Gaia Online

This site used to be fun, but now it's horrible, don't bother registering. Ever.

It went from a fun and caring community, to a money-grubbing capitalist machine. The Admins now randomly ban people for no apparent reason, and so on and so forth. The original direction of the site is no longer there what-so-ever.
Not to mention the recent survey they released, it was extremely offensive especially to young insecure teens. As many have said in their reviews, they claim to have a PG-13 rating, but the forums are RAMPANT with sexual content, offensive language, and disgusting images, some of which are outright pornography.

Some people have said though, that the Moderators/Admins regulate what is posted. They DON'T. Very few of the offensive forums are ever taken down, let alone acknowledged.

Don't bother.

They're gone total greed as of the summer of '13. Have fun starting out a new player because if you don't spend money you're not getting anywhere. There's been no new features, events are now Pay-to-Win, the economy is in shreds (not the mention that they're constantly making it worse by the week with all of their pay-to-win gold generators), and there's little to no hope that there will be any changes anytime soon. Staff obviously doesn't listen to feedback (even though the entire Feedback forum is in uproar) and I doubt they will soon. Steer clear of this trainwreck site.

This used to be a fun site to go on. Recently, things have changed dramatically. ZOMG, which used to be a game my friends and I played regularly, was forgotten and left an unfinished wasteland. Gaia has become too large. They used to offer cool items if you gave them a "donation" now, they simply demand cash. It's not worth getting involved in and will only go down from here. I feel they are currently doing what they can to make a quick dollar before shutting the whole operation down. Meaning, what was originally a fun, safe environment for the geek community, is now a scam.

The site has taken a down turn in the last 9-10 months. The thoughtless admin policies and often invasive marketing techniques have demoralized an already unhappy community, and destroyed much of the basis for "game play" for a lot of people. The complex virtual economy, which used to be one of the most fun aspects of the site was intentionally ruined by the administration, the item quality and diversity has diminished significantly and prominent features that need updates are ignored because they cannot be monetized.

Though the staff assures the users that they value feedback, they rarely actually listen to the very active site feedback forum. When issues arise, the staff who still bother posting in the forums, usually side step the issue and attempt to play dumb without ever actually addressing the problem at hand.

In short, the site is a hot mess and the community has become frustrated and discouraged, and has lost much of what used to make it a fun place to be a part of.

As a member of Gaia since 2004 I have been a loyal Gaian even during the 3 years span where the site took a temporary turn for the worst. Recently, the site founders have usurped the position of management, as the previous responsible for the disaster has been removed. All Gaians are joyus at this moment as they plan to make responsible changes to correct any issues and concerns that Gaians previously had. This site will soon again be safe and fun for users of all ages. There runs the possibility of seeing zOMG back in action, time will tell if it is possible. Future Gaians, current Gaians, past Gaians, look forward to a wonderful experience on this site that I have called home for the past 13 years!

Gaia has made a lot of terrible decisions in the last few years, it's true. However, I also see them making an effort to turn things around in the more recent past. Lake Kindred has become a good way to earn gold and items without having to spend a lot of cash. They've recently done a series of surveys, asking for feedback about different features. There are still things to complain about, which is why I don't give it 5 stars. It's getting better, though.

It's like a dying puppy. You see it there on the side of the road taking its last breaths. And then you kick it.

That's what Gaia's new management is doing. Since i last logged on towards the end of last year til now, prices of items have increased hundredfold. The market has inflated impossibly due to gold generators bought using real money that dole out billions to trillions of gold.

Yet, starter funds for new players? Still pretty much the same. Unless you buy in-game cash, it's impossible to buy items you want to create an avi you want; keep in mind Gaia is heavily focused on avatars and stuff. Advertisements for in-game cash abound; you're hounded by it wherever you go on the site. Until recently they've even been sending private messages advertising in-game cash. Users are treated like money pigs.

People are leaving. Old forums being abandoned. It's a ghost of what it once was. Folks, do not come to this site. Mark my words sooner or later it'll be closed.

Good site with fun games to play and lots of nice people to meet. I also like the pixel art and the regular art from the artist & members. The only bad things is the inflation, customer support(filing tickets takes forever), and games not being updated or being worked on. Tip for noobies crying about inflation: make some mules(other accounts) and dumpster dive every 4 minutes. People are so rich that their dumping items worth millions. If you don't like the item sell it and buy the items you like. Also stop complaining about them being greedy. Gaia needs money to keep the site running and to pay their employees. I wish Playdom had sales like this, but they didn't and closed most of their games in less than a month.

I've been with this website for a long time! There are a few scams that circulate and spam in some of the threads, but that only happens from time-to-time. Maybe once or twice a year you'll have 7 people randomly posting gory pictures in every forum and thread. It's obnoxious and sometimes disturbing, but that's only a minor thing.
The website responds very quickly and removes those posts and takes care of deactivating those accounts.

All in all, I love this website!

After several years of faithful membership I have to face the facts. This site is a hellhole. The staff doesn't care at all about the users other than as wallets and seem to put unending effort into smashing the on-site virtual currency into irreparable pieces until users can only make purchases with hard cash, as the inflation is constantly fed.

Being an active user on this site is extremely stressful as the staff is constantly pushing one bad decision after the other while none of the staff member make any effort to communicate with user other that through public announcements. After the last staff member to communicate with users left the company by his own will, the site feedback forum has been left entirely for user to run as they like as no member of staff posts there any more.

Only visit the site if you really desire to be angry and frustrated with everything you experience.

Like many of the others, I was a part of the site for about 8 years. The staff used to be caring and really considerate of all of its members. It used to create new games, ideas, and items for the community. They would host holiday events every year and create monthly items you could get for contributing to the company. As of the new company takeover the site has turned into some greedy money hungry jerks. They create items you have to pay 50 dollars for which you could keep or sell in the marketplace, The broke promises to the community that they had created in the early years and created a false inflation in the marketplace where you'd need to spend real money to get anywhere in the game.

HANDS DOWN, this game has gone from one of the top games online to very close to the bottom.

I've been a member since 2004. Besides a hiatus or two in 2006, I came back to find the website thriving in 2007. Evolving items were making it's way in. The Cash shop was respected and small. The forums buzzed with many topics, and little negative feedback. Admins and mods were active and helpful... And now skip to 2014. The site has turned into pay for premium. Gold has lost value, and any new user will have to spend money in order to get items. I would recommend any one to stay away from the website. There are far better forum sites and mmos that respect the user base, and inform them, more than this website. Do not join unless you want to be treated as a wallet and fail to strive in a fallen economy.

Last month the devs were literally asking their members for money because they feared that they'd have to shut down the site. At the 93% donation goal mark, they reduced it to 75%. After members realized and pointed it out, it was brought back to 93%.

Don't waste your time or money on this garbage website. The people who run it are absolute idiots, it will take them a year AT LEAST to respond to ANY kind of ticket. I was banned for stating that they had inappropriate/lewd items of Japanese high school students and in their terms of services, it clearly states that lewd/explicit avatars are NOT okay. I've submitted a ticket about 7 months ago and they have still not responded.

The higher-up's don't care for the people using the site or the site's economy, as seen with the gold generators they just oh so love to release constantly.

They make the site admins the bearers of bad news and a lot of hate gets mistakenly targeted towards them. A coward move, Schofield.

I don't predict the site will live for another two years.