zOMG! is a high priority for a lot of people, as evidenced by its lead in popularity in this forum.
What I think the involved Gaia staff fails to realize is that zOMG! doesn't have to bring in revenue on its own to be worthwhile for the site in monetary terms. zOMG! is a user net more than a cash dump.
Think about it. Nobody wants to pay for things. With zOMG! you don't have to.
AND it's fun.
AND it has great gameplay and music and charm.
AND it has No Download!
And the BEST part is that you have an MMORPG--a field where one of the greatest desires is customization--and you've put the
insanely high degree of customization found in Gaia's avatars into the mix.
What you get is a free-to-play, no-download, fast-loading, quality, enjoyable game that users will CARE about, because so much more of THEM is in it.
Realize how rare that is!
Comprehend its value, not just to Gaia but to the internet at large.
zOMG! doesn't have to make the money. zOMG! brings in the users, then the users see more of Gaia, update their avatar ('cause, among other things, they want to look awesome in zOMG!), buy more Gaia Cash items, bring in more money to fund Gaia.
So you see you don't have to make zOMG! one of these pay-for-premium MMO's that make most users want to quit. zOMG! makes Gaia itself more attractive, and that in turn increases zOMG's value.
But for zOMG! to do this, it needs to be free of bugs at minimum.
In addition to customization, zOMG! has to its advantage Gaia's entire user base, a whole community already present, not relying on just the game for its sustenance. That is PRECISELY what can allow zOMG! to remain free and fun and ever expanding, because it can bring in revenue in other ways.
I'm not making this up. Look at this very forum, the most popular threads. What do Gaians want?
1. More Avatars
2. More zOMG!
Please do what it takes to focus on zOMG! to the point where a higher percentage of Gaians--and more internet users at large--want to play it.
It is one of the best free-to-play, browser MMORPG's in existence.
And a large part of it is its integration with the rest of Gaia.
If more people knew that, there would certainly be a boom in activity not just in zOMG! but for all Gaia.
At the very least, zOMG!'s bugs should be fixed and the game should be entered into MMO listing sites like MMO hunter or MMO hut or whatever they're called. There are a few good ones, many with sections for Browser MMO's.
Gaia should avoid Facebook, in my opinion. It destroys the very thing Gaia has going for it: the interaction between members
as represented by their Gaia avatars. All this focus on Facebook is nothing but convenience and an advertisement for Facebook. It's all well and good to tack on a few fun little games that bring in money for Gaia, but it should never take away the focus from Gaia's truer elements, to which group zOMG! significantly belongs, as an original creation and a great game in its own right.
Gaia should stop focusing on Facebook and start focusing again on Gaia.