Gaia announces public open beta launch of new MMO, zOMG!

Just got word from Kate Pietrelli of TriplePoint that the company is going to announce the public Open Beta launch of their new MMO zOMG! today (November 6, 2008.)

“I just wanted to give you a heads up that Gaia Online is announcing the public Open Beta launch of their MMO game in development, zOMG! … when the game launches into Open Beta for public access, millions of Gaia community members as well as new members to the community can join in and play this free, browser-based MMO game,” Pietrelli wrote.

This is great news and believe me the game is totally worth the wait. I’ve been saving up my gaia gold for cool armor to do battle with all month and putting aside a few coins for any cool game items I may find once inside. But while we wait, Pietrelli also talked about the game’s development and other features players may – or may not – have noticed on the site.

“In development since 2006, zOMG! is a fun and engaging casual game that blends social online community experiences with accessible MMO gameplay. Gaia community members currently hang out in the virtual world with their friends, watch movies online together in the theater, share artwork in the online art gallery, and chat through the Gaia Instant Messaging (GIM) system. The community asked for new ways in which they could interact and play with their friends in Gaia, and so the MMO game was designed to be an extension of the Gaia virtual world with all the fun social elements of chatting and hanging out with friends, in addition to playing a challenging multiplayer game with quests, monsters, battles and more. Gaia Online will monetize the game through the sale of virtual goods (battle armor, rings, etc.), which tie into their current microtransactions based business model,” she said.

According to the company’s press release, after a successful closed beta period the company is certain players will enjoy the vast, beautiful worlds and, with friends, battling against various monsters that have taken over the Gaia world.

According to David Georgeson, Senior Producer of zOMG! at Gaia Online (via the press release), “We received a lot of great feedback from gamers during our Closed Beta, so we’re throwing open the doors as we update the game with new features and additional content.”

In the press release Georgeson said there will always be room for changes based on user feedback in the forums during the open beta launch. Its ongoing testing and feedback will help the developers to grow and evolve zOMG! throughout the Open Beta phase and allow players to help shape the world.

The game currently allows players to explore 16 zones, purchase and use a vast variety of battle rings to aid their avatars in accomplishing their quests or do battle with a wide variety of cute and interesting creatures. Creatures from lawn gnomes, rubber boots and alarm clocks to name a few.

I can’t wait to meet Gamertell readers in zOMG! for an adventure. If you haven’t registered on Gaia yet, log in and let’s play.

Site [Gaia Online] Site [zOMG!] Watch [zOMG! Trailer]