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It's ridiculous journal time! (Hi, Sara.) Anyway, so Gaia is OMGTTLYINAHUFF over the new My Gaia changes. I am thrilled. Look, Gaia, you're updating something that already exists as opposed to making new s**t! Good work, team. It may look like Facebook, but hey, Facebook is about community (no, it isn't about dating, stupid people on forums; it's about talking to people you already know) and that's what I like about Gaia.

Apparently, Gaia is in debt. I'm excited. "Whaaaat?" you say. Well, here's what I'm hoping for: more hilarious sponsored items (those things crack me up); less expensive, graphics-intensive new features (i.e., battle system); and the elimination of current stupid, expensive, graphics-intensive features (i.e., Cars, Towns, and Cinemas). I think the idea behind Towns and Cinema is good, but I don't know that they get used enough. I've never used them much myself, though I'd love to change that 'cause commenting on bad movies in Cinemas with a huge group of Gaia users sounds hilarious and Towns is just generally a fun idea. Cars, however, I continue to think is just plain dumb. I don't get it. Someone will one day have to enlighten me as to why that was a good way to spend Gaia's money.

So here's what I think needs to happen: sell the plans for the battle system to another company, eliminate Cars feature to save money, spend battle system money on updating Guilds feature, and update already existing features to make them better. Gaia needs to work with what it has, not add.

How should they pay for it? Obviously, corporate sponsoring is their latest solution. If it's working, I think they should stick with it. However, I think that the items need to be higher quality to get people to stop bitching about Gaia being a corporate whore (which, okay, it sort of is, but it doesn't really bug me). The next step is the Cash Shop: make the items less expensive and lengthen the evolution cycles. Evolving items are not doing as well in the Gaiaconomy lately. The Gaia staff need to try to fix that. The biggest profits probably come from people mass-buying to sell the EIs for gold. The more gold they get from the EIs, the more real cash Gaia gets. I think that the staff have lost sight of that to a certain extent. Lately, the donation items have not been satisfactory to the larger Gaia community. I thought this month's were actually pretty darn awesome, so I'm not sure what that is about. However, it's obvious that Gaia needs to put more effort into the monthly collectible items, even though they aren't as expensive as Cash Shop items. We love MCs; they're a classic. MCs need to stop sucking. Go back to the weapons and the angel/demon theme! It worked. However, what doesn't work is this whole opening after the first week thing. I'm hoping that it was just for the Olympics and 08/08/08, but if it's permanent, I think there's going to be a dramatic decrease in MCs bought, especially if people continue not to like the items. The beauty of the fifteenth was that it allowed plenty of time to buy them beforehand while no one knew what the items would be and it allowed plenty of time for people to buy them afterward as well. The fifteen was the perfect compromise between the original late date and the members who want to open the letters as soon as possible. Although I'm glad that Gaia has taken user opinions into account, it needs to keep in mind that it has to be able to maintain its cash flow. If the fifteenth brings in more money than the eighth does, it is probably a better option.

Gaia needs to keep in mind two things: pleasing the users and keeping its accounts out of the red. As much as I am alarmed to see Gaia paying so much attention to its finances, I haven't liked its latest attempt to please the users either. I'd rather see corporate sponsorship of new items than ads all over the site. Thumbs up to the new layout, Gaia, and thanks for updating an old feature, rather than inventing a new one!