The Rise and Fall of Gaia Online

[MaclauMo]

Kerra Ashtree

This video brought back some memories!

Ive been here since 2003, I wish I could say I quit, but I never truly did. (I tried many times, but I always came back)

I've been coming back to this site at least once a month for half of my life.
I never post anything (I don't even really look at the forums), I just sell crap in the market place and do absolutely nothing with the gold. For a long time I was just dressing up avatars as a boredom killer, so I had an excuse. Now I dont even do that, I just sell s**t and do absolutely nothing with the gold.

I'm really not sure why i'm still on this site, yet here I am. Its like I'm fully addicted to this place.

Anyone else the same?

same.
I met my ex-husband here, so I have an emotional attachment to this site.
But I think i'm reaching the end of my attachment and getting ready to move on.
it's sad, but my heart can only be broken so many times by gaiaonline

[PizzaNyah]

Quote:

The testing for Towns 3 had been going well and we are very close to release! We're just polishing up on the graphics and UI, as well as some admin tools. Please stay tuned for more updates on Towns 3!

More good news, they said that Towns 3 is very close to release (https://www.gaiaonline.com/gaiapledge/). Hopefully this month or somewhere in April.

[Azial]

I watched it last night, I knew Flynn's booty was the beginning of the end when it launched and things have gradually declined since

Feels like the site has been dying a gradual death for seven years

I was a reg during peak Gaia CB and never really left, I've just been more on and off the last four years or so

I'd love to see Gaia find a way to turn things around but the prior management really did dig a deep hole

sad

[Koneko Tsukino]

I've been on here since almost the very beginning, but I took a lot of breaks. I was an early teen back then, 13, and I'm almost 30 now. I used to be so happy to give over my hard earned cash in order to get those lovely exclusive monthly envelopes, and I would obsess over making sure I got every last holiday item every time they came around. The launch of zOMG! was one of my favorite memories. I remember starting out in the sewers blaugh

The inflation was one of the reasons I started to fade away. It was so frustrating to try to quest for things, only to have to ultimately give up because the prices were jumping so high due to Flynn's Booty. And then the constant Cash Shop updates for RIGs and the like started to turn me off, too. But honestly, the biggest thing that hurt me was when zOMG! was taken down. I was so bitter about it, it felt like a gut punch. When it was relaunched, I finally came back. I've still faded in and out since then, because adulthood, but it's nice to see that they seem to be trying to get things under control these days.

[Lil lily91]

I love this video! It's so informative, and shows how far Gaia has come~

[Mango Mellon]

As a regular during Gaia's prime, this made me super nostalgic. I pop on for about a month every few years or so just to see what's up and each time I am more and more surprised at the state of the economy (especially now that I have a few advanced economics degrees). Thanks for sharing the video!

It's hard for me to truly overstate just how large a part and how impactful this site was on my teenage years. I made some real friends and spent so much of my time here. I have such a soft spot in my heart for this site and remember when some threads would move so quickly with posts that you could easily breeze through page after page in a short period of just a few moments. I remember trying to catch my friends that I knew would be hanging out in my favorite places (first austin's dttpay and then for a much longer period of time at infinity love dttpay). I had a role play group (this is something I had never been exposed to in my life before and it was fun!) and was super active in a few guilds that we all legitimately cared about and followed the rules and let them have very real functions.

Happy to have at least the nostalgia, maybe gaia will become part of my life again at some point.

[Roociferr]

Been here since 06.
This is great video, I remembered all the scandals Gaia had and was having war flashbacks lol.

Once I saw the fb post circulating that they were a year away from shutting down and needed us to donate . Ngl I donated, cuz this was my home and opened up many things for me and I didn't want people to be without a job. I still come back once and awhile to check things and shitpost but the "home" I had here has long since been gone. The community doesn't feel the same. Then again 06 me was a huge weeaboo. emotion_facepalm

I don't ever seeing this site returning to it's glory days but I'll ride the ship till it sinks. I like my items too much.

[The Fartsy Artist]

PizzaNyah

Quote:

The testing for Towns 3 had been going well and we are very close to release! We're just polishing up on the graphics and UI, as well as some admin tools. Please stay tuned for more updates on Towns 3!

More good news, they said that Towns 3 is very close to release (https://www.gaiaonline.com/gaiapledge/). Hopefully this month or somewhere in April.

yeah they released the "beta"

It should be called an alpha because it didn't have anything worth the beta hype. No serious new features, no new art, nothing that said "effort/ fresh and new"

No they took an old area and re-coded it to fit a new format. And they did it badly.

That's literally IT.

It crashed and burned ofc, ticking off a lot of gaians, considering how long they've had to work on the damn thing.

Even my lead coder for my own game app that's in development, (btw he churned out our alpha launch in a WEEK and it runs better then this oof.)

Came in here, took one look at the rally3 beta, asked me how long they'd had to work on it, then called it low effort/not at the beta stage. He's worked with various game projects and builds games for a living. That's his job.

And he was amazed at how LITTLE they have done in their time frame.

[PizzaNyah]

The Fartsy Artist

PizzaNyah

Quote:

The testing for Towns 3 had been going well and we are very close to release! We're just polishing up on the graphics and UI, as well as some admin tools. Please stay tuned for more updates on Towns 3!

More good news, they said that Towns 3 is very close to release (https://www.gaiaonline.com/gaiapledge/). Hopefully this month or somewhere in April.

yeah they released the "beta"

It should be called an alpha because it didn't have anything worth the beta hype. No serious new features, no new art, nothing that said "effort/ fresh and new"

No they took an old area and re-coded it to fit a new format. And they did it badly.

That's literally IT.

It crashed and burned ofc, ticking off a lot of gaians, considering how long they've had to work on the damn thing.

Even my lead coder for my own game app that's in development, (btw he churned out our alpha launch in a WEEK and it runs better then this oof.)

Came in here, took one look at the rally3 beta, asked me how long they'd had to work on it, then called it low effort/not at the beta stage. He's worked with various game projects and builds games for a living. That's his job.

And he was amazed at how LITTLE they have done in their time frame.

Yeah, it's definitely more alpha than a beta version. Even the chat was hidden in a menu. They made a feedback topic (https://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.107974530/) for it, so hopefully they will update and improve it soon.

[The Fartsy Artist]

PizzaNyah

The Fartsy Artist

PizzaNyah

Quote:

The testing for Towns 3 had been going well and we are very close to release! We're just polishing up on the graphics and UI, as well as some admin tools. Please stay tuned for more updates on Towns 3!

More good news, they said that Towns 3 is very close to release (https://www.gaiaonline.com/gaiapledge/). Hopefully this month or somewhere in April.

yeah they released the "beta"

It should be called an alpha because it didn't have anything worth the beta hype. No serious new features, no new art, nothing that said "effort/ fresh and new"

No they took an old area and re-coded it to fit a new format. And they did it badly.

That's literally IT.

It crashed and burned ofc, ticking off a lot of gaians, considering how long they've had to work on the damn thing.

Even my lead coder for my own game app that's in development, (btw he churned out our alpha launch in a WEEK and it runs better then this oof.)

Came in here, took one look at the rally3 beta, asked me how long they'd had to work on it, then called it low effort/not at the beta stage. He's worked with various game projects and builds games for a living. That's his job.

And he was amazed at how LITTLE they have done in their time frame.

Yeah, it's definitely more alpha than a beta version. Even the chat was hidden in a menu. They made a feedback topic (https://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.107974530/) for it, so hopefully they will update and improve it soon.

I sure hope so. Because flash goes bye bye soon and if they don't have the fully finished roll out done by then, they're doomed.

[PizzaNyah]

The Fartsy Artist

PizzaNyah

The Fartsy Artist

PizzaNyah

Quote:

The testing for Towns 3 had been going well and we are very close to release! We're just polishing up on the graphics and UI, as well as some admin tools. Please stay tuned for more updates on Towns 3!

More good news, they said that Towns 3 is very close to release (https://www.gaiaonline.com/gaiapledge/). Hopefully this month or somewhere in April.

yeah they released the "beta"

It should be called an alpha because it didn't have anything worth the beta hype. No serious new features, no new art, nothing that said "effort/ fresh and new"

No they took an old area and re-coded it to fit a new format. And they did it badly.

That's literally IT.

It crashed and burned ofc, ticking off a lot of gaians, considering how long they've had to work on the damn thing.

Even my lead coder for my own game app that's in development, (btw he churned out our alpha launch in a WEEK and it runs better then this oof.)

Came in here, took one look at the rally3 beta, asked me how long they'd had to work on it, then called it low effort/not at the beta stage. He's worked with various game projects and builds games for a living. That's his job.

And he was amazed at how LITTLE they have done in their time frame.

Yeah, it's definitely more alpha than a beta version. Even the chat was hidden in a menu. They made a feedback topic (https://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.107974530/) for it, so hopefully they will update and improve it soon.

I sure hope so. Because flash goes bye bye soon and if they don't have the fully finished roll out done by then, they're doomed.

Yeah, at least they should have Towns 3 and ever-expand it with features and new areas. Also they should update it with seasonal themes (e.g. snowy weather every winter) and story quests during the holiday events, and housing. Something that will make it fun and relaxing to return to every day. But first they have to add all the basics like chat (not hidden in the random menu), and Towns music/sounds.

[The Fartsy Artist]

PizzaNyah

The Fartsy Artist

PizzaNyah

The Fartsy Artist

PizzaNyah

Quote:

The testing for Towns 3 had been going well and we are very close to release! We're just polishing up on the graphics and UI, as well as some admin tools. Please stay tuned for more updates on Towns 3!

More good news, they said that Towns 3 is very close to release (https://www.gaiaonline.com/gaiapledge/). Hopefully this month or somewhere in April.

yeah they released the "beta"

It should be called an alpha because it didn't have anything worth the beta hype. No serious new features, no new art, nothing that said "effort/ fresh and new"

No they took an old area and re-coded it to fit a new format. And they did it badly.

That's literally IT.

It crashed and burned ofc, ticking off a lot of gaians, considering how long they've had to work on the damn thing.

Even my lead coder for my own game app that's in development, (btw he churned out our alpha launch in a WEEK and it runs better then this oof.)

Came in here, took one look at the rally3 beta, asked me how long they'd had to work on it, then called it low effort/not at the beta stage. He's worked with various game projects and builds games for a living. That's his job.

And he was amazed at how LITTLE they have done in their time frame.

Yeah, it's definitely more alpha than a beta version. Even the chat was hidden in a menu. They made a feedback topic (https://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.107974530/) for it, so hopefully they will update and improve it soon.

I sure hope so. Because flash goes bye bye soon and if they don't have the fully finished roll out done by then, they're doomed.

Yeah, at least they should have Towns 3 and ever-expand it with features and new areas. Also they should update it with seasonal themes (e.g. snowy weather every winter) and story quests during the holiday events, and housing. Something that will make it fun and relaxing to return to every day. But first they have to add all the basics like chat (not hidden in the random menu), and Towns music/sounds.

Which they have had a huge time frame to do KNOWING when the deadline was for flash going away, and still have NOT done.

I

[PizzaNyah]

The Fartsy Artist

PizzaNyah

The Fartsy Artist

PizzaNyah

The Fartsy Artist

yeah they released the "beta"

It should be called an alpha because it didn't have anything worth the beta hype. No serious new features, no new art, nothing that said "effort/ fresh and new"

No they took an old area and re-coded it to fit a new format. And they did it badly.

That's literally IT.

It crashed and burned ofc, ticking off a lot of gaians, considering how long they've had to work on the damn thing.

Even my lead coder for my own game app that's in development, (btw he churned out our alpha launch in a WEEK and it runs better then this oof.)

Came in here, took one look at the rally3 beta, asked me how long they'd had to work on it, then called it low effort/not at the beta stage. He's worked with various game projects and builds games for a living. That's his job.

And he was amazed at how LITTLE they have done in their time frame.

Yeah, it's definitely more alpha than a beta version. Even the chat was hidden in a menu. They made a feedback topic (https://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.107974530/) for it, so hopefully they will update and improve it soon.

I sure hope so. Because flash goes bye bye soon and if they don't have the fully finished roll out done by then, they're doomed.

Yeah, at least they should have Towns 3 and ever-expand it with features and new areas. Also they should update it with seasonal themes (e.g. snowy weather every winter) and story quests during the holiday events, and housing. Something that will make it fun and relaxing to return to every day. But first they have to add all the basics like chat (not hidden in the random menu), and Towns music/sounds.

Which they have had a huge time frame to do KNOWING when the deadline was for flash going away, and still have NOT done.

Yeah, at least they are doing it now. Hopefully they won't abandon/forget it anymore.

[The Fartsy Artist]

PizzaNyah

The Fartsy Artist

PizzaNyah

The Fartsy Artist

PizzaNyah

The Fartsy Artist

yeah they released the "beta"

It should be called an alpha because it didn't have anything worth the beta hype. No serious new features, no new art, nothing that said "effort/ fresh and new"

No they took an old area and re-coded it to fit a new format. And they did it badly.

That's literally IT.

It crashed and burned ofc, ticking off a lot of gaians, considering how long they've had to work on the damn thing.

Even my lead coder for my own game app that's in development, (btw he churned out our alpha launch in a WEEK and it runs better then this oof.)

Came in here, took one look at the rally3 beta, asked me how long they'd had to work on it, then called it low effort/not at the beta stage. He's worked with various game projects and builds games for a living. That's his job.

And he was amazed at how LITTLE they have done in their time frame.

Yeah, it's definitely more alpha than a beta version. Even the chat was hidden in a menu. They made a feedback topic (https://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.107974530/) for it, so hopefully they will update and improve it soon.

I sure hope so. Because flash goes bye bye soon and if they don't have the fully finished roll out done by then, they're doomed.

Yeah, at least they should have Towns 3 and ever-expand it with features and new areas. Also they should update it with seasonal themes (e.g. snowy weather every winter) and story quests during the holiday events, and housing. Something that will make it fun and relaxing to return to every day. But first they have to add all the basics like chat (not hidden in the random menu), and Towns music/sounds.

Which they have had a huge time frame to do KNOWING when the deadline was for flash going away, and still have NOT done.

Yeah, at least they are doing it now. Hopefully they won't abandon/forget it anymore.

'll be frank, it's sloppy what they pushed out.

My staff put together a full avatar base/ walk sequence, game music, examples of colliders, a sample follow along pet, a simple drop down menu, and a rough sample world area in a week. We also did a test of item layering for our game project.

^ we did that much in a week for our game project. It wound up being a pretty good alpha base, it was smoothly made.


o -o They've had a good long time now to work on towns3.

They haven't done anything more then a rush job that was poorly executed and improperly put together.

I honestly don't have much faith in them completing this in any timely manner. They did not show enough care towards the users to out together something that was a proper beta test.

They just scrapped together something that's not even out of the alpha stage or READY for beta testing, and hoped we wouldn't notice.

That sheer lack of care or consideration on the part of the company, pisses me off.

[PizzaNyah]

The Fartsy Artist

PizzaNyah

The Fartsy Artist

PizzaNyah

The Fartsy Artist

I sure hope so. Because flash goes bye bye soon and if they don't have the fully finished roll out done by then, they're doomed.

Yeah, at least they should have Towns 3 and ever-expand it with features and new areas. Also they should update it with seasonal themes (e.g. snowy weather every winter) and story quests during the holiday events, and housing. Something that will make it fun and relaxing to return to every day. But first they have to add all the basics like chat (not hidden in the random menu), and Towns music/sounds.

Which they have had a huge time frame to do KNOWING when the deadline was for flash going away, and still have NOT done.

Yeah, at least they are doing it now. Hopefully they won't abandon/forget it anymore.

'll be frank, it's sloppy what they pushed out.

My staff put together a full avatar base/ walk sequence, game music, examples of colliders, a sample follow along pet, a simple drop down menu, and a rough sample world area in a week. We also did a test of item layering for our game project.

^ we did that much in a week for our game project. It wound up being a pretty good alpha base, it was smoothly made.


o -o They've had a good long time now to work on towns3.

They haven't done anything more then a rush job that was poorly executed and improperly put together.

I honestly don't have much faith in them completing this in any timely manner. They did not show enough care towards the users to out together something that was a proper beta test.

They just scrapped together something that's not even out of the alpha stage or READY for beta testing, and hoped we wouldn't notice.

That sheer lack of care or consideration on the part of the company, pisses me off.

Yeah, it was definitely a very early alpha version. The staff alert post said "towns 3 engine" (https://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.63632027_2772/#2772), so it's probably version 0.1 or something, they probably just wanted the community's first impression feedback. However, they should have said "alpha testing", not "beta testing". Further in the post, they said that "There are still a couple more features we need to work on, and more graphics and UI stuff to tweak and optimize", and it was just the Rally area. I'm sure that once they release Towns 3, things will be better. Also you know a lot more than me about the subject, maybe you could post some hints and tips to them in the feedback topic (https://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.107974530/). I know that they only have like 1 or maybe 2 developers at the moment due to very limited resources, so I'm sure they will appreciate any help.