I quit gaia. People were jerks, and trolls and such. And a lot of times I was ignored except by friends. It's too greedy for my tastes. My wish list items went from possible to "HA! Think again Chicky!"
Other than here I play on subeta where I now I have over 28 mill, which I accumulated in about two months and would have more had I not bought items. lol I guess it's a bit more like a dress up game, but you do get pets and you can train them and battle with them.
Spoiler
When I first joined I got my items from the Donation center. I got some nifty items there. But if you do the quests which are pretty easy, beginners can start with Sara in Veta and she gives you easy quests. What you do is buy the items they want and when you take the items to the persons you get sP (the currency) and do it enough times you get a quest point and the more you accumulate you can then buy items from the quest shop. The Wizard gives you quest points, currency and Wizard Tokens, which you can use either in the vending machines, or the token shop if they have items there and you you get more items. You can either keep them, sell them or donate them. There are items and things you can only get via adding real cash, but I've been doing pretty good without having to add any real money. Sure I'd like some of the cash shop items, but if no one's selling them then they'll just sit in my wish list. Oh and if you have drawing skills similar to Subeta's you can do your own clothes or hairstyles or what have you and sell them. I only have two friends on Subeta and I don't talk too much in the forums so I can't tell you what they're like.