I realised recently that the dream I had to make a b/c shop like the GMFC where you raise babies through art and rping might be a dead dream. I don't know if anyone would be interested in that in this day and age. And even if they were, am I too late? I think so. Probably.
It's sad and I wish I'd actioned it sooner. But it comes down to a lot of things, such as my health plummeting a few times over the past few years, not having enough free time to run and dedicate myself to a shop fully, wanting to wrap up the many rps I already have running, and not being able to do the art.
Gaia's been on a steady decline for a while now, and while I'm happy it's smaller and less overwhelming (I have hopes that will bring back that closer knit community feel with a smaller amount of users but I dunno if that will happen), I'm sad because I miss what it was before. I miss it really hard. emotion_heartbroken Knowing what it was before and experiencing the goodness of that...versus what it's become now...it's just a lil' bit devastating.
The gold system messing up kind of messed everything up, in a way. And with the advent of Discord, the majority of people have moved there to do rps. Like, en masse...the herd of people moved away to new feeding grounds. That's how it seems. I like Discord but I've always preferred Gaia's rp forums over anything else and any other forums I've tried. I love the avatars, I love the way it looks with the text bubbles...it's like home.
I checked the Gaian Neighborhood forum in Barton Town but the rps there these days just aren't the same. I miss when they were anime inspired, based on favourite characters or fandoms (Harvest Moon or Fruits Basket, for example), and there were orphanages and daycare rps as well as fun family rps with anime style characters and a bunch of magic and fantasy. I also like hospital rps, pet and owner rps...ABDL rps, and a bunch more...
These days they're all teenage and young adult drama or gothic inspired vampire, werewolf stuff, with people grabbing pictures of real people to use for their characters and using them without the person in the photo's permission. I think that's worse than using anime art of someone's character without permission. Not that I ever really minded that at all (sorry artists! >.< wink . The thing that bothers me is these so called 'face claims' all look photoshopped or edited, and they all look way too perfect. I don't know why that bothers me, since anime characters also looked perfect in most cases but...I dunno, for some reason, I don't like it.
Still, with all that said, I do realise a lot of the users on Gaia are teens, starting at 13 and going upwards, though there are still a bunch of users here that joined years ago and never left, and do not plan to leave, like me. XD Then again, I'm also aware there are minors under 13 on here too, that sneak on by lying about their real age and such. So, yeah, I mean, of course, new generation, new interests and different tastes. I get it. But it doesn't mean I am happy about it. It's not that I dislike anyone, it's just that I have different tastes to what's currently on offer. And I could try making my own rp but I really want to join one that's run mainly by someone else, since I'm already in many rps on Discord and a few others sites besides Gaia.
Actually, a lovely friend I met through joining the Awesome Mature Gaians guild collaborated with me and we made a wonderful orphanage rp there. I worked really hard on the characters and the story, and got a bit too enthusiastic about finding reference pics for it. But, even though my friend is an angel, she has health issues also, so she's hardly ever online, or if she is on, she's usually not well enough to post a reply. I think the last one she did was last year some time. And I don't want to bug her or nag for replies. So...I think that rp ground to hiatus, unfortunately. I'll likely reuse those characters in other rps or stories, because I don't want them to go to waste.
Hmm, what else did I wanna ramble about? I dunno... I suppose if I'm desperate enough, I'l try fishing for rp partners and for interest in the types of rps I want to do. Otherwise, I'll just keep my eyes open and keep checking the Barton Town rp forum and rp recruitment to see if anything truly grabs my interest. So far, none of them have. I haven't found the right kind. It used to be a lot easier! If I click back through the pages, I find lots of rps I love but sadly they're all long dead now. All the best ones are in the past.
And all my favourite b/c shops are dead too, and have been for some years.
The friends I made on here don't come here anymore. So I suppose I'll have to hope to make some new ones. I miss the days when my sister used to rp with me, it was so fun! She named her avi Chihiro 3 after we watched Spirited Away. Hehe. And you know, when they were having that prom event where you'd dress up your avi and go to play flash games such as the prom dances, this really nice and sweet guy bought us both dresses with his own gold, and they were pricey at the time. That still makes me smile, all these years later, even though he pretty much disappeared after that. He rped with us a little bit at some point too. ^^
Anyway, I just needed somewhere to ramble for a while. It's not like I need to join any more rps, since I have my hands full with plenty of them elsewhere, but the thing is, I want to remain active on Gaia. I want to be in and use the rp forums that I love the most. I'm worried that Gaia will eventually disappear and that would make me unbelievably sad. And even if it doesn't disappear, I want to continue to be an active member on it and support it. I haven't been able to find other sites as good as this one in its heyday, nor as entertaining. If it's gonna go poof, I want to make the best of it while it lasts.
Kasumi Roseglimmer Community Member 
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