Why do I love zOMG? Why am I on Gaia at all? - by SmallTownGuy
As a Gaia parent, I've been grateful our kids have had a good place to hang out, chat with friends, and have some fun. Four of our five kids have had Gaia accounts. Most of their friends had Gaia accounts. Through high school, this was their place to contact their real-life friends and chat. If one had a party, they'd invite each other via Guilds. If they had a few extra minutes, this was their place for a quick round of Word Bump or Jigsaw. My wife and - later - I created accounts so they could connect to us when they wanted.
My elder son was the first to show me the new "Battle System" Gaia was working on. Knowing that I was a D&D player from *way* back, he knew I'd be hooked.
And - with encouragement from our daughters - I was hooked. I played many long sessions with them. It was great! My elder son almost always played a healer, my younger son imagined himself a ninja, my younger daughter preferred a long-range archer, and I went for the 3 swords front-liner. zOMG's unique format allowed us to change styles whenever we wished. It not only appealed to my old D&D roots, it added a huge social element. D&D was always as much about socializing as it was about fantasy life. D&D - in the form of zOMG - was suddenly a way to reach out to my kids and others, help them, interact.
Today they're on zOMG less often. We last had a chance to crew together on Christmas. My middle daughter is busy with grad school and her engagement (yes, her fiancé is a Gaian). My eldest daughter has a girl of her own.
But I find I'm still here. I have become something of an uncle figure (not quite a father figure) to many, many young men and ladies (and a few not so young). I'm having a blast with them. I hope to continue for quite a while.
How long will Gaia last, and how long will I remain here? I don't know. I do know that Gaia is losing market share at a terrible rate, first to Facebook and now to cell phones. There are more competing ways to socialize online than there were 10 years ago. Flash is losing favor among developers, so any new games will need to target different platforms with a different code base. Will Gaia make the transition? We'll have to see.