“My fellow Gaians...This has got to be the most honest and straightforward representation of our beloved site right now...Whoever made these videos I applaud you.”
―theoverlookedordinary
“I thought it was funny... Then I realized it was too true to be funny.”
―Kay9214
“Our struggles will be preserved by Hitler after the site is gone.”
―NothingGold
The Downfall of Gaia Online is a seven-part parody video made by NeutralityChecker and uploaded between April 27 and May 15, 2014, which focuses on the gradual decline of Gaia Online, a once-popular virtual world.
Much of the story takes place in the Führerbunker, which served as the headquarters of the Nazi guild. Some parts, however, feature scenes outside the bunker:
The flak nest, used as one of the stores in the user-run marketplace
Chuikov's headquarters, which served as the office of Gaia Interactive
The ruins of Berlin, which stood for what is left of Gaia Online after the mass departures.
Plot[]
SPOILER ALERT!
Part 1[]
Uploaded on April 27
The series starts with Hitler asking Burgdorf about the state of the marketplace of Gaia Online. Burgdorf responds that the prices of many items have gone up: items that were once worth only a few hundred thousands in gold, the basic in-game currency, are now worth millions and could be worth billions or trillions in a few days. Refusing to believe him, Burgdorf told Hitler to talk over the phone with one of the sellers at the marketplace.
Hitler then asked about the availability of the Nation of the Rebellion item, the item he sought for the most. The seller responded that the lowest selling price for the item is 80 million, and that he is willing to either sell it to the marketplace for 75 million or trade it to him directly for 73.5 million. He further emphasized that he won't accept lower offers. Hitler, however, rejected the offer and threatened to report the seller for artificially-inflating the price of the item, noting that it was previously available for 125,000. Krebs then suggested that Hitler should buy Flynn's Booty, a gold-generating item, from the site's cash shop, telling that it could give him as much gold as he wanted.
The next scene features someone announcing that people should give up on their quest while several users throw their inventories and their account details to a fire as they quit. Schenck comes across one of the users who are about to quit, and he was told that the new management sold gold-generating items that put many items beyond the reach of non-paying users.
Schenck then meets Jason Loia, the Chief Operations Officer of Gaia Online, to confront him over the sale of gold generators. He further asks him about other ways to monetize the userbase, but Loia instead brings up Gaia's past financial losses. Schenck goes on to accuse Loia of thinking only for short-term profits and disregarding the long-term consequences of constantly releasing gold generators. Loia then responds that Flynn's Booty is their best-selling item. Schenck then reminds Loia that he has created a hostile environment for newcomers and that longtime users are leaving as well. Loia ends the conversation noting that Gaia Interactive isn't limiting itself to Gaia Online. He then leaves, together with new servers that are being prepared.
The final scene of Part 1 shows Keitel informing Hitler that they have sold their entire inventories, yet they could barely afford his wishlisted items. He then promises that the Nazi guild would earn their Iron Crosses soon since he would spend money on Gaia Cash, the in-game currency that is available for real-life money, for the first time. Jodl asks Hitler about the item he is about to buy. Noting that the combined inventories of everyone in the guild are worth less than one Iron Cross from the Nation of the Rebellion item, he finally decides to try Flynn's Booty, one of the gold generators. Krebs tells Hitler that he needs an Angelic Rod, the best fishing rod of Gaia's Fishing minigame, to catch fish there, and asks for one if Hitler is successful with Flynn's Booty. Hitler approves, believing that he could get 250 million from the Flynn's Booty bundle. Jodl, however, is worried about becoming unlucky with the gold generators and getting less gold than Hitler expects. Hitler immediately dismisses Jodl's point and denies him his share of the gold from the gold generators.
Part 2[]
Uploaded on April 27
Grawitz complains about Hitler buying a gold generator, telling him that he ruined their fun on earning gold. Hitler, however, told Grawitz to get some Gaia Cash and join the bandwagon through buying a gold generator because "Gaia Cash is what matters these days". He adds that Grawitz should quit if he can't afford buying Gaia Cash. Grawitz leaves, and Günsche informs Hitler that Fegelein has opened his Flynn's Booty bundle for him, which yielded only a total of 50 million. Knowing that this meant Fegelein gaining access to his Gaia Online account, Hitler suspects that Fegelein just wasted his cash and he can't still afford his wishlisted item. Accusing him of bribing Jet and Cygnus, the shopkeepers of the cash shop, into giving him defective versions of the gold generators, he demands Fegelein's wallet to be brought to him to compensate for his losses.
Meanwhile, as more users leave Gaia Online, a group of storekeepers still insists on selling hyperinflated items at the marketplace. A prospective client visits them, who suspects the sellers that they already have billions or trillions of gold in their account. The leader of the group tells him that they're saving up for some expensive items, but the client suspects that those items would be immediately resold for a quadrillion. The group leader immediately denies it and explains that they collect certain types of items, most of which are no longer available in the in-game shops. When the buyer alleges that they use gold generators, they didn't deny it. The client then asks them on how they would use all the gold they accumulate when the users with the items they want are leaving. Another member says that the old items are occasionally released on a special auction called "Flynn's Plunder".
The client elaborates that they are to blame for the hyperinflation, which he calls as "the cancer of Gaia's marketplace", and reminds that they are also being affected by it. He is told, however, that they'll save up and wait for the release of another gold generator. He tells them that he spent years earning gold through active participation in the site, while they rely on gold generators that grant the same much faster. One of the storekeepers then asked him if he was interested in buying from their store. Hearing that he's not interested and he's not buying a gold generator to be able to afford their prices, one of the sellers runs away in disgust. Before leaving, the client asks them to stop their activities immediately because not everyone can afford to keep up.
In the next scene, Keitel asks about the amount of gold Hitler got from the gold generators. Jodl recalls his objections to Hitler's purchase of Flynn's Booty and speculates that whoever hacked the items effectively shaved off two zeroes. Fegelein explains to Jodl that he opened them normally. Keitel, however, further accuses Fegelein of sending half of the items to randomly-selected users through the dumpster and giving millions of gold as tips to users in the Chatterbox forum. Fegelein blames the low output of the generators to bad luck. Keitel, however, refuses to believe him and continues to accuse him of stealing. Despite Fegelein's denial, Jodl believes that Fegelein had the missing gold and asks for its redistribution. Fegelein, however, refuses since, for him, Jodl seems to be interested to get a share. Burgdorf opposes Jodl's motion and asks Fegelein to return the stolen gold to Hitler so that he could decide how to spend it.
The last scene of Part 2 shows the drunken Nazi guild members after their unsuccessful interrogation of Fegelein. Traudl walks past them as she went to Hitler's room to get some papers. She saw him blankly staring at the marketplace graph for his wishlisted item and continued to do so after she left.
Part 3[]
Uploaded on April 30
At a meet-up, Hitler told the members of the Nazi guild that he suspects having his gold stolen from him and demands for its return. A mostly-incomprehensible round of finger-pointing ensued, and Hitler cut them off, requesting the members of his guild to pay for replacements or face having their items seized and being expelled. Goebbels reveals that each Nazi guild member have done enough special offers that they have enough Gaia Cash to afford at least one Flynn's Booty. He promises that the entire guild will forward to Hitler every Flynn's Booty they buy and notes that they have enough cash to support players of games that are reliant on cash-bought items.
Hitler calls Mohnke next and welcomes him back, asking how he could help on the quest. Mohnke reveals that his account was used before by the rest of the guild to store trash items that were deemed to be useless years ago. Now, he mentions getting around a billion gold from selling the trash items, and he is willing to shoulder the cost of Hitler's quest. Hitler thanks Mohnke for offering help.
At the dinner table, Hitler declares his long time quest of an Iron Cross for every Nazi guild member to be almost over. He mentions roaming around and occupying the site's Flash-based spaces, and he expects that the avatars of the guild members could wipe out all opponents in zOMG, Gaia Online's MMORPG. He attributes the success of the quest to buying Flynn's Booty. Goebbels suggests that the guild could become an army of Nazis if every member equips firearm items, reminding Hitler of his side quest. However, Hitler notes that only the Iron Cross of the Nation of the Rebellion would remind onlookers of who they are.
Linge brings an announcement from Gaia. Hitler expects it to be either another good deal from Flynn (the non-playing character associated with gold generators) or offers for items that sell well in the marketplace. The announcement, however, turns out to be about Gaia's launching of Tentacl, a forum intended for mature audiences with NSFW posts on the front page and a mostly-broken site layout. Hitler immediately launches a tirade over unwittingly-financing such a website. He goes on comparing the attention paid between the features of Gaia Online and the features of Tentacl before throwing the folder on the table and he vows to never spend money on Gaia cash until Tentacl is gone. He recalls the staff's promise to focus on Gaia alone, which seems to be broken.
Due to being informed of the existence of such a website, Hitler, as well as many others on the same table, could no longer finish their dinner. Many of them leave. Hitler wants to contact Gary Schofield, the Chief Executive Officer of Gaia Online, over the issue, but Linge is unable to share any details over fears of being banned. Burgdorf notes that rules against sharing contact details of Gaia's employees have been present since December 2013. Hitler demands an explanation for this.
Part 4[]
Uploaded on May 4
Goebbels, being present during Hitler's tirade, now turns against Gaia Online's best-selling gold generators and blames them for the increasingly-unreachable prices. He instead recommends buying items that could be resold for profit and predicts that investors on items would be richer than investors on gold generators. Weidling is worried that his wealth would be devalued by the future re-release of the items. Krebs, however, insists on buying an Angelic Rod. Burgdorf reminds Krebs that he hadn't caught enough fish yet, but Krebs blames him for not giving him enough bait. Hewel advises Krebs to find the rod in the dumpster. Not interested on listening to Goebbels' explanation on the constant re-release of gold generators, Fritzsche walks out of the room and asks Misch to lead him to the shop of Jet and Cygnus (the cash shop). Burgdorf finds Fritzsche, who is about to buy a bundle of Make It Rain, another gold generating item. He offers Fritzsche a free item called "Make Your Head Explode", which he unsuccessfully delivers with his gun.
The gunshot briefly interrupts the Item Alchemy session of Magda and Stumpfegger. Stumpfegger is already mixing some of the ingredients when Magda asks him if there are any missing components. Stumpfegger notes that they don't have a Philosopher's Stone yet. She then goes to Hitler's room to request more funds, only to find Günsche guarding the closed door. He later opens the door after she pleads to Günsche. Hitler, on the other hand, refused to listen to her pleas to fund her current Alchemy session and told her to beg someone else to buy it for her.
The next day, Hitler is seen leaving the bunker to go to the headquarters of Gaia Online. When Weidling asks him about it, he brings up for the need for the staff of Gaia Online to hear them, and adds that he won't have to take the trip if "Ask the Admins", a weekly thread where the staff of Gaia answers the questions of its users, had been retained. After Hitler leaves, Weidling expresses his doubts over the success of the trip. Krebs blames trolls for destroying the weekly feedback thread. However, Goebbels points out that those who give legitimate feedback are being labelled as "trolls" as well. Krebs recalls that the latest feedback thread degenerated into a flame war. Weidling comments, however, that Gaia's staff could no longer handle the furor, and continued casting his doubts on the effectiveness of the petitions. Burgdorf calls out Weidling on underestimating the Gaian forumgoers and says that the guild should never give up until Flynn's Booty gets removed.
Part 5[]
Uploaded on May 6
Schofield is seen in his office together with Derek Liu and some unidentified interns, skimming over parts of Loia's slideshow and the marketplace graph showing the total amount of gold removed from circulation. Someone who is knocking on the door interrupts him within seconds. Linge tells Schofield that the Führer of the Nazi guild wants to talk with him. Schofield asks Linge to let Hitler wait as they prepare. Hitler is then told to wait for Schofield's signal.
Schofield thought that the real staff is elsewhere, and asks the interns to wear staff badges just for show. However, when he noticed that Liu is still with them, he shoves him into a nearby closet before letting Hitler in.
Hitler enters Schofield's office, telling him that his guild disapproves the business practices of Gaia Online. When asked to elaborate, he begins complaining about Schofield's failure to reply to his e-mails and cites his visit as a way to ensure a response. When asked about the cancellation of the "Ask the Admins" thread, Schofield states that they could no longer keep up with the thread. Hitler then asks about the questions that overwhelmed the staff in the final thread. None of them could answer him, so Hitler asked if they read the thread. Schofield briefly reviews it, and finds that complaints over gold generators dominated the thread and kept them bogged down.
Hitler then asks the staff over the constant release of gold generators despite their effects on the marketplace. Schofield replies that more people like gold generators, and that they're not expected to have a negative impact. However, Hitler points out that the prices of every item have been driven up and asks if it's good for the economy. The interns simply nod. Still, Hitler reveals that he bought some gold generators, but was unsuccessful with them. Schofield tells Hitler that he was just unlucky with the gold generators. Nevertheless, Hitler accuses him of rigging the gold generators purposely to have more funds for another site. Schofield says that they're doing everything for Gaia, but they see no alternatives. Hitler breaks down at this point, and dismisses their excuses as unacceptable. Schofield wants to know about Hitler's suggestions, but Hitler simply tells them to correct everything they did wrong and adds that everyone is doomed if the management refuses to do so. Schofield and the interns leave Hitler behind in tears, without any parting words.
Part 6[]
Uploaded on May 9
Misch just receives 10 announcements from Gaia Online. He orders Traudl to forward them to Hitler through Bormann, who is already swamped with older unread announcements. Bormann reads the titles of seven of the announcements (3 announcements on expired offers, 2 announcements on the sale of gold generators, 2 announcements on the sale of off-season items) before giving up and telling Hitler that there's a hundred more unread announcements. Hewel notes that, while he's still buying from La Victoire (the site's cash shop), he has no use for outdated and redundant announcements and calls it a waste of bandwidth. Goebbels, however, labels the repeated announcements as spam and says that users are normally banned if they post threads at that rate, but non-playing characters could get away with it.
Hitler calls the newest announcements as a spamfest and describes it as overwhelming and annoying. He further demands that the ads be redone if Gaia wants him to pay once more for items, and he recalls that announcements used to be interesting. Meanwhile, outside his room, Speer comes. Traudl asks him if 11 more announcements are too much. He replies affirmatively, and he tells her that he wants to disable receiving the announcements. Linge, however, tells them that the setting for disabling the announcements doesn't work.
Hitler continues to complain over the quality of the announcements, noting that he hasn't seen a good announcement for days, and criticizes the excessive gamification of Gaia Online. He ends his furious tirade, saying that Gaia should treat users like him as persons, not lab rats. Calming down, he concludes that they are being treated as cash cows and Gaia Interactive is in severe financial trouble for their increasingly-aggressive calls for funding.
Part 7[]
Uploaded on May 15
Traudl and Gerda sees some Nazi guild members retreating. Traudl recognizes this as a sign of a civil war in Gaia between the users and the management, and she asks Günsche if the guild would get involved. He tells Traudl that they haven't decided yet, but Gerda declares the civil war as the best chance to get heard. Günsche leaves upon seeing Fegelein and lets him explain the guild's refusal to take sides. Traudl expects the furor to subside and says that she and Gerda would be satisfied with whatever happens afterwards. She predicts the end of the war if one side gives in. However, he believes that Gaia Online would survive the revolt because both sides demand the unconditional surrender of the other. Traudl asks if a compromise could be reached, but Fegelein notes that the relations between staff and users are beyond repair. Fegelein leaves to attend an emergency meeting, but Gerda tells him to keep fighting for Gaia.
Fegelein just comes in time for the meeting, where Krebs informs the rest of the guild of the revolt. He points out that the Site Feedback forum was just flooded with negative reactions, that sales of cash shop items declined, and that other employees had quit working for Gaia. Hitler is expecting that the staff would surrender with almost everyone in Gaia against them, but Jodl informs him that Gaia Interactive will shut down Gaia Online after being deemed as unprofitable. Hitler orders many members of the guild to broadcast his statement to frequent gold generators, the developers, the sales team and the management.
He begins by saying not to let Gaia die and calls "death through economic collapse" as the awful downfall of the Internet's largest forum. He compares the latest management of Gaia to its previous managements, noting that the latter won't allow crises to be severe and the former used the announcements for excessive advertising. Burgdorf, not losing his faith on the forumgoers, suggests that Hitler should have joined them on a petition. However, before he could specify the nature of the petition, Hitler cuts Burgdorf off, saying that nobody listened to him when he visited Gaia's office. Burgdorf expects that the removal of gold generators would be enough to resolve the crisis, but Hitler wanted more things to be done. He points out that the management wasted good chances last year to restore the trust of the community after seeing the effects of the management's blunders. He says that communication between them were hindered, and that the items the guild wants to be removed were frequently re-released to fund Tentacl. He thus doesn't wonder that they are about to abandon Gaia Online.
He recalls that posting in forums used to earn just enough and spamming it used to be fun. He also cites the time when Boxxy ruled the chatterbox. He then contrasts those memories of the old Gaia with his experience with the new Gaia: the gold he gathered for years lost its value with the release of "Flynn's body parts" (a reference to the first few gold generators that bore Flynn's name). He shares his frustration with gold generators, saying that he is getting drowned with increasingly-useless gold while his wishlisted items were beyond his reach. Outside, Traudl reminds Gerda that they still have the rest of the Internet.
When his anger subsided, Hitler admits that their feedback were ignored, and that Gaia Online will be gone unless outside forces intervene. Judging by the way the management handled Gaia Online, he expects that other sites that they handle would also fail. He then tells the members of his guild to prepare to move elsewhere.
Weidling is soon seen reading to a tape recorder an announcement about the impending closure of Gaia Online. A truck playing the record is afterwards seen going past the ruins of the cash shop, left with only an empty chest. One of the marketplace vendors seen earlier in Part 2 notices the truck and follows it as it drives through what is left of Gaia.
In the announcement, Weidling, as a regular forum poster and a member of Gaia for 11 years, says that the userbase's suspicions of the new management's apathy is confirmed by its decision to abandon Gaia Online after milking it to death. He adds that items consistently hated for their detrimental effects to the economy were repeatedly released under different names. He continues that none among the petitions launched against gold generators and the requests to curb hyperinflation were noticed. He requests that the downfall of Gaia Online should be prevented through all means available, citing that it has been the place where Boxxy began her rise and it also has the Internet's longest forum thread. He asks everyone to join them in their final attempt to save the site. He then requests someone else to take over before he collapses. Afterwards, the ending screen would eventually read as "This should not be the end".
Appears in every episode, he is the Führer of the Nazi guild and the focal character of the series.
He is portrayed as a user who cannot afford an item called "Nation of the Rebellion", which contains an Iron Cross as one of its poses. He then resorts to buying a gold generator, expecting that it would help him on completing his quest. He wrongfully blamed Fegelein when the gold generator didn't give him the amount of gold he wanted and demanded that the rest of the guild fund replacement items. However, when he is informed about the launch of Gaia's 18+ forum, Tentacl, he almost immediately regrets buying gold generators and promised not to buy Gaia Cash until Tentacl shuts down. He visits Schofield's office to tell him about his experience with gold generators, only to be ignored. He also receives more spam from Gaia (in the form of announcements) as a result of his visit. When Gaia Online announces its closure on the last episode, he requests the rest of the guild to prepare to move out of Gaia.
Appears in Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 as a member of the Nazi guild. It was he who first informed Hitler of the hyperinflated marketplace prices. However, he didn't object to the purchase of gold generators until the launch of Tentacl. Thereafter, he joined the ranks of regular posters in Gaia's forums who call for the discontinuation of the sale of gold generators, going as far as to attempt shooting someone who is about to buy one.
Appears in Episodes 2, 3, 6 and 7. She walks into Hitler's room where she sees him staring at a graph showing the constantly-increasing price of his wishlisted item. She is also present when he learns of the launch of Tentacl and she delivers copies of announcements from Gaia from Misch to Bormann, who in turn reads them to Hitler. She believes that misunderstandings between the staff and the userbase could be resolved peacefully.
Appears in Episodes 1, 4, and 7 as a member of the Nazi guild who frequently plays Gaia Online's Fishing minigame.
Upon hearing Hitler's complaints over hyperinflation, he suggested the purchase of Flynn's Booty, a gold generator. He also requested Hitler on getting for him an Angelic Rod, the game's most powerful fishing rod, with the spare gold from the gold generator. However, by the fourth episode, he doesn't have it yet. He then requests other people to buy it for him while Goebbels tells everyone not to buy gold generators.
By the last episode, he informs Hitler of a revolt against Gaia's management breaking out.
Appears in Episodes 1, 2 and 7 as a member of the Nazi guild.
He objected to Hitler's purchase of Flynn's Booty, fearing that it won't give them enough gold. On the succeeding episode, he insists that Hitler doesn't deserve to get the gold and asks Fegelein, who is suspected of stealing it, to redistribute it to everyone.
Later in the series, he informs Hitler that Gaia Online would shut down soon.
Appears in Episode 2, 4 and 7. He informs Hitler of the total gold output of Flynn's Booty back when Hitler is still buying Gaia Cash. Later, he is seen telling Magda that Hitler quit buying Gaia Cash after learning about Tentacl.
At Episode 7, Traudl and Gerda ask him about the guild's participation in an ongoing sitewide revolt, which he denied.
Appears in Episodes 3, 5, and 6, he is knowledgeable on changes in site policies and features. He also accompanies Hitler on his visit to Schofield's office.
Appears in Episodes 3, 4 and 6 as a member of the Nazi guild. At first, he offers to shoulder the cost of buying gold generators for Hitler. However, after learning of the launch of Tentacl, he immediately orders the rest of the guild not to buy them. By Episode 6, he also complains about the announcements Hitler just received.
Appears in Episodes 2 and 7. Günsche mentions that he was allowed to use Hitler's account to open the gold generators. However, due to his association with antics in the parody universe, Hitler initially blamed at Fegelein the lower-than-normal output of gold generators. He is later seen being interrogated by Keitel, where he denies the accusations.
By Episode 7, he tells Traudl and Gerda of Gaia's impending closure in advance.
Appears in Episodes 4 and 7. He constantly opposes attempts to reach out to Gaia's staff over the site's problems. In the ending, he appeals to the rest of Gaia to come together in a final attempt to save the site.
Appears in Episodes 4 and 6. He is in control of the communication lines between the guild and Gaia's virtual stores. He thus is responsible for giving newly-bought items to guild members and distributing announcements about sales.
Appears only in Episode 3, where he donated to Hitler all the gold he earned from selling trash items.
Gary Schofield[]
Portrayed by Vasily Chuikov, he appears only in Episode 5, although he is mentioned in Episodes 3 and 7. He is the CEO of Gaia Online.
He is shown to consistently insist on selling gold generators, going as far as silencing people who could potentially oppose him.
Jason Loia[]
Portrayed by Tellermann, he appears only in Episode 1. He is the COO of Gaia Online.
He is portrayed as apathetic towards the userbase. Despite seeing users of Gaia Online quit en masse, he ignored Schenck's pleas to fix the virtual economy of Gaia Online.
Portrayed by Matvey Blanter, he appears only in Episode 5 and is called as 'lanzer', his Gaia username. He is one of the founders of Gaia Online. However, he has mostly lost influence over the day-to-day operation of the site. Schofield never let any visitor see Liu, and is always forced into hiding everytime a visitor comes.
