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Review 4/7/2010
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Gaia Online is a fun website, comprised of forums, customizable avatars, an MMO, several flash based games, and a variety of other neat things to keep one interested. I have been a regular member of the site for over two years now, and spend at least an hour or two (or six) a day there, and am 28 years of age.
However, recent activities have brought me here to the BBB. Gaia Online in the past year and amping up in the past few months (and coming to an extreme peak within the past week) has been steadily releasing products which are bought with Gaia Cash (their equivalent of spending real money on the site, not in-game currency), then significantly altering the properties of the products without a word to the consumer about the matter in a borderline fraudulent manner. It's difficult to explain to someone not already in the know about the site, but they have fish you buy to stock up your aquarium with, and those fish are basically engines to make in-game currency. In the past week, they have cut their productivity in half, and apparently prayed the userbase wouldn't notice. They still refuse to comment on the issue, and the reason this is important is that the only way to get these fish is to pay them real money. They are changing the product significantly after release, and not for the better.
As for what Gaia Online could do better, their communication with the userbase on the above issue is criminally poor on the above issue and many others. They have abysmally poor planning, and their marketing team needs....well, it's pretty sad when teenagers point out far better solutions than their abominable tactics.
As I said above, Gaia is a really fun place on the internet for anyone age 13+, it simply needs a lot of work, an overhaul of their marketing department, and a reality check on their cash items, which they steadfastly fail to deliver promises on, and blatantly gut after release without any warning in the slightest. Lose the underhanded tactics, and I'd recommend this site to anyone, particularly teens and the 20+ crowd.
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