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As many of my friends know, I was a gaia user from way early on. Then I got hacked. To be honest, I didn't know I was hacked for a while because my interest in gaia had been over run by my growing interest in anime and my increasing ammount of schoolwork. However, once I found out I was hacked I spent about two months waiting for gaia to do something before I started a new account myself.

Here's the thing I found odd. When I joined, the site gave me all these clothes. Where were the peasant tops? What was this... starter set? Turns out gaia had started giving pretty non-newbie looking items to newbies. I couldn't quite understand this. I had tried so hard to get out of using peasant clothing, yet now it was gone. I shouldn't have been complaining, it's just that something seemed wrong here.

I've never been a newb hater. Heck, I adopt them! Whenever someone would make a post dissing newbs I would make a post supporting them. But the fact is, this movement isn't good for the newbs at all!

While NIPS has argued that we worked for our clothes, anti-NIPS has responded by saying that inflation makes things harder for todays newbs than it was for us. However, my brother is a certified newb, a total stereotype of one, and when I asked him why he wasn't saving up for an outfit, he said "I'm happy with the one I have."

These new starter sets are bad for the newbs. They no longer feel a strong pull to get out of the newb position, and therefore these newbs stay newbs for longer. Here's an example.

My brother is a newbie. He joined and was happy wearing the starter set, and so while when I was new, I was trying to get something halfway decent, he isn't making an effort at all. Instead, since he doesn't feel a realy need for gold, he posts in the newbie forums where he learns his forum manners for newbs, and instead of going to tons of different threads and learning how to RP, he goes fishing or plays cards, which is all well and good, but doesn't get him out of his newb phase.

While NIPS is being selfish, anti-NIPS isn't seeing the big picture. This new setup is bad for the newbies all together.

What I suggest is that they start with peasant tops but make these outfits low-priced. That way they at least have to work for the starters.

That or we could just keep on giving out starter sets and eventually gaia will be taken over by newbs that will never learn.