I found Gaia in 2004-2005, but didn't actually join and use it until April '07. I remember when everybody was using fishing, and pinball, and jigsaw to earn gold, and everybody would hang out in Rally and actually used cars lol. Things were expensive if you were just starting, but it was fairly easy to rack up 30k-100k after a short period of time, especially when Booty Grab/Dolphin Mania came about. When Gaia Cash was implemented, I was kinda 'eh' about it; I didn't really have anything against it, and I am guilty of spending about $20 or $30 over a period of time back during it's first year or two. But it seemed like a fairly good idea at the time. Then La Victoire came out, and cash seemed like it was increasingly more valuable. Of course, after the past years it's become increasingly more ridiculous and used way more often than gold.
With the addition of the little cash tree on the header, it also feels like Gaia is trying really hard to push cash onto people. The new Club Verge, which I find extremely unnecessary, even more so just proves the point that they don't care much about their members who don't spend cash on the site regularly. We've also got the new Rococo, now. Another unneeded cash shop.
Gold just feels so completely worthless, now. Having 3mil would get you a couple of good items, back then. Now, having anything below 10mil basically means you're poor. With all the gold generators, cash offers/deals, and bundles that Gaia is pushing out 5-6 times a week, and the cash shop items/recolours they're putting out, up to almost 10 times a day, it's pretty clear to see that Gaia doesn't care about anything other than getting money from people. I feel like they would have just been better off having the cash option, and then just re-opening their Gstore so that users can spend actual money on actual things, instead of overpriced pixels.
I don't even understand why they're so hellbent on pushing cash onto everybody, anyways. They act like they aren't making any money, even with their Redbubble store. I see so many money-hungry announcements a day, I just roll my eyes and relentlessly click on the "[x] Announcements" until they're all gone. They're like a pack of rabid, starving dogs. Wouldn't doubt it if the site didn't make it to see another two years.
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