Starshine
(?)Community Member
Destructive Bunny
Offline
- Posted: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:34:19 +0000
The link listed in the first update no longer works, that thread has been taken down.
To keep everyone informed I have instead compiled a concise thread which includes a bit of everything that has happened in this incident.
_____First_Update__________
Update! Everyone who's ever spent Gaia cash and is therefore a paying customer of Gaia needs to read this link.
The truth behind zOMG that admins don't want you to know.
_____Original_Post__________
Dear Upper Management of Gaia,
It has come to our attention that there are now no developers assigned to work on Gaia's MMO zOMG. This wasn't a sudden occurence, it was something that happened slowly over the last few years. Devs would get assigned to another area in Gaia, or had their contract terminated.
So what? The game is now finished right? No more need for devs right?
WRONG! zOMG is a MMO, it's not Jigsaw or Word Bump! The key to the survial and popularity of any MMO is constant and steady updates! For that you'll be needing devs, lots of them. No one wants to play a MMO where our neverending adventure and fun comes to a stop and there are no further chapters.
It gets worse, we have learned that the few devlopers that we had left were made to work on new games. Games that are highly similar to zOMG. If this was a commercial MMO or even a Free-to-play MMO I would uninstall and leave so fast there won't be any time for goodbyes.
Now time for a brief history lesson, since although Gaia has 9 years of history, the management team does not. Gaia was roughly based off Ragnarok Online (an MMO) when it was first created. While the founding members Lanzer, L0che, VO, Ling and co didn not have the funds to add a MMO aspect, they carried their hope and bided their time.
Back then there were barely enough funds to keep the forums running, and to organise your inventory you have to start trades and then cancel them. However Lanzer & co has never asked for more money than they needed. They made the donation items (now montly collectibles) as thank you gifts to those who contributed, and that was all.
You need to understand that in today's age of constant marketing and commerce just how refreshing and inspiring it was to find a team that cared about the community ahead of their hip pockets. How rare and wonderful it was to find people creating things with fun in mind and not money.
This is the spirit that I would shell out money to support. Your rig items may be shiny, but I'm past the age where I'll impulse buy the latest shiny thing only to drop it when a newer shiny thing is released. Let's not get started how morraly wrong it is to distribute items in what is essentially a lottery format and using it to milk your userbase for cash.
zOMG was Gaia's longstanding and original dream. The release of zOMG in 2008 was supposed to be the fullfillment of that dream, as well as a reward for all the users who patiently waited. And it should have ended there, been a dream come true fairytale story.
Only it didn't.
There were problems right from the beginning, due to management decisions. The devs were forced to release the game in open beta status despite dozens of glitches found during the closed beta period. The closed beta community was amazing for playing around the clock and reporting all the issues they found. This was done knowing that all their progress would be wiped once the game is released.
This is when I first had misgivings, the management wanted the game out by Christmas, they didn't care if the devs couldn't fix all the glitches by that time, management wanted the power-ups to be great sells and to rack up a huge profit from zOMG.
Wait- wait- what?
You expected zOMG to bring you tons of cash? You decided if it suceeded or failed from power-up sales?
Let us tell you something about Free-to-play MMOs. The avatar is a big draw for us gamers. Take Maple Story, many of the cash shop sales are glittery avatar acessories that have no real function, but we buy them because we like the way it looks, and we know it's supporting the game. Gaia itself is a giant avatar dress up game, this means that when we buy items to look cool while we play zOMG, that figure is not reflected as power-up sales!
The very fact that zOMG exists and people play it provides Gaia with a lot of cash from people buying avatar items. For management to totally discount this is madness. Take myself, if not for zOMG, I wouldn't be on here, and I wouldn't buy any avatar items or contribute to your rigged economy.
Wake-up Gaia! You already have the most passionate and dedicated community, you just need to give them the updates that they deserve. You need to realise the amount of time, effort and soul all the players have invested in zOMG so far, and not back stab them with some shiny 10 min Facebook game.
In today's gaming environment, there are tons of shiny 10 min games that are fun and enjoyable, but they don't last. People get bored and move on. There's little sense of community in them. The developers of these games then dump the said games and makes a near identical copy of it, in the hopes of tricking the players to do the circus merry-go-around all over again.It's cheap, commercialistic and utterly meaningless.
I'd like to dredge up all my remaining faith in you and believe that you will do better than that.
To finish up here's a quote, I don't know where I heard it, but I know I'll never forget it.
Revive zOMG, give us back our devs. For the zOMG community, the game is the best thing that has happened, despite all the torrents of glitches. At least try and show us some effort for all the loyalty we have given you.
Regards,
Starshine
To keep everyone informed I have instead compiled a concise thread which includes a bit of everything that has happened in this incident.
_____First_Update__________
Update! Everyone who's ever spent Gaia cash and is therefore a paying customer of Gaia needs to read this link.
The truth behind zOMG that admins don't want you to know.
_____Original_Post__________
Dear Upper Management of Gaia,
It has come to our attention that there are now no developers assigned to work on Gaia's MMO zOMG. This wasn't a sudden occurence, it was something that happened slowly over the last few years. Devs would get assigned to another area in Gaia, or had their contract terminated.
So what? The game is now finished right? No more need for devs right?
WRONG! zOMG is a MMO, it's not Jigsaw or Word Bump! The key to the survial and popularity of any MMO is constant and steady updates! For that you'll be needing devs, lots of them. No one wants to play a MMO where our neverending adventure and fun comes to a stop and there are no further chapters.
It gets worse, we have learned that the few devlopers that we had left were made to work on new games. Games that are highly similar to zOMG. If this was a commercial MMO or even a Free-to-play MMO I would uninstall and leave so fast there won't be any time for goodbyes.
Now time for a brief history lesson, since although Gaia has 9 years of history, the management team does not. Gaia was roughly based off Ragnarok Online (an MMO) when it was first created. While the founding members Lanzer, L0che, VO, Ling and co didn not have the funds to add a MMO aspect, they carried their hope and bided their time.
Back then there were barely enough funds to keep the forums running, and to organise your inventory you have to start trades and then cancel them. However Lanzer & co has never asked for more money than they needed. They made the donation items (now montly collectibles) as thank you gifts to those who contributed, and that was all.
You need to understand that in today's age of constant marketing and commerce just how refreshing and inspiring it was to find a team that cared about the community ahead of their hip pockets. How rare and wonderful it was to find people creating things with fun in mind and not money.
This is the spirit that I would shell out money to support. Your rig items may be shiny, but I'm past the age where I'll impulse buy the latest shiny thing only to drop it when a newer shiny thing is released. Let's not get started how morraly wrong it is to distribute items in what is essentially a lottery format and using it to milk your userbase for cash.
zOMG was Gaia's longstanding and original dream. The release of zOMG in 2008 was supposed to be the fullfillment of that dream, as well as a reward for all the users who patiently waited. And it should have ended there, been a dream come true fairytale story.
Only it didn't.
There were problems right from the beginning, due to management decisions. The devs were forced to release the game in open beta status despite dozens of glitches found during the closed beta period. The closed beta community was amazing for playing around the clock and reporting all the issues they found. This was done knowing that all their progress would be wiped once the game is released.
This is when I first had misgivings, the management wanted the game out by Christmas, they didn't care if the devs couldn't fix all the glitches by that time, management wanted the power-ups to be great sells and to rack up a huge profit from zOMG.
Wait- wait- what?
You expected zOMG to bring you tons of cash? You decided if it suceeded or failed from power-up sales?
Let us tell you something about Free-to-play MMOs. The avatar is a big draw for us gamers. Take Maple Story, many of the cash shop sales are glittery avatar acessories that have no real function, but we buy them because we like the way it looks, and we know it's supporting the game. Gaia itself is a giant avatar dress up game, this means that when we buy items to look cool while we play zOMG, that figure is not reflected as power-up sales!
The very fact that zOMG exists and people play it provides Gaia with a lot of cash from people buying avatar items. For management to totally discount this is madness. Take myself, if not for zOMG, I wouldn't be on here, and I wouldn't buy any avatar items or contribute to your rigged economy.
Wake-up Gaia! You already have the most passionate and dedicated community, you just need to give them the updates that they deserve. You need to realise the amount of time, effort and soul all the players have invested in zOMG so far, and not back stab them with some shiny 10 min Facebook game.
In today's gaming environment, there are tons of shiny 10 min games that are fun and enjoyable, but they don't last. People get bored and move on. There's little sense of community in them. The developers of these games then dump the said games and makes a near identical copy of it, in the hopes of tricking the players to do the circus merry-go-around all over again.It's cheap, commercialistic and utterly meaningless.
I'd like to dredge up all my remaining faith in you and believe that you will do better than that.
To finish up here's a quote, I don't know where I heard it, but I know I'll never forget it.
Quote:
You can learn more about a person from an hour of play, than from a lifetime of conversation.
Revive zOMG, give us back our devs. For the zOMG community, the game is the best thing that has happened, despite all the torrents of glitches. At least try and show us some effort for all the loyalty we have given you.
Regards,
Starshine
