So on August 6th, Zero Omega made a couple of staff updates on behalf of Gaia. One of them mentioned the removal of gold generators (whether it is permanent or temporary is undetermined), and one mentioned a marketplace tax increase from the current 3% to 5%. I've noticed that a lot of users that were once anti-GC have began to purchase GC again hearing the good news, while others are relieved.
However, I absolute hate when Gaia ends up making fools of users, so I wanted to share my personal opinions on why I feel that Gaia is not yet out of the woods yet.
First, I think that we should all be rather skeptical about the recent changes for the following reasons:
This update was announced just over a day (since this post was made). Gaia has not yet provided sufficient time to make their actions credible. For all we know, Gaia could bring back gold generators in less than a week. I think it is important that we all wait a little longer, maybe a couple of months, to see if Gaia brings back gold generators. Nothing would be worse that to believe Gaia is headed for better days to only be sucker punched a couple of weeks later. Remember, Gaia's words haven't meant much in the past years, so if history repeats itself, then these two updates are null.
This could very well be a publicity stunt to build consumer confidence. I hate to think so negatively and of course this is just speculation, but we have to be realistic and analytical here. Why did Gaia publicly announce the discontinuation of gold generators? I think I would have personally held Gaia higher if they removed them without saying anything and let the users notice the change. It would have provided a more sufficient amount of time to digest the possibility of an indefinite removal of GC. We should also note that Gaia has done this sort of thing before with the gold sinks starting up in June. A lot of users were psyched and thought that Gaia was headed in the right direction, but unfortunately, that was also the start of when the rate of new gold generators coming out began to increase substantially. There are many instances where it felt like Gaia took one step forward and immediately took 10 steps back.
There is no definiteness, at least not yet. Zero Omega is just a messenger, however his post explicitly mentioned the possibility that gold generators could come back. Let's be honest, gold generators are probably the most controversial addition to the site in the history of Gaia. Gaia is NOT conducting consumer-satisfaction research here. They don't need to because there has been a year of thousands upon thousands of threads regarding gold generator distaste. Simply put, Gaia must be doing marketing-research and to see whether or not they can make more money with or without gold generators. Gaia is money hungry and we all know it. That said, we all know Gaia's intentions with gold generators. If items are inflated in value, then non-GC spenders generally have a much more difficult time in obtaining GC exclusives which pressure users to spend GC. Furthermore, there is still a subset of users on Gaia that gamble with gold generators. Although those sort of marketing techniques are disgusting, it certain seemed to make Gaia a lot of money because there was still a bunch of users willing to spend GC regardless of being anti-GC or anti-GG. That said, the change of conditions is sadly unlikely to bring up sales substantially, though I could be wrong.
Now I also want to bring up a point as somewhat of a reminder to us all. If I recall, this guild was established because we didn't like how management was running the site. The gold generators and inflation are only one part of that though, and there are still multiple problems with management that have not been addressed. Because of this, I certainly won't be opening my wallet anytime soon, and I still feel we should press Gaia to consider the following:
Gaia has still not taken responsibility for their actions in the last year. Not once has Gaia opening admitted to be a key contributor to inflation by providing gradually larger and larger amounts of gold and gradually cheaper and cheaper prices. Gaia has not admitted that inflation of the marketplace is a serious issue to users, specifically those who don't spend GC. Are we just supposed to forgive Gaia without an apology? I mean heck, it takes a lot of guts to admit your wrong, but to be honest, that is the first step ultimately... even before gold generators are discontinued. A lot of users, including myself, have grown up with Gaia and seen it change over the years. To have something you love and care about be festered by the upper management is disheartening. An apology is still needed.
Gaia still needs to provide more communication with their users. The ATA was removed, and the replacement in the Gaia Blogs hasn't been updated in over half a year... heck, it hasn't been updated since it's first post. I want to feel as though decisions made on the site are a collaboration between upper management and staff once again. I don't want Gaia to feel like an oligarchy, but rather a democracy. The most Gaia has done is release a survey in July, however, all but one of the questions pertained to items and it was likely just market research. USER SATISFACTION >> MARKET RESEARCH.
Gaia has not made any long-term project commitments apart from the avatar system. We haven't gotten the inventory arranger that was supposed to be released in December 2013. We haven't had updates to games in awhile. There hasn't been new fish or bugs added in eons. Javier Cross (a user) also mentioned that Gaia still hasn't made note of a new instant messenger for a site despite describing plans earlier last year. A lot of the site is still left cryptically outdated. Avatars are nice and all, but there needs to be more. I like to make the analogy that all the games, forums, etc... on the site are the bread, while the avatar system, marketplace, items, etc... are the fillings. If you have everything updated, then you have a delicious salad. If you only updated the avatar system, then all you have is a salad. Nobody likes eating salad every day (unless you're a super healthy vegan xd ).
Gaia's marketing is still sketchy and obsessive. Maybe this is just my opinion, but I HATE how the average item added to the cash shop these days seems to be 499GC - 999GC. It might be just nostalgia, but it was a MUCH better deal when items were a lot cheaper. With the rate Gaia releases new items, it have become every more unrealistic to obtain everything you want. Remember when a bundle of 4 items costed 799GC - 999GC? Now, we have single posed wings being priced at 3499GC, 7500GC, 20000GC, etc... If one thing will help inflation, it is increasing supplies of items, and that can easily be done if prices are dropped to be more reasonable.
Additionally, there's still the issues with these faux-value marketing schemes Gaia is addicted to. The "Limited Quantity" tag is one. The "today only", or "exclusive" are others. Gaia needs to stop with these, because they're falsifying the value of the item. It's not right that Gaia can make an item LQ and then instantly charge over 499GC for it.
Many items still have quality control issues. Some recolours still look like 2-minute jobs. Another large issue, especially as of lately is artists copying and pasting certain portions of the item in the back/front pose views. In many of the new items, the front view pose is IDENTICAL to the back view pose, and this causes issues because the perspective is often incorrect. This sort of issue is almost as annoying as the front-perspective issue with items a couple of years ago. It definitely matters if you frequent the virtual spaces. If Gaia wants users to spend larger amounts of money on items, I think it the least Gaia could do is to ensure higher quality standards.
Anyways, I am pretty much done my very long post/rant. Please, let's not forget the last 5 reasons as to why many of us joined the guild. We shouldn't be anywhere near satisfied yet, even if gold generators are gone indefinitely because there is still a long ways to go emotion_bigheart . I hope I didn't come across as too much of a negative Nancy or anything, but false hope is by far one of the most aggravating symptoms of Gaia these days... Once again, please post your opinions and responses as I would love to hear them.
