Well, yes, we are happy about this, but zOMG! is the name of the MMO, not an expression of our excitement. Vivox, the company that provides voice chat in quite a few of our favorite games, has added one more to their list. They've partnered with Gaia Online to provide in game voice chat for zOMG!, their free-to-play browser based MMO.

"Gaia Online has defined the social web experience for millions of teens and young adults," said Rob Seaver, CEO of Vivox. "And voice is the ultimate social glue. By adding voice chat to zOMG!, Gaia Online proves, again, its commitment to providing a truly social experience for its players."

Vivox voice chat is live in zOMG! now for players to "gab to your heart's content using the power of your own face-hole, saving valuable keystrokes for more efficient monster bashing," according to the zOMG! monthly newsletter. True to form, zOMG! has added their own twist on it as well: players can purchase voice fonts in the storefront to give their voice a unique twist. Congratulations to Gaia Online and Vivox for their partnership!

If you're the type of person who turns your game music off, to listen to your favorite mp3s while gaming, then this post is not for you. Anyone who has bought a game soundtrack in the last 15 years is probably aware of the name Jeremy Soule. He has worked on such mega hits as Guild Wars, Oblivion, Morrowind, Company of Heroes, KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights and many more. I guess you could say he's kinda legendary.

His latest endeavor includes music for Gaia Online's zOMG! MMO. Worlds in Motion was fortunate enough to sit down with Soule and discuss his work on this game, and his origins in the business. Since 1994, Soule has created some amazing in-game music, so working with a Flash-based MMO is something new for him. He sees it as a way for more people to hear his work, and enjoy what he creates. Check out the entire article and his official website for more on Jeremy Soule.

After a recent Game Power Panel at this year's CES, GameCyte caught up with a few MMO big-wigs to ask the burning question: can the MMO experience extend to mobile phones? From Turbine to Gaia Online, the companies' CEOs all had differing views.

Dr. Lars Buttler of Trion World Network, and Jim Crowley of Turbine both agreed that the mobile phone is not really the place for a full-blown multiplayer experience. Although they did essentially agree with others like Brett Close of 38 Studios in the thinking that there are certainly extensions of an MMO that can be achieved through a cell. Checking the auction house, training skills or even reading quest text could all be done on-the-go. Check out the entire post over at GameCyte for some more opinions on mobile MMOs.

#2 -- Balance microtransactions with game content.

Real money trade (RMT) was big news this year. The rise of the microtransaction model was on everyone's lips. I'm not calling for a death-knell of subscription fees or anything (I like the predictability of the subscription system; I know how much I'm going to pay) but I am saying that microtransactions need to be carefully monitored.

"Just remember the first rule of actually having an avatar in an online space -- people want to look cool above everything else."

This writer's suggestion: cosmetic pieces. The item doesn't have to do something to make people love it. Take some hints from Gaia Online, Mabinogi, and City of Heroes. Their models have proven that people will pay for things -- awesome abilities or not. Just remember the first rule of actually having an avatar in an online space -- people want to look cool above everything else.

Many people may not agree with John Smedley on everything he says, but he's dead on the money with ideas like character action figures, guild calendars and pictures, and posters with your character on it and the official branding. Those items are amazing concepts, easy to produce, and a great way for an alternate revenue stream to flow into your company.

#1 -- "Kill/Quest, Level" concept is a dead horse, get on with it already!

Yes! Get on with it! This is, without a doubt, in my mind, the biggest failure of the industry today. We're following along a solved formula, and it's shooting this industry in the foot. Player needs to level, player completes quests and kills monsters, player reaches next level, player gets new abilities, player uses abilities to go complete quests and kill monsters, et cetera.

We keep asking the question, "Why don't these new games seem like they're as good?" And then we begin this in-depth analysis and begin checking every aspect of the game to find out why this feels like we've done it all before. The answer is taking a step back, looking at the model and exclaiming aloud, "Holy heck in a handwoven handkerchief, we have done this before!"

The reason we keep playing single player games is because each one has it's own twist on the core formula. Couple that with the story and personal experience, and you get a great game. Our MMO industry needs to learn this fact this year -- not next year. The quest/kill, level, quest/kill model has been done and overdone. Gameplay needs to expand past this. Even reputation grinding is nothing more than the quest/kill to level system.

"The quest/kill, level, quest/kill model has been done and overdone."

One game that has been taking off faster than a warp drive engine has been EVE Online, because it has broken from this methodology. Before you begin your complaints, yes, the grinding system is there. Doing missions to get money is the quest/kill system. What makes EVE different and attractive is that this system is not the core of the gameplay -- it is a tangent of that play. The gameplay centers around the tools offered to let users shape and mold the universe according to their wishes. Money is a requirement, but it does not only come from mining and missions; it can come from basically anything you can twist to make money. If you can dream it you can probably do it in EVE -- that's the magic. This is why EVE is simply one of the best MMOs you can wrap your hands around.

2009 has a chance to be something special. With titles like Jumpgate Evolution, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Darkfall Online coming at us, this should be a very good year.

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Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who remembered Darkfall before the rabid comment fans ripped him apart for not mentioning it. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's over running Epic Loot For All! with his insane roommates. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com.

Here's yet another news post on companies cutting back on their staff, oh boy. At least with Gaia Online it's a paltry 36 employees, 16 full-time staff and 20 contractors. That happens to be about 13% of the staff and is attributed to the less-than expected performance of zOMG!, which had around 500k players in November and just hit one million. As large as that number sounds, it's being drawn from the 11 million base of Gaia Online, so, it's all relative.

There doesn't seem to be much worrying though, as the company has said they're merely preparing for a downturn in the coming year. We get the feeling that news like this is going to keep coming over the next 12-18 months, if not a little longer. Hopefully though, it's only small cuts like this and not the sort of job loss that's starting to become expected at other well-known developers.

For those of you scratching your heads over this whole "zOMG!" game, check out Massively's first impressions for a glimpse into the beast, as they say.

Gaia Online's latest title, zOMG!, has attracted over half a million beta users, according to Worlds in Motion. This cutesy, anime-looking game was named by the players back in July of this year and has enjoyed tremendous success even this early in its life cycle.

zOMG! is a Flash-based browser game marketed primarily to children and teens. Players earn Gaia Gold by interacting with the Gaia website and can then spend said gold to customize their avatar. If you're interested in trying the beta or just looking for more information on what it's all about, check out our First Impression of zOMG!.

In First Impressions, Krystalle takes on a new MMORPG weekly and reports back at what the first few hours of playing it are like. Is it painful? Awesome? Are there cool mechanics? Silly quests? Find out each week as she takes an unscientific (and highly opinionated) view at a game you may not have seen. Also remember, this is not a review; simply a First Impression - as such, we always recommend you give games that seem interesting a shot and decide for yourself.

This week I head into the world of Gaia Interactive's beta MMO project, zOMG! Having never actually waded hip-deep into the Gaia community, it was certainly an enlightening experience. Some good, some bad, with a word to parents as well. Curious as to what's involved in the anime-inspired world of zOMG? Have a seat and read on, but watch out - some of the chairs bite.

If, like me, you are seeking a break from your Wrath of the Lich King addiction, join me for another weekly installment of Ask Massively. If you are one of the two people on the Internet who play something other than World of Warcraft, feel free to look in as well. It is only a matter of time before you decide to join us in Azeroth/Outland/Northrend.

(note: Please read this with a heavy helping of tolerance for snark and sarcasm. If you think replying to this with "HEY! THERE ARE OTHER GAMES BESIDES WoW, YOU KNOW!" is a good idea, You should pay more attention.)

Our question this week comes from someone who has reached a state of profound ennui.

Dear Ask Massively,

I can't seem to find a game I want to play anymore. Call it boredom, or getting a life or even getting old... But the fact remains, I am losing interest in mmo games. It isn't that I don't want to play games, I just don't seem to get the thrill I used to from them. I think we all remember some special moment when we felt that welling up of pride, or an audible "wow" escaped our lips when we saw something that amazed us.

I don't have those feelings anymore, every game I play seems to be a copy of a copy of a copy.. The only thing that changes is the landscape and the names of the mobs..

I was hoping that you could give some suggestions as to a MMORPG that have something different to offer. Something beyond fedexing the 10 rats I just killed so I can be told to kill this guy back where I started for 80 levels.

Tharkis

The MMO genre is more than World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online. Here's what's going on in the rest of the world.

World of Kung Fu opens screenshot contest
From September 15th to the 30th, VestGame Entertainment has partnered with zownder.com to create the first World of Kung Fu screenshot contest. "This contest really gives us the chance to showcase the awesome graphics and spectacular artwork that forms such an integral part of the game", says David Clarke, World of Kung Fu's North American Producer. The Grand Prize includes a permanent Xuan Wu mount and over a hundred rare items such as high level Forging Vouchers, Advanced Craftsman Charms, Sky Pearls, and much more. For more information, visit either founder's website.

Gaia Online brings Snoop Dogg and the Incredible Hulk to the virtual mall
Each month, residents of the virtual world Gaia Online have a chance to vote for their favorite real-world celebrities as part of the Celebrity Snare section of the website. As an example, the latest items to have been made available are Snoop Dogg's hairstyle, and the Hulk's torn-up purple pants. "Gaia Online is truly an extension of our users' real life interests and passions and Celebrity Snare is just another way we're enabling Gaians to customize their online persona and express themselves to the community," said Craig Sherman, CEO of Gaia Online. "The same way fans hang a poster on their bedroom wall or wear a t-shirt with their favorite band on it, we're enabling our users to establish a connection with the celebrities they admire." Further celebrities to go virtual will include Elvis Presley, Justin Timberlake, Tila Tequila, Paris Hilton, Raven Symone and Marvel's She-Hulk.

The closed beta test of Gaia Online's much-anticipated MMO has officially begun. Here's the kicker: it has a name! And that name is zOMG!. No, really. The name of the MMO is actually zOMG!. Previously, it was called Gaia Battle. That was rather generic, so this is probably a step up.

The name was chosen out of hundreds of submissions from Gaia regulars. Said Senior Producer Dave Georgeson to Wired: "it captures the spirit of our users." Those users are mostly teens. Until now, Gaia Online has simply been a casual games portal and forum community. zOMG! is an MMO built on that foundation.

If you're not familiar with Gaia Battle -- err, we mean zOMG! -- it's a browser-based game that will run on any computer that plays nice with Flash. Gameplay involves combat -- which centers around upgradable magic ring items -- and minigames. Social networking type stuff is laced in as well.

Players of Gaia Online will get the chance to live out their sublimated fantasies of being Olympians starting July 21st, the start date of the Rejected Olympics. Unlike the traditional games, the Rejected Olympics will feature such whimsical events as Connect the Dots and Watermelon Chopping, competing in teams to win the gold medal. Fourth place players will take home stale bread. Seriously.

The week-long festivities end on July 27th. For more information, go check out Gaia Online's event site.

[Thanks, Kristen!]

We had the opportunity to take a look at Gaia Online's upcoming MMO, and it looks like some serious fun! Take a look through the Gallery embedded below -- some of these come directly from the studio, others were screenshots of the quick tour we took; it should be obvious which are which.

A couple of tidbits: the entire game is Flash based, much like Dofus; they've done away with the need for wearable armor; and there's an intriguing methodology in place for dealing with player overcrowding that can be summed up in one word: landshark. All this and more once the game launches near the end of Summer. We'll keep you apprised!

As we reported last April, popular teen hang-out site Gaia Online is making the leap from virtual world to full-blown MMO, further blurring the lines between the two genres. It will still have movies, malls and minigames ... just with a few more monsters. Gaia Online was a separated series of rooms, but now its filling in the lands between those rooms with impromptu games around fountains and battles with psychotic garden gnomes.

VentureBeat talks with CEO Craig Sherman and senior producer Dabid Georgeson about the new MMO world and the challenges of turning a fabulously successful social space with millions of users, into a succesful MMO. Is the world ready for another Runescape? Look for Gaia Online -- the MMO -- when it launches this summer to find out.

Friday the 13th: An inauspicious day for the superstitious crowd, but a great day for attendees of the Social Gaming Summit, held in San Francisco. The day saw a schedule full of great panels, populated by some of the industry's finest movers and shakers, among them representatives from Gaia Online, Nexon, Three Rings, and Gamasutra, among others too numerous to list here.

A particular highlight of the conference for this blogger was the panel entitled "Casual MMOs and Immersive Worlds", which provided a lively discussion on what it means to create a virtual social space, how to monetize free-to-play content, and what exactly is a casual MMO? Trying to divide attention between listening raptly and taking notes is difficult; here is the result, along with the panelists, after the jump.

And not just likenesses. Metaverse developer Millions of Us intends to market likenesses, hair-styles, catchphrases, dance moves, signature moves, clothing lines, furniture collections -- you name it -- based on well-known celebs all under the banner business name of Virtual Greats. These appearances and digital accessories would be sold in dozens of virtual worlds, though you'll probably see them in Gaia Online, Habbo and Second Life first.

Deals have already been done with Justin Timberlake, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Raven Symone, Marvel (for The Incredible Hulk), and Tila Tequila, and more are in the works.