OCCUPY GAIA :: SAY NO TO BUYING GC

[Unchained_Fenrir]

Mind if I throw my two cents in here? While I do agree that the constant CS announcements are rather ridiculous, and the constant release of Fynn's ( is that how you spell her name? sweatdrop I came back to Gaia not to long ago.) Chest and such and the never ending Divine reach (again not sure of the name, please correct me if I'm wrong. sweatdrop ) Is also ridiculous, but you have to remember, Gaia is a company that is running on servers, and servers cost who knows how much money per month or whatever. Now I'm not saying that GC is wonderful, or that this protest is in the wrong. By all means it's not.

What I am saying is, no one is forcing you to buy GC, or shop at Club Verge. Why there is one, I have no idea. For the most part gaia is still a free- to-play site. I know that not all of it is free to play, like the tournaments I've seen on two games. Gaia isn't demanding that every user must pay X amount of cash per month, to continue to play or risk having your account frozen, like WoW for example.

I do agree that there should be some reason why, there are so many cash shop updates per-day and that a staff member should explain why. It is unfair to the users in many different ways. And I also believe that there should be more gold shop updates more often to make it fair to all users.

I honestly believe that if they cut back on Fynn and Divine reach, like release them say.. a week for one month then the next month there is no release for them or maybe once every 3 months, it miiight help the MP a lot or a little, I don't know. I can only guess at that and give in my two cents. I'm not trying to bash this idea of boycotting GC. I'm only giving my two cents.

[dreamsette]

Silver Death Okami Kyu

Let me start my reply by saying that I completely understand what you're saying. I see how you're viewing it, and I'm not trying to change your mind or belittle your opinion in any way, shape, or form. I am only replying to give you something else to think about that (in the post you made, at least) you seemed to have not thought about. I am sorry in advance if this offends you or just in general makes you feel bad, it is definitely not my intention.

You're right in saying that nobody is forcing users to buy Gaia Cash or shop at Club Verge. The problem is that this notion of needing real money to enjoy Gaia is taking over because of those two places. The success of those places will make the company happy, they will think they're doing the right thing ultimately while looking at their rise in profit. Consequently, they will pump out more items into these places, and they will keep the insane prices for them set in place. Of course they will, because from what they see when they calculate their profits off of these two shops, it's fine by the users and it's working, right?

Supporting their feeble attempt in overtaking this site with greed will only help Gaia run itself into the ground. Some very angry users might want to see this company fall and be left with nothing, but I think most of them are just incredibly disappointed. A majority of us want to see Gaia succeed, and that is why we're so upset. We know this is not how the company will succeed, we know their recent actions are only making things worse, and that in time, it will come to bite them in the a**. We're sad, hurt, and angry because we care.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we understand the financial needs Gaia has as an online based company. Servers do cost a pretty penny. With the shove-it-in-your-face tactic they are implementing however, it will not uphold those servers. I'm not sure if you've seen the screenshot or heard about it yet, but a good example of this is the fact that when a new user goes through the signing up process, they are prompted about Gaia Cash and asked if they'd like to buy some. Right there, immediately. Gaia is shoving this method of quick revenue making in their faces. And from my past experience with the internet and other sites that try to do the same thing, it does not work. In fact, it pushes users away. And right now, that's the last thing Gaia wants to do. They barely have anyone left here, and for some reason they think that by getting a good portion of them to spend a bunch of money all at once, over and over again, they'll be doing the best thing for their company. And they're right, if they're thinking about a short term plan for this website. However, it will not, by any means, last them in the long term. The more people who discover Gaia and either stop right at the screen where they mention Gaia Cash, or spend a few days around here and see that all the great and popular items are going to cost millions of gold (Or $10 - $50+) will immediately exit and go back to whatever they were doing before. And while they're at those other websites, they may even tell others to steer clear of the greedy, grabby hands site that is (now) Gaia.

This tactic is not smart, it will not uphold everything long term, and they need to realize it soon before it's too late. (might already be the case honestly, we'll never know unless they start trying to crawl down the hole they put themselves into) They need to reevaluate their situation. The state the site is in, the shops, the marketplace, the users, everything. It needs to be looked at carefully, and instead of thinking, "how can we make more money in a short amount of time?" they need to realize, "oh, that makes a lot of our users very angry, and we're losing them day after day. Soon we won't have enough people around to read the twenty announcements we put out daily, or buy all the lazy recolors and high priced items we talk about in them." Then they need to sit down, really sit down, and ask themselves the simple questions that will save everything they've slowly began ruining: "How can we once again make the people here feel valued, important, and like people? (not just trees made out of money that let go of their leaves constantly) And in addition to that, how do we bring in more users to fall in love with what we've created, and comfortably decide on their own if they'd like to help us out by getting Gaia Cash?"

The easy way is not always the right way.

[Unchained_Fenrir]

dreamsette

I wasn't aware that when someone new joins Gaia, they are prompt with Gaia Cash offer . A lot has changed since I first joined and since I came back. No offense taken either. 3nodding I do agree that servers cost a pretty penny, I do agree with you in terms that the way Gaia is doing things is wrong. They're taking the wrong approach, with this whole thing and taking the wrong approach with new users. The one thing I've been hearing is that the new CEO is the one running the show hence the massive CS updates, Fynn and Divine reach appearing almost everyday. Hence the gold generators. Over all, I do agree with you.

[AurinJade]

Silver Death Okami Kyu

dreamsette

I wasn't aware that when someone new joins Gaia, they are prompt with Gaia Cash offer . A lot has changed since I first joined and since I came back. No offense taken either. 3nodding I do agree that servers cost a pretty penny, I do agree with you in terms that the way Gaia is doing things is wrong. They're taking the wrong approach, with this whole thing and taking the wrong approach with new users. The one thing I've been hearing is that the new CEO is the one running the show hence the massive CS updates, Fynn and Divine reach appearing almost everyday. Hence the gold generators. Over all, I do agree with you.

Just as an additional point, you might also take into consideration that while users are putting a lot of money into Gaia, that we are not getting much in return. They don't appear to be reinvesting any of this profit into the website and a lot of the features are being neglected. Towns, aquariums, forums, manga, zOMG, and events have all seen declines in attention and care.

I think we all understand the cost of running a company, and we'd love to help, but right now money talks louder than words (as it's become very apparent that our protests are going ignored). So the way to make them see that we don't like the way things are being run is to boycott Cash. I love this site to death, and I'd love to see it succeed, but not on its current projection.

[dreamsette]

Silver Death Okami Kyu

I honestly only found out about them prompting new users to buy GC recently, so I know how you feel. If it wasn't for stumbling across that screenshot, I would have never known. (very sneaky, Gaia)

I also heard about this new CEO and I only recently came back from being gone for quite a while (not interested enough anymore to be on a lot) so I don't want to point my finger at him. If I was around and saw the changes happen right around the time he stepped in though, I would immediately agree and put blame on him. Even without being there or a timeline of it all to look at though, I'm not saying I wouldn't be surprised if he had something to do with it...

But anyway, sorry for all the rambling (in two posts now, damn). I didn't mean to bombard you with a wall of text! emotion_8c

[Unchained_Fenrir]

AurinJade

Silver Death Okami Kyu

dreamsette

I wasn't aware that when someone new joins Gaia, they are prompt with Gaia Cash offer . A lot has changed since I first joined and since I came back. No offense taken either. 3nodding I do agree that servers cost a pretty penny, I do agree with you in terms that the way Gaia is doing things is wrong. They're taking the wrong approach, with this whole thing and taking the wrong approach with new users. The one thing I've been hearing is that the new CEO is the one running the show hence the massive CS updates, Fynn and Divine reach appearing almost everyday. Hence the gold generators. Over all, I do agree with you.

Just as an additional point, you might also take into consideration that while users are putting a lot of money into Gaia, that we are not getting much in return. They don't appear to be reinvesting any of this profit into the website and a lot of the features are being neglected. Towns, aquariums, forums, manga, zOMG, and events have all seen declines in attention and care.

I think we all understand the cost of running a company, and we'd love to help, but right now money talks louder than words (as it's become very apparent that our protests are going ignored). So the way to make them see that we don't like the way things are being run is to boycott Cash. I love this site to death, and I'd love to see it succeed, but not on its current projection.

That sucks big time that the major draw-ins are being ignored for money. Perhaps the boycott is the one thing needed for Gaia to wake up.

[Unchained_Fenrir]

dreamsette

No need to apologize for rambling, if anything this has givin me a new look on gaia.

[AurinJade]

Silver Death Okami Kyu

It's just very disappointing. This place has kind of been my "online home" for the past eight years. I feel bad that it's taken this turn.

I honestly don't think the boycott will do much good, but it's one of those things where I don't want to say I didn't try. I wish I remembered where I saw it, but I saw some numbers that showed that only a small percentage of gaia users supplement the majority of their profits. They're still raking in money from those people. I just worry what's going to happen when those kids move on to something prettier and shinier, and at the same time, I look forward to it.

[Lord Darkstarr]

exclaim Everyone, you need to check out this website: Gaia Interactive Reviews on Glassdoor.com! exclaim

Even current and former employees of Gaia Online/Gaia Interactive are pissed off about GO's new management and their focus on screwing us out of our money. Things have gone from bad to worse, and people need to know about this asap!

exclaim from love to pain, please post that link in your first post, so that more Gaians learn about this and join the cause! We need to do what we can to save Gaia while it's still possible! exclaim

[Lord Darkstarr]

dreamsette

I also heard about this new CEO and I only recently came back from being gone for quite a while (not interested enough anymore to be on a lot) so I don't want to point my finger at him. If I was around and saw the changes happen right around the time he stepped in though, I would immediately agree and put blame on him. Even without being there or a timeline of it all to look at though, I'm not saying I wouldn't be surprised if he had something to do with it...

But anyway, sorry for all the rambling (in two posts now, damn). I didn't mean to bombard you with a wall of text! emotion_8c

It's true--look at my post above. Please spread the word!

[Kohaku Hoshi X3]

I'm pretty much done here... I'll be back in May to check the state of things, but I have not bought anything or viewed an ad or even logged in period. I've seen corrupt televangelists with less greed.

[FaithBlack]

zOMG! servers haven't even been getting cycled.
Seriously, what are they spending the cash on?

[x3rubiachica3x]

FaithBlack

zOMG! servers haven't even been getting cycled.
Seriously, what are they spending the cash on?

Probably the sister site, so when Gaia crashes and burns they will throw us a "lifeboat." I just hope the artists got a pay raise. They are pretty much the only ones I see still putting work into Gaia...