The Rise and Fall of Gaia Online

[DrQuint]

Oari

The video is too centered around the economic cataclysm, however I believe what was the fall of Gaia was the lack of updates/new content paired with the decline of forums in general and the fact that Gaia didn't offer anything that couldn't be found somewhere else.

Plus, it didn't focus on feature set disappointment and just waved it away as "a multitude of factors", but this was absolutely a big reason. It wasn't just gaia corp ruining the economy, it was Gaia as a company also putting a lot of focus almost exclusively on either the economy (and soon after gaia-exclusive economy) or stuff external to this website.

I think the last time they did something with lot of effort that was also strictly done out of interest in making a fun experience was Frontier Skies. After that, we went down the era of Gaia making games for facebook (remember the Pokemon clone?), and over here, working on stuff like ALCHEMY, an unecessary crafting system with returns so bad not even rich people were interested on it. Man, I can think of 20 different ways to do that one better. In other words, their developers were busy making a lot of things that were ultimately of no interest to the general users. And when their supposedly big release of something they had been working on for a long time, when we finally got this rumored thing "Towns v. 2.0", and it ended up being a messy whimper... Well, all hope was lost. Anyone on the site for anything else other than mindlessly wasiting away words on a forum basically had no reason to stay, and I mean... Mindlessly wasting away on a forum doesn't really fit the Smartphone experience.

Of course, that would have required knowledge of these things that someone who left in 2011 wouldn't have, so it makes sense that they wouldn't be able to describe it in the video.

[RedBardIsCool]

DrQuint

Oari

The video is too centered around the economic cataclysm, however I believe what was the fall of Gaia was the lack of updates/new content paired with the decline of forums in general and the fact that Gaia didn't offer anything that couldn't be found somewhere else.

Plus, it didn't focus on feature set disappointment and just waved it away as "a multitude of factors", but this was absolutely a big reason. It wasn't just gaia corp ruining the economy, it was Gaia as a company also putting a lot of focus almost exclusively on either the economy (and soon after gaia-exclusive economy) or stuff external to this website.

I think the last time they did something with lot of effort that was also strictly done out of interest in making a fun experience was Frontier Skies. After that, we went down the era of Gaia making games for facebook (remember the Pokemon clone?), and over here, working on stuff like ALCHEMY, an unecessary crafting system with returns so bad not even rich people were interested on it. Man, I can think of 20 different ways to do that one better. In other words, their developers were busy making a lot of things that were ultimately of no interest to the general users. And when their supposedly big release of something they had been working on for a long time, when we finally got this rumored thing "Towns v. 2.0", and it ended up being a messy whimper... Well, all hope was lost. Anyone on the site for anything else other than mindlessly wasiting away words on a forum basically had no reason to stay, and I mean... Mindlessly wasting away on a forum doesn't really fit the Smartphone experience.

Of course, that would have required knowledge of these things that someone who left in 2011 wouldn't have, so it makes sense that they wouldn't be able to describe it in the video.

I mention at one point in the video--the spot where I talk about why people where leaving in 2009 onward--that a lack of updates to the site's unique features were playing a role in why people were leaving. Frankly, I just didn't think it was worth going into too much more detail on that when the video was already long enough as it was, and because frankly, there was more to talk about surrounding the site's economy--which was definitely the most prominent and discussion-worthy issue the site was having at the time.

In any case, if I do a follow-up video, I'll be sure to talk more in-depth about the lack of site feature updates if people are interested in hearing more about those.

[GiBella]

While your video wasn't the cause of my return it did inform me on what exactly happened to my favorite site heart

Thank you

Since 2008 heart

[Alexius08]

RedBardIsCool

DrQuint

Oari

The video is too centered around the economic cataclysm, however I believe what was the fall of Gaia was the lack of updates/new content paired with the decline of forums in general and the fact that Gaia didn't offer anything that couldn't be found somewhere else.

Plus, it didn't focus on feature set disappointment and just waved it away as "a multitude of factors", but this was absolutely a big reason. It wasn't just gaia corp ruining the economy, it was Gaia as a company also putting a lot of focus almost exclusively on either the economy (and soon after gaia-exclusive economy) or stuff external to this website.

I think the last time they did something with lot of effort that was also strictly done out of interest in making a fun experience was Frontier Skies. After that, we went down the era of Gaia making games for facebook (remember the Pokemon clone?), and over here, working on stuff like ALCHEMY, an unecessary crafting system with returns so bad not even rich people were interested on it. Man, I can think of 20 different ways to do that one better. In other words, their developers were busy making a lot of things that were ultimately of no interest to the general users. And when their supposedly big release of something they had been working on for a long time, when we finally got this rumored thing "Towns v. 2.0", and it ended up being a messy whimper... Well, all hope was lost. Anyone on the site for anything else other than mindlessly wasiting away words on a forum basically had no reason to stay, and I mean... Mindlessly wasting away on a forum doesn't really fit the Smartphone experience.

Of course, that would have required knowledge of these things that someone who left in 2011 wouldn't have, so it makes sense that they wouldn't be able to describe it in the video.

I mention at one point in the video--the spot where I talk about why people where leaving in 2009 onward--that a lack of updates to the site's unique features were playing a role in why people were leaving. Frankly, I just didn't think it was worth going into too much more detail on that when the video was already long enough as it was, and because frankly, there was more to talk about surrounding the site's economy--which was definitely the most prominent and discussion-worthy issue the site was having at the time.

In any case, if I do a follow-up video, I'll be sure to talk more in-depth about the lack of site feature updates if people are interested in hearing more about those.

I hope you also talk about failed Goldemort-era projects like Tentacl and Geemoji.

Also, have you seen this video of the ex-COO's other presentation, which goes more into detail about how they ran the economy?

[alethea_angel]

Okay, but HOW did this turn up on my YouTube front page three days after I logged back into Gaia after about a year away?

I also skipped over the beginning of hyperinflation, but I kind of want to point out that the economy hasn't EXACTLY recovered. Part of the problem is that the Gaian economy isn't gold, platinum, or Gcash, but ITEMS. Be real, it's items that drive our economy. We all have a wishlist of unfulfilled item quests, and some of them will never be realized. If you didn't get a Kitten Star, or that katana, you probably still don't have one unless you dumped serious cash into Gaia (or were possibly a skilled artist). And with so many users dropping Gaia, those items that we wish we had are becoming real money only even more than ever. The marketplace is pretty dead in terms of listings.

And real money items is the reason I left Gaia again for a year, I was dropping large parts of my paychecks into Gaia instead of buying real things, and not getting as much benefit out of the site as the amount of cash should have gotten me. When you dump over a grand in less than ten months, you start to ask why nothing is improving. Why are the items I want still more platinum/gold than I will ever have? Why is LK not being worked over (although I see they added a new level and new kin since I left)? Why is zOMG their main priority for games when every browser is dumping flash by the end of this year? Why do the gold shops NEVER update, but I get four notices a DAY to sink real money into Gaia?

The problem is that once the Cash Shop opened, as was predicted at the time, Gaia as a USER ORIENTED site was done. We could support this site with our active userbase 4 times over, but somehow it's still 2014 Gaia.

[RedBardIsCool]

Alexius08

RedBardIsCool

DrQuint

Oari

The video is too centered around the economic cataclysm, however I believe what was the fall of Gaia was the lack of updates/new content paired with the decline of forums in general and the fact that Gaia didn't offer anything that couldn't be found somewhere else.

Plus, it didn't focus on feature set disappointment and just waved it away as "a multitude of factors", but this was absolutely a big reason. It wasn't just gaia corp ruining the economy, it was Gaia as a company also putting a lot of focus almost exclusively on either the economy (and soon after gaia-exclusive economy) or stuff external to this website.

I think the last time they did something with lot of effort that was also strictly done out of interest in making a fun experience was Frontier Skies. After that, we went down the era of Gaia making games for facebook (remember the Pokemon clone?), and over here, working on stuff like ALCHEMY, an unecessary crafting system with returns so bad not even rich people were interested on it. Man, I can think of 20 different ways to do that one better. In other words, their developers were busy making a lot of things that were ultimately of no interest to the general users. And when their supposedly big release of something they had been working on for a long time, when we finally got this rumored thing "Towns v. 2.0", and it ended up being a messy whimper... Well, all hope was lost. Anyone on the site for anything else other than mindlessly wasiting away words on a forum basically had no reason to stay, and I mean... Mindlessly wasting away on a forum doesn't really fit the Smartphone experience.

Of course, that would have required knowledge of these things that someone who left in 2011 wouldn't have, so it makes sense that they wouldn't be able to describe it in the video.

I mention at one point in the video--the spot where I talk about why people where leaving in 2009 onward--that a lack of updates to the site's unique features were playing a role in why people were leaving. Frankly, I just didn't think it was worth going into too much more detail on that when the video was already long enough as it was, and because frankly, there was more to talk about surrounding the site's economy--which was definitely the most prominent and discussion-worthy issue the site was having at the time.

In any case, if I do a follow-up video, I'll be sure to talk more in-depth about the lack of site feature updates if people are interested in hearing more about those.

I hope you also talk about failed Goldemort-era projects like Tentacl and Geemoji.

Also, have you seen this video of the ex-COO's other presentation, which goes more into detail about how they ran the economy?

I have--in fact, this was something I was originally gonna bring up in the video. I have the audio recorded n everything, but that version of the video ended up being nearly 40 minutes long, so when it came time to make some trims, unfortunately that was one of the things that got cut.

[Balenciaga]

imo it was ok, but the vid skipped a lot of drama
i guess you left during it though, so just got the tl;dr from google which is fine
it's probably something only a basement dweller who spent a lot of their time here like me would notice lol

[Mysticangelic]

i can't get over the fact that a yaoi paddle somehow managed to slither it's way into a professional textbook

[greentartapple2greentartapple2]

I got to say such amazing video, it convinced me to come back and look at the site again

[Kuyusi]

I gave up a while back on new items because I didn't like the new flatter art style and obvious matching schemes that became popular, but I didn't give up on gaia itself until 1. adult life took over and 2. social stuff and site features just kinda...died.

The economy changes didn't bother me much because I always used art to get what I wanted item-wise since 2006, but looking back on it, I regret turning a blind eye to it because it didn't affect me.

That said, I came back to take a look recently because a friend of mine is still active, and I got super curious. And then I found this video and it took me down a whoooole lot of memory lanes. <3

[Vitahli]

RedBardIsCool

a fun little Gaia history lesson for you, courtesy of someone who was on this site all day every day in her teen years.

be honest: how many of y'all either got online today or saw someone get online today because of this video. ...no, really, I'm curious if I affected traffic at all.

Yes, you did. You got me to come back out of curiosity, and nostalgia (though I ended up finding your video because I was thinking of logging back onto Gaia for old time's sake, and happened to be on Youtube at the time....

I just want to let you know that I think you did an awesome job on your video; it was very concise (thank you for putting all of the info together in chronological order--it was hard for me to see the whole picture, haha!) and very informative. Excellent work, 10/10 would watch your stuff again!

On one final note, I wonder if Gaia's lack of mission statement, i.e. their purpose, being lost or, at the very least, buried, is another major reason people lost interest?

[iFellOutXD]

RedBardIsCool

a fun little Gaia history lesson for you, courtesy of someone who was on this site all day every day in her teen years.

be honest: how many of y'all either got online today or saw someone get online today because of this video. ...no, really, I'm curious if I affected traffic at all.

This oddly enough popped up on my youtube feed and while watching it i was like... huh wonder if i can still log in. and Ta Da, here i am.

Also an old user, joined in 2006.

[sartol]

RedBardIsCool

.

oooh.. you made that vid? I just stumbled on it on youtube.. and aye.. I had to check.. and.. wow. still here. Been on hiatus for a year or so now. but yer vid brought me back (forgot my p0assword to my 2 accounts though! d'oh!)

[gruntbot]

Off mostly since 2006, memories lol

[RedBardIsCool]

settlefish

imo it was ok, but the vid skipped a lot of drama
i guess you left during it though, so just got the tl;dr from google which is fine
it's probably something only a basement dweller who spent a lot of their time here like me would notice lol

Oh, I'm highly aware that I didn't mention a lot of details: Tektek, the 18+ site, the second presentation Loia made, and the debacle where some staff members were making smurf accounts and contributing wildly to Gaia's hyperinflation all went unmentioned, all for various reasons, but the largest being that the video was long enough as it was and I felt like they were less worth-mentioning than the ones I did mention.

At the end of the day, I can only stuff so much in half an hour, haha.