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The Jinxi suffers from inconsistent pricing and an overall wibbly market. It's not the first item to do this.
Yes, the E.I. market that's opened up seems a tad overwhelming at times and sadly it seems to be quickly overtaking Monthly Collectibles, which, at least, have been at a steady 30k because of their very specific demand.
After this set of E.I.s I think they might tune it down for awhile. It has been very overwhelming for everyone. Although I'm sure not so much for the artists in the case that they would submit the full figure before an E.I. becomes published. I'm sure what's to come is nothing new to developers if this is the case, not to mention the crack team of economists Gaia has working for them could specifically target sects of individual users. Which is why the items are all very nicely unique. The creative team has a lot to go on and the users have a lot of demand for it.
$9.99 is a lot though. You can buy video games, CDs, DVDs, books, anime... you could buy a lot of different things with that money. Except the user is buying a digital product that is for all intensive purposes not real. While the money they spend is exceedingly real.
When it used to be donation letters it was as if the users were the ones getting paid. We would feel good about doing good, keeping the site up- being able to chat with our friends and appreciate their services fully.
And now they are heavily commercialized with contracts from Disney, SONY, and then some. The ad space, which from a commercial standpoint is incredibly valid in most websites. Yet, with Gaiaonline being a strict members only community, the ads have not been respectful.
For lack of better words, the ads have been RETARDED. Several advertisements have had spamming scripts embedded in the ads, there have been ads about erection pills, and scams... on top of this, Gaia has had announcements citing they understand that there are malicious ads and suggests users report them. This tells me that they don't even know who is being sponsored.
Between terrible ad champagnes and community pleasing ones, like activity zones, and product emblazoned items, Gaia had come out with a CASH ONLY store which has exceedingly expensive items in it...
Progressively I find users are just consumers now instead of members or team players or whatever...
Lanzer and VO probably don't even log on anymore, they sure as heck don't make announcements like they used to... and their teams just keep growing. I actually used to feel familiar with some of the founders, I felt involved in the site. Now I'm just a user and consumer of the digital merchandise.
EDIT: I have written a precedent on the subject of Gaia Cash and the Cash Shop. August 10, 2009, reads as follows:
As far as promotions, advertising, selling out, whatever you want to call it...
The GC offers = evil
Socially irresponsible e-commerce at best. (an attorney has yet to come forth)
Now G.C.
I've spent money on Gaia Cash. I've had friends spend money on Gaia Cash. Lots of money actually. And it came down to a conversation I had that was something along the lines of this statement;
"You feel like you are spending money on a product, yet, there is no product. You are paying into services rendered. You are paying into the usual operation of a site. It's voluntary yet unnecessary. You don't actually buy anything and there is no actual product."
There has not been an analogy said that can best describe this kind of business. You can try and say;
"It's like if monopoly had an electronic banking system that was based on credit. And you purchased credit by hooking a machine to a phone line and then swiping and entering your bank card and pin information to play."
But it's not like that. You can choose not to buy G.C. It is not required. At times it is suggested but this a service designed to accelerate the previous system that was based solely on two dollar and fifty cent donations. Gaia became very successful and changed it to collectibles for a reason. You can spend more money now and earn more gold and essentially give yourself a more accelerated Gaia experience, or you can rack up your gold doing other things on the site, which may take more time, but does not take real world currency. G.C. accelerates the rate at which a user may experience facets of Gaia Online's market and avatar system. That is it. And that is all. Trying to make it anything other than what it is, is highly dramatic, fairly unreasonable, and VERY ridiculous.
 Bibbly · Sat Jan 24, 2009 @ 08:46pm · 0 Comments |
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