Interestingly enough, Galaxy Online is entering the first phase of their English vs Chinese tournament! Competitors will find themselves in a special server named 'Battleground,' where they will fight for control of the most galaxies on the server. Whoever occupies the most galaxies at the end of 5 days will win the tournament. Obviously the tournament server will feature accellerated construction rates, and players will begin with lots of extra resources, so this promises to be a faster tournament than regular Galaxy Online play. Feel free to check out the official news post on their forums here.

In case you missed it, Editor Christopher "Pwyff" Tom recently outlined his personal opinion on Galaxy Online. While his review was not exactly favorable, IGG announced that a second server named Taurus was opened today "due to the increasing population."

For anyone who chooses to try out the new server, two events will be held to celebrate the launch of Taurus: the Composite Strength Competition and the Shootdowns Contest. Both will last approximately two weeks.

More information on the new server can be found here or below.

Before I get started, allow me to state that I'm actually a massive fan of three things: sprite based games, cool spaceships, and low-memory 'miniature' games. While the first two criteria are pretty much self-explanatory, what I mean by low-memory 'miniature' game is the video game that I can toggle in and out of while writing articles or - in some odd cases - when I'm playing other games. Examples of 'miniature' games are things like Tetris, which I occasionally play when I die in DotA, or Solitaire, which I play when my raid wipes because nobody was paying attention (maybe they were playing Solitaire). Either way, when IGG offered us the chance to try out their newest 'mini' MMO, Galaxy Online, which touted itself to be "a fantastic strategy game developed by IGG, set in the vast and endless universe, where players can develop their own galaxy, form fleets to invade other planets and much more." I experienced a plethora of different emotions; some good, some bad, and some downright confusing.

You see, even though most people have negative views of mindlessly grinding MMOs with cutesy sprite graphics, I'll have to admit that I glean a depressing amount of pleasure from these puddle-shallow games. It's probably not a good thing to admit it while in the position that I'm in. We live in an industry that's desperately trying to escape the grind, and a guy who fondly reminisces about killing things for 0.01% of his bar is probably detrimental to the critical review force. I missed my nostalgic grindy video games, and here was the opportunity to try it again - with space ships!