Gaia Online
Reviews and Complaints

I gotta say, I used to love Gaia Online. It was a cool place to hang out with friends, play games, and buy and sell stuff in the marketplace. The old management really seemed to care about making the site fun and enjoyable for everyone. They were always adding new games and features, and they sold cash shop items for a few bucks to help support the site. But things have really gone downhill since the new management took over earlier this year.

Now, it seems like all they care about is making money. They're selling rare items for hundreds of dollars, and a lot of the buyers are young kids who don't know any better. They've fired most of the good developers and artists, and the site is barely being maintained. Everything they work on has to "pay for itself," so there are no standards anymore. They're selling collectible items that were never supposed to be released again, and they're even releasing gold generators that are causing hyper-inflation. It's like they'll do anything to make a buck.

For those who don't know, Gaia Online is like a virtual world where you create an avatar and dress them up with different items (pixels). Some of these items are really rare and expensive, and people have invested a lot of time and money into collecting them. But now, the new management is just selling them off indiscriminately to make more money. It's really sad to see how many people are still on the site, throwing their money at these greedy people. They're addicted to the items and can't stop buying them, even though they're being taken advantage of.

Honestly, I think people need to wake up and stop supporting this site. It's operating in a really unethical way, and I'm surprised they haven't been sued yet. It's just not worth it to keep giving them your money when they clearly don't care about their users anymore.

I gotta say, Gaiaonline is a pretty cool place to hang out. The community is diverse, with all kinds of folks from educated peeps to trolls and everything in between. The admin team is top-notch, and the market is awesome. Plus, there are tons of free games to play, which is always a plus.

But let me tell you, things have changed since the cash train rolled in. Don't get me wrong, Gaiaonline has had virtual items for sale for years, but now it's gotten out of control. Some of these virtual items are going for $150! That's right, $150 for pixels. And during the summer, they even re-released an item for $999. That's just crazy, man. The prices for items have gotten so high that it's impossible to keep up without spending a ton of real money.

And it's not just the prices that are the problem. The virtual gold market, which used to be the way to get items through work and play, has been completely flipped on its head by sister items known as Flynn's Booty Grab and Flynn's Chest. These items are available for $1-$12, and when you open them, you can get anywhere from 50k gold to 250 million gold. Inflation has skyrocketed, and it's virtually impossible to quest for items to customize your avatar without spending a ton of real money.

The community has been expressing their concerns about this, but the new administration doesn't seem to care. Most of the old admins and developers have quit or been fired, and the new ones just give us the same old cookie-cutter response: "We're keeping your thoughts in mind." But they're not really doing anything to change things. In fact, they're doing exactly what the community is asking them not to do.

The moderators are terrible, the economy is a joke, and nothing gets updated unless it's something you have to pay actual cash for. And the amount you have to pay is just insulting. You're better off putting your time and money elsewhere. Trust me, you could put a down payment on a house with the amount of money you'll spend on Gaiaonline.

If you're thinking about joining Gaia Online, let me tell you, it's not worth it. I used to love this website back in the day, but now it's just a shell of its former self. The site used to have these monthly envelopes that you could open for a virtual item, and it was all for a good cause to help the creators. But then they stopped taking donations and started charging for the envelopes. It was a real shame.

To make matters worse, they started banning more and more members for seemingly no reason. I remember thinking that they must have broken the rules or something, but now I know that wasn't the case. They were just being singled out. And it's not just the money that was stolen from us, it's the time and friends that we made on the site that we can never get back. It's really sad.

I joined Gaia Online in 2007, and I have so many fond memories of the site. But now, I'll never trust another website or the people that run it. The people that run Gaia Online deserve to be punished for stealing our money and lying to us.

I tried to give the site another chance in 2017 when I logged back in, but my account was lost. It's like they don't even care about their members anymore. I used to be a huge supporter of the website, but now I hope they go bankrupt. The moderators are evil trolls that have been banning accounts for years, and it's just not worth it to keep making new accounts.

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

I've been playing Gaia Online for a few weeks now, and I have to say, it's been a rollercoaster ride. At first, I was struggling to make any progress in the game. It seemed like all the good items were out of reach, and I was constantly being ignored by other players. But then, I hit the jackpot and managed to accumulate billions of Gaia gold. Suddenly, everything changed.

With my newfound wealth, I was able to buy some amazing gear and finally start making friends in the game. But I quickly realized that this wealth divide is a major problem in Gaia Online. The pay-to-play players have all the best gear, and they don't even have to work for it. Meanwhile, the free-to-play players are left struggling to make any progress.

One of the biggest issues with the game is the constant inflation. The admins don't regulate the shops, so prices are constantly skyrocketing. Just two weeks ago, an empty bottle was selling for around 90 grand. Now, it's going for over 100 million. This makes it nearly impossible for new players to get good items without paying real money for Gaia cash.

Another problem is the bidding aspect of the game. It's nearly impossible to win any bidding wars when players with billions of gold are topping your bids by 245 billion gold. And when you do manage to win a bidding war, you're often left with an item that looks like crap but is worth a ton of gold.

The social aspect of the game is also segregated. Pay-to-play players have their own section, while free-to-play players are left to fend for themselves. I was called names and ignored when I first started playing, but once I had billions of gold, people started approaching me and having good chats with me. It's not fair that players are discriminated against based on their wealth.

Overall, Gaia Online is a greedy and prejudiced game that takes part in some dirty practices. The constant coupons and sales encourage players to spend real money on the game, but the items you get are often not worth the price. The game needs to do more to regulate the shops and create a more level playing field for all players.

I remember when I first stumbled upon Gaia Online back in middle school. It was like a breath of fresh air after a long day of classes. The community was so welcoming and helpful, and it was easy to make gold by hosting your own contests or selling art of other people's avatars. The creative and unique atmosphere of Gaia quickly became an addiction for me, and I found myself spending hours upon hours on the site every day. I even met one of my closest friends on Gaia, and I still talk to him to this day.

But unfortunately, Gaia has taken a turn for the worse in recent years. The once community-oriented website has lost its connection to its users, and I no longer trust the staff to make appropriate and correct professional decisions. This is mostly due to an extremely inappropriate and offensive survey that was publicly released and announced on Gaia. The staff only issued two apologies, neither of which explained who created the survey, how it was released, and what it was for. It's hard to trust a website that doesn't take responsibility for its actions.

Another issue with Gaia is the constant push for sales and cash grabs. The once happy users who were willing to open their wallets for a few dazzling collectibles are now being bombarded with annoying pop-ups and disruptive schemes. The economy has also suffered greatly due to the sale of old items and the introduction of items like Flynn's Booty and Flynn's Chest, which essentially allow users to purchase large amounts of gold for cash. This has caused the value of gold to plummet and has made it difficult for users to make a profit.

Despite these issues, Gaia still possesses one of the most unique and different communities on the internet. It's a product of years of work that cannot be copied, and there is no other website quite like it. However, due to a lack of user happiness, a destroyed economy, bad executive decisions, and a million other problems, Gaia is not the type of website anyone should be joining right now. It's like a desert wasteland with a few potted roses, and it's hard to see it making a comeback anytime soon.

Gaia Online is a website that has a lot of controversy surrounding it. The average user on this website has a woke cult-like mentality which is perpetuated by moderator bias. T.O.S is selectively enforced. If you present a woke ideology that moderators deem "reasonable", then you can get away with harassing people, making "name drop" threads (which are against T.O.S), and more. If you do not have a woke ideology you're open about, then you will be banned for various reasons, be it twisted things from the T.O.S or just random reasons.

They frequently ban people for "disrupting general flow of the community", which can be something as simple as making a thread about your support for a republican candidate, if that thread generates hate from other users, even if it is innocent in nature, YOU are punished. It's really as simple as, if you present a right-leaning opinion, and the woke community shuns it, you are to blame. If you go against ANY woke ideology you are harassed, abused, and ultimately banned by moderators. You cannot engage in ANY political talk unless it is following a far-left ideology.

The website boasts it's for children 13+, and yet they continue to pump out items which are extremely sexual in nature (large breasts and items that remove clothing from those breasts, stripper poles, masturbating poses, and more). At the same time, they are extremely strict when it comes to "joking" about being a user under the age of 13 (such as "I'm 12 someone explain this meme to me", which is a satire comment popularly made when something complex is presented, and does not literally indicate being underage. Even if you say "disclaimer: i am not 12" the mods will STILL ban you for even joking about it). It's very contradicting. They are strict on anyone advertising OnlyFans content, or sexually-driven threads, which makes sense for a site aimed at 13 year olds, yet at the same time contradict themselves by having incredibly sexual items.

The average userbase is actually well over the age of 18, but the overall vibe is confusing. My very first ban on that site was a screen shot I shared from the game "Yandere Simulator" - a really gory (cartoon gore) off the wall and almost comical anime-influenced game. Meanwhile, if you search "yandere" or "blood" or "gore" in the Gaia marketplace, you see endless gory items ranging from decapitated limbs to mutilated and burning bodies. I was a paying user when my ban was enforced. They will just throw down permanent bans on a whim, based on their feelings at the time, and you are especially at risk for this if you do not present left-leaning/woke ideologies.

Lanzer (owner of the site) made a thread where he joked "here are some spicy nudes", where he dropped a nude photo of his newborn baby. This is, I admit, absolutely innocent in nature, however had ANY user have done the similar, they would have been banned on the spot for even kidding about it. It's also strange to post a naked picture of your newborn to a site KNOWN to be ramped with pedophiles. It's just not tasteful.

I still post there but admittedly I now just troll. The account I lost I had since I was 11 (now 30), and it was lost unfairly at that. I lost all respect for the site, but that aside it IS concerning how they love to say they want kids to come, and still actively to this day promote high-sexualized content. Politics aside, the woke movement is also rather terrifying. In the last week I've seen many threads aimed at promoting sex changes in CHILDREN. I don't care what you do as an adult, but children? It's just not right.

Overall, Gaia Online has a lot of issues that need to be addressed. The selective enforcement of T.O.S, the promotion of sexualized content, and the woke movement all contribute to a confusing and concerning environment. While some may still enjoy using the site, it's important to be aware of these issues and to approach the site with caution.

I've been a member of Gaia Online for about 7 years now, and I have to say, it's been going downhill for a while. The prices of items have been skyrocketing while the quality remains stagnant or even worse. It's frustrating when it takes months to get a response from the support team when your account has been compromised. And don't even get me started on the games and features that have been ignored or shut down because they don't generate enough revenue.

But the worst thing Gaia has done is screw over the user-run market to make more money for their new porn site. I'm not kidding. The market is dead, and there's no saving it now. The inflation is so bad that items that used to cost 30k gold now cost over 20 million. And why? Because Gaia allows you to buy gold directly for cash through a random number generator. For just $1-2, you can win millions or even billions of gold. And these generators have been released continuously for a year now, in various forms. The amount of gold you can win has been increasing with each new generator. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

To make matters worse, Gaia has used this market price manipulation to re-release old items and recolor them at exorbitant prices. Items that used to cost $3-10 are now being sold for over twice that. And Gaia's excuse for the high prices? The market prices of these items are so high. But of course, they deliberately manipulated the market to make these prices so high in the first place.

The Announcements section might as well be called Advertisements because that's all it is now. You can receive upwards of 10 cash shop announcements a day. The dev alerts feature, which used to give updates on site features and maintenance, has also been perverted into an advertisement machine. Gaia doesn't care about its user base. They care about their customers' money, not the customers themselves. They do so many things to upset their customers and nothing to please them.

Gaia used to have an event called Ask the Admin, where users could ask admins anything. But they've stopped doing it now to avoid complaints about the site's direction. Gaia also has a history of not communicating with its user base, except when it comes to cash pushes, of course.

The prices of items are ridiculous. $9.95 used to be the highest priced item, but now items can cost upwards of $1000. It's insane to think that people are spending that much money on little 100x100 jpgs. And the most users ever online number is a lie. The real number is much less than 60k. That absurd number had to have come from a glitch, and it wouldn't surprise me if Gaia was behind it to look good to advertisers.

There's nothing good about Gaia anymore. Whatever they had in the past is long gone. The site's only purpose now is to make as much money as possible until it's eventually shut down. The marketplace is dead, and the only way to buy anything is to sell off your items or open your wallet to Gaia. The constant cash pushes and advertisements all over the website are reason enough to avoid Gaia Online like the plague.

I've been a member of Gaia Online since my high school days, which was way back in 2009. It was the go-to site for my friend group at the time, and we would spend hours on it. However, over the years, my experience with the site has been nothing but a complete dumpster fire. From 2013 up until 2020, I've been screwed over so many times that I lost count. The site has become a breeding ground for scam artists and weird pedophiles.

One incident that stands out in my mind is when a real-life friend introduced me to a user named "Cassandra Evermore." We later found out that this person was a gaslighting catfish who used upwards of 20 mule accounts to convince and trick us that they were multiple people. This individual also claimed to be transgender but used one of their mules called "Lauren" to say nasty transphobic things just to make themselves seem like a victim. They also used some of these accounts to pretend they were new users here and there and get gold, items, and art off of my friend and me. Once we figured out that we were played for fools, we were understandably upset, and we didn't take a mature approach in the following events, which resulted in us calling them out on their roleplay threads with some rather choice words. We got in trouble with staff for this, which resulted in my friend getting all their accounts banned, and all of my mules banned but for some reason, my main account was only given a warning.

Despite the fact that we had tried to report this other user to mods with details and evidence of what had happened and that much of it had happened on their website, they did nothing about this other user who still uses Gaia on both their main account and however many mules, free to prey upon whoever they like. This user was equally as abusive towards us during the fighting and while many of their posts were taken down (as well as all of mine and my friends) some of their volatile and abusive posts remain up on the website. A Gaia admin went in and decided to leave up flaming and abusive content, but they claim to have no bias whatsoever.

We left Gaia for about eight months, give or take, and then decided to start fresh with my friend making a new account along with us sharing a couple mules. We asked an admin if my friend was allowed to return to the site after the incident with the other user, and they said she could so long as she did not break the TOS again and did not contact Cassandra Evermore.

Now let's skip about a year or so in July 2020, my friend and I had moved on from this individual we call "Cassfish." We made new mules to sell more items in the marketplace and to store our gold/platinum. I am an artist, and my friend is my colorist/assistant in some of our projects, we decided to run an art shop, some art bids, and even submitted to a contest. We quickly became well known in the art community and made a ton of money in-game currency, which we planned to use for buying some art of our characters. But that quickly came to an end when suddenly my friend's new account and all our mules got banned out of nowhere!

We urgently contacted admins about the issue, and all we got were different stories as to why this happened. One admin was very condescending and wasn't being clear while the other admin kept coming up with excuses. The admin who kept coming up with excuses then told me I was bullying another user back in 2019 with my mule, when in fact, it was just my friend and me roleplaying as a dysfunctional couple from our favorite Key and Peele skit (Meegan and Andre). I even told the admin it was just my friend and me roleplaying and to check the IP address, but he dismissed it entirely. But then told my friend that they got banned by quoting the time they were expressing their frustration from our art thread getting spammed by two different bumpers we hired (neither of the bumpers were spoken to directly or referenced in the comment, it was a comment of general annoyance with people in general and her shutting down a search thread by saying "nevermind").

For the past month, my friend and I have been struggling to get our accounts back, and only now we were told that we're never getting them back despite the fact we've had to jump through hoops by going to the help center and filing tickets like we were told. At no point in this timeframe were we posting inflammatory content, harassing other users, or breaking Gaia TOS. Our roleplay happened inside of a casual roleplay thread, and their comment about the spamming wasn't directed at anybody nor did it involve any abusive language.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that while my friend was banned, they were still charging their credit card for their Angel subscription? And now my friend has to wait 7 business days to get that back while we are in a pandemic. Classy...

I've been a member of Gaia Online for years, but lately, I've been disappointed with the site. It used to be a wonderful community with a loyal userbase, but now, it's falling apart. Two years ago, I left the site because they stopped updating their MMO, zOMG!. The developers who created it were great people who actively stayed on top of the game and had big plans for it in the future. However, some of the developers were either laid off or assigned other projects, leaving zOMG! to no longer be updated. There was no one left to work on it, so it was put on hold indefinitely. The reason for this was that zOMG! was free, and they weren't generating enough revenue from powerup sales in the Cash Shop. Thousands of users, not to mention the developers/creators of zOMG!, were let down and ultimately disappointed.

When I came back to the site in late October/early November of 2013, nothing had visually changed. The site was flooded with hundreds, if not thousands, of complaint and disappointment threads in different sections of the forums. There were also a ridiculous amount of ads, some containing malware and trojans, and cash shop advertisements/popups. In other words, nothing had been enhanced on the site, nothing new, interesting, or updated. I quickly learned of the long list of problems with Gaia and why the majority of the userbase is so upset and leaving and abandoning their accounts in droves.

Gaia has recently fallen under new executive management, and lots of changes have occurred to the Gaia staff. The predominant amount of original staff members/artists/developers/admins were gone, and lots of new ideas were coming into play. Ideas of literally destroying the economy that Gaia has in an effort to make nothing on the site monetarily free - "freemium", if you will. Gold generators that give out bizarrely large amounts of Gaia Gold are sold for true cash dollars in the Cash Shop as well as Random Item Generators, which causes quite the addiction to gambling. Photos have surfaced of the COO of the company giving a seminar on this calling it "gamification" - he was giving a seminar on the financial benefits of getting teenagers addicted to online gambling in the form of Random Item Generators and Gold Generators. I believe a slogan he also used was "Dopamine, baby!" Photo evidence of this can be found through any search engine, as well as a vague track record of the new CEO/COO.

In lieu of the site's economy being irreparable, having a staff who blatantly ignores and disregards the community, making it impossible to enjoy the site without spending legitimate cash money, constant announcements, notifications, and banner ads demanding people purchase Gaia Cash, the intimidation to new users, the attitude of the disgruntled general userbase, completely ignoring any and all suggestions on how to fix or repair problems that are now irreparable, blatant extreme censorship of the userbase, no new updates to parts of the site unless they are Gaia Cash related, promises being broken and disregarded, hundreds, if not thousands, of members leaving the site, and poor customer service in anything not related to Gaia Cash, the staff wording announcements sarcastically and being catty toward unhappy members, the CEO/COO fiasco and his terrible attitude and lack of morals regarding children and teenagers, Gaia's new, unreleased sister-site is in the works and will be 18+ and awkward vibes between members and staff, not to mention said staff being ban-happy and either driving members away or banning them for unclear reasons, many people no longer use this site or have many positive things to say about it.

Many people, myself included, stick around and check in every now and then in hopes that positive change will be coming soon. As the site and staff currently stand, Gaia Online is no longer enjoyable. The best thing about the site are the people who are on it - which those people are now upset, hurt, disgruntled, and generally unhappy. If they stay. Most are leaving. If you've never used this site before and you're starting off as a new user, don't waste your time or your money. If you're unwilling to pay cash money for pixelated avatar items, there's not a way to get ahead on this site any longer. You'll meet some wonderful people, and it's still worth it to be around for that, but if you're looking for something other than forums, Gaia isn't the place you want to be.

I speak for everyone when I say we miss the old Gaia. This new version of the site and staff are absolutely unacceptable.

Gaia Online is a website that has been around for quite some time now, but it's surprising that it's still up and running. The site has been dying for a while, and it's not what it used to be. It's now a toxic cesspool of grown men and women who never actually grew up and think of themselves as a sort of Peter Pan. They start drama over the smallest of things, are predatory and prey on any and all younger or newer users, and then turn around and cry like a tiny baby the moment someone tells them to "leave them alone" or retaliates over being harassed.

The site's economy is broken, and the harassment is terrible. The admin decided long ago that people should be able to have hundreds of mules, which has led to levels of harassment that I haven't seen on any other site. On any other site, I would simply block someone and be done with it, but not Gaiaonline! Here you block someone, and they'll use their mules that they created through no-lifing to continue to harass you, sometimes in ways that you can't 100% prove it was them, and the admins don't give a crap about looking into it.

People also use these mules to farm the currency (platinum) to such a degree that any attempts to curb inflation at this point will fail. Supposedly this is a bannable offense, but again it takes admin several YEARS to respond to anything, and even if you report someone doing this with proof and it would be insanely easy for an admin to look into it, see you are right, and ban the person doing it, they will not take any action.

Be warned: at this point, if you join the site, you will be interacting with a handful of whales, and the rest of the users on the site are pretty much another handful of deranged individuals using dozens to hundreds of accounts to try to scam you and trick you into thinking you are interacting with several other users when in reality it is a handful of the aforementioned "Peter Pan" individuals trying to scam you or trying to manipulate you through pretending to be multiple people because they are so desperate and pathetic they can't go make real friends and want attention like little babies.

If you REALLY still want to use this site for some reason currently, the only advice I can give is to be careful. Do not use the roleplay forums or the art forum. Do not EVER have contact with anyone outside of quick trades, and do not participate in any forum dealing with the (mostly dead) marketplace. Just don't be social or have contact with anyone. On a forum website. Because here especially, more than most other areas of the internet or websites, is not a safe place. The admin make zero effort to make it a safe place.

All in all, I would say not to use Gaia at all if you value yourself or your safety. And especially don't let your kids (teenagers or not) use this site, unless you want to watch them get groomed by pedophiles that the admins let roam free, or want to see them sending pics of themselves/their feet to weirdos so those weirdos can have a pic of a 16-y/o holding a piece of paper with their username on it. Rest assured that if you use this site, or even spend money on it, it'll all be going towards the admins sitting around with their thumbs up their butts watching these disgusting people run amuck on their site, because they quite literally do not give a $#*!.

I have tried numerous times to renew my membership. I had to cancel my membership in the hopes of re-booting to re-apply.

I have attempted using several different credit and debit cards - all which have funds available, and even verified with these financial institutions-all who have told me there was no problems on their ends. Additionally, they told me no attempt from Gaia's was made to extract or post the funds initially. There may be a cyber-security problem on Gaia's end.

I have been with your company for many years. I pay yearly.. I signed up with the email address [protected]@cox.net. But now I have forgotten my password that I signed up with and I no longer have that email address. My new email address is [protected]@iicloud.com. So I have not been able to access my account since March and no one has corrected my email address. I was told that I have to give up my PayPal ID number in order to change my email. Since I didn’t know what my ID number was nothing got done.

Since I no longer can access what I’m paying for I went to PayPal and made sure that no more funds would be taken out next year. When I did that, I received an ID number which I can give if still need it.

Don’t understand why it’s so difficult to correct the situation or to even refund my money if I can’t access what I paid for.

It’s the worst Customer Service I’ve ever experienced! Years ago it wasn’t like this….. such a deterioration.

Been using Gaia Online since 2004, and I gotta say, it's not the best for kids or folks who can't resist a good gamble. They just added a dice game where you can bet real money for gold or items, and if you win, you can risk half your winnings to roll again. Not exactly the kind of thing you want your younger teens getting into. It's been promoting addictive behavior for a while now, and it's not getting any better. The site seems like it's on its last legs, and the investors are just trying to milk the users for all they're worth. The interface might look like it's for kids, but it's really just a breeding ground for addiction and depression. A lot of users who spend money on the site admit to being addicted to the Random Item Generators. It's not doing anything good for society anymore, and it's been that way since 2013. The worst part is that the company doesn't seem to care about their shady practices, like false advertising, arguing with users, breaking promises, stealing ideas without giving credit or compensation, and a bunch of other stuff.

I gotta say, Gaia Online used to be the bomb.com. But lately, it's been a real bummer. I mean, yeah, it's still free to play, but everything is so dang expensive now. Like, I can't even buy anything with my virtual money because the prices are through the roof. And they're always pushing these sales with real money, like they're trying to get us to spend all our hard-earned cash. And the worst part is, the stuff they're selling for $50 bucks now used to be like $5 back in the day. It's like they're trying to guilt us into buying stuff we don't even need.

And don't even get me started on the forums. They say it's PG-13, but there's all kinds of crazy stuff going on in there. People talking about sex and violence and using all kinds of bad language. I mean, they don't allow nudity or anything like that, but they still let people talk about it. And it's not just the users, either. The staff used to be really cool, but ever since the new CEO came in, things have gone downhill. They've laid off a bunch of people and they don't seem to care about all the complaints people are making.

If you don't believe me, just check out the Site Feedback forum. It's full of people complaining about the constant sales and all the other shady stuff Gaia is doing. And don't even think about letting your kids on this site. It's not for young children, that's for sure. Most of the people on there are between 16 and 30 years old.

All in all, I used to love Gaia Online, but now I'm not so sure. It's just not the same as it used to be.

GaiaOnline used to be a great place to hang out and meet new people online. I've been a member for almost three years now, which is still considered new compared to the veterans who have been around since the beginning. However, I've noticed a significant decline in the quality of the site since Gary Schofield took over as CEO.

It's clear that the main focus of the higher-ups is money. They've released gold generators that require real money, which has ruined the virtual economy of the site. It's almost impossible to afford anything worthwhile now. On top of that, the site is bombarded with 30+ cash-related announcements every day. It's like they're trying to milk every penny out of their users.

The key features that made GaiaOnline great have been left to rot or taken down altogether. For example, zOMG! was a popular game that was shut down because it didn't bring in enough money. It's disappointing to see the site turn into nothing more than a farm for cash cows.

Nowadays, there's not much to do on the site aside from browsing the forums, which could use an update, and dressing up avatars with low-quality pixels that are overly expensive. The staff ignores users most of the time, and when they do interact with the community, it's always with the same rehearsed and generic responses.

In conclusion, I wouldn't recommend wasting your time on GaiaOnline. The site has lost its value, and the only thing new users can expect is to be bombarded with harassing announcements begging for money every five seconds. The community is as dead and dry as a desert, and there's nothing left to do on the site.

I've been a member of Gaia Online for almost a decade now, and I have to say, it's the best avatar forum out there. There are a few others that are decent, but this one has the most creative opportunity with the avatar system. The forum community is fairly decent as well, and more populated than some of the other avatar based forums.

However, there has been a somewhat recent change in senior management that, to be blunt, ruined the site. Members are treated little better than cash cows. They are constantly spammed with announcements and advertisements to purchase a form of currency within the site that costs actual money. Since the staffing change, little to no attention is given to the free parts of the site. The parts of the site that cost actual money to enjoy continue to increase almost monthly.

But even the users who partake in the real-money currency, Gaia Cash, are treated poorly. Items will be sold for a "limited" time. And be released again within a week, thus severely decreasing the value of the item. There has also been a recent trend of selling "gold generators", items that produce large quantities of the non-cash based currency--gold, for Gaia Cash. This has caused an in-site economic inflation and devalued the average Gaian gold's worth.

New users to the site feel pressured, overwhelmed, and that they must spend money in order to progress on the site. Almost all forms of customer complaint services have either been shut down for good (a thread titled Ask the Admin, self explanatory) or completely ignored (the designated Site Feedback forum goes completely ignored).

This site used to be purely community based, and was never meant to be a "pay-to-play" site. It's a shame that it has turned into one. You would get a better bang for your buck if you bought a years subscription to World of Warcraft.

I gotta say, my experience with Gaia Online was not a good one. I felt like I was being mistreated by both the staff and a group of people who were into role-playing. The staff tried to tell me that I wasn't being abused, but my psychologist said otherwise. I mean, who do you think knows more about this kind of thing? The people who were trying to mistreat me or a trained professional?

And let me tell you, this wasn't one of those situations where I was just being too sensitive. I was sick and tired of people telling me that I wasn't smart enough to do anything. It's like they thought I was dumb or something. But I have writing credentials, so I know that's not true. I didn't get any warnings before they started treating me like this, and that's just not right.

When I talked to my counselor about what was going on, she said that I was being abused. And I believe her. It's not okay to tell someone that they can't write more than six sentences. That's just condescending and disrespectful. And if you think that I don't understand something before you explain it to me, that's just insulting.

I don't want to go into too much detail about what happened, but I will say that people shouldn't have ganged up on me like they did. They didn't even know the whole story. I was just tired of being told that I wasn't smart enough to do things. And I can prove that I am.

Overall, my experience with Gaia Online was not a good one. I felt like I was being mistreated and abused, and that's just not okay. I wouldn't recommend this site to anyone.

Gaia Online is a website that is sure to attract young teens with its lively graphics, games, and opportunities to socialize with other kids. However, parents need to be aware that if they don't turn on the filter, adult language and topics are common. It's important to note that your teen will likely stumble upon threads discussing "masturbation myths and fads" and "WTF moments" in a matter of minutes. The site also encourages kids to buy virtual items with their Gaia Gold virtual currency, which can be earned with every session spent on the site. This can be a positive thing, as it teaches kids about money and saving up for something they like.

When you log on to GAIAONLINE.COM, you can play games like slots and jigsaw, chat with other 13- to 18-year-old users, collect downloadable wallpaper for cell phones, and buy virtual items in virtual stores with Gaia Gold currency. As with most virtual worlds, the first stop after your free sign-up is creating your avatar. You can customize your anime-style character's hairstyles and clothing, and then chat in different rooms with other users.

While the site appears to be kid-friendly and moderators are supposed to be monitoring the boards for inappropriate images, racist and sexist language, and adult content, if you don't use the word filter, you'll find that it's rampant with such content. For example, on a recent visit, I came across threads like "Your best WTF moment was?" "What are your fave pick-up lines?" "Masturbation Myths and Fads" and "Poll: I wanna have sex with a boy." It's unclear whether the moderators were asleep at the wheel or if their safety claim is just that -- a claim. Either way, it's a good idea to sit down with your kids as they surf the site or just steer them away. There are plenty of other websites with cleaner content and just as robust audiences.

Overall, I recommend Gaia Online for ages 15-18. It's a fun website with plenty of opportunities for socializing and gaming, but parents need to be aware of the potential for inappropriate content.

This website, Gaia Online, is rated PG-13, so if you have kids on here, be sure to keep an eye on what they're doing. There's a lot of Gaia cash being thrown around, so make sure to keep your credit cards safe from the computer. With just a few clicks, users can purchase up to $100 worth of Gaia cash to buy virtual items that are being advertised and sold for prices ranging from $10 to $500. This can lead to impulsive purchases and financial strain for kids and adults alike. Most of the nicer items are only available for purchase with Gaia cash or with large amounts of the site's main non-cash currency, "Gaia Gold." If you or your child want to obtain these items, expect to spend a lot of time playing the site's main free game, zOMG, or creating multiple accounts to earn gold. Both options require a lot of time and effort, and can lead to becoming a couch potato in front of the computer.

The admins on this site can be quite rude, and this year they have posted surveys that include body shaming and trigger words and pictures that can negatively impact impressionable teens who already struggle with poor self-esteem. The majority of users on the site are older and tend to speak about sensitive topics like "r. A. p. E.", sex, and masturbation, which can make it an uncomfortable environment for younger users. Many users spend their time trolling others or trying to hack accounts by asking young kids for their passwords and usernames in exchange for promises of getting rich quick, but instead, they end up being robbed.

Unfortunately, many features on the site are dying due to lack of profitability, and the site's economy is currently very inflated. As a result, the quality of games and overall site satisfaction are plummeting.

In my opinion, if you want to avoid a virtual economic mess, trolls, inappropriate language, insensitive money-grabbing admins, and a dying site, it's best to stay away from Gaia Online. If you're already on the site, good luck, and make sure to voice your opinions at every "Ask the Admin" to try and combat the corporate greed and improve the welfare of the Gaian economy and user experience.

I've been a member of gaiaonline.com since way back in July of 2005. Back then, it was a really cool place to hang out and meet new people who shared my interests. It was a lot of fun and there was always something to do or talk about.

But now, in June of 2014, things have really changed. The whole site has become all about money. They introduced something called Gaia Cash a few years ago, which is basically a way for users to pay real money to get virtual currency that they can use to buy stuff for their avatars.

The problem is that inflation has gotten out of control. It used to be that the average user had a few hundred thousand gold, maybe even a million. But now, almost everyone has billions of gold. There's no control over the economy on the site anymore. It's all about dressing up your avatar, and that's really the only thing that sets gaiaonline.com apart from any other forum on the internet.

If you like reading site announcements, then maybe you'll like gaiaonline.com. But be warned: they send out over ten messages a day begging you to spend money on pixels. And if you have any issues with purchasing Gaia Cash or problems with items, good luck getting a response from the staff. It can take months for them to get back to you.

I've been complaining to the staff about all of this, but they don't seem to care. In fact, I was recently banned for making a thread that criticized the staff and the way they run the site. It's really frustrating.

My advice to you is to stay away from gaiaonline.com. There are plenty of other forums and communities out there that actually care about their users and listen to their feedback. I used to have a lot of friends on gaiaonline.com, but now it's like a ghost town. Everyone has left for better things. Don't waste your time on gaiaonline.com.

Gaia Online used to be my go-to place for creative expression and community building. It was a safe haven for me during turbulent times at home, and I made friends from all over the world who I would talk to for hours on end. I've spent a lot of money on the site over the years, from sending letters in the mail to participating in pledge drives.

However, I've noticed that the site has become increasingly polarized in recent years. As someone with centrist views, I find it frustrating that people are afraid to speak their minds for fear of being labeled as "trolls" or "flamers." It seems like the only people who are allowed to express themselves freely are those who align with popular social justice buzzwords.

To make matters worse, the site's Terms of Service are poorly written and easily abused. I've seen users get mass reported for simply expressing a different opinion, even if it wasn't directed at anyone in particular. Meanwhile, threads filled with hate speech and calls for violence are allowed to thrive.

If you're thinking about spending money on Gaia Online, I would advise against it. You don't actually own any of the items you purchase, and there's always a risk of losing them to a hack or scam. Additionally, the site's staff seems to care very little about its users. I've had multiple accounts banned and deleted for seemingly no reason, while known pedophiles are allowed to roam free.

Overall, Gaia Online has become a shady and unpleasant place. It's no longer the welcoming community it used to be, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for a safe space to express themselves.

I've been a member of Gaia Online since 2004, and I have to say, it's not what it used to be. Back in the day, it was a great place to hang out and have fun, but now it's become a wasteland of broken promises and greed.

One of the biggest issues is the firing of so many good staff members. These were people who actually cared about the user base and treated them like human beings. They used to interact with their customers, even having a weekly Q&A in the forums. Now, for the most part, they remain silent.

Another problem is the removal of many of the fun games on the site. They were either glitchy or didn't produce as much revenue as the staff had hoped. The remaining games are capped, meaning you can only earn so much gold (site currency) from them.

The quality of most of the cash shop items has also degraded. The prices for these items have inflated from what they used to be, although for now, monthly collectables are still only $2.50 per item. The inventory arranger is also in dire need of repair and upgrades. It's nearly impossible for someone who has lots of items to find what they are looking for.

But the worst thing about Gaia is the user-run marketplace. Due to people paying real money for gold/random item generators, the prices of older and "premium" items has skyrocketed. Greed not just on the company's side, but also the remaining users who set the prices.

Every day there are roughly 10 announcements site-wide for cash shop items and sales. It's quite annoying to try and find relevant news in the midst of ads.

Newbies start off with a few clothing items and a couple of game items, but there is no real easy way for them to earn gold for the "premium" items unless they pay real money for either gold or items. They can buy gold shop items, which I admit, some are very nicely made.

Zomg, Gaia's MMO, was a great way to meet new people, earn gold, and just have fun. They used to hold events there for holidays (mainly Christmas and Halloween), but now the game is glitchy and has been put in maintenance mode, which means no new content or fixes.

So honestly, I wouldn't waste time or effort on this website. It's just not worth it anymore.

Be very careful if you don't want your subscription renewed. It automatically renews and if you want to cancel they tell you too bad not their policy once charged. No one answers the phone, my email was not accessible so I did not receive notification of the upcoming renewal. The app does not have the cancellation functionality either. Very disappointed in Gaia.

I have been part of the gaia community for 15 years that is now under attack by these types of antifa antics. Cancel culture has caused people to be pushed from a site they loved and a community they loved. Now that all these cult, tribal, anarchist groups have rolled in over the last few years and collectively removed user after user through cancel culture shame tactics. We had just removed an actual white supremacy group that was attempting to root in through the guild system and through the use double-speak tactics, before being blind sided from the left.

After 15 years of time, money, dedication to this site. All it took was a fresh stock of mods and the current political climate of not liking someone = bannable offense. The T.O.S. language is not conducive to the average individual and can be easily abused, this caused me considerable stress within a beloved community as I refused to cowtail to any political side. I was abused through the report system by a group that is growing on the site where anything I said anywhere would be reported for flaming, trolling, and harassment. When asked to further explain what my "bad behavior" was and how i was being seen as trolling and harassing when it was never the intent and had been made known over and over again. I would not receive a response and my posts or threads would be scrubbed. Now after 15 years and thousands of dollars I am left with nothing, scrubbed and silenced.

-The Block system is abused by users to troll and harass.

-You do not own the right to any item no matter if you paid for it with real currency.

-The economy is being destroyed by intentional artificial inflation and taking advantage of the gc giftcard system

-If you are not a currently hot topic protected class of person and make it known you will not find a community there anymore

-art theft is a constant problem

-users making several burner accounts to spam the forums with sexually explicit material, gore, hard drug abuse, race-baiting, etc.

-The site has community known issues with pedophiles and seems to threaten users for building a case on them or talking about them so other users may be aware.

-Known subscription issues. Not receiving items or gcash, people unsubscribing, and their account resubbing without consent.

-banned subscribers being billed month after month while not being able to enter the account, rather they use the zendesk contact support and file a ticket.

- This ticket system is backlogged from years ago and tickets are often not addressed for moths, sometimes years. -Direct sale and sales of rigs (random item generators, gambling machines.)

Really the list goes on and on. In short, you are not valued, you will have to walk on eggshells around the site and be prepared for constant disappointment. It greatly saddens me to see what has become of what once was my home.

I completed a survey and was rewarded over 100 GCash but never received my Free Seraphique Vest. I don't know what to do about it. I still have the message stating I received My GCash for my time but never received anything else even though it was advertised as "Complete any offer of 100 GCash or more to receive your Free Seraphique Vest. My username is SirusValentine. Please just message me back on Gaia to resolve this issue. Thank you and have a wonderful day.

Very disappointed because they used to be great. Now it's nothing but a poorly organized website with a bad customer service.
Now their main purpose is to get as much users' money as they can. But once you have an issue, they care nothing about you.
Unfortunately, that's how they are. I don't know what happened. Maybe they changed their management. It was your worst decision then...

I registered on the website www.gaiaonline.com couple of weeks ago. I haven’t purchased from them, but recently I added my card and purchased some things. I waited for the delivery, because it should be fast. But the moderators scammed me and banned at the same time. I couldn’t open the website and my account. As well as they have all my details and they could use them. I need advice about the cancellation of the account.

I was a loyal customer to gaiaonline.com a online community. I've spent $100's on my account using paypal. Yesterday i've received an e-mail on may 9th stating my account is permanently banned due to hacking. Which is a false statement. Gaia online both bans you & keeps your payment. This is very unlawful & a huge rip off. This is also a huge scam for 13yr old kids. Who is gaia being runned by? More than that why are they banning the users under false accusations? There are many users on gaiaonline who have the same problem. They are banned & forced to start a new account just so they can re-profit from them. This is a very bad business & needs to be looked into more. And that is just one problem that they have. What people also need to know, is this site really safe for kids? It really isnt, they say its suitable for kids at the age of 13. There is cybering in the site, r-rated topics, yet alone the user names on the site.

My friend by handle "kitty darkness" was banished from gaia online, I don't know the whole situation. However she was accused of hacking when she's not exactly capable of such things. First they disabled her trading pass, then banish her from the sight. I wish her to be reestablished asap. She was just running a charity for gaia gold for people wanting things they are unable to afford. I was an active donor to her charity forum.

Thanks to gaia online, my computer constantly gets a back door virus. Every time I log in the virus returns. I don't like doing this because I have many friends on gaia whom I like speaking with, but now I can't get on it for fear of that dang virus!