This bit of news comes from Nadir (aka Zenith or neon_shEEp) and Kracken, who have magically fallen in love with each other, even though there are two oceans between them. We wish the two graphical talents and members of Eagle Rock Interactive the best of luck with each other!

After the fall of Knightt's #loungeact, Kracken's #misanthropy became the big ZZT IRC channel. Austnet kept having technical difficulties, such as the many netsplits, so Fishfood, Kracken, skullie and others decided to move #misanthropy to Espernet. Espernet is also the home of all the MegaZeux IRC channels (like #mzx and #megazeux) and uses the Chanserv/Nickserv system. Chuck decided to move #darkdigital to Espernet as well, and #if now exists there, too (though its Austnet brother is still alive).

BenW has decided to quit Interactive Fantasies, because of his continuous lack of inspiration and motivation. If he finds his motivation back, he may re-apply for an open spot in IF, somewhere in the future. For now, we have an open spot and several people already applied. You can still apply by sending mail to Hercules (me), but you'll have to be quick. We wish BenW the best of luck and hope to see the talented guy back some day.

Both Eagle Rock Interactive (president: Viovis) and Random Inc (president: Knightt), two famous ZZT companies, have both grown bigger over the past month. Random Inc got two new talented reinforcements in the names of Question Mark (author of Prisoner and Sparrow: Return to Earth) and starbux (who quit Collective Virtuosity). Atom has been removed from their line-up, because of his lack of interest. Eagle Rock Interactive currently has the following line-up: Viovis, Wayward, Zenith, Zamros, zenryoku, Kracken, Flimsy, Master Raze, GameMstr1, Benco, Insane Moose, Ryosuke, Micr0wave, Scribbit, Lemmer, craNKGod, EvilMario and Atrocity. Visit the ERI page here and the RI page here.

zzt.org has experienced two important changes recently. First of all, the Game of the Month system is back to the old one, meaning that me, Wayward, Knightt (and maybe even Hydra) will choose and write the GOTMs again. This was changed by Dragonlord, due to ZZT Sports incident of last month. Secondly, ZIG games will now be accepted to the archive, which means a boost to everything ZIG-related.

Knightt has abandoned his position as adminstrator of zzt.org a few days ago. Knightt used to upload the games and the GOTM reviews and was an administrator on the message boards. He felt the community isn't really for him anymore, so he decided to quit on his own will. Stupid RPG Third Flavor, Knightt's final ZZT game, is done and will be released soon. It's probably the last time you'll see a ZZT game by Knightt. He still owns #loungeact and Random Inc and will also still host the next 24 hours of ZZT contest. As for zzt.org, Fishfood and Dragonlord have taken over (they've been part of the zzt.org staff for quite a while now) and they'll look for a new staff member.

Collective Virtuosity, the new ZZT company owned by Vertigo (aka FreeZerBurn), has been gaining members lately. After Chuck, who is a co-owner, and starbux, two new people joined; mindKontrol and Question mark. Several days later, starbux (with approval of Vertigo) managed to get Datsun1958 and Blazer to join.