Welcome to Gaia! ::

I read this out of curiosity in regards to the declining Booty Grab situation... It seems like a lot of the problem is in having multiple accounts and the hassle of keeping up with them, or using them to increase your profits.

This is my main, and only account... (I find it too much of a hassle to even keep track of another user name and password lol!)... and I still think that Booty Grab is fun. There are definitely issues to the updates that have occurred since the last time I frequented Gaia (though I've never been as active as I am now).

When I think about why I booty grab, I suppose it's so that I can afford to get the items I want for my avatar. All Gaia really is... is a blown up community website with games and forums to keep people entertained. It all comes down to the avatar you have. People quest for things, but I think it's really just a time killer. They could put their time and energy into collecting things in real life instead of on a website that may or may not survive the next 20 years.

That sounded terrible, but don't get me wrong. I really love Gaia! Because there are cute characters, fun games, wonderful artists, and really nice people here. smile I'm just recognizing what the website is really about. It's about this property (GaiaOnline) that a company sells to us. We buy it, we are the customers. So what it comes down to is... if we aren't happy with what they are doing, they will definitely have to re-think their methods... or else they really won't survive the next 20 years.

The problem is how many people feel the same way you do. Who thinks of the changes to booty grab as a bad thing? Are those people spending money on the product (GaiaOnline)? Who spends the most money on this product? What are their interests? Are their interests the same as mine? Am I one of those people?

It seems like the people who have the most interest in spending actual money on Gaia, are younger generations who's parents will buy them Gaia Cash, and the older generation who don't have a lot of time to farm gold.

Booty Grab can be taken 2 ways.

Booty Grabber: Needs to grab for gold to spend on things. May or may not be interested in the community.
Tank Owner: Wants to make a profit on tanks with as little time investment possible. Has to or has already formed community bonds.

I guess these are just things to think about.

(snipped for length)

This reply is a bit tardy. I didn't see your post until today.
Although I did have multiple tanks I didn't stalk or play them.
And though I suppose I did do it to 'increase my profits' I didn't violate the TOS by using mules to make my main rich. My mules have about the same (or even more) gold than my main. I have at times used gold from my mules for donations to guilds and individuals and a little bit for purchase of their own stuff.

Mostly for me it was about economy of scale. If you take the time to find a newly forming booty grab thread it is as easy to ask to post six tanks as one. (Though a bit more time consuming to actually post them.) But I think I also got more invites over all because a lot of people came to know I had six tanks of dolphins so I would receive an invite to most forming threads. I also found it easier to get deals on bulk purchases of dolphins. If someone wanted to sell 10 or 15 (or how ever many) dolphins I was a one stop shop because I knew I would use them sooner or later.

As to your comment about gold and time - I guess I'm in the category of the older person with not as much time to spend gathering the gold. That is complicated by my very slow internet. I didn't have the time or internet speed to play much booty grab but I could maintain the tanks and let others play them.

And yeah, it boils down to what the product is and who wants it. Currently I'm not buying Gaia's product except maybe a monthly collectable to turn off the ads. I'm not boycotting or hating on those that still want to buy fish; I'm just not that excited about current product offerings. It's okay though - even if I left Gaia tomorrow I've had a lot of fun here and met some nice people. I just felt like taking a less active role for a while.

Thanks. Merry Christmas to you too.
Sorry about your tank but (obviously) I understand.
Maybe I missed something but I haven't heard Panagrammic say a thing about booty grab since sometime before I posted this thread. Some of what Gaia has been doing instead (holiday activities, zomg updates etc.) are nice but it begins to seem like tanks have been forgotten again.

Thanks. Bumps do help but the biggest factor has been changes Gaia made to fish and the BG game. Some tanks are still doing okay but I think most tank owners would agree it is harder to make a profit than it used to be. Some like me got tired of it and retired our tanks, some still have nice tanks. I don't delude myself that Gaia will miss me or my tank. On the up side I had a lot of fun with my tanks over the past couple of years. Maybe one day I'll play with them again.