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 Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:17 pm
I'm new here, so I want someone to tell me about the early days of the Aquarium Forum and Booty Grab. I've been thinking a lot about what the future may hold here, and it occurred to me that a better understanding of the past would be a definite asset.
So, what was it like, mainly before Dolphinmania and the ghost fish glitch and the subsequent MP inflation? I really want to know.
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Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 7:29 am
I've been in the aqua game for a little over a year now. When I started, watermeats were the best. The watermeat threads were where I would BG. It was around this time the the glow timer (now analyzer) became popular. It allowed us to know exactly when our next glow would begin.
Since then, there have been numerous nerfs. I think watermeats were nerfed near the time of dolphins being released. Memphis, watermeats, stone coatls, and maybe a few others used to be item droppers. And almost everything has received at least one frequency nerf (they participate in glows less often); I think watermeats received three. 5/7/10 was the last big nerf; it included airsharks, gwees, 2nd strike dolls, and possibly others.
If you look towards the bottom of the first post in the buying guide in my sig, you can see what MP prices used to be. That was before inflation and before RIGs were really popular.
If you have any more specific questions, let me know. That's the general overview that I can recall right now.
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MystiMcMuffin Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 7:54 am
Since Hells hit the clinical side, I am just going to reminisce for a bit here. Remember - You asked for it!
I'm not really sure exactly when Booty Grab started, but I think it was shortly after I joined Gaia - the end of Jan '09. I'm a little foggy on it because I mostly played pinball and word bump to get gold back then. I do remember when I first saw an announcement about it - I think it was around St. Patricks Day because it was something like "Kiss Me I'm Irish - and Grab My Booty" and I was absolutely appalled because this site so touted as PG13. I didn't even dare check it out further. LOL
Now, the first time I grabbed someone's booty was totally by accident! I went to visit some girls profile and I wanted to look at her aquarium and just as I hit the visit link, the tank started glowing and I was like WTF?? But hey, someone/something was throwing gold at me so I was surely going to catch it! That was just before Easter. I know this because I was hooked from that moment on, and I combined that Easter Event with Booty grab to get enough eggs for the pink bunny slippers that I still wear and adore!
Yeah, the early days were fun. And addicting. I had so much fun telling people about booty grab and "teaching" them how to play. It was a blast! And at least 5 members of this guild (not including my 2 mules - actual members) can trace their booty grabbing addiction directly back to me! LOL One or two of those are in recovery now - but not for long, if I have my way!
Oh! Can't forget when the ORIGINAL glow timer came out!!!! Tank stalking was born. I think in one of my mule account journals I may still have a list of tank numbers that I stalked. No lie - I used to log on and set up like 10 analyzer tabs, then arrange them by glow time and get ready to rock! LOL
Absol, I will never forget your first Airshark tank - I drooled when I first saw it! And the first time I played it!!! OMG I cannot give a fitting description of that here (PG13 ya know), but If I was a smoker I would have had to have a cigarette after that one! If I remember correctly, that grab was my first over 5k!
Yes, the early days of Booty Grab were divine! They aren't so bad now. There have been alot of highs and lows, but those memories I will cherish! LOL
I gotta go - late for my Bootyholics meeting!
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Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 9:52 am
Last Saturday, a little after midnight (EST), I was watching the pulse when six or eight threads appeared featuring low grade tanks; some with four or five fish, about half were not even glowing.
I don't know if it was sheer coincidence or if one of the other forums were playing a joke, but I remember musing "Have I just had a vision of the future?"
As the big tanks die off and people can't replace them, I expect there will be more low and mid level tanks and lower grabs. Then, as the available gold dries up, prices will come down, but the cost will be the same because the time it takes to get the gold will be greater. <- I had to re-read that. I think it makes sense. So, essentially, nothing will have changed.
I started in late May this year. Overpaid and wasted a lot of my fish potential, at first, because I didn't even know how to pimp my tank. My tank will reach its first million mark today. In the same time, I've made about eleven or twelve million grabbing.
My strategy, for now, is to grab as much as I can and spend as little as I can and just wait and see. Maybe they'll open up the new area in zOMG and I'll go back there for a bit.
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MystiMcMuffin Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 2:23 pm
Grabbing is still lucrative for now, but it does pay to check the analyzer! I have hopes that at some point, as the better tanks die out and are not refilled by the owners, that maybe the greedy dweebs in the mp will start letting the prices drop. I also hope for a half-price weekend again, but I have a feeling that wont be happening anytime soon.
EDIT: And congrats on the first million from your tank! I remember mine - it was so exciting!
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Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 12:34 am
pauvre matou As the big tanks die off and people can't replace them, I expect there will be more low and mid level tanks and lower grabs. Then, as the available gold dries up, prices will come down, but the cost will be the same because the time it takes to get the gold will be greater. You are absolutely right about the cause and effect of lesser tanks with lower grabs. I did a case study of the Kiki Kitty Plushie in my Gaian journal awhile back. My calculations showed that Kiki is actually faster and easier to obtain today with Booty Grab even at the relatively higher price than it was back in 2006 with far fewer and slower ways to earn gold.
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Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 12:27 pm
purplewiz pauvre matou As the big tanks die off and people can't replace them, I expect there will be more low and mid level tanks and lower grabs. Then, as the available gold dries up, prices will come down, but the cost will be the same because the time it takes to get the gold will be greater. You are absolutely right about the cause and effect of lesser tanks with lower grabs. I did a case study of the Kiki Kitty Plushie in my Gaian journal awhile back. My calculations showed that Kiki is actually faster and easier to obtain today with Booty Grab even at the relatively higher price than it was back in 2006 with far fewer and slower ways to earn gold. I bought my first fish with gold I made farming the beach. I didn't know about fish selection and bought ones that looked nice. Didn't know I had to get them out there, so they just sat in my tank not making anything. When the dolls died, I started choosing for longevity. I've probably made every mistake you could make. =)
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Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 11:09 pm
pauvre matou purplewiz pauvre matou As the big tanks die off and people can't replace them, I expect there will be more low and mid level tanks and lower grabs. Then, as the available gold dries up, prices will come down, but the cost will be the same because the time it takes to get the gold will be greater. You are absolutely right about the cause and effect of lesser tanks with lower grabs. I did a case study of the Kiki Kitty Plushie in my Gaian journal awhile back. My calculations showed that Kiki is actually faster and easier to obtain today with Booty Grab even at the relatively higher price than it was back in 2006 with far fewer and slower ways to earn gold. I bought my first fish with gold I made farming the beach. I didn't know about fish selection and bought ones that looked nice. Didn't know I had to get them out there, so they just sat in my tank not making anything. When the dolls died, I started choosing for longevity. I've probably made every mistake you could make. =) This is one of the reasons I didn't start running a Booty Grab tank for profit until after there was a bunch of data in. I didn't like the idea of sinking that much gold into fish without really understanding what the fish would give, what kind of yields I could expect per glow (vs. the profits I knew I needed to break even), and that it would be more than just chance that someone would notice my glow and play the game. WIthout the analyzer, I'd've never done this. I did run a garbage tank early on though. That's another thing that's changed - the Overseer rewards used to be a LOT more than they are now. The Overseer regularly gave out items like Milady Bodices, so just having any fish in your tank meant significant gold to you. (Even just running a Hermit Cat is still profitable, though - yes, I ran some numbers on that, here's the journal entry on that) Then I ran a middle mini-monsters tank because I calculated that their buy price vs. their Booty Grab potential was very good. And it was. I made about 3 times what I invested. Which seemed pretty good at the time.... Except I realized that I was working just as hard as I would have to to pimp a real Booty Grab tank, and made, in absolute terms, not all that much. That's when I got serious, dumped some serious money on fish (well, semi-serious, I bought a lot during the half price Phin Phang sales), and started this whole mess. And don't think I haven't had second thoughts about it smile .
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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 1:35 pm
purplewiz This is one of the reasons I didn't start running a Booty Grab tank for profit until after there was a bunch of data in. I didn't like the idea of sinking that much gold into fish without really understanding what the fish would give, what kind of yields I could expect per glow (vs. the profits I knew I needed to break even), and that it would be more than just chance that someone would notice my glow and play the game. WIthout the analyzer, I'd've never done this. I did run a garbage tank early on though. That's another thing that's changed - the Overseer rewards used to be a LOT more than they are now. The Overseer regularly gave out items like Milady Bodices, so just having any fish in your tank meant significant gold to you. (Even just running a Hermit Cat is still profitable, though - yes, I ran some numbers on that, here's the journal entry on that) Then I ran a middle mini-monsters tank because I calculated that their buy price vs. their Booty Grab potential was very good. And it was. I made about 3 times what I invested. Which seemed pretty good at the time.... Except I realized that I was working just as hard as I would have to to pimp a real Booty Grab tank, and made, in absolute terms, not all that much. That's when I got serious, dumped some serious money on fish (well, semi-serious, I bought a lot during the half price Phin Phang sales), and started this whole mess. And don't think I haven't had second thoughts about it smile . I think I know now why you are "the wiz".  If there is one "keeper" in every four-pack of mini-monsters, what to do with the rest? It seems we'd soon be inundated with low and mid-level monsters nobody wanted, AND how much in real cash to stock a tank or two like this every month? Perhaps Gaia could be persuaded to offer a different package like a random pack of 300g monsters.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 1:21 am
I remember the days before Booty Grab. Everything was so much cheaper. Then Gaia became money hungry. Sad, sad day. When BG first started it was fun and lucrative and like Hell said, watermeats were the best. And then all of the nerfs. As if those weren't bad enough, in order to 'correct' the flow of gold Gaia started peddling fish that were expensive GC wise but was horrible to grab. And what you said about the prices dropping when the Aquarium Forum is full of mid-grade fish, I respectfully disagree. People who have the 'great' fish will raise the price higher because even though everyone has those mid-grade fish they will always want those that are better. It has always been this way. I've been on Gaia for over 6 years, almost 7, and the one constant has been the greed of Gaians. With the constant pushing of EIs and CIs, inflation will continue to rise everywhere in the marketplace. I forsee it just getting worse until Gaia has to step in and set boundaries in the MP.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:14 am
kinkykitty89 And what you said about the prices dropping when the Aquarium Forum is full of mid-grade fish, I respectfully disagree. People who have the 'great' fish will raise the price higher because even though everyone has those mid-grade fish they will always want those that are better. It has always been this way. I've been on Gaia for over 6 years, almost 7, and the one constant has been the greed of Gaians. With the constant pushing of EIs and CIs, inflation will continue to rise everywhere in the marketplace. I forsee it just getting worse until Gaia has to step in and set boundaries in the MP. I think what I said (or meant to say) was that when there are fewer epic tanks to grab, there will be less available gold (from grabbing and from tank owning) to buy fish with. In the fish prices thread, I said that I expect whatever Gaia does will be good for Gaia, but not necessarily good for owners or the game in general. More people are buying strike packs now (which I'm sure Gaia likes very much), but how much would it cost to stock a tank this way only to have it die after 4 weeks? Here are a couple MP graphs (airsharks) to illustrate idk what - I just like the symmetry. =)  
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:20 pm
One more thing about aquaria in the old days....
...fish didn't used to glow. At all.
You paid Gaia real money for fish, put them in your tank and you had...something pretty in your signature. You got something from the Overseer daily as an incentive not to forget about your tank, but that was pretty much it.
I think aquaria were supposed to be some kind of status symbol. But I figured early on that for the cash it would take to stock a really pretty tank, I could buy some really impressive avatar art, and it wouldn't die on me after a couple of weeks.
That's one of the reasons a lot of fish have long life spans - so they'd look pretty longer.
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Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 8:08 am
If Gaia fixed the immortality glitch, why am I still seeing date of deaths in the teens and twenties?
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Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 8:18 am
Ghost fish no longer glow.
Fish cannot be glitched now.
But, they haven't corrected the already-glitched lifespans.
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Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:09 am
I was thinking a lot more tanks would be dying off soon, and now I see that is not the case.
I'm just trying to figure out my own strategy. Grabbing still pays better than the tank (for me) - tank doesn't really pay at all at today's prices.
I'm anxious curious to see what Gaia's next move will be.
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