DOES ANYONE REMEMBER GAMINGGROUNDZERO? (REMEMBERING GAMINGGROUNDZERO)

Posts

Hey folks, the domain for GamingGroundZero expired a few months ago and has since been replaced by a regular run-of-the-mill video game blog.

I was able to grab most of their rpgmakers games with the exception of Delta Star by Jensma. but unfortunately due to robot.txt and exclusion from webarchive.org GGZ the site, is now lost to the test of time.

GamingGroundZero, to me, was one of the first rpgmaker communities I became aware of around 2002-ish along with finally getting my hands on rpgmaker2000. Other than Kindred Saga and how complicated it was to create a Custom-Battle-System in rpgmaker2000, I know next to nothing about this site or it's community.

I understand one user from GGZ migrated to RMN at one point:

https://rpgmaker.net/forums/topics/2856/?p=1#posts

but unfortunately has since left RMN and hasn't been seen since then…

...So I was hoping someone more familiar with the community and it's history would be able to fill in the blanks and tell us more about GGZ and what exactly happened there over the years. Cause like with the interview I did with bleet, I did back in October, It's always really interesting to hear which rpgmaker sites and communities you guys formerly hail from. But I feel like Gaming Ground Zero is the one community I don't know enough about...

...and well GamingGroundZero is now gone...

So yeah, If you can, please share your thoughts/memories of GGZ. Any information is good information. The more info, the better! <3
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
Basically #rm2k, back in the day, had a massive hate-on for GGZ because of the elitist way in which Wishmoo and QHeretic ran it. This resulted in some less than cordial altercations over the years.

At one point, androdas, Alethio and I discovered an exploit in GGZ's code that allowed any visitor to the site to add affiliate links to their list, so naturally we put in a bunch of hardcore porn for laughs. That didn't go down well.

There was a fairly prominent community member called webmaster (or webby to his friends) who was infamous for becoming Wishmoo's mole in #rm2k and related communities, where he would essentially spy on us and report what we were doing/talking about to shmoo. She threatened a few of us with legal action one time, which was fun.

That said, GGZ was one of the pillars of RPG Maker and had some really great members, and awesome games. It's definitely an interesting chapter in our history.
DE
*click to edit*
1313
It was a cult, a literal cult with Wishmoo acting the guru.

It's a chapter in RMaking best left forgotten.
All I know about GGZ I heard about on #RM2K. I might have lurked a bit looking for resources.
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
If I remember correctly there was a fair bit of bad blood between GGZ and GamingW as well. I don't think Bart and Wishmoo got on well.
RM sites are natural enemies. Like GGZ and GamingW. Or RMN and GamingW. Or Ghostlight Games and GamingW.
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
I'm noticing some kind of pattern there.
Magi
Resident Terrapin
1028
GGZ was kind of like the "indies" of the RM community, and pumped out some very memorable games (Felix Trapper was my frikxinG boy) but tried too hard to be an exclusive place. I never was able to get past forum registration because Wishmoo would cross-check names from communities she was "feuding" with before allowing them access. It was a weird time, but nevertheless I was still sad to see the site finally go.
GGZ. Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

author=kentona
RM sites are natural enemies. Like GGZ and GamingW. Or RMN and GamingW. Or Ghostlight Games and GamingW.


Or GamingW and GamingW, apparently, since it ended up destroying itself.

I only remember having a small number of encounters with the GGZ legends- namely Wishmoo and, once, QHeretic. I was a pretty small, inoffensive fish, and I thought I could swim around freely. I think I may have been on their IRC and then, suddenly, I was banned. Wishmoo seemed totally insane. I think someone deduced that I was from GW and that was that. I have only vague memories of these names.

I do remember they had a couple of pretty solid games that I enjoyed playing, but my enjoyment was somewhat mitigated by the extreme lengths they would go to to "protect resources" (mostly minor edits of rips), including threatening legal action. I seem to remember many tales of Wishmoo threatening legal action, actually. This was a time of people going to extreme lengths to protect their mediocre palette swaps of rips, and GGZ were by far the most ill-spirited about it. It was a doubly weird time because it was well before anyone thought about actually making money from RPGMaker games.

These were legendary days where, somehow, a bunch of nerds in the internet diaspora contrived to be constantly embattled in dramatic back and forths in the arena of RPGMaker feuds rather than just being generally pleasant and thinking certain people are complete fuckwhistles like we manage nowadays.

I feel like a lot of the people from GGZ were sort of shackled to their legacy. They made some great games and wanted to continue that legacy at new sites, but their names also made people think of Wishmoo, so instead they withered away into obscurity. Like, extra obscurity, since we're all already pretty obscure.

I wonder what games could have been...
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
Other than her batshit insanity and sue-happy nature, the main thing I remember about Wishmoo is that Tabernacle was a terrible series of fetch quests disguised as a game.

Props to QHeretic though, Kindred Saga wasn't bad.
Guys, Thank you so much for these responses.

This is all very good information, especially Kaempfer's response, which kind of summarizes everything up nicely.

The only problem I have right now, is tracking down a date: I can't seem to pin down when or how GamingGroundZero began. Or even how involved Don Miguel was with the community. (I remember, seeing a brief interview with Don Miguel before the site shutdown, but that's about it.)


In terms of dates, I remember getting my first personal computer in 2000 and seeing my brother play Kindred Saga, somewhere around 2001.

(I even vaguely remember GGZ having a really cool splash page of sketch drawn jrpg heroes on the front of it.)

…But I didn't join GamingW until 2007.

So if you guys have any more information on GGZ's past, even just regarding the dates
or other rpgmaker communities during that time, in general. Feel free to post about it.

It's kind of exciting to see what you guys have to share, cause I really wasn't really around to see all this, back then.
Decky
I'm a dog pirate
19645
glad I missed all that bullshit. one vision. one site. one purpose. KANE.
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
I can't give you exact dates unfortunately; I joined the RM community in 2001 and GGZ was already around back then (which you'll know if you saw your brother playing KS). I don't think it vastly predated that.
author=Deckiller
glad I missed all that bullshit. one vision. one site. one purpose. KANE.


+1.
I remember that site. I heard they were pretty ban happy there, so 13 year old me started an account and posted a single thread that basically was talking shit about Wishmoo and the whole forums. I was banned 10 minutes later.
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
Erave! There's a name I haven't seen around for a while. How've you been?
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
this thread is becoming the who's who of old gamingw-turn-rmn people

somebody get neophyte and rei-

edit: also as #rm2k i cannot speak of ggz as i am pretty sure we all have fictional restraining orders on us
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
The restraining order bullshit was funny.