Welcome to Gaia! ::

You really thought they were going to take away shops?

They're just trying to make a goldsink to remove money from the overinflated economy.

Gaia has a very overinflated economy because wealth is constantly being introduced from an outside source (monthly collectibles and now Gaia Cash). Therefore, to stabilize, prices are driven up to the point where it's extremely difficult to make enough money to buy things. The only way to remedy this is to have users pay for something that they cannot resell or make profit from. As such, we have things like Guild subforums, and hairstyles that you must pay for that are deleted if you change your avatar. However, Gaia has so many people buying MCs and such that it's overwhelmed. This was also the reason that they added a tax to the Marketplace in 2007. If you pay to 'keep the shops open', you are giving away money for no reason and removing it from the economy, with a slight payoff of possibly having your username listed. However, Gaia would never really close its shops. First off, there would be a lot of anger from users. Second off, it would lead to inflation. Buyers would have to turn to sellers, who would be able to jack the prices up at their whim.

Well, you ARE helping the Gaian economy, so be proud of yourself! : D

Noooo. Gaia's economy is SERIOUSLY messed up, and has been for a long time. They actually hired an Economics major to help them stabilize the economy, Sagger-AT3 (something like that...it's been a while). This was probably his idea. Before I was banned, I had two KiKi Kitties that I had purchased for 23k, and were worth one million when I finally got booted. That's not healthy inflation. (Long story short, I was unfairly banned for "hacking". I don't know who I hacked, and have repeatedly asked for information, only to get form letters. I also believe that it has something to do with the economy, seeing that I was worth twelve million gold at the time.) Nothing to be too worried about.