Gaia OnlineReviews 114

What was once a great anime discussion/dress-up doll site from the early 2000s has now devolved into a wasteland of begging and lootboxes. The magic that this site once held has long since faded. Rampant inflation, multiple changes in management (each worse than the last) and the loss of a large percentage of its userbase has led to Gaia being on its last legs. Only the most hardcore fans and nostalgic users are still around any more.

Unfortunately, this has also lead to a dip in moderation and safety on the website. Gaia is a 13+ website, but it's well known that younger users frequent it. These two things, combined with the aging population of older users, has lead to some very obvious, very dangerous situations. Certain faster and less moderated forums will often see open sexual activities in large topics, with the offending posts drowned out from obvious view by a handful of users bumping the threads for money.

To call Gaia a breeding ground for pedophiles is to call carborane acidic. The only positive here is that the site itself with its dated appearance, hyperinflation and hostile forums will keep some of the more vulnerable users away. Still, it is definitely not a site that you should let your children access. Be extra careful if you see them using Gaiaonline.

I tried them 4 months ago and after 1 trial month of. 99 and then one for $9.95, decided to cancel. Fine and no billings for 3 months, then out of nowhere they hit my paypal with a random bill, which went to a checking account I no longer use and bounced. I can't reach anyone because of course there is no phone number. Only an email complaint system. I just filed a paypal case so hopefully that will work. But who does that months after a cancellation?

0/5. Things are different from how they were years ago. They will ban you even if you didn't break ToS, some people have been banned for expressing ideologies because the mods don't agree with them. They beg for money and support instead of offering up anything new. What's worse, they will NEVER get back to you. The wait times to hear back from moderators is 3+ months, and you will be sent the same automated mails, never hearing from an actual person. If you attempt to contact a mod, you will be led on a wild goose chase of who to speak with, and sometimes, they will get snippy with you, even if you conduct yourself kindly and professionally. I wasted 5 years of my life on this website beyond 2013; one good thing did come out of it, as I met my fiance on there. Dreadful people, I really hope the site shuts down so they stop scamming people out of money in order to fund their new porn site. If you make art for people on the website, you will be expected to negotiate offsite, or only accept their digital worthless currency. All that's on there now is thirsty, "Am I pretty?" Crying teenagers, and perverts.

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.

I have had a very disappointing experience with gaia.com. Although they have some great video there customer service and billing department are appalling. I had tried to cancel my subscription because I felt like I could get the same quality and more variety by using YouTube and did not feel it was worth the money. I was still charged the monthly fee after I had canceled then when I went to use gaia I was not granted access, I kept getting a message saying my subscription was not active and I needed to pay to restart. They had just taken out money of my account to pay the subscription amount. When I tried to call their customer service number I kept getting a recorded message saying that were unable to take my call. No options to talk to anyone in any department. I tried to call them every 20 minutes for an hour and still the same message. I then turned to emailing them about the issue and still haven't received any response. I am so disappointed with my experience and in the company that claims to be uplifting and enlightened. They don't care about you and your experience, they just want your money and don't seem to care if how they get it is unethical and shady. DON'T WAIST YOUR MONEY OR TIME!

I did the. 99 try out and it didn't work into my schedual so i was going to cancel and forgot so i paid for the next month so that was on me. I cancelled my subscription online at that point on the first week of january and didn't think of it again until the next month. I was charged again so this time i called their customer service line. I got a girl on their who was sharp and not very curtious and it went downhill from the moment i said i was upset to get charged after cancelling. SHE GAVE ME A LECTURE ON THIS IS A REVOLVING CHARGE AND IT SAID THAT WHEN YOU SIGNED UP FOR THE SERVICE. (excuse me?!?) when i went to reply, she hung up on me! OMG from a yoga and meditation site are you kidding me? After this i'm convinced that all they want is your money.

I have been a member on this site since 2005. Everything was doing amazing before 2014, which is when the site was sold to some scrub lord. But back then it was a place that made me feel at home and it still kinda does, just a bit more lurking like the creepy old time member I am xD But after 2014 The site went down hill and fast due to the new owner only caring about money.

But last year on December 13th, the old owner (Lanzer) gained owner ship of the site once again and is busting his $#*! trying to fix the mess as best as he can. And so far I have seen changes, the economy has it's ups and downs but it's slowly decreasing. (A trill was easier to get back in 2015 and early 2016, than it is now.)

But now after 12 years of love, hate, joy and sadness. I can say that if you give this site a chance. You can help bring it back up onto it's feet.And that's what I have been hoping to achieve by posting this review as silly as it may sound.

Think of it this way. Since zOMG is back and running better than before, it gives users a chance to make gold on there without spending money. Which in turn will allow people to spend more gold via marketplace and with the 5% tax add onto the sales, you get 1000 people spending 5 Billion, which the 5% takes out 250 Million of that which multiplied by a 1000 takes out 250 Billion out of the economy which greatly repairs the damage done. And if it's not zOMG pulling in the gold, it's the daily log in which grants a random item (Any item) through out the week. And the more you log in, the better item you get.

People are over looking the history and the features when it comes down to this. Give it a year since Lanzer has only been back for nearly six months. He's already dropped the average economy gold count down by one in six months.

Let alone bringing back events that you actually interact with and community driven story.

Seriously, give it a shot but keep in mind that it is slowly recovering from the damage of asshat back in 2014 to late 2016.

I'm back from a... 5 year(?) hiatus. The last I played was in the early zOMG days, and I stopped playing for natural reasons; growing old, university got in the way, etc. I didn't stop because the site was bad or stale. Basically, I got a sudden nostalgia trip and I was wondering how dear old Gaia has turned out in those 5 years. I was crossing my fingers that they managed to survive these past few years, that's how much I loved the site back then. So I log in with my old username, and lo and behold it worked! Excitement turned into dismay, however, when I saw that absolutely nothing of note has changed, at least with the interface. It looks old. Nothing new to pull in users. The interface is still as clunky as it was. And then I saw what had happened to its economy. 1 GC= 50 BILLION Gaia gold. When I stopped playing 50 billion was a god send. Now it seems like its worth absolute trash! What happened? What is the site doing to save itself? I can't fathom people spending ten dollars IRL for one new monthly item. It's pixels. All I'm seeing now is a site that could care less about what users it has left, and doing nothing to bring in new ones.

Gaia lost its way but started moving forward again.
I've been a member on Gaia since 2007. I've survived an unfair ban (never got an answer for why but I built a bridge), inflation, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, what not. I'll admit that for a few years Gaia went downhill. It almost caused me to quit and I had even started looking at other websites.
After the site was sold off (Lanzer leaving because the site wasn't making enough revenue), the members who decidedly stuck around found that they basically became cash cows. Cash sales and cash shop updates were shoved down the throats of every person who logged on. Every. Day. Without fail. Gaia changed with one wrong decision and things kept going downhill from there.
The forums turned into chaos. Outrage was unanimous with the community and things got so bad that some members even started threatening the lives of Gaia Staff, which is deplorable.
Not only that but the marketplace went bad too. Inflation is pretty terrible right now and it's very difficult to make gold. Unless you were already rich or buy gaia cash, which a lot of members aren't. It's still very difficult to make gold without buying gaia cash.
Staff did attempt to communicate with the community throughout all of this happening though. They held Ask The Staff, asked for feedback concerning different things. They also released a new game called Lake Kindred, which is essentially like Pokemon. Which you can play to earn money, it's also possible to earn money without spending Gaia Cash through that game. Which is what I personally use to make money.

Gaia did lose a lot of its members with the recent changes but those who stayed did get to see something good happen for once on Gaia. This past December, the Gaia community saw hope again. A light at the end of the tunnel. Lanzer returned to Gaia. And with his return, the management team who took over in 2014 left. There are still some things that need to be fixed but I'm confident that with Lanzer's return there will be progress.
This is enough for me to keep me going on this website.

"This is my family. I found it all on my own. It's little and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good."

If you join and buy cash, the monthly envelope things (it's been too long I forget what they are called. You opened them and got a virtual item for $2.50) Back in the day this was to donate and help the wonderful original creators of the website.

Then they stopped taking donations and outright charged for the envelopes, they brought in lawyers and all that jazz. Around this time more and more members were banned, back then, people still thought they must have broken the rules or were just "bad." Nothing could have been further from the truth.

I already went on about them singling out members (promise) during that Halloween with the aliens and cows in my other complaint on this website. What makes us all so mad; not just our money getting stolen, nor our accounts being banned but the loss of time and friends made are all gone. This we can never get back.

I joined the site in 2007 I can still remember how much fun I had in that Easter even and several after that. The site now is nothing but a pale shadow of itself waiting to die.

Because of Gaiaonline I will never trust another website or the people that run it; not fully. This is probably more healthy but it leaves me sad.

The people that run Gaiaonline deserve to be punished. If for only stealing its members money and lying to it's member base.

Update: Give the site a chance, boot kissers say the original owner is back, they say. He should never have left in the first place. Gaiaonline was his vision. I tried to log back in as of 2017 and now my last account is lost to me. Gaia online can go to hell, I hope they go bankrupt! I was a huge supporter of the website, I loved it so much, but to lose your accounts for unknown reasons? (+ two mules) I always followed the rules why the hell would I want to jeopardize my 7+-year-old account for some stupid virtual item? My guess is that they banned my accounts as I has finally saved up for and bought the angelic winged anklets and after months got the angelic necklace? As for behavior I followed the rules, the only answer is that the moderators are evil trolls that have fooled everyone and have for years had a blast banning accounts. Think about it you lose your account, you make another one and have to start over and foolish people will keep buying stuff as they don't have any in game currency to buy anything any more. The moment my first mule bit the dust I stopped buying anything with real cash.

It's those unfair bannings that came out of nowhere that will forever tarnish this website. There's no point going if the corrupt moderators are still there! Why make another acount ever as long as they are still there playing their sick games with members?

The only thing good that came out of this was that I was forced to find something more valuable to do with my free time. Hanging on to old memories while the current reality that is Gaiaonline stabs you in the eye is just self-inflicted torment. Stay far away from this site.

Aside from the obviously bad economy and constant announcements, the moderators are really what've done in the site.

They are extremely biased, and often ban without warning and refuse to give reasoning. I've given up entirely on that site. It's not just the disgusting userbase at this point. I was perma banned for literally no reason. I messaged them about it multiple times via email, and recieved no reply. I still get update announcements, despite disabling them. I've never broken any rules, or recieved any warnings. I was in the middle of several amazing rps, which I was forced to dump (thanks, crappy mods.) And had finally made my dream avatar. I would not reccomend this site, unless you enjoy being modded by some of the worst people on earth.

I've been a user to Gaia since what? 2007? 2006? Something like that. Early this year someone supposedly hacked into my account, so they say. My account is there... they still send me emails... it's been 5 months since i told them about the problem and supposedly no one could take a look into it. I've spent money on their supposed products and now i am treated like trash.
They had the balls to tell me they are not responsible nor can they be accounted for... quote "recovery is never guaranteed and is provided as an amenity or convenience. Gaia is not obligated to reverse any transactions or return items or gold after a hacking situation, and there are cases where it becomes impossible to do so, hence the process not being guaranteed. Again, a moderator will contact you on your filing account once your report has been reached, and unfortunately there is nothing further that the help center can do for you."
Basically: screw u we don't care. They say someone in china hacked my account... they know this... but do nothing!
I confess i am pissed to the point of taking legal measures just to show them not to screw around with the people that put money on their pockets.
I am being totally biased here for obvious reasons. After all this is no way to treat a costumers and further more that can be seen as a veiled threat to ignore my request of recovery.
In sum, word of advice: there are better sites of this kind that i am sure will treat u better and with far more consideration. Take my misfortune as an example, I learned my lesson to not spend money on these kind of things.

I will not begin talking about the gold situation and cash-milking that the players have to go through in order to enjoy anything since it's already been pointed out.

I started on 2007 beaucse of my friends and stayed until 2015, until I was banned for telling the mod, after warning me for spamming, the following words: "My post on the forums was not spam."

I had years worth of gold, items, and expriences taken away from me for nothing. Such a thing would not have happened before the company was sold to the new owner.

To sum it up, Gaia-online has become a terrible place to browse. Gold is worthless and it's practically impossible to get new items unless you pay, holiday events come out late and never reward you properly, games are broken, features get taken down in favor of sponsored games and things go quickly down hill.
Mods are biased and TERRIBLE at moderating anything. Type "banned on gaia online and i don't know why" and you will find an absurd amount of results.

Stay away from that $#*!ty website. In the beginning of gold generators and item flooding, the website made more money than the normal -- but their economy will fall soon enough once money would be the main essence of the game.

I use to love gaia. However once they sold the company that has changed. Its been going down hill bad. I have been a member for 11 years. I use to love fishing. I started during the time when it was single player only. Me and one of my friends would play it and have to talk to each other via yahoo messaging. Then they made it to were you could have multi player. That was exciting. You could chat with each other and everything! I loved how you could see what the other people were catching as well. All the braggers and liars got exposed haha. Then a year or so ago the capta broke and they haven't fixed it or created a new fishing game... They let it die just like ZOMG. For a while they said they were creating it from scratch, but they don't communicate with the USERS anymore so we have just been left in the dark. No communication from them for most things. Unless its cash shop related...

Oh and for Zomg... I loved that game too. I remember when me and a friend got picked to play it before it was actually released... made us feel special... I remember when it first launched it froze up so bad becouse of overload to the servers they had to shut it down a while... then the crew that was working on ZOMG left. And they let that game die... Gaia must have some crappy coders, and employees not to be able to keep such a simple game up and fix simple security issues.

If all they care about is money I'm sure they could come up with a way to make money off fishing and Zomg. I have some ideas, but they don't care about the USERS ideas unless its for MCs or Kindred.