First and foremost, thanks for replying. I realize the second message sounded somewhat angry. Well, its good to hear that there's a human behind the avatar. Sometimes, I wonder. Haha.
All right. Well, you make many good points. As far as advertising goes, most users understand the monetary necessities of the site. Sometimes, though, it seems you've missed your demographic. I also use, for example, Myspace. The demographics on Myspace versus Gaia are completely different. Gaia is, or rather has been, geared towards a crowd of teens that...well, They're the artists, the loners, and basically the opposite of the average Myspace user. Myspace, as you probably know quite well, is a very different sort of place. But I often see the same ads on Gaia that I see on myspace. Clearly, if Gaia's users want to see these ads, they'll go on myspace.
A secondary complaint here is the infamous "Circuit City" ad, that leaps onto the page, forcing you to click. Also bothering many users are the ads with sound. Is there anything that Gaia can do to control the type of ad that is used on the site?
Which brings me to promotions. I understand how much revenue they can help you generate. As I said before, money isn't really the concern here; its the fact that hardcore Gaians feel like they're being ousted for a new, more profitable group of users. Gaians don't watch MTV. They don't enjoy Kung Fu Panda (in fact, they probably critique it for its misuse of the animal styles, as some of my Gaia-using friends do). They certainly don't want an interview with Snoop Dogg.
Gaia's true selling point is its "fantasy" aspect. Users are looking for an escape from the world that they don't really feel at home in. That's why role playing is such a draw here. Anything having to do with the society that puts the average Gaian ill at ease is a poor choice for a promotion.
Events, I understand. Really, I can appreciate how difficult it must be to put them together. I try not to complain too much about the events, even though I never find them too incredibly appealing.
Ah, zOMG.
Well, first off, let me preface with something I've seen all over the place and simply agree with completely: What's with the name? I'm sure there's a reason for it having been chosen, but really. "Battle System" Has more ring to it. Kinda sad, no?
Secondly, I'm still unable to play. I've heard very positive things, though, about the gameplay and design. I hope it works out well for you. I've been waiting for its release since I joined. I recall being told when I first added my account that a "battle system was on its way". Since then, I've wanted to take my avatar and pit it against others. So we'll se how it turns out, yes?
As far as new games, such as the Faktori, I personally put no stock in them. If I want games on the internet, I usually use a site who's purpose is to collect and present flash content (i.e. Newgrounds). I assume that, since most Gaians are affluent internet surfers, they would do the same. The gameplay on independent flash games is much better, and the variety is through the roof. You simply can't compete. Hopefully zOMG manages to take the MMO market by enough of a storm for it to be considered a success.
Finally, I must ask on behalf of many other users who are concerned on this topic: Do you intend to make Gaia (Or zOMG) "pay-to-play"? It seems that Gaia's emphasis, more and more, is on spending Real-Life cash to buy the best items. Many users are outraged about the price of fish for the aquriums. The fish cost five dollars, live for a few weeks, and die. So the five dollars was for....what? The aquariums seem to be a very pointless feature, and though Gaians may have asked for it, they are surely dissappointed. Similarly, the Cash Shop invokes dread from many users. There are so many new EI's, and they're sold at such a high cost, that even the users that are determined to buy them are having trouble paying for them. zOMG had cash-based items as soon as it opened up to testing.
Users are worried that these real-life costs will continue to integrate into the system until, eventually, the site will be exclusive to those willing to pay. Though this may seem like paranoia, it would still be good to hear your opinion on the matter.
I thank you for your responses, and I hope that these PM's help bridge the gap between users and the developmental staff of Gaia.
-lfinnl
I'll look into those ads. We actually have two totally different types of ads on our site: sponsorships (like kungfu panda or funimation) where we negotiate deals directly with the brand or their ad agency and build something for it. We have control over those. I get your point about the choice of brands but what makes this really hard is that we have very little control over which brands want to advertise with us. We certainly try - we go pitch the brands we think would be cool on gaia. But the way things work is that the biggest most mainstream brands are the ones with the most money and they are much more likely to come to us and ask to advertise. Many of the brands we approach directly have very very little money to spend or for some reason I can't explain they simply say 'no.' Not all is lost, though . Our sales team is going out aggressively to try to get cooler brands. For example we've talked to funimation for 2 years now and they are going to give us 500 episodes of different anime content (they aren't going to pay us anything unfortunately but on the other hand we aren't going to pay them for the 'right' to show their content so overall it's good for gaians).
The other type of advertising on our site is ads through "ad networks", where we just sign up, give them our inventory and they run ads through it. It's an automated tool basically. We have little or no control over what they put into those ad spaces. Most of the annoying stuff is that. But we only sell a tiny bit through sponsorships so we need to supplement it with ad networks. They also take no dev or art work on our part so they don't distract us from doing other projects. We can - however - go in and individually complain about a specific banner and often the ad network will take it out. We'll try that on the circuit city ad.
On zOMG!, it was a name suggested by users and we thought it was cool. I hope it grows on everyone. I personally like the fact that adults/parents don't know how to pronounce it and that it's irreverent - not 'super serious' like most games take themselves. Fits more with the feel of gaia. In the end, what really matters of course is the game. If the game is good, the name will grow on people. If it's not, we have bigger problems!
Most of zOMG! is free. It will have elements, however, that you can pay for - like health potions to make you stronger. Even these will be tradable on the marketplace so someone who earns gold through activities on the site can get them without paying. To start/upon launch, we're not as aggressive as maple story or runescape at charging for stuff in the game - and that's on purpose so everyone can enjoy it whether people have money or not. But honestly I can't promise what we'll do long term. We have 20 people or so working on the game going forward to make it deeper, better performance, etc. It has to ultimately break-even or we can't afford to have people keep it going. It really depends on how things go over the next few months. I'm optimistic we'll always offer 'more value' for far 'less money' than other games, though.
Thanks as well for your feedback on the mini flash games. I shared your PM with a few people here yesterday because we've been debating this. (it's not just you of course who has made this point - check out my journal post where I asked for feedback on mini flash games, plus various threads in site feedback).
What do you think of the mochi-games contest we did?
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