The Zone's Face-Lift

Microsoft's online gaming service, the Internet Gaming Zone, is getting a face-lift on Monday, along with some added functionality. IGZ will also become Netscape-friendly. The gaming service hopes subscriber numbers will take a hike as a result.

Previously, the Zone was only accessible by using Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The new Zone adds support for some of the features of IE 4.0 along with Netscape 4.0. To do all this, the service had to be revamped since much of the technology (VB Script and ActiveX Controls) used on the Zone was proprietary only to IE.

GameSpot News spoke to Ed Fries, general manager of Microsoft's Games Group, on Friday to discover what changes were coming to the new service, code-named Z4, and what it will mean for gamers.

We first asked why IGZ access hadn't been granted to Netscape users before. Fries replied, "When the Zone was first built, we planned on using the original technology that had been created for Internet Explorer with ActiveX controls. Originally, many thought that Netscape was going to support the ActiveX technology. When Netscape decided to not support the technology, we were going to advocate using Encompass to allow Netscape users to use the Zone. But developers innovated quickly, and keeping up with all the changes in the technology as companies innovated their games would have taken a great deal of work." Why the big changes? The Zone is growing. Microsoft's most recent figures indicate the service has 1.5 million gamers blasting, driving, and countering other opponents. Also, the Zone is branching out. One might assume that only Microsoft titles would be showcased on the service, but a total of 32 games currently running (with a maximum of 7,500 connections at a time, by the way) are spread among more than one company's titles. LucasArts' Jedi Knight: Dark Forces, id's Quake II, and Hasbro Interactive's Scrabble are positioned alongside Microsoft titles like Age of Empires, Flight Simulator 98, and CART Precision Racing.

If you're not part of the hard-core gaming audience with a mind finely honed for strategy (or have split-second reactions for a fast 180 spin to shoot an opponent), the Zone also offers several board and parlor-type games including checkers, chess, cribbage, and others.

One of the new games on the way is bridge. Fries told GameSpot News that he had hired a bridge expert and programmer to make sure that its version of bridge isn't just an afterthought. The Zone wants to attract all types of gamers, and attention to improving the classics online shows that the Zone is in this game for the long haul.

"We did some extensive user interface testing, and when you're on the other side of a mirror watching a tester try to find out how to begin playing a game and can't figure it out, you know that something needs to change," Fries said. What the design and tech crews came up with is something drastically different from before. Improvements added to the Zone include a faster design that involves fewer frames, an easier user interface (tested by non-designers), and a new centralized page listing all of the games available on the service. Everything looks easier to read with the color changes (from maroon to a light teal color scheme), and best of all, it looks basically the same on both browsers.

Rankings and ratings will allow gamers to invisibly upload their scores to their ID so that when playing against another opponent, the service will keep track of the wins and losses. Although this won't be fully implemented in all of the games at launch, it will start off with the online version of chess, move on to other board games, and then move to other games.

We asked about the feature that allows for this tracking, called the Zone Rating System, and if Microsoft was making it available for current game developers. "Microsoft is making sure that it evangelizes the technology to companies building games right now," Fries said. So far, signing deals with game developers like Red Storm has been paying off by adding more content and gamers to the service.

"Chat rooms are going to be better as sysops get a better set of tools to work with to monitor multiple chats." Fries went on, "When the new site opens, all the tech people will be in one massive room answering all the questions that gamers ask about what has changed." The Zone also celebrated its first wedding with two gamers who met on the service, which proves that gamers can find significant others on gaming services, eh?

We asked Fries what the Zone plans to do to expand its menu of games. "Well, we have 32 online now, and I think we can double that by year's end." Fries went on to add, "Beta tests are already under way for our new bridge game, and a beta will be coming this summer for Asheron's Call, along with the upcoming turn-based strategy title Ultracorps."

Asheron's Call will be Microsoft's first attempt at building a massively multiplayer RPG gaming world. And according to Fries, Microsoft is making sure that Asheron's Call won't have the same problems that have plagued other popular online RPG worlds.

After talking with Fries for a while, we discovered that he just wasn't a man pushed into a gaming position. During his college year, he started off programming Atari 800 games. He's been with Microsoft for ten years working on business applications like Excel and Word. After not working with games, he decided to come back and work on gaming again. It's good to know that there's a gamer at the helm.