Yeah I do have to say that it can be harder to get gold here than on gaia BUT the ease with which you can earn gold there does have its downsides, like inflation, and a general kind of "greedy" atmosphere from the people as well as the website itself. I find it much more friendly here on the whole - although there are of course some great spots around Gaia as well.

Gold does add up here - you can get more the more you post (more gold for longer posts) and you can get up to 250 gold per day playing games. My favorites are Tetris and Attack of the Fan Girls, pretty much because I stink at everything else, haha. So yeah, it does add up although patience can be a big help when trying to earn gold for the items you want.

I recommend you search around the forums because there is at least one charity thread that is set up specifically for helping new members, if you haven't found that already.

Anyway, welcome to the site, glad you're here and I hope you have fun!

edit: whoops, I see I've repeated some of Evicted Element's info, sorry about that! Supposed to be asleep at this time so my head's a little addled.