OCCUPY GAIA :: SAY NO TO BUYING GC

[The Hot Box]

Subscribed.

:/ As a longtime user and someone that has spent a lot of money on gc in the past I'm pretty disappointed in what this site has become. Total sellouts.

[Lamiroir]

Aperture Sentry Turret

" Target acquired. "

»»» Flowing hair and blinking eyes would be amazing. But no, Gaia has their excuses for why this cannot be implemented. rolleyes

Every company that was ever in existence needed/needs money to run. But you know, there are certain things you do not do, when trying to make that money. I work in a grocery store, and if a customer is unsatisfied with our business practices, then our manager scrambles to rectify the situation in order to prevent losing that customer. Gaia, on the other hand, seems to give little to no ******** about whether they keep someone's business, as long as a handful of people are willing to turn a blind eye. And that is not ok, not a good mind set to be in. Because some day, that small handful of people is not going to be enough. And if you keep repelling new users, and potential sponsors or partners, then what?

" Shutting down. "

At this rate I think they wouldn't even give a s**t if the site closed down.

[Yoite No Ou]

sign me up!

[M00NDR0PS]

Dolce Rogue

Aperture Sentry Turret

http://imageshack.us/a/img27/6713/6ob.png" Target acquired. "

»»» Flowing hair and blinking eyes would be amazing. But no, Gaia has their excuses for why this cannot be implemented. rolleyes

Every company that was ever in existence needed/needs money to run. But you know, there are certain things you do not do, when trying to make that money. I work in a grocery store, and if a customer is unsatisfied with our business practices, then our manager scrambles to rectify the situation in order to prevent losing that customer. Gaia, on the other hand, seems to give little to no ******** about whether they keep someone's business, as long as a handful of people are willing to turn a blind eye. And that is not ok, not a good mind set to be in. Because some day, that small handful of people is not going to be enough. And if you keep repelling new users, and potential sponsors or partners, then what?

" Shutting down. "

At this rate I think they wouldn't even give a s**t if the site closed down.

" Target acquired. "

»»» I saw not one, but two people today mention that they thought the new management was purposely ruining the site out of personal grudge. I am starting to believe it. rofl Because if that is the case, they are doing an excellent job.

" Shutting down. "

[Ona Elric]

There's one thing I don't see many people here touching on, or if they do it's only in passing... And that's loyalty, and what Gaia can and would get out of it. They've stopped treating non-cash users like the investment they are. It's just plain a bad business idea to alienate your free users and make them feel like their hard-work and opinions aren't worth anything in favor of cash users.
While some people avoid GC on principle, a lot more people don't utilize it because they can't afford to, so as myself and many others here. However... There's nothing saying that we won't have cash to blow in the future. If Gaia were taking care of us as users, we would feel grateful and love the site that much more than we do. And if that were the case when we DID have cash to blow, or even just found an item for cash that we really, REALLY wanted - modus operandi for me - we would be more than willing to spend said cash. Instead they're flooding the Gaian economy with gold, and making enemies of what could be potential customers who - as we've seen here - will be more than ready to swear off cash for the principle of the thing alone.

Basically, they're screwing themselves out of profit and a positive environment for all involved and in doing so risking the longevity of Gaia Online as a company. If this isn't remedied the site WILL go the way of TinierMe.

Le sigh. While I'm not sure this will accomplish anything - and while I am a bit upset at the exploitation of the Occupy Movement for a social site's sake - I think I'll sign. Because even a child or someone with the mentality of one can see this is plain bad for everyone involved.

[Luxent]

Never again will I purchase anything.

I've hated REI's but I've loved MC's...... but I'll stop getting those too.

[LL-37]

I'm Dwayne and I approve this message!

*signs*

[Lamiroir]

Aperture Sentry Turret

" Target acquired. "

»»» I saw not one, but two people today mention that they thought the new management was purposely ruining the site out of personal grudge. I am starting to believe it. rofl Because if that is the case, they are doing an excellent job.

" Shutting down. "

That is one big a** grudge if that's the case lol

[M00NDR0PS]

Dolce Rogue

Aperture Sentry Turret

http://imageshack.us/a/img27/6713/6ob.png" Target acquired. "

»»» I saw not one, but two people today mention that they thought the new management was purposely ruining the site out of personal grudge. I am starting to believe it. rofl Because if that is the case, they are doing an excellent job.

" Shutting down. "

That is one big a** grudge if that's the case lol

" Target acquired. "

»»» I know, right? rofl
But seriously, there is no way that the management cannot see what is going on right now. There is no way they are unaware of how many people they are pissing off. So why would they continue to do things that they KNOW people hate?

" Shutting down. "

[Ona Elric]

Luxent

Never again will I purchase anything.

I've hated REI's but I've loved MC's...... but I'll stop getting those too.

That's another thing! What is with the influx of REIs? I personally prefer the regular EIs, but we never seem to see those anymore... Instead we're being hammered with countless REIs and CIs. Is there a reason for that other than conspiracy theories about bigwigs trying to intentionally ruin Gaia?

[Kathryn Anon]

The last time I bought GC was to support Japan when the Tsunami struck. That was a good cause. For that I was willing to buy enough GC to buy all three of the items, plus spend some on the site itself. Apparently Gaia doesn't have that sort of outlook anymore.

[Lizmay]

Check this out. Just an example of how much Gaia used to care about our feedback and opinions. Sad, isn't it?

[EPIC V a l e n t i n e]

Sign me up.

[Marionette is Lost]

Lamour Amelia

Demonique Affection

Its sad how I can relate to that.

After it ended I was hoping this would all blow over. I guess not.

They honestly couldn't give less a damn about their users anymore.
Sitefeedback is nothing but a joke now. They refuse to listen to us because
our suggestions don't make them happy and overflow their stuffed wallets.
Despite how pissed everyone was about flynn's booty, they brought her back.
Not once. Not twice. But three to four times. And they honestly think small
efforts like barton boutiques package or the small shop update for Dernier Cri
will make us happy. Not even. There's too much damage done.

They didn't listen to us about Flynn's booty.
They didn't listen to us about the centering of the site.
They didn't listen to us when we tried to warn them about the inflation.
They didn't listen to us when we asked, no, begged for less cash shop offers.
They didn't listen to us when we expressed our anger for club verge.
And they sure as hell won't listen to us now.

They ask for our feedback in polls and in ask admin but the important questions
are never answered. They continuously make horrific mistakes that are clearly pissing
off their users and they don't care because it's making them money. They talk about
growing costs but I sure never heard of anything large enough to change the costs they've
had over the past five years, have you? It certainly couldn't be from the numerous games
they've added, never finished, and then thrown away. Or the features that went un-updated?

I honestly just feel sick to my stomach about all of this and I'm incredibly disgusted and
astonished as to where this has all gone. They did a complete turn around and have become
exactly what they said they wouldn't. Or rather what we didn't want them to be.

It's all about money now. Site feedback? It doesn't matter. As far as they're
concerned they'll only have to answer to the questions that don't make them
uncomfortable or don't need some serious explaining. That should assure us
of their presence here right? That they "care"? I'm so sick of hearing the
excuses. Especially when it's clear where the numbers lie.

Oh, a small amount of you vote neutral in a poll of yes or no? No has the most
votes? When you said neutral you must have meant yes.... right?

Oh, Flynn's booty is causing inflation that's lasted over two months?
A million is basically 10k now? Lets re-release her again! And again, since
you keep mentioning you're hatred for her and her 'booty'. Lets add a couple
of chests in there too. After all we're sure she'll grow on you. You have no
choice but to adapt to these changes! smile

I never have..... and never will purchase gaia cash because of where this has all gone.
I had been considering it before. But right as I was making that decision, flynn's booty
came out along with all of these other 'new and improved features'. And fifty bucks or more
for ONE virtual item? Uh no. I'd rather use that on something important.

-huff-

Yeah. I'm pretty pissed right now. And it felt good to let that all out.

I was going through most of the pages on this thread and this one really, I couldn't agree more with. I subscribed to this insanity and I kind of wish to see what more Gaians have to say about this.

[Jacques de la Lune]

Who in the right mind is even dumb enough to spent $50 on one (yes ONE, not a bundle, just one) single item?
For that money I can buy:

- a ps3 game (or even more if they are a little older or on sale)
- clothes
- treat my friends and family to a nice cup of coffee and ice cream in a posh cafe
- watch 5 movies in the cinema
- a concert/theatre ticket
- groceries for 2 weeks
- several items or even bundles on mmoprgs sites
- a flight ticket to Spain (for those of us who are in Europe and benefit from low-cost airlines at least x] )
- go on a day trip in London
- have my piano tuned
- millions of other things that you can think of

All Gaia does is pressuring kids (and also adults) to purchase more cash to get all those 'rare' cash shop items. And I won't even start about the gambling CIs and how they push people into addiction.

Not sure about US law, but in Europe that's business practices that would get companies fined or even worse if they don't change their behaviour.
In fact there just has been some law passed in regards to phone app providers who lure kids in with 'free' apps and then pressure them into buying expensive stuff for the game in order to progress ect.

Would be interesting to find out if there is any law or legislation like it in the US as well.

[edit]
Even their entire business model is rather idiotic and lacks common sense.
Instead of keeping prices as low as possible and have massive amounts of users buy stuff from the cash shop, they prefer keeping prices high and higher so only the very rich people can buy them (or those with rich parents or who doesn't need to work for their money so they couldn't care less how much things cost).

I wonder if they even bother doing the maths.

Just a little calculation:

If all of the currently online users (18.000) would buy a single item per month for $2.50, that's a profit for Gaia of $45.000.
However, I doubt that at such low prices people would only buy a single item. Chances that people can afford and want to buy multiples is a lot higher than when the price is $50.

If of all currently users (18.000) would buy a single item per month for $50, that's a profit of $900.000.
But who are you kidding? I would be surprised if there even were just 10% of all users on Gaia who actually buy the verge items. And even if they do, I doubt they buy more than 1-2 items per month.
So the profit would be $90.000 per Verge item per 10% users purchasing them.

So in conclusion, if they'd lower prices to $2.50 for all items in the cash shops, they'd make the same profit if every users would just purchase 2 items per month.
And there would be less inflation since everyone would be able to have the items and everyone would be happy.