Great... Gaia made a shop for the few who are wealthy... >.<

[ThisEmptySoul]

Actually, the US dollar is just about as fake as Gaia gold, as you stated. It's called "fiat currency"... it's given value because people say it has value. It isn't even backed by gold anymore, and hasn't been for almost 40 years.

What makes actual gold valuable is because it has uses aside from just being a shiny rock {for example, top quality speaker wire has gold tipped connectors because gold is an excellent conduit}, as well as there being limited supply of it {meaning, you can't just create gold out of nothing and start handing it out}.

Most economists would probably say fiat currency is pretty much doomed to fail. Being that Gaia can only create fiat currency, there's bound to be problems, and the treatments are always going to be things that people don't like. If they cared more about fixing their economy than keeping people interested in the website, I'm sure they could easily make the changes necessary to do so... but being that it is a business, their primary concern is keeping people interested in the website and not so much providing them with a working economy.

They made gold easier to get because people were complaining it wasn't easy enough, and now there's runaway inflation and people are complaining about prices being too high, unaware that their demand for easy gold was the cause of it. Even if Gaia tried to explain that, a lot of people would only see it as them being gypped on their gold if Gaia tried to go back to making gold harder to get. While it would make the economy better, they'd likely lose a lot of people over the change.  

[HavenneShadow]

I think I posted in one of these 'Gaia economy' threads the speculation that there are experiments behind the scenes, here. Somebody is writing their graduate thesis on the movements of gold on Gaia and our responses to the 'tweaks' we get. Makes you feel like a lab rat (and here I am wearing a full outfit of new gold-shop items).

Making gold on Gaia does take some effort - those aquariums need to be advertised and constantly re-inserted into threads to maximize their earnings. I do spend a fair amount of time getting my starfish out there (as well as my two other tanks) and they make 1-2 K per day. So you either spend cash and vend or you spend time and play things like BG to get your gold.

I think I've only seen a couple of those very expensive Dernier Cri items equipped on an avi.  

[Fallicious Flavor]

If Gaia wanted more economic stability, they would do away with the 75-gold-per-post thing and drop it back to the 1 gold per browsing that I heard about from the older members. The Daily chance could stay as long as only cheap items were given out. There could be many more, but I'm not sure what I would add to it.

I only seen 1 person with a million gold shop item. If they do re-sell, it will likely be for a lot higher then they bought it for because they realized what a crappy investment they made razz  

[Nei1]

I can't afford that shop. I barely enough for the cheapest item.  

[killafrog]

i aint mad about high price items im more annoyed about the lotto they added
i could care less for items prices. if only they drop the dumb lotto id be happy they say they try to keep the economy prices fair for all but it keeps going up as more stuff you make money with is popping up.
the lotto bugs me the most out of all the stuff they added in 2 yrs  

[HavenneShadow]

Anybody notice that they never post the winning numbers for the lotto?  

[Koichi Wing]

HavenneShadow

Anybody notice that they never post the winning numbers for the lotto?

They do.....just they say it on the "sorry you're not a winner, Size 2 text "the winning numbers were Blah bwahahaha Mooo Cows say Oink" /Size" please pay some more so we can steals your money and make it not noticable to you that this is a money sink too" page and you miss it if you're not quick about it orrr what not and cannot see the smaller text biggrin  

[Kairanha]

I actually liked the lotto when it first came out. It was a chance for some of the poor, unfortunate gaians to get lucky and have a little gold sent their way as well as get some gold out of the system.

Then one of my more epic dissapointments in Gaia. It would have been fine if they just added more numbers to make it harder, but adding the power picks and making them Gaia-Cash only made it totally unacceptable. Gaia is now straight out promoting minors gambling （￣～￣)  

[HavenneShadow]

Koichi Wing

HavenneShadow

Anybody notice that they never post the winning numbers for the lotto?

They do.....just they say it on the "sorry you're not a winner, Size 2 text "the winning numbers were Blah bwahahaha Mooo Cows say Oink" /Size" please pay some more so we can steals your money and make it not noticable to you that this is a money sink too" page and you miss it if you're not quick about it orrr what not and cannot see the smaller text biggrin

There's a "consolation" message? Now I feel gypped. I bought a few tix on a couple of accounts and never got a 'sorry' message. Wah.  

[ThisEmptySoul]

I don't see much wrong with the lotto itself, especially since I have seen people petition for it in the past. So it's not like it's just something Gaia decided to dump on people one day... it's actually something that people wanted. I think it's ridiculous, however, that they decided to give out two guaranteed correct numbers for Gaia cash. It's like they have a hard time coming up with something without turning it into a ploy to make more money for themselves. It's also interesting how they "coincidentally" decided to make the lotto more "in your face" after releasing the cash aspect to it. I don't think it should be in the aquarium, but I don't like it on my header either.

It seems they're even starting to reach into the aspects of the site that used to be free and coming up with ways to charge for it {such as how they are soon going to start charging cash for Gaia vehicles}. If they charged gold, it would do more to help take gold out of circulation, but all Gaia cares about is how to make money off of it rather than how it could potentially help fix the Gaian economy.  

[TequilaRose]

I hate the gaia cash shops. I rather spend real money on real things I need.... Like food. I hate having to spend all my gold on cash shop items in the marketplace that are way over priced too. But hey, People have to make their living some how.

I think we should earn gold the way it's always been. Participation!  

[Koichi Wing]

TequilaRose

I hate the gaia cash shops. I rather spend real money on real things

Agreed

ThisEmptySoul

It seems they're even starting to reach into the aspects of the site that used to be free and coming up with ways to charge for it {such as how they are soon going to start charging cash for Gaia vehicles}.

Took the words right out of my mouth. it's absolutely ridiculous as to how much money Gaia is attempting to milk out of this website.

If Gaia is that desperate for money I think that Lanzer should have a side job at Chippendale's. That'll pay his way through his career. xD  

[Kai Kaze Kaloni Kozue]

ThisEmptySoul

If Gaia is that desperate for money I think that Lanzer should have a side job at Chippendale's. That'll pay his way through his career. xD

I laughed until I realized that I might very well pay to see that. redface eek

Time for my disciplining, it would seem. *breaks out the ruler* rofl  

[Koichi Wing]

Kai Kaze Kaloni Kozue

Koichi Wing

If Gaia is that desperate for money I think that Lanzer should have a side job at Chippendale's. That'll pay his way through his career. xD

I laughed until I realized that I might very well pay to see that. redface eek

Time for my disciplining, it would seem. *breaks out the ruler* rofl

you're quite welcome XDD razz  

[setsuru]

Finally! People who understand me! I once made a thread about this in the regular forums and totally got flammed for it... sweatdrop