DOES ANYONE REMEMBER GAMINGGROUNDZERO? (REMEMBERING GAMINGGROUNDZERO)

Posts

WIP
I'm not comfortable with any idea that can't be expressed in the form of men's jewelry
11363
I actually used to be chummy with QHeretic before GGZ. Fun thing: Q sent me an in-development translation of RM2k via AIM.

Also fun memory: Wishmoo came into IRC (either #rpgmaker or #rm2k, can't remember) and Holbert changed his name to DadHeretic. And hilarity ensued.

I can't remember where I first met Q and Wishmoo. Possible it was on the Nexus board or RMD. They were definitely in the community prior to the founding of GGZ. I think GGZ came around approximately around the time Don's RM2k translation was released. They saw it as sort of "theirs". Holbert might remember more around that time.

Also, the Nexus was a cool site. RIP Nexus.
I actually managed to register for GGZ and get into their forums by just showing off some sprites. Wishmoo seemed to really like me and was all preparing to make me a resource section on the main site.

I sort of drifted away because I only went there to see what the place was like myself, after all the shit talk it got on other communities. What I found was a fairly insular, and not nearly as active as anywhere else forum frequented by the same few people patting each other on the back.

Not sure why such a place became so derided. ...Well, I do actually. But still.
I remember trying to sign up for their forums circa 2003 and being disallowed because I had an AOL e-mail. I registered a Yahoo e-mail instead and still was denied entry so I gave up trying (probably for the best because I was probably about 11 years old at the time). I always wondered what their forums were like, though, so this thread is very interesting to read. I knew that they were a bit secretive and their forums were exclusive, but I had no idea the site's members were as crazy as your guys are describing.

The games on the site ranged from pretty good to downright bad. I remember one of them (Seekers of the Sun maybe?) had the walk speed set to the slowest possible option on the world map which is a baffling gameplay decision.

rmdatabase.net is the forum I recall most fondly, but although it was quite active, most of its users have seemingly vanished from the internet.
Hahaha I just found out GGZ was down while Googling for Kindred Saga and stumbled upon this forum so I thought I'd share some memories since I've been a bit of a pariah to Wishmoo from my banning from GGZ until its demise (I guess, haven't talked to the woman in like 10 years).

Wishmoo was a sue-happy psychopath bitch. Rumours of her having dodgy phone talks with other members or some weird story involving a guy called Illustrious sleeping over at her place I cannot confirm, but she did indeed phone her members. She phoned me a few times when I was still a minor and my mom understandably didn't like that.

When I dropped off a project of QHeretic and hers in 2005 she threatened with legal action if I ever showed the few resources I had worked on, and making sure 'I'd never be able to work in the video game industry'*. Being the edgy punk that I was, I published all those screenshots in my now defunct website alongside with the sprites, and she called me one last time, yelled at me and hung up.

Haven't heard of her since. As of 2006 one GGZ member she was in touch with told me she was still pretty sour about it, but then again that was like 10 years ago, she must be like 65 by now, either dying or not giving a fuck about her shitty project that never came to be anymore.

*I don't work in the industry but it wasn't because of her, I just never invested myself enough to do so.
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
author=Kryon
her shitty project that never came to be anymore.


I'll have you know Tabernacle is the finest pointless series of fetch quests I ever played, sir!
author=Trihan
I'll have you know Tabernacle is the finest pointless series of fetch quests I ever played, sir!

Hahaha wasn't talking about that one - the project that was supposed to be commercial was called Heartsong or something like that. Of course nothing ever came to fruition because those were the early days of 'I won't pay you but you'll most def gain exposure' and people still weren't buying into it.
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
I never really paid much attention to her other project to be honest, by that point Wishmoo didn't register very highly on my community radar and she was still pissed with androdas, Paradigm and me for using an exploit to put porn in GGZ's affiliates section so I was trying to stay relatively far away from anything to do with her.
Damn, I missed the porn spam arc, must have been hilarious hahaha. GGZ was basically dead last I checked, and I never, ever heard of her again.

But yeah, she was the kind of person you'd better leave alone - not because they were particularly 'dangerous' (not as much as she ought herself to be anyways) - but because she got easily butthurt and was rather trigger happy when it came to threatening with lawsuits and other crap.
A little late to the party here, but I can confirm the madness that was GGZ. As elitist as GGZ was it did kickstart my interest in development and programming although I eventually transitioned to RMRK and Creation Asylum. Sadly all three have either died out or become a barren wasteland.

I'd definitely be interested in hearing about what everyone else is up to these days. I always thought Q would be the pioneer of the Rm2k community that breaks onto the commercial front but he seemed to disappear as quickly as the Kindred Saga Beta caught on.
GGZ was basically the north korea of rpgmaker.
Does anyone remember Darken?
author=kentona
Does anyone remember Darken?


as long as I keep posting in the occasional oldbies reminiscent topics, hopefully someone will.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
Darken
kentona
Does anyone remember Darken?
as long as I keep posting in the occasional oldbies reminiscent topics, hopefully someone will.


What about Zoidberg?
author=FreelanceWebNinja
I'd definitely be interested in hearing about what everyone else is up to these days. I always thought Q would be the pioneer of the Rm2k community that breaks onto the commercial front but he seemed to disappear as quickly as the Kindred Saga Beta caught on.
I haven't heard of anyone since. But since QHeretic was somewhat managed by his mom, and she was terrible at everything other than nagging, maybe that's where things went haywire for him.

A pity, really.

author=Darken
GGZ was basically the north korea of rpgmaker.
This.
author=Darken
GGZ was basically the north korea of rpgmaker.


Close the topic, because nothing that has been posted or will be posted will top this post.
Yellow Magic
Could I BE any more Chandler Bing from Friends (TM)?
3154
author=Darken
GGZ was basically the north korea of rpgmaker.

That's it I'm dead
I played a lot in that website and it includes dating sims LOL.. what a lonely life! lemme try to forget the past~
Starscream
Conquest is made from the ashes of one's enemies.
6110
Gather around the campfire kids.

My first experience with QHeretic was on the NeXus where he started "solving" all kinds of newbie RPG Maker questions while at the same time blasting links to his pre-GGZ website. He responded to dozens of questions, most of which seemed to be asked my kindergarteners.

A little research revealed all of the kindergarteners were, in fact, QHeretic. They all had the same IP address! When confronted with this, he first alleged they were all from different school classmates before banning me from the pre-GGZ and becoming a recluse.

Amazing that this was almost 20 years ago. Now I feel old.

Man, I remember that there was some sort of 'keep away' vibe about the site. A lot of people I knew didn't outright say anything against it, but there was this feeling of... IDK, nobody wanting to go there. It was fine to download the games but interacting with the people there was something that was advised against and so I never bothered.

OzzyTheOne
Future Ruler of Gam Mak
4676
Wow, hearing about this site and how some other sites died out over time, I'm happy I joined a relatively stable community. And I hope this one lasts for super long, for there's one thing I will never get over and that is slowly but surely losing contact to an online community I like. ;_;