oh noes! zOMG!'s future in jeopardy?!

[MiIiyah]

Please note that this thread is meant to inform people of the content that led up to the Dec 03, 2010 dev meat with [ JK ] , swarf and Mavdoc. For those that are taking action in response to the information that was presented during those meats, feel free to link back to this thread to provide a brief history lesson for your audience.

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With the Christmas season slowly affecting our spirits. 'Tis the season...
or is it?

In the Gaia Universe, it certainly isn't.
I'm sure you are all aware of Lanzer? He's the founder of GaiaOnline (known back then as go-gaia).

Lanzer's Journal Entry on November 24, 'Recent changes in Gaia HQ'

This week we've been making a number of changes that are painful. It focus around reducing how much money we need each month by reducing the amount of people within Gaia HQ. Similar to what happened two years ago, it lead off to some very painful decisions and moments.

In a secret meet-up with players on November 26th/27th, [ JK ], the head artist developing zOMG! announced the following:

(Props to Myrielle for taking the original screenshots)


A week later, [ JK ] posted this on the zOMGaians UNITE!!! thread, a thread that has acted as a mass invitation to developer meet-ups for over half a year.

Quote:

Yes, I suppose you could say that [its about the developers keeping their jobs], but it's really about zOMG's future. There are other jobs out there for me, but only one zOMG and its community. If you think that I'm doing this to save my job, well sorry.. you don't really know me.

So what does this all mean?
Our past attempts to Enlarge the zOMG! Development Team would go to waste. Why? Because there wouldn't be a team to enlarge.

Our various proposals to improve the game to increase usership and revenue would be tossed away.

zOMG! will not be able to grow with the community, because those who hold the reigns will not allow for it despite the dev team's desire to do so.

tldr? Our worst fears would finally become a horrible reality.

[MiIiyah]

now what?
In response, a few z!F individuals have taken it upon themselves to defend the game from its potential future.

Site Feedback Forum
MONETIZE zOMG!
Don't cut off ZOMG Development
The Fate of zOMG
OMG ITS zOMG! Edited to include Brooks' Law

on Twitter
There is also a Twitter movement occurring.
The idea behind it is to trend the hashtag #GAIAzOMG to get the game more attention and support.

on zOMG!
On Friday, December 3rd (3PM PST), there will be a developer meetup with [ JK ] at the Air Fluff server in Barton Town (where the fountain is). If you need a layer invite, post here and someone will crew you and teleport you to the correct layer. Don't forget to voice your concerns as well!

First post on the zOMGaians UNITE!!! thread

Join us on Air Fluff server in Barton Town at 3:00pm PST today.

This week's theme is Winter Holidays!

Mavdoc announced shortly after the start to [ JK ]'s meat that he'd hold his in the same area and server, at 5PM PST.

Mavdoc's post on the zOMGaians UNITE!!! thread

Keep your spirits up everyone! It's always darkest before the dawn. I'll see you in Barton on Air Fluff server at 5pm.

on the z!F
Announcements regarding the outcome of the staff cuts will be publicized.
knowing the z!F regulars, they'll probably type up transcripts too.

[MiIiyah]

How many people are on staff?

the four devs that are still working on the game are: [ JK ], swarf, bronstahd and Mavdoc. They work part-time on zOMG! as constantly pulled from it to work on other website features.

Didn't they just hire a new guy?
things didnt end up working out between Nodename and gaia (confirmed by [ JK ]). He ended up leaving before he did any work

What'll happen if the zOMG! devs lose their jobs?
the game will still be around...it'll just be neglected from updates. neutral

What went down at [ JK ]'s 3PM PST meat?
well for one, swarf came along! biggrin
transcript/summary here, here and here.

What went down at Mavdoc's 5PM PST meat?
nothing new, just plenty of chattering.

Now that we have a better understanding of why the game might be deserted via. Dec 3rd's dev meats, what can I do?
refer to CleoSombra's thread: Increase zOMG!'s Popularity and join The zCampaign. Both of these have been established in response to the Dec 03, 2010 dev meats.

[Sahri]

Merry Christmas

I don't understand why Lanzer would want to kill zOMG if he previously said to continue working on it. I think I may know who's behind this ridiculous idea but I don't want to point any fingers.

And is it ok if I post now or are you still busy setting it up? sweatdrop

Oh, and I might have a more suitable title for the thread: zOMG's future in jeopardy!!

And A Happy New Year

[DrQuint]

Lanzer has actually little to no bearing on actual decision making in the site's management. So what he previously said or not pretty much has nothing to do with this. The message is coming from higher up.

At least not anymore. And it has been that way for years.

[MiIiyah]

Izumi Motou

Merry Christmas

I don't understand why Lanzer would want to kill zOMG if he previously said to continue working on it. I think I may know who's behind this ridiculous idea but I don't want to point any fingers.

And is it ok if I post now or are you still busy setting it up? sweatdrop

Oh, and I might have a more suitable title for the thread: zOMG's future in jeopardy!!

And A Happy New Year

i should be ok but i'll let you kno smile

[DARKCHlLDE]

Someone needs to find where the person in charge of this monstrosity is and hide in their closet with some Suran Wrap, Peanut Butter, Q Tips, Ductape, Jumper Cables, Some Super Glue, A Dozen Eggs, Some Industrial Strength Spandex and A Car Battery. eek

[rgjh8754]

Why isn't this thread in SF? mad

[MiIiyah]

.~.Lady_Aji.~.

Why isn't this thread in SF? mad

its not really feedback. its more of background info, no?

[faolan]

Lanzer isn't the last word in administrative decisions anymore, Izumi.

As for the issue to hand, I've had my say -- so far as I can see, nothing's changed in the last two months. I suggest the developers and other Gaia staff consider mutiny.

[rgjh8754]

MiIiyah

.~.Lady_Aji.~.

Why isn't this thread in SF? mad

its not really feedback. its more of background info, no?

Ah. You just dodged a bullet, Missy. *puts gun away*

[[ JK ]]

We'll be making an announcement in regards to the future of zOMG in this forum tomorrow. Also, everyone is welcome to join us at the dev meet tomorrow to ask questions or voice your concerns about our current situation.

[Myrielle]

[ JK ]

We'll be making an announcement in regards to the future of zOMG in this forum tomorrow. Also, everyone is welcome to join us at the dev meet tomorrow to ask questions or voice your concerns about our current situation.

I'm nervous about the whole thing, but thanks for providing us a means of immediate feedback.

[mouse macabre]

everybody start buying at least 1 zomg item a week o3o

[DrQuint]

Oh, and yeah, I would just pretty much pack and leave Gaia, along with that small cult following of this game....

I'd not be surprised to see them get rid of those people that do the gaia labs and the dev alerts as well, despite them pretty much fixing what a mess they made out of the entire site. Whatever is not working on a RIG or a completely plot unrelated seasonal event, it is probably not good enough for the site.

Ah... this will be long, and pretty much just a repetition of what I've said before...

Quote:

Unfortunately,this is what gaia has a charm for getting itself tangled with, something I see other sites fail to do as my leaving happens of my own accord. It seems to be very prone to a slow, self-sustained eventual demise, by alienation of its own previous aims. We're WAY past Go-Gaia. What that place represented is nothing in comparison to what Gaia made itself out to be. So OF COURSE most of the older members were gone by the time gaia became plot-central, and a mixed amalgam of a always growing array of features the users asked for, be them cinemas, towns, world map, flash games, THE MARKETPLACE. The ease at which one could get gold to buy ANY CLOTHING AT ALL, even stupid pair of boxers, was too radical from what was previously seen.
But it was progress, because that sort of stuff was what flew with the growing capabilities of web browsers and the popularization of home computeres and internet as a mean of Entertainment. Gaia was becoming... "better" for the current audience. You can't really blame them for their success and the implementation of DI's and CS as a more proper and common entity in its life, no matter how intolerable some of the changes to the older users.


And Here we are now...
History is repeating itself again. And like it or not, we're the ones on the bad end of the stick this time around.
All those features that made gaia interesting back then. All those games, the plot, the cinemas, arena? The stuff that when we joined made gaia a place that amazed us for having so much to do?
That's commonplace. It is... Boring.
There's many, many sites out there mimicking gaia. Some of them actually perform what gaia does better than gaia did. And since they're more recent, most attempt to start their ground up with more updated software, or even flash enabled avatars. Gaia would never be able to out do them in that accord, because the avatar system here would need a complete reworking.
Gaia has a competition now. And it is, to say the very least, quit ruthless. Not to mention, gaia's previous greatness and all its features is now taking care of eating funds in a constant fashion, much of them people don't even care about anyways. So they have to stick to what people want the most out of the site. What the competition can't offer no matter how much they try, and make it Gaia's selling point - Gaiaonline's dress up Avatar system is without a doubt, the best one of all social forum sites. - and both Gaia HQ and their costumers know that. Cue a never ending stream of experimental Cash Shop big projects and the most succesful of them, the EI's and RIG's, becoming Gaia's very central focus points. And of course, cue all the older, misplaced features getting axed.

(Tl, dr, because that's what this next paragraph can be taken for)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: zOMG!, is NOT the Gaian's dream anymore. It was Battle!, the dream of users from a few years back, and it was given to the then birthing next generation of the user base, on a time when of both the focus of both the costumers and the developer's was changing, much like Action movies or RPG's of nowadays have nothing in common to their precedents.
It is meant for a slow demise at the hand of the ungrateful people who didn't ask for it in first place anyways. Unless the demands of the new users is met, which relate more to the gathering of gold and dressing up our avatars now more than anytime else before, and Jack's payout was more than proof of it, then it is with much sadness that it will have to bide its farewell.
And once again, gaia wasn't to blame. It was just that circumstances called for it.

One last thing, a much needed message to the Devs:

The Double gold Power-Up and epic recipes couldn't be released any sooner. RIGHT NOW more than ever!
All you need to do was making epic recipes use Nico's shop instead of a weird complicated interface, and then require both a whole lot of ingredients (in the hundreds each of the several components) AND NULL FRAGMENTS, which could be just re-released as CS items (Unsoulbound for good measure) for the simple purpose of making these recipes with the same mechanics as before. As much as a 3 Epic Items would keep people entertained long enough to make new items to add to it every 2 months or so.
Consider it! If you have any love left for the game, think about this if thinks really get dark!