I.G.E. InterviewFollow

Gamasutra has a 4 page article up, including an interview with one of the higher ups.

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060825/carless_01.shtml

worth a read, it's always wise to know your enemy :P

I didn't get to read the whole thing.. did they ask Brock if he is still diddling kids?


My favorite part was


But Alla, I thought you said you were bought out by some other company that you couldn't disclose at the present time, but it wasn't IGE.

I know it is a , but still...

I still don't see why IGE would want to buy Allakhazam, Thottbot and OGaming if not to take advantage of the users at some point.

And stupid as I am, I still keep throwing my money at them. What I won't do for a few smileys and a psychotic avatar.

I wonder if Blizzard ever decides to just scan this website and ban every premium member on it for "trading with known RMT company".

And now you know why I dont pay for premium...actually Im chead and dont own a credit card.

This is equivalent to a drug dealer saying "I don't grow the stuff - I only sell it."

I believe that they are just diversifying their assets right now.

Perhaps they are trying to establish a better relationship with MMO companies?

Except no.

This is like the drug dealer's wife buying something with the money he gives her.

Because the part of the company that owns those sites is not involved in the gold selling part. Different employees, different managers, probably different executives depending on the size of the company itself.

It's like thinking Microsoft's Windows guys know anything about the 360.

And that's why I don't deny the metaphorical 'drug money' found its way here, but it's not the same.

I'll admit, I'm not comfortable with supporting a site that obviously no longer hate IGE and whatever IGE stands for.

That's kinda like saying "Drugs are bad" and then go out and buy some for yourself. Hypocrisy I believe it's called.

And if the guy behind IGE really is that obsessed with numbers and cash flow, what the hell is he doing trying to take over the community sites? I don't think Allakhazam.com provides a fortune (otherwise there would've been no reason to sell it, would there?) and having to deal with the moral collisions you get when you bring IGE money to an anti-IGE site... I simply can't see why he'd even bother.

Unless they plan on doing something that would benefit their primary business in some way.

Right now, Zam.com is most likely a money sink.

Since they are talking about this in an article, I guess I am free to post more information. Maybe it is just semantics, but I don't consider us owned by IGE. The initial sale of the company was done through IGE, but it was done as part of a larger deal that included a large influx of cash from a group of prominant institutional investors, which was meant to form a new, larger and more diverse corporation with zam as one of several divisions. This is still being formed at this time. Brock Pierce of IGE is the largest shareholder of this new company, and may even be the majority owner. I personally don't know the percentages of ownership, or even all of the owners' identities. Frankly, I don't really care since they paid us a huge amount of cash up front for the deal and gave us complete autonomy to run the content side of their business. Nobody in their right mind turns down enough cash to lavishly retire on coupled with the ability to continue doing exactly the same thing they were doing before but with no more personal financial risk.

The sale took place 6 months ago and I can say uncategorically that not one time has anyone dictated to me what to do with the new network. I have had 100% autonomy in every decision regarding Zam.com. There is absolutely no connection between this site and their RMT sites. I don't even know who runs those sites and frankly have no desire to learn. I am too busy working on making zam better to bother. The merger of three diverse sites has been longer, slower and more difficult than I imagined, so many things I had hoped would be done by now are still pending. Give us time and you will see how this is of benefit to you as well.

Why did this newly forming company buy Allakhazam? Believe it or not, we were a very profitable business before we sold. At our max, we had over 40,000 premium members. Multiply out the numbers and figure it out for yourself. IGE had been trying to duplicate our site for many years. What they created was ogaming, along with Thottbot, which they bought out during wow beta. Those sites were losing money like mad for them. Once they got a look at our books, they decided maybe we knew more about running a successful content business than they did and bought us and put us in charge with the single dictate of making the network successful and profitable. We have a solid plan that will do just that.

You of course have the right to not believe anything I say, but I will repeat that Zam.com is a completely separate and independant division in this very large corporation. The only connection we have with IGE is that we share a central accounting and legal division, but even there our books are kept separate from those of the other divisions of the company. None of the information gathered by this network is being used by IGE. None of the decisions about this network are made by IGE. None of the people who work on this network have any connection with IGE. The only person with final say as to what does or does not get done here is me.

Now if we are not successful, I guess this may change. You have a lot to say about how successful we are, since it is ultimately the community that makes the site. So if you are truly worried about IGE taking over this network, then you should be doing what you can to help us succeed and make it an even better site than it was before.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

WITH ALL OF THIS MONEY, BUY/CREATE REAL FORUM SOFTWARE PLZ

When are all the other "extras" that were promised when this takeover was announced going to be delivered?

Is there a timeline?