It’s been just about 6 months since I publicly released the avatar community known as Crysandrea, and within those 6 months I’ve heard this quote at least over twenty times: “This site will grow bigger than Gaia!”. The intentions they have are beautiful, they see it as a success comparison. But it struck me odd when I began to see admins agreeing to go head to head with Gaia, and try to out-do them. Are you serious? Gaia has been around the internet for about seven years now, they have “endless resources” and a audience count longer than I’m comfortable pronouncing. Simply put, if you think like that, chances are you’ll never beat them. They will always be two steps ahead, they will always be Gaia and you can’t beat the person who’s making the rules.
That’s why I decided Crysandrea should have a different direction. Instead of going toe to toe with Gaia, making more features, spending more money and advertising more than other competitors, I decided to not do any of that. Crysandrea’s goal is much different from what many people think. Crysandrea isn’t thinking like the “big boys”, we’re thinking like the starters. Our goal is to stay simple, keep a small team and improve our current features as much as we possibly can. It’s the reason why when people were asking for journal system, I decided to not do it yet. Instead of spending energy on a well-done journal system, why not make a faster more reliable avatar system? Why not improve the trade system? Why not simplify the way you buy shop items? Everything can be improved, but when you start thinking of adding features that aren’t really needed, you start spreading your team, resources and energy.
I’m going to leave the fifty thousand features to Gaia, I’ve decided to please the users who like things done the best they can be.
Yeah, someone from Crys is reading your blog and listening… And I agree with all of that and really respect what you’re trying to do with the site. All of what you said in the post is spot on with what I want in an avatar site. It’s stuff like this that will keep me coming back to your site. Keep it up!
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