so now, i've gotten through the newbie/oldbie wars, the 24hozzts, and my tips on zzt self-improvement. what's left? this is it. this is everything else that i have a problem with in zzt. needless to say, this will probably be the briefest damn thing ever.

i know i said something to the effect of "aim for the zzt.org game of the month" in one of my twenty tips in chapter three. well, i'm glad to see that people like chase bramlage and gerbil heed my words. i have no quarrels with the game of the month. it's the classic game of the month that i have a problem with. in april, they gave it to xod. next month, they're giving it to roleplay.zzt. i mean, come on! there are too many games that are better than xod! why the hell are you giving xod the award? the classic game of the month isn't really classic, is it? give the award to older games. true classics. like "it's the end of the world!" by creator. i loved that game. had the neatest bosses i ever seen. so did ned the knight, but that was game of the month all the way back in october 1998. "dogfight" is another good one, as well as yenrab's other good game, "escape from the red planet". i also have a bit of a problem with "burger joint" winning classic game of the month, on the grounds that it already won "game of the month". what? does that mean i can win classic game of the month with november eve? i also have a bit of a problem with the game of the month only being on zzt.org. they should also be on the interactive fantasies page, since they're all written by hercules and hydra, anyway. and i won't try touching on gem hunter 3's not getting game of the month.

speaking of interactive fantasies, i want to touch on companies. or "programming groups", as i've been calling them since early 1998. unfortunately, programming groups are a tradition, like newbie/oldbie wars and the changing of the guard in the 24hozzts. so people saying "COMPANIES SUCK" are people i like. the nonconformists. i join programming groups just for the prestige. i joined futureware because i didn't know what the hell i was doing, and the rest because they have the big names in them. programming groups are not all bad, though, despite what i have said or have heard (or have expierenced, thanks to gh3 and the gotms). remember chapter three? being in a highly recognized programming group can easily improve your game to be as good as theirs. but that's my only reason for supporting programming groups. often times, the members don't agree with one another (case in point: the robert pragt incident in interactive fantasies back in february 2000). you may also be called upon to make a magazine, and that CAN interfere with what you're doing. i like reading through magazines, i hate making them. most people view magazines for the reviews. darkmage software has had the longest running zzt magazine in the business, at fourteen issues. if is second best, they're almost at eight, now. my favorite zzt magazine will always be damaged #5, which is still up at zzt.org. a tip for newbies and programming groups. don't make a programming group, join one, instead. after you've had a run in a group, and improved your skills, then you might make one. but still, they're pointless, except for the whole prestige thing.

and, of course, i can't talk about things that piss me off without talking about the granddaddy of things that piss me off in zzt... the zzt.org message boards. i will never like the zzt.org message boards, but i have certainly figured one thing out. you can't take them seriously, or you're in trouble. i've taken the liberty of using my account, the name "george_carlin", and post as randomly, oftenly, and as pointlessly as possible, to see how people would react. some people (timewaster, raider, axical {or whatever}) took me seriously. i laugh at them. anyway, i will not stop my assault of pointlessness. nuhuh. they'll have to deal with it until xabbott deletes my account (which will be soon). the zzt.org boards, themselves, are a pointless waste of time and i am certainly wasting enough of it by posting randomly. but at least i can annoy people on my own accord, and not on a flamentory (again, not a word) basis. works, don't it?