Don't your users matter? Dev replies; More replies please!

[Llorelei]

Draconic Oni

I. Can't. Afford. It. Anymore.

I am right there with you. My first Gaia cash card bought me so much cool stuff from the CS. I was very excited and felt like I totally got my money's worth! Now? An entire cash card will buy MAYBE one EI. Really not worth it, in my book. And I have more important things to spend my money on, like taking care of my REAL pets that won't die on me in two weeks. sad

And I notice that STILL... We have not been responded to. Does anyone at Gaia care?

[Flux]

My worse Gaia nightmare:

''This is an automated message from the Gaiaonline Staff:

Hi Flux, thank you and all the users for supporting Gaiaonline through the years. However due to the recent rise in the costs of living and our hard working personnel our funds have been quite weak, we are currently operating with negative yearly income.

That's why we are informing all our users that from now on we will be charging $2.50 or *Gaia cash value* per month so everyone can enjoy Gaiaonline and all its wonderful features. Those who don't pay will be banned within 15 days after the beginning of the month in question, warnings will be sent in case you forget.

Please try to understand the position we are in, this hurts us more than it could possibly hurt you mad p

Than you
Gaia Staff''

Can I say, FATALITY!?

[poke mattix]

Flux

My worse Gaia nightmare:

''This is an automated message from the Gaiaonline Staff:

Hi Flux, thank you and all the users for supporting Gaiaonline through the years. However due to the recent rise in the costs of living and our hard working personnel our funds have been quite weak, we are currently operating with negative yearly income.

That's why we are informing all our users that from now on we will be charging $2.50 or *Gaia cash value* per month so everyone can enjoy Gaiaonline and all its wonderful features. Those who don't pay will be banned within 15 days after the beginning of the month in question, warnings will be sent in case you forget.

Please try to understand the position we are in, this hurts us more than it could possibly hurt you mad p

Than you
Gaia Staff''

Can I say, FATALITY!?

That sent chills up my spine gonk god help me, However I don't think even them would be so inclined to charge everyone to surf a form. If they did that then hardly anyone would.

[Flux]

poke mattix

That sent chills up my spine gonk god help me, However I don't think even them would be so inclined to charge everyone to surf a form. If they did that then hardly anyone would.

They were inclined until Mr. CEO came to the scene, it was Lanzer who said Gaia would never be pay-to-play but not Mr. CEO.

I am surprised my fishes are fairly happy when all I did was feed them. xp

[iRaimu Bito]

admin

We're busy putting the finishing touches on Gaia Aquarium right now and hope to release it very soon. Look for Aquarium to be a constantly-evolving experience, with new features, fish, and decorations being added all the time. In addition, please take note of these fishy facts and features:

* Each aquarium will come with a selection of starter fish and a mysterious clam that grants daily rewards, ranging from Gold to items. The happier your fish, the better the reward.

* You'll be able to win select aquarium goodies from the Daily Chance.

* Gaia Aquarium will have its own dedicated shop for fish food, backgrounds, and decorations. There will also be some premium aquarium items on sale in the Cash Shop.

* You'll be able to show off your tank in your profile, sig, or on the forums.

* For various health and safety reasons, including high levels of delicious mercury, anything you catch from fishing won't be compatible with your aquarium.

We'd love to hear what you think, so please stop by this feedback thread in the new Aquarium Forum and share your thoughts, fishy wish lists, and more!

Original aquarium post. The bullet for the shop is very misleading indeed.
Personally all my aquarium items are DC only, and will stay that way until they implement a gold store, or inflation in the MP goes down.
[I'll always follow you. . .]

[Zakiyama]

No- what makes me mad is that the Aquarium isn't even working right. Clam still don't cough up items, and no one can get their fish past suicidal.

As I said earlier- Gaia wants to have it's cake and eat it too.

They push out half-done features and then charge for them. neutral Oh... wait, all of Gaia is half-done. I know they push these things out live to work out the bugs, but I can't recall a single feature on Gaia that doesn't break upon release.

If you're going to wave the corporate flag and basically guilt your user base into draining their money here, the least you could do is give them a good product.

Why is it that Gaia runs like it's still done out of Lanzer's basement (actually, I think organizational matters have gotten worse since then. They didn't need no fancy office to push out some of the nicer 03 and 04 items), and yet they're waving the 'we're corporate, so we needz munniez' flag?

Jesus. Gaia- Make up your mind.

[Klepto Chibi]

oO Death By Chocolate Oo

Destroyer No 56

Good Lord! It's the great depression all over again. cry

I'm hoping that after the presidential election things will be better here... praying reallie reallie hard ::crosses her fingers::

I'm quoting this for your benefit, mine more so.

The presidental election this year will be a bust, don't count on anything really helping our economy. I could go more in depth, but this is for complaints on the current system.

[Klepto Chibi]

[ .NK. ]

Destroyer No 56

oO Death By Chocolate Oo

Destroyer No 56

Same here... Getting through college has been really though lately...

It is for me too, my tuition and books cost more now... wtf, I just chipped out a good 700+ bucks on my books for this semester... grr

$700!?! that's like £350! for just books, blimey things sure aren't looking to bright over there... sad

It's been that way for awhile now, unfortunately. The things you need most generally cost a ton. Food prices are going up as well. It also depends on where you live in the US.

College books have always been pricey, yes I do agree that some are quite ridiculous. However, if you get the used books, you'll do just fine. They don't cost too much used, but buying them new is stupid on your part.

[0x- L -x0]

Nothing can be done, they've become a huuge site now and users really don't matter any more. Just our money.

This will be ignored by admins, in favour of raking in naive and money spending n00bs...it really makes me sad but what can we do? I hope your letter opens some eyes...but I have little hope it will.

[The_Cuteness_Cat]

Sadly enough, Gaia has proven that no matter how much we whine...Nothing is gonna get done. If they think a feature "improves" the site, or makes them money. It dosnt matter what we think. Like, the "My Gaia" page update. The SF was furious about it...Nothing changed. The label maker, the prices of the EI's going up and up...None of that changes because we are unhappy. So I honestly dont expect them to do anything. Really what I would like to see is an announcement from them in the form of a letter explaining to us what is going on. Not a slide at us in the announcement restateing that you can buy fish in the market place or somthing. An appology for the confusion of what has been going on. So we can waste our words all we want, its not going to have any effect. Gaia has us trapped because we wont drop our avatars we invested a lot of money and time into so they can pretty much do whatever they want.

Oh, and I 100% agree with you that I refuse to call the MMO "zOMG" its stupid. But, I can live without the MMO myself. Its gonna cause more glitches for them to work on. I personaly believe its the cause of the downfall in the MC's quality. Everything glitches, no one fixes it. They just make another random feature to cover up the other glitches...then that one glitches....a never ending circle.

And if you do write that letter to the admins, I would not like to be quoted. I'd rather not bother them.

[Sin Error]

0x- L -x0

Nothing can be done, they've become a huuge site now and users really don't matter any more. Just our money.

This will be ignored by admins, in favour of raking in naive and money spending n00bs...it really makes me sad but what can we do? I hope your letter opens some eyes...but I have little hope it will.

We can try. bu sadly a few users wont do. though you are right, beacuse I've seen quite a lot of people that has purchased items for the Aquarium, so if there are users willing to spend money on it, Gaia will continue ignoring us.

[cLAriTHiUM]

I'm in college. I can't afford to spend money on this s**t.

THINK. ABOUT. YOUR. USERS, and WHY they're on your site!

[Vorti]

although i hate "bitching threads" in the SF, i have to say that this one is good at summing up the issues with gaia. i dont really see a dev/admin response happening though. ( do they even look at the SF anymore?) i hope the op's letter reaches the staff and gets taken seriously (though i think it would take letters from everyone to actually get their attention, unless this-so-called mr. ceo just burns them upon sight) i've seen the complaints piling up for a while now, but the aquarium has become the "straw that broke the camel's back."

[[ .NK. ]]

Vampire Lemons

NK: O:!! OMG thank you. <333333 Very much love for that, seriously. <3

You're welcome. biggrin

Sarcolestes

I will never pay money for pixels.
NEVER!

I used to only because I wanted to support the site. Now I just can't afford it, and I wouldn't anyways because of the way things have been.

Angiechan

I agree with the OP....Gaia hasn't gotten a dime from me since the MTV shop opened, nor will they see a dime from me again until they stop grubbing for money like a cheap hooker.

Amen!

XemoXpenguinX

I am here! >.>
xD
I read to about the 5th..6th? page and got bored. I liked the picketing idea though.. or raiding at con. >.>

Anyone come up with more ideas? xD
I wanna help, I'm done with this crap, totally done. I'm not going to sit back and watch Gaia morph into Neopets.

Protesting may not work, and getting everyone together will be hard. I like the con idea, but I won't be able to do it. Hopefully others can. And I agree, I do not want this to become another Neopets.

Eerie Doll

I walk under the clouds of gray,

You know, I have been saying all of this in SF for ages now...
Every time I did, I got stormed at for it.

I kind of feel annoyed that it's taken you all this long to realize that Gaia doesn't
have much love for their users but rather, their users' money anymore...

But this time I am fo' reals about no longer financially supporting their site by purchasing Gaia Cash or Monthly Collectibles...

Sphere of storms in my head,

Lots of people love this site and didn't want to see the bad things happening, but now more and more people are realizing exactly what's going on, and they're sick of it. The aquarium pushed lots of people past that limit.

Good, maybe if enough people stop it will make a difference.

Toasty Kyon

Thank you.
I whole-heartedly agree with EVERYTHING that EVERYONE has said.
I have read up to page 10, seeing all my complaints and more.
Damn you Gaia, for turning your damn backs against us!
After getting hacked, and losing my lovely avatar, I realized a few things.
Gaia. You suck. Your sucking your users money out of their wallets. Not only that, but what the hell. You have pointless s**t on the site. No one ever uses VJ, Gaia Cinemas, and especially that stupid new AQUARIUM. This site is LAGGY and VERY SLOW. Ugh. You're giving off precious bandwidth for POINTLESS CRAP. Why not concentrate on the speed of the website and not the features. Hell. I don't even want that MMO anymore.

One good thing about this year? I loved the rejected olympics. Thank you for such a wonderful experience. HOWEVER. One good experience cannot cover many bad others.

One more damn thing. I always seem to edit this damn post to rant even more.
WHY DON'T YOU FIX ALL THE DAMN BUGS INSTEAD OF MAKING NEW FEATURES WITH EVEN MORE BUGS. You're burying yourself into a DAMN HOLE GAIA.

I agree, especially about the hacking and the features. Cinemas could have been good, but they've already neglected it too much. I haven't noticed the site being laggy and slow except over the past few days, which I think is them adding the aquarium.

The Olympics were great, yes. But no, it can't cover the bad things they've done, like the lack of an Easter Event that they promised us.

Yes! I agree completely.

[[ .NK. ]]

Shampoo-chan

O: You know what... I think your thread slapped me in the face and finally made me FULLY realize (because I've had several minor revelations before) just how messed up this site has become over the years.

I'm a 2003 veteran who has always supported Gaia and worked my butt off nearly 5 ******** years to get everything in my inventory without having to use real money. I earned my gold via posting, Vending, etc.... NOT buying a single Donation Item -- Now called Monthly Collectables.

Quick vending is nearly impossible for those who are short on gold, now with the 2% tax. You'd have to buy something (if you can even afford it) and wait weeks/months for it to go up in price. By that time, the original item (whether it be oldie items or EI's) you were questing for has most likely gone up a few 50k's or so.

By the ending of last year, I couldn't keep up with prices anymore and finally used my first $10. OMG, it was so easy to buy something... Holy s**t, if I pay $1, I can get a Bag of Win and sell it for 15k. I bought 10 of them, which I'm sure is the least amount a majority of users bought. It's so easy to use cash to pay for items for something that is otherwise USELESS to me IRL. What the hell have I been wasting my life on?

When I first started, this site was fun and pretty much free to me (apart from the endless hours I spent each day bumping, posting and vending). God. I'm very ashamed of what Gaia has become, especially with how many damn SPONSORSHIP ADVERTISEMENTS are on this website (as I post now, below there is an advertisment for an upcoming movie that I have no desire to see--which blocks my "Submit" button). Almost everyday now, I come across that add about Breast Implance (Maybe you've seen it?).

I just love the way you worded your post. The points you made were exact and professional, without being spiteful and insulting. Thank you for the wake up call that I kept shrugging off. I'm tired of having to spend money on a "free" website that I loved for the community it used to be.

I used to be the exact same as you, except I slaved over art rather than vending. Being one of those artists that can't make at least a mill off of one auction, I've drawn over 100 pictures to get to where I am today. But as my boyfriend keeps saying, not everyone can draw, thus, not everyone has the same chance to get any of the recent items. And that made me feel bad, because it's true.

It's not about equal opportunity. No one can get items solely by posting anymore. If you want the items, you have to pay, and pay big.

I haven't seen the breast implants ad yet, but I'm sure I will one day soon. I've noticed a Circuit City ad that MAKES you click it when PMing someone. It's annoying as hell because you can't see it, it's glitched, and you click and go to their website.