Zam.com Q&AFollow

link I posted traced rpgholdings/ogaming to IGE execs pretty well.

Other than a peripheral connection with a company you don't like, there is absolutely nothing negative about this move. From a site wide perspective, we have gone from a site that was a small LLC partnership that had been forced to run very lean while watching the expenses grow and the income drop -- our most profitable site is still the Everquest one, even though it is not nearly the biggest any more -- to one with significant financial backing to allow it to continue to grow and develop. I am not saying that without this Allakhazam would have disappeared. Probably not. But I guarantee you that we would have continued to languish and would have struggled to keep up with our growing popularity. We are doing over 6 million page views a day now and hitting 100 mb/sec bandwidth usage. We are one of the top 1000 traffic sites on the entire internet. That aint cheap.

On an individual site basis, none of the things you liked about the site are going to change. We will not be running gil selling ads or promoting RMT. Instead, we will take what we have and build upon it to make things even better than before. And we get the added advantage of absorbing a good site like Ogaming and all of its people, so that instead of creating that from scratch, we get something already in existance.

Just ask yourself this. Would you rather have seen Allakhazam fade out and become a shell of its old self over time, or would you rather help build it into the best gaming community on the web? I know what answer I gave to that question.

Agreed. I do feel Allakhazam deserves the benefit of the doubt in that he has been trustworthy to this point. I believe that, at a minimum, he believes zam.com will be allowed to operate entirely independently of the influence of IGE.

Here is my problem. It would not be in IGE's best interest to have no presence on this new network. Allakhazam alone is already one of the top most visited domains on the internet. Let that sink in. Consider that MMORPG players are a subset of the population at large. I find it difficult to believe that IGE would be willing to forgo advertising among such a large combined population of MMORPG fans.

Like I said, I believe that Allakhazam feels the integrity of the site is safe with the merger. I would be very interested in some of the small print of the agreement, however.

Can I get a refund for the next 4 months of premium I have already paid for please ? I dont want to affiliate myself or my credit card details with you. to me you just became worthless people.

Alla, you suck..

Obviously I do not want to see this happen, but then, what is the cost of this? I am still very much up in the air as far as keeping my membership renewed, though I am discouraged so far by what I have heard.

If the cost is, as you say, merely a peripheral connection, I can, in good conscience, continue supporting this particular site.

The problem is my feeling for IGE and its affiliates is far deeper than dislike. Their presence is a very real influence on MMORPGs that is almost impossible to quantify, but easy to identify.

I understand the specific advantage this site gets through this change, but I am worried about what will become of this site. As I mentioned in my previous post, how is it in IGE's interest to forgo advertising on thottbot, and other sites? This is the part of the deal that is not making sense to me right now.

Basically, I want to know what the catch is. On the surface, the deal seems almost too good to be true. More bandwidth, more paid admins, better content updates, all these are excellent things to strive for. But there must be some catch.

Edit: FYI - I would gladly have paid double for my premium access. It is so cheap it is almost a joke as far as costs go.

Edited, Wed May 3 22:20:41 2006 by Sarlos

IGE has a PR person called Andraste who handles their image on Internet forums. Gotta wonder about these posts from Allakhazam that are all spin and hype.

Andraste's writing style: http://www.corpnews.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2396


Edited, Wed May 3 22:25:36 2006 by MorvenDee

What a bunch of Jack you know whats..Give Alla a chance to do the magic we know they can. My check is in the mail. I belive you have to give ppl a chance.

Alla, tell us if this is true (or do one of those "If I accidentally double post my next message you can assume it's true" things. I know most parts of contracts are confidential.)
I still don't like the fact that my $$ could be in any way related to IGE, but it would be the first step in trying to take a breath above all this naysaying.


That's step 2, and one I agree with.

I think so Katie.

Allakhazam, PLEASE stop ignoring the big questions, even if you're going to just say "I'm not answering that for now."

There are still many unanswered questions. Your replies are skimming around the issue.

~Blix

haha co[white][/white]ck suckers

Even by visiting your site I'm making you money weather or not I'm premium because your ads are getting more 'views'

So... later :D

QFT

One of the bigger ones has to be WHY!? especially when you KNEW that IGE owned both thott and og. Hell, I even provided PROOF of that earlier in the thread that came straight from your mouth about a year ago. Wanting to keep the site alive and make upgrades and such is all well and good, but do you REALLY think that IGE would sell out to another company after buying out all competition?

I'm all for hoping things work out, but how can you really think that IGE would sell out when they themself bought out a ton of other companies and even tried to buy out you then threatened to run you out of business? Which, it seems like they were able to in a sense.

I just hope you made a pretty loop-hole free contract or worked some deal with this company so you don't get royally shafted.