November 09 MCs
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/community-announcements/november-s-monthly-collectibles-are-here/t.56194091/
Unicorn and Royal Wizard
This month was another hit. If you go back in history, Nov MCs aren't that great. These collectibles undid the curse.
Both MCs gave wigs. Right there, the MCs should remain popular.
Lots of people went crazy over a cute sparkly unicorn. The Wizard gave a robe that fits the trend of the D*C shop. Both items had too much color for my taste. I like MCs with one or two colors. Three at most. These ones are rather hard to match. They're very well made. I just happen to dislike colorful items since I have to make outfits around them. I can't just throw them onto any outfit.
These MCs should have lasting power as long as we don't get too many unicorn and wizard items in the future. New items that work with these items are fine. New items that replace these ones.. well.. that's never good. The themes are good though. There will always be people who want unicorn and wizard items.
This month was rather girly though, so I'm expecting next month to have at least one masculine item.
EIR Nov 20th:
[announcement]
Dappy Dandy
The only item that evolved was the Dappy Dandy even though other EIs were also due for evolutions. People were in an uproar over the smoking ban, so they didn't complain. And maybe the GCD was already too sick of talking about the CCoP, but it didn't evolve this week either.
EIR Nov 27th
[announcement]
Ya for a full report. =D Case of Pietro, Hidden Ace, Seracila Pendant, and Noel's Gift was introduced.
Noel's Gift is purty. Its first poses are gold and teal. I hope it keeps a decent color scheme. I wouldn't mind if it changes colors... but I hope it keeps gold in the theme. Silver would be fine too. If colors get too crazy, it won't be worth it. WTH is up with all of these 749c EIs? Yes, 499c EIs probably aren't as popular because they're always a hit or a miss. 749c EIs have a better probability of being good. ...That reasoning is thrown out the window when all of the EIs are 749c. Some of them aren't worth 749! They should be 499c. DX Like... i like the Bad Moon. It gave us eyes and wigs. But overall, i would have called it a good 499c EI. Not an excellent one, but a good one. It's not too versatile. I think excellent EIs are versatile. Of course, we were warned from the beginning that it'd be werewolf theme. It's for those who want to be a werewolf. If you don't, well, then it doesn't have many poses for you. Anyway, it's not a bad 749c item. > < ... So far Noel's gift looks like it'll be a good one since it's rather generic. It's also rather girly at the moment... so... hopefully it doesn't get too girly in the next month or it won't be as versatile.
Case of Pietro lost the "cold" from the title. It gave more body modification poses. The ban was over, but it also gave a cigar item. XD;
Hidden Ace got a wig. O: It's starting to live up to its 999c name.
Seracila Pendant was up to Gemini, I think. It gave a nice teal, gold and white color scheme.
Smoking Ban
Friday, November 20th, this announcement appeared: [x]
"In an effort to keep your virtual lungs lookin' clean as a whistle, we're ceasing the sale of tobacco-related items on Gaia. Aside from being all gross and unhealthy in real life, we don't think they make your avatar look any sexier.
If you have any pipes, cigarettes, or cigars in your inventory, you're welcome to sell 'em back to the shops for a nice, tidy profit."
Wow. I had mixed reactions when I read that. At first I was okay and shrugged it off. I own a cig. I never use it though. ... Then I realized that this ban included long drags. @ .@; I'd wanted a long drag ever since it came out. Errr maybe not since it first came out, but very close to it. We had few choices in handhelds and it was a very nice black and white item. Plus, very few items can be held just like a long drag. In fact, only smoking items can be held like that.
Why can't I hold a pen or pencil like that, hmm? All I like about those items is the way they're held. I don't care that they're supposed to be a smoking item.
All smoking items were soulbound to the accounts that owned them. Any items in the mp were snatched up quickly. Bids on cigs were in the hundred thousands. One bid even reached 1.5mil.
Store prices were changed on smoking items to encourage people to sell them back to the stores. Cigs could be sold back for 1k.
I wanted to remain neutral on the topic, but ended up 'arguing' pro ban on the forums just 'cause it wasn't being represented. There are young children on this site who claim to be 13, but aren't yet. They're impressionable. Heck, there are even impressionable adults. It's not the items, they're just pixels. It's the users. Users make the cigs into elite items that cool, apathetic people wear. It's the idea that gets implanted into heads.
To me, Gaia is a fantasy anime site. Cigs have been on the site for years, but I never paid much attention to them. I never ever thought Gaia would get realistic gun items. Never. That's not the type of site Gaia was. Gaia has changed and so have the people. It's amazing the amount of people on this site who hate anime... when this site started out as an anime link list. Gaia has changed to a place where users dress in slutty, bloody, erotic items and hold guns, cigs, alcohol and stripper poles.
Back in the day, there were people who dressed in demonic items or in all black. There still are. I'd never have believed that we'd have some of these items we have today. They're just not.. wholesome.
Gaia's changed. It makes no sense that they'd remove smoking items. Plus, they went about it the wrong way. Soulbound items are cool. If no new people could obtain smoking items, then smoking became even more cool than before.
All over the forums, people were protesting. They equipped all the smoking items they owned. They equipped alcohol. They equipped guns. They dressed like strung out drug junkies. People had all sorts of protest pics in their sigs. They had the manga with Lanzer smoking cigs when Omnidrink took over. They had Gambino smoking his cigar. ...People put pics of themselves with cigs in their mouths in their sigs... and the ones I saw were of people who looked much younger than eighteen. &.&;
While I've never liked that we make smoking look cool, I never thought that the items should be removed or would be removed.
I have to admit that I stayed away from the GCD during that time. It was full of complaints and well thought out protests. I just didn't care to get that involved. Yes, I'd miss the long drag. The item I'd wanted for years and now would never be able to own. It was different than knowing I'd never be able to own an angelic halo. That I've already accepted since there's no possibility of me being able to own one. But the long drag? It had dropped to like 26k at one point. It increased, so I was waiting for it to drop back down... ...It was within my grasp and now I'd never be able to own one.
Lanzer apparently found out about the smoking ban when he logged on and read the announcement. XD; From there they held many meetings and the ban was repealed Tuesday Nov. 24. [x]
"
I wanted to apologize for the frustration and anger caused by the tobacco item removal. We've read through the feedback and concerns from all of you, and we wanted to let you know about some changes:
•Tobacco items are back in shops.
•The items are no longer soulbound.
•If you sold yours to the shops, we're granting them back.
The motivation to ban tobacco items did not come from wanting to take away items, but from a desire to do something positive. Obviously we did a lousy job explaining the motivation, and our decision to act was awfully hasty. The end result was that we did not take the core values of you, the Gaia user, into consideration.
I'm sorry that we messed up, so in return we're undoing this as best we can. In the future we'll be more cautious and open regarding any actions that might impact any of you in a negative way.
-Lanzer "
The cig also got new poses. Before we could only hold the cig or put it in our avatar's mouth. This item is like the original EI. XD; I remember back when people were excited because they added poses to the cig so that we could hold it.
New Forum: Gaia Art Walk
[announcement]
o wo Awesome forum. I love looking at the Gaia Artists' artwork and now a lot of it is all in one place.
Animal Quackers
[announcment]
Peyo got an RIG! =D &33 The last couple RIGs weren't my style. Yes, there were items I liked, but most are out of my reach. Overall, I didn't care too much though since the items were all dark and creepy.
Peyo's RIG is so lighthearted and full of cute items. o wo
AMG hit 1k pages! =D
[1000th Page]
I've already gushed my thanks to the posters of the thread, but... it's so cool. o: Never did I think I'd ever make a thread that would have so many pages. Also, good arguments for why the smoking ban should be repealed were made in the couple pages before the thousandth page~
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lanruoJ 'sdrawkcaB
Most of the journals will log the big updates and feelings of the times. I plan to look back on these in the future. Some large change affecting our lives now usually often turns into something we rarely think about.