ATG // January 20, 2014

[Pegasaurus Rex]

Hello again my friends! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend.
Last week was pretty eventful for Gaia, so let's get started!

Last week's recap:

o More Bundles! (Of course.) x x x x
o More Recolors! (Not surprised.) x x x And a staff update containing a site-wide poll asking for color preferences for recolored items.
o The January Monthly Collectibles came out.
o A new gold generator, "Coin Flip", was released. Then they felt the need to give us another announcement in case we forgot about it. Then another one for the "last hour". Overkill, much?
o A new CrosStitch contest has begun! I'll talk a little more about that later.

It looks like Bundles are not going away anytime soon, and recolors are replacing new items. Also, what did you think about Coin Flip? Do you think many people bought it? I wish they'd let us see the numbers because I feel like it failed pretty bad if they had to announce it THREE times.
If I forgot anything, please let me know!

And in case anyone missed it, reapersun made us a Sherlock freebie! Seriously, how awesome is she? (The item is Griefstache)

What's new in the guild:

o We've got a few entries in the Avatar Arena this week, so make sure to check them out!
o Remember that CrosStitch contest? Well if you have any item ideas that might get our message across (or at least give us a good laugh) please visit Revolution: Gaia cross stitch designs thread!
o We've had a few crew members resign due to real life circumstances, so please bear with us as we try to adjust. We'd like to thank Guardian Arlen, frozen_water and la petite mignonne for their hard work and dedication and wish them all the best!

As always, everyone is invited and encouraged to send their questions and concerns about Gaia to usertalk@gaiaonline.com. If anyone gets a reply, please be sure to share it with us!

I know things are rough on Gaia right now, but as long as this site's alive I truly believe we can make a difference. Gaia's biggest asset is US, the members! Without us, they're out of a job. We can have a huge impact if everyone works together.  

[Pwnder]

I've made a list of current forum topics that might be insightful so that members may either participate or educated themselves by, they can be seen here. I'll be updating these regularly. Also, I'll be monitoring Gaia site traffic to see if there really is an increase or decrease for the site in general, just to see what kind of path the user base is on, at the very least how the site is trending week by week.

I see that Coin Flip didn't remain in the CS very long. Maybe that is good considering what it pays out. How much damage did it do I wonder stare ?
Gaia continues to put out disguised Gold Generators, I can't say I consider this one "nerfed" because it still puts out the more rare and high priced items, some of them still a topic of controversy. I suspect that there are many more to come under different titles. They are still not listening.

One thing that has really bothered me is the fact that I've seen quite a few people complain about customer service here on Gaia. In particular when it come to account activation. I have an account that was closed (again) after that "fix" in November. I filed a ticket but never got an answer. I filed another ticket just this last week and am waiting on an answer ( I have two tickets open now) This topic was opened in SF and several other users are having the same issue, yet no mod dropped in to help out ( you know like they usually do) I did find out, however that this topic got an answer REAL quick like. (note the dates and times)
So from my perspective I'm seeing the GC purchasers get immediate attention versus the regular old issues = ignored.
Maybe I'm being biased, but only other observers can help me decide.  

[Pharaoh Misa]

Aw! I wanted to be first...but I have no question.  

[xx I met my fate xx]

Morning guys!  

[FaithBlack]

I'm noticing an upward trend of people complaining about the new Captchas that they introduced to Fishing. People are complaining all over the place because no one can read the things. There's a new petition started, & several threads popping up all over the place. The ones I linked to are only a few examples. I'm not sure when exactly the complaints started, but the earliest examples I've found have been from Jan 9th.

Considering that you need fish for Alchemy, & that people are buying alchemy supplies & recipes with GC, you'd think that this would be a bigger deal to staff that no one can read the captchas, & it's causing many fishers to stop fishing, which means that it's driving the prices for fish up in the marketplace, & isn't helping the economy, considering that when the economy was normal, red guppies sold for 6 gold, compared to 2000 for one red guppy now.

On top of that, Gaia is now paying 2 different companies to put captchas up. The company that gives us the bad fishing captchas is a different company than the one that gives us the captchas in the forums & Aquariums (SolveMedia). Gaia is acting like they're in desperate need of some money, & yet they waste money like this?
I'd love to see some ACTUAL site updates done, rather than every single announcement being an advertisement for a new, Cash only item. I don't know what motivated them to switch to this other company for their fishing captchas, but it was a stupid move.  

[FaithBlack]

Pwnder

I've made a list of current forum topics that might be insightful so that members may either participate or educated themselves by, they can be seen here. I'll be updating these regularly. Also, I'll be monitoring Gaia site traffic to see if there really is an increase or decrease for the site in general, just to see what kind of path the user base is on, at the very least how the site is trending week by week.

I see that Coin Flip didn't remain in the CS very long. Maybe that is good considering what it pays out. How much damage did it do I wonder stare ?
Gaia continues to put out disguised Gold Generators, I can't say I consider this one "nerfed" because it still puts out the more rare and high priced items, some of them still a topic of controversy. I suspect that there are many more to come under different titles. They are still not listening.

One thing that has really bothered me is the fact that I've seen quite a few people complain about customer service here on Gaia. In particular when it come to account activation. I have an account that was closed (again) after that "fix" in November. I filed a ticket but never got an answer. I filed another ticket just this last week and am waiting on an answer ( I have two tickets open now) This topic was opened in SF and several other users are having the same issue, yet no mod dropped in to help out ( you know like they usually do) I did find out, however that this topic got an answer REAL quick like. (note the dates and times)
So from my perspective I'm seeing the GC purchasers get immediate attention versus the regular old issues = ignored.
Maybe I'm being biased, but only other observers can help me decide.

I think the difference there is less that people who pay actual money get a priority, I think it's that since there's actual money involved at all, Gaia could face a lawsuit for not giving members the item they pay for.  

[xx I met my fate xx]

Oh wow, that is very strange. I wasn't aware of that issue since I don't use fishing but it is a serious thing if it's affecting people's ability to enjoy the game. That is definitely something that we should add to our list of things to address when we're in communication with Gaia.  

[shamantra]

Since the prices of aquarium fish have reach ridiculous prices at the market place, those of us in the aquarium community have decided to trade and buy amongst ourselves, and in at least 2 of the guilds I am a member of. If you have need to buy or sell at reasonable prices, feel free to come to my thread-Shamantra's Booty Buddies Holiday Thread, and we will try to make it work wink  

[xx I met my fate xx]

shamantra

Since the prices of aquarium fish have reach ridiculous prices at the market place, those of us in the aquarium community have decided to trade and buy amongst ourselves, and in at least 2 of the guilds I am a member of. If you have need to buy or sell at reasonable prices, feel free to come to my thread-Shamantra's Booty Buddies Holiday Thread, and we will try to make it work wink

Thanks for the tip Shamantra but please try to refrain from advertising in the ATG. This thread is primarily for asking questions of the guild crew, posting ideas, or informing us of developments on Gaia that you think our guild should be aware of.  

[shamantra]

xx I met my fate xx

shamantra

Since the prices of aquarium fish have reach ridiculous prices at the market place, those of us in the aquarium community have decided to trade and buy amongst ourselves, and in at least 2 of the guilds I am a member of. If you have need to buy or sell at reasonable prices, feel free to come to my thread-Shamantra's Booty Buddies Holiday Thread, and we will try to make it work wink

Thanks for the tip Shamantra but please try to refrain from advertising in the ATG. This thread is primarily for asking questions of the guild crew, posting ideas, or informing us of developments on Gaia that you think our guild should be aware of.

Sorry honey, I didn't think of it as advertising-do you want me to erase my post?  

[unicorndicks]

I voted in the new color poll.. This was my post.


Nothing there. Because they deleted it. It went something like this: " Stop releasing re-colors, obviously everyone is pissed off about it!"

Scared bastards rofl  

[Hawkeyesgun]

Pwnder

Hey sweetie! (Sorry I haven't been on for a while, I had a convention to speak at.)
I heard a pretty nasty rumor here that Lanzer got bought out of Gaia by it's new COO. I heard he was still on staff, but hasn't been playing a significant role in any of its new advances. I also heard that this person fired a significant amount of its staff and have yet to recover from the massive staff change. (This is only a rumor) I just can't seem to shake the feeling because it would explain a lot of the unhappy changes that have been going on recently. I just feel so heartbroken that my Gaia family is leaving, never to return.

I am becoming more and more upset about the bundles. The fact that there is such a lack of creativity in the most creative site that I have had the chance to be a part of is befuddling. I am honestly confused as to what happened to the original item creators on Gaia. I am getting really suspicious about what is going on at Gaia HQ, but I don't like this feeling at all.  

[II BlazeoftheCookies II]

I'm just waiting for the monochrome bundles. I mean, you don't recolor two items in black and white and not expect that, right? Very surprised I didn't see a new bundle at midnight.  

[HyphyMexican XIII SSC]

question
a friend of mine was banned from here apparently for what reason she wont say and i need to know who she can talk to about possibly getting back in here, i think its obvious why i have to ask  

[xx I met my fate xx]

shamantra

xx I met my fate xx

shamantra

Since the prices of aquarium fish have reach ridiculous prices at the market place, those of us in the aquarium community have decided to trade and buy amongst ourselves, and in at least 2 of the guilds I am a member of. If you have need to buy or sell at reasonable prices, feel free to come to my thread-Shamantra's Booty Buddies Holiday Thread, and we will try to make it work wink

Thanks for the tip Shamantra but please try to refrain from advertising in the ATG. This thread is primarily for asking questions of the guild crew, posting ideas, or informing us of developments on Gaia that you think our guild should be aware of.

Sorry honey, I didn't think of it as advertising-do you want me to erase my post?

Nah, don't worry about it. It was a good idea and I do think the guildies should know about it. ^_^