would require a significant and consistent income increase with the existing zOMG! items that are selling. (i.e. would have to stably make more money without us adding or doing anything new to the game.)
A question I've seen asked a few times around the forums is the "Why do you still charge for orbs etc. when the money doesn't go just to zOMG!?"
The answer to this is also simple, though apparently made complicated by things said in the past by....?
All income generated by all our products currently go to Gaia Interactive. That's how most businesses work, the money doesn't just go to one department or product. The money brought in by each product is tracked so we know how it's doing but the money goes to the business not whatever product generated it. The complication apparently comes from someone saying the money zOMG! generated would go straight back into zOMG!? I don't know who made that claim assuming anyone did at all, anytime I've asked for where this was stated no one seems to be able to provide a quotable source. The fact is that's simply not how it works so if that was promised somewhere, well then I'm sorry, that is simply a promise we can't keep.
Some Gaians are under the impression that doing anything for zOMG! is a matter of us simply wanting to prioritize it. I want to dispell that rumor here and now. The reality is there is no one on the Gaia Online team that knows how to do anything with zOMG! short of restarting the servers. The last two devs internally that used to work on the game now work for our social department. What does that mean exactly? It means we on the Gaia Online side have no say in getting them to work on anything related to zOMG! or Gaia Online. Any such work they do must be done on their free time. Luckily they are amazing and care a great deal for the zOMG! community, this has led to many instances in the past where they happily helped out. Recently however they have been very busy with their work on the social side of the house. In addition, a lot of smaller things we've wanted to do has required us to contact a dev who no longer even works for Gaia Interactive. Getting help like that is extremely difficult because it requires not only convincing them to help out but working outside of whatever job schedule they have at another company.
Something I mentioned in earlier journal entries is that I would really love to have someone on the Gaia Online side trained to work on zOMG!. So far however this has only been met with frustration as the person best suited for this no longer works at Gaia Interactive and has been too busy with other things to be able to come in and help us out.
So with all that we come to the "Will you recycle events for zOMG!"
Due to the situation mentioned above, no, I can't promise any events, recycled or otherwise for zOMG! in the foreseeable future.
Originally posted here
Older status update by Panagrammic