Ask the admin (02/22/2011)

[Lanzer]

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's ask the admin thread! Hope everyone had a great time at the Gaia anniversary. We're still hard at work on the Towns update and planning for the next event plus more NPC stories are now under way.

I understand that many were concerned about the state of zOMG, and I'm sorry I don't have a specific solution to announce, but I'd like to share with you where we came from and give everyone a little more insight to where we came from:

Knowing that there are many unanswered questions about zOMG, I know that we owe everyone further explaination about where we came from and how we arrived at the current decision as it stands.

zOMG was a project we created many years ago, with a large team, tons of time, money, and resources, we put in enormous effort trying to make something with lots of depth and gameplay that is deserving of the loyal Gaians waiting for a battle system. Large console titles takes about 10M to 30M to produce, large MMO can cost north of 100M. Creating a complex game is a very expensive endevour and with a tight team our expense was low in comparison, but still quite astounding for a Gaia project. We invested tremendously and at the same time, we put in tons of effort in promoting the game, marketed heavily outside of Gaia, partnered with flash game sites to include zOMG as one of their titles, and hoped for the best as the game press forward.

As the fate of all games, there's a certain element of luck on whether or not the leader of the project comes up with just the right amount of idea, style, and organization to make a game a success. Thousands of games are created each year, only a hand full were ever profitable. zOMG received a warm welcome by Gaians and we had our initial supporters for zOMG, though over the next months, it was clear that the support for zOMG itself could not sustain the team to continue adding features at a fast pace. It's scary to think how many millions would a game need to make to sustain a team of engineers, but removing the math, the bottom line is that there just wasn't enough. Within the gaming industry, the math is pretty clear on what makes a profitable title and what doesn't. We were in a tough place when the numbers didn't add up.

Many of us adore zOMG and the effort we put into the game, and had been constantly putting in effort to maintain the game while trying to add more features on the side. While other companies typically shut down a game the moment they don't see success, we continue to do whatever we can to maintain zOMG because we love the game, and because we know many Gaians enjoy it. Two and a half years after we realized that zOMG couldn't cover the cost of building the game, we still released the DMS update. Not for profit, but only because we wish to entertain the Gaians who deserves more content from zOMG.

As a company, I cannot argue with anyone who thinks that Gaia is "money hungry" or only think about profit. We do think heavily on the bottom line, we do think through how many people should work on which project so that we can earn money. We think like this because every month we work out the math and we are faced with facts such as how much more time can we be in business if we can't make ends meet. We were once faced with hard facts down to the exact number of months that we can operate until we can't pay our staff members anymore and have to shut down. We had to make choices to make the company smaller, and we have to make the choice of making certain titles for wider audience because we would like to keep the lights running.

Despite the constraint in money and resources, Gaia is lucky to have such a great user base and we have the support to have a team dedicated to continue updating core features, creating new events, mini games, and items for the community.

[Voat]

Again Happy Anniversary month Gaia! Thank you for your existence on the Internets. Also that towns virus was a super sexy forum event. It was real fun

Questions:
1) Since zOMG won't have any story/meaty-ful content updates, is it still possible to have new recipes/rewards/epics added in to older areas while zOMG is on hold? Such as dropping new Epic recipes to hard mode boss instances in the lower levels, like the Kokeshi Doll Shrine, Duneslam, General's House, etc.? Or will all zOMG non-bug related activity be at a standstill?

I feel that zOMG can still be updated in some way without sucking up too much staff time - by updating reward content for zOMG via things like new epic recipes in older areas (much like how Prize and Joy gets new items now and then to revive interest in ticket Games). Maybe once a month, Gaia can give a dev a day or two to add in a new epic recipe to an old boss area? People would appreciate it while zOMG is in maintenance mode...it would feel like it's being less...uh...'abandoned.'

2) If zOMG buddies aren't going to get any added benefits aside from being a pet decoration to the game, can we get static poses for our summon buddies that our avatars can wear/equip in the forums?
In the past when summons were a new concept a dev poll'd people about what features users would most want with their buddies, but nothing ever came out of those discussions, probably due to time constraints. However, it gave people hopes that their summons would do stuff in the future. Since a static or animated equip pose in the forums seems like something doable it would be a great to at least have those for zOMG summon buddies.

3) Has there been any attention/talk about improving the Avatar Arenas lately? Or is this a non-issue right now? Many months ago Pan held a fireside chat about the arenas that resulted in an increase in the entry fee, but that was all that was done.
Can we get a non-competitive arenas where we can just enter avatars into our gallery...without competing in the arenas? This proposal has 114 cookies btw not that it makes much of a difference hahahahahahahahahaha.. ha.

GOOD LUCK WITH TODAY'S ATA!!!!!!!
Hope you are all doing well and thanks for re-scheduling ATA to Wednesday!

GO LOUIEEEEE!!!

[Teh Savior]

Why are oni sets still soulbound?

[Crystal Sparda]

Ϲ ʀ ʏ s т Α ʟ ♥ ◕ ω ◕

╒═════════════════════════

Short simple questions since I asked the whoppers last week. wink
Happy 9th Birthday, Gaia!

1.) We getting an Easter mini event this year?
If not, what is the next big event?
I'm anticipating something huuuuge! I want something BIGGG!!!
:::EDIT::: (LAWL, cool, you're working on an event, BUT WHAT IS IT?) whee

2.) Who's going to MetroCon this year? pirate I AM!
Do you guys go to other panels while at cons?
I better see someone at the Death Note Mafia!

3.) I think all the GCDers who saw the leak the other day love you guys now!
I can't wait for it to finally happen and be released!!! wink
Will it be soon, or are we going to be waiting a while to see the "change"?

[jonjon21428]

1) Since the train station in zOMG! is being unused, is it possible to link it to an area, like the old Video Lounge but displays ads, therefore creating some revenue for zOMG! ?

2) Is this a possiblity? Devs can resize their avatars using the admin panel, maybe allow users to, it could create more revenue.

3) Ever since DMS was released, the Alastor quest has been broken for everybody, (The quest after the 25 miniboss). No one is able to continue in the quest, so can it be fixed?

4) Also another glitch with DMS, sometimes the second tier of DMS (The Green Rooms) glitches and cause the whole instance to freeze, making the crew lose hours of progress.
This glitch happens when 1 person in the crew, who is in the 2nd tier, teleports to the null chamber while the other crew members are still in the 1st tier of DMS, this causes the whole instance to freeze. No one can move, and if one refreshes the browser, it gets worse, the get communications cut of with the whole crew (Not being able to talk at all) and stuck in the same spot, until the person completely resets the zOMG! browser, making them teleport out of DMS but lose the whole entire instance.

5) You should make BigLanky14 do more of these emotion_awesome

6) Love for zOMG! ? emotion_kirakira

[Fractale]

TO LANZER
1: Is it possible to fit 2 gold shops in per months, to accompanied more user requested items?

2: Do the staff have plans to start exploring other areas of the Gaia world, in the near future? We have 4 main towns on the outdated world map, with a 5th (Halloweentown) having no shops or anything in it, a few things like Durem Caves, the wall of Gambino, and the reclamation facility scattered in between, and we've seen the city of Dref Dur in the manga, but that hasn't yet been added to the map. Why isn't the map getting updated and expanded into new territory as it should?

3: Have you guys ever considered actually making a serious, legit Gaia commercial? I think you guys could get floods of users if you manage to make a commercial for tv, showcasing some of the best Gaia features and communities, and have it in one of the time slots during the Superbowl 2013. Would Gaia have enough funds to pull something like this together; to draw in more users?

4: I'm happy there's going to be a new shop for user-created items. Can you provide any info about this new shop, like who's going to be running it? More importantly, will this Crosstitch store be appearing in a new part of town on Gaia in the world map that hasn't been used (like Halloweentown), or added, yet (like Dref Dur)? I'll be pretty sore if it's a shop that takes up space in Durem, Aekea, Gambino, or Barton, when there's already so many shops there. (don't forget, Gaia is an entire world. You can branch out to new areas ad towns to avoid town overcrowding, you know...) HintHint


TO NARUMI MISUHARA

“Fractale”

has the staff been planning anything for events to involve the world map, and making it mre interesting than just clicking around to find Holiday NPC's on the map pages? Is the world map going to get more love in the form of updates, soon?

Narumi Misuhara

Soon ...probably not, I do want to try to get some of the World maps updated through events but until we can better tie events with a cohesive story there really isn't a whole lot we can do with it for events.

Mortok

Ooooooooooooor they could just draw a new map that includes all the current areas from the existing story. There's no good reason they couldn't do that, and it would, in fact, be far more practical than any of the ideas listed here, all of which would involve building flash games/environments and other stuff almost completely from scratch.

Mortok brings up a good point. Why does the staff want to create extra work for themselves by tying the world map update and expansion into a cohesive story in an event? Why can't you guys just...oh, I don't know....draw some maps, including all the areas we have, and add them to the world map? Or make a user contest where users can draw and submit different maps for all of these areas, and spare your artists the workload of doing it themselves? (with the exception of adding the winning maps to the Gaia world map)

[Mademoiselle Kit]

Dear Admins;

I am going to be frank with you; we of the Zomg community are angry. We feel we have not been treated fairly. We put work and effort into promoting our game through word of mouth and with our wallets, and yet time and time and again our favorite game is shunted into a corner.

Now with the removal of all our devs, it is clear that our game will be left to rot unless we do something.

Need I remind you guys the contributions we made to promote our game:

- Getting our request to hire a new Zomg dev in the spring cleaning forum to 5000 cookies; the second thread to do so
- Supporting zomg with our wallets; may I remind you of the time we sold out the 5000 bloodstone amulets in DAYS, earning $20k for zomg? Where did all that money go if it didn't go to saving our game?
- Getting new people to play zomg all the time; according to swarf, there is a steady trickle of new players each week. So why isn't Gaia supporting them by fixing glitches/giving us hope of new content?
- With the release of DMS, zomg traffic increased as well as revenue. If this revenue hasn't been going to zomg, then WHERE HAS IT BEEN GOING? We were told all zomg money went to development of zomg. It is clear we have been lied to.

According to swarf, it would not be difficult to keep up development on zomg, inclding development of new areas, with only a few devs. Yet despite this, Gaia has pulled ALL OF OUR DEVS, giving us no hope at all for an update to the game. Zomg is not like fishing or other Gaia games. Zomg is a MMO, and MMOs NEED updates to survive.

I am beginning to suspect that all this time, despite what we did, despite the suggestions we gave, the HQ seems to want zomg to fail. That is the biggest slap in the face after this whole thing. We were given some hope after the success of DMS, after selling the amulets and the increase in traffic. And yet after all we've done, to have our last devs taken away? It's like we are being told they don't care.

This is a fair warning: the zomg community is FURIOUS about this new development. Step inside the forums and see for yourself. We are a passionate community, willing to give money and support to our favorite game, and we WILL NOT stand for this. You have been warned.

Do you remember five years ago, Gaia? Back in 07 when it was annouced that zomg was in development? The "battle system" was Gaia's baby. It was the first game where you could step into the Gaia world. After having been on Gaia since 2005, the first time I stepped into Barton and saw that town, virtually animated where I could walk around...I cried. I cried because it finally made Gaia real.

Why are you abandoning what was once your baby, Gaia? Why must you constantly make new features, then let them lay into waste and never update or fix them? Why must you whore yourself out for facebook games, when the majority of people on this site don't care about the facebook games?

[Hi-Potion]

Ello! Three things!
So, yeah, I just was wondering what happened with the Homestuck fiasco? I was taking with Rachel today (she's Andrew Hussie's girlfriend, she also handles his copyrights) and she informed me that she was approached by a Gaia artist, who said that they could not talk about legal matters and was never heard from again, nor was she forwarded to anyone who could talk about legal matters. And, honestly Gaia higher-ups, this seems kinda dodgey. Why hasnt anyone talked to her? I mean, the items are clearly Homestuck inspiried, and even though clip-art cannot be copyrighted, they were still clearly borrowed from Andrew Hussie's work andif the artists wishes to adress you about the matter, they still have a right to be contacted and not brushed aside. I mean, you guys even contacted that Bento Bunny lady, who obviously stole those designs from other places since they were not her original idea, but you still avoid talking with Hussie? I mean, it's been months and no progress has been made as of yet. So, could someone, not some dinky artist, but someone who can talk legal issues or whatever talk with Rachel, please? Anyways, her email is: [e-mail]
I would appreciate if someone would just talk things over with her, she's been really patient with this, even if her co-worker hasnt been. I've been a Gaia fan and benefactor much longer then I have been a Homestuck fan and really hope that the right thing will be done.

Also, when will we see Crosstitch open up? All of the designs looked so cool! Plus its such an amazing idea! Who will the NPC running it be?

And, lastly, will we ever see a RIG with an international clothing theme? Ive seen alot of Gaians requesting this, in the GCD atleast, plus itd be a cool way to release stuff that wouldnt go into Josie's shop.


OH! One more thing! Im involved with alot of local, small cons in the bay area, and I was wondering how we could get some fliers and price cards to hand out to those events?

[rgjh8754]

Evening, Lanzer.

When will you stop this vicious cycle of releasing and abandoning new features? All this is doing is giving your site a bad reputation of not being able to maintain your features. The only reason Homes and Towns are getting updates now is because the userbase had to keep pestering you about it until something was done. Now, I hear that zOMG! is getting shelved so that you can focus on more facebook games.

Why so much emphasis on facebook? Have you forgotten about Gaiaonline and its users? Have you even thought to promote this site and its features through your facebook games? I find this to be upsetting and a bad business move. I know you're better than this. Time to shape up or ship out.

Since zOMG! isn't going to be getting updates anytime soon, can you allow swarf some time to fix the game's glitches? Like the orb count visual glitch, the lag, the broken quest chains and silent NPCs. How can you expect to get more people playing zOMG! if it's broken? And another thing. Can you at least release DMS to the public permanently and add games to Buccaneer Boardwalk?

Edit: Here's something else that I would like to know. If you have a separate team working on facebook games, why pull staff from Gaia's features to work on them?

[Zealand_Aquarius]

Hello there hope to find you all well today

So despite the fact that zOMG has glitches that people complain about and that has been mentioned many times I'll give you the link in case you or anyone is wondering
There is also this one too.

I would very much like to know when or more to the point IF these will be fixed and they won't be why not? With glitches it making it impossible sometimes for people to play is it any wonder zOMG is not making the "money" you wished it would? Talking of which anyone that not Gaia staff please look at this if your wondering about zOMG and money granted its a small amount of users but still it is something and proves user can and will pay for zOMG stuff.

I'd also like to know what is going to happen with the following content
1 link

2 link

3 link

4 link


5 link

8 link

Will we ever see them or what? Just how much work had been done of them?

Just answers would be nice and answer that are straight and honest would be event more liked thank you and take care!

by the by I'm just wanted to show the community some other art threads of what could have been:
6 link

7 link

[SS2-SITH LORD]

Good Evening Admin. Please! Answer any or All questions!

I have three questions, and an ongoing issue to make you aware of if you're not already.

1. Was there ever a winner in the Fortune Cookie contest? I don't remember seeing a winner announced.

2. Is Soul Crash going to be brought to Gaia? I would really like to play some of the games you have on facebook but refuse to join. I know of others who feel the same way.

3. Do you have a date set on Monster Galaxy being released on the site? DJ Helsing mentioned it in the monthly video.

And the issue is with Aquariums! ( Big surprise right? )
Seriously though. There are still Ghost fish in peoples tanks. Gaia is loosing out on profit because of this and this problem is spiraling out of control! There are gaians with fully ghosted tanks right now and earning profit from them! I will find proof if need be!


Also! Thank you for the Cash shop release yesterday! BIG SKYRIM FAN!!!!

[All Honey]

Hello,

There's a lot of people highly upset because the only 2 devs that can work on zOMG have been pulled off of the project to work on a Facebook game and feel that this is a very big mistake. They are feeling ripped off, disappointed, frustrated, angry, sad - see for yourself (the higher ups really should be made aware too):

Fix the Deadmans Shadow glitches- PAID FOR CONTENT

Within that thread is a post made by someone who pretty much said exactly how I feel on the subject.
Here it is

Spifficated

The least they could have done before pulling devs was put enough back in place to fix the existing glitches for people who paid for them. BB should be finished, period. People paid for that content and were screwed with an open area that has a shark which is practically incapable of being spawned. The glitches with DMS should be fixed. If a crew spent 12 hours getting to Kam (been there, done that) and get glitched then they have a right to be pissed off.

Moving on to another project without meeting the obligations of one you've previously entered into is only going to show your customers your ventures aren't worth supporting. Bad business is bad business no matter how you spin it, or what kind of excuses you throw out there.

This move would be a much more respectable one if you met the obligations you signed on for before placing your signature on the dotted line of its closing.

Open letter to Gaia's management: killing zOMG is a mistake

Gaia has no community.

Where did the money go?

An Open Letter to Gaia from the zOMG Community

Before the bad news was known, at the 1-23-2012 ATA you responded to a question here:

http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/ask-the-admin-archives/ask-the-admin-01-23-2012/t.77427041_33/#33

What have you discovered and in light of the very unhappy feedback, will this decision to shelve zOMG and it's problems be reversed?

Hoping there will be very real, non-evasive answers. We at least deserve the respect and courtesy of that after all that has been done to support this site.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my post.
I hope that you and yours are doing well.

[Hi-Potion]

Also, would it ever be possible to fix the silent NPC glitch in ZOMG?

[Destrius]

Why is it that when I use the iPod app for Gaia and have my shop full (has 10 items listed), it keeps giving me a "You do not have a marketplace pass" and not letting me go to any of the links on the "My Shop" page?

A SHOUT OUT TO MY SKYPE CHAT HOMIE G'S

[DARKNRGY]

There's been some discussion around zOMG that has our attention. We've been listening and this is as good as an opportunity as ever to make things a little bit more official. Normally biglanky14 would do this, but where is he???? DISNEYLAND!

We don't expect that zOMG can experience the kind of growth we want, as a company, compared to some of the other things we could be doing. I don't have a good excuse for the people that love and play zomg and just want for it to be great. Due to the resources it would require to meet expectations, it just made more sense (to us) to try again with something else. Some of the same great people that made zOMG are making new things, which we also hope will be great.

zOMG is one out of a large number of features that require our attention and there are some hard calls to make. Currently, we don't have any plans to add content to zOMG. It is in maintenance mode, which means we intend to keep it up and running. The zOMG following is formidable and we know the community deserves a great deal of respect. We'll do our best to keep things running smooothly and provide support. That's our current plan - nothing more, nothing less. Could the plan change? Of course, who knows. Since we're a little strapped in the Swarf department we're exploring some options for getting some additional help for bug fixing. It's a tricky project to maintain because its infrastructure demands a wide set of knowledge so we value your patience while we figure something out. If the stars line up right, we'd like to work on minor improvements - rings, updates to quests, that sort of thing.

So that's it. There really isn't much more to the story unless you want to go on rumor. Yeah, we wanted a bigger and better zOMG, but we took our shot and weren't satisfied with the results. The window of opportunity has passed and now we want to continue to take a fresh look at online gaming. The more users we can reach, the better production we can provide. We all want something new and shiny. I hope everyone can relate to that just a little bit smile . No matter how you feel about it though, the Gaia team we have now (which right now is a really loyal and passionate group of old skool folks), will continue try and make gaiaonline.com run smooth and for everyone to have as much fun as possible. The same thing I've done every single day of work since May 2004. I'm sorry expectations weren't communicated well and I hope this clears some things up.