Zam.com Q&AFollow

He probably can't go.

A standard practice of a bussiness with a negative image is to purchase a new face with a positive image, and of course ensure that that new face is contractually obliged to remain the new face for a good time to come.

If they just bought allakhazam.com, and let Allakhazam go, they would lose their new face with a positive image. It would just be another strip-mined aquisition by a bussiness with a negative image, which wouldn't help their image at all.

In order to attempt to improve their image, they need Allakhazam on hand, and have most likely contracted his services for a matter of two or more years to come. In which case Allakhazam would lose everything if he walked away at this point. (He'd have to pay it all back in fines, and still lose the site to boot.)



On another note: Allakhazam, you say you were losing users to Thotbot.. so what? Wasn't this just a hobby for you?

If you lose users you use less bandwidth, and you get less profit, but as long as you're still in the green, and not bleeding money, it shouldn't matter for a hobby, because you reduce costs as you lose users. Unless of course you've obligated yourself by putting those new servers you got a little while back on credit?


Everyone here, head my warning, this is where most small bussiness fail. Every bussiness goes through ups and downs, and for the most part less bussiness means less costs, so while profits may be down, it's still profit. However, what too many people do wrong today is obligate themselves by buying things they can't actually afford, which forces them to depend on "expected" earnings, and any loss of "expected" earnings puts them in the red, because they still have to pay the credit card bill.


My money says allakhazam.coms new servers, minus a few users, has put allakhazam.com, if not in the red, too close to red for comfort. Of course that idea doesn't bode well for the idea that Allakhazam retains control as long as he maintains profit. If he's already facing red, there isn't much hope of him maintaining control.

Now he's just a pretty face on an ugly empire, but I can't blame him for saving his pockets. Contrary to how most people are seeing this as Allakhazam lining his pockets, there is a very good possibility that this move is saving him from filing for bankruptcy in a year or two.

I don't like this change, but if I had the choice between heading into bankruptcy or selling out to the evil empire, little moral apprehensions could not hold me back from saving myself from living in squalor. Maybe some major moral apprehensions could hold me back, but come on.. RMT is stupid (well, buying virtual money is stupid; charging for it is perpetuating stupidity, but not really such a dumb idea from a bussiness perspective), not evil. (They pay a decent wage, for China, to their workers, in China.. I don't agree with outsourcing to third world countrys myself, but it's not the worst thing in the world.) They're nowhere near as bad as the diamond trade as someone else mentioned.

As much as I am offended by CGFs when playing MMORPGs, as a gamer, I wouldn't turn them down either, if doing so would mean losing my ***. After all, if I can't afford to play games any more, why should I care if they're overrun by CGFs. I wouldn't pretend I wasn't being selfish though. I have a great capacity for being a selfish ***, but I've never been dishonest about it. I would just say "Sorry guys, gotta save my own *** here, hope I haven't ****** you all over too much" and be proud of my honesty, if nothing else, while heaped in shame. Adding dishonesty to an already huge pile of shame just makes a bigger pile of shame, and I like to keep my piles of shame as managable as possible.



All that said, the only thing good about this site is the community. If the community is leaving, I'm going with them, because without them this place is just a hollow shell with terribly inaccurate information databases.

Figured I'd make my first and probably last post to the forums in years.

First off I've used Allakhazam since my EQ days and donated often to help do my little bit. I've been a premium member off and on. I have relied heavily on the WoW info on the site.
My company's website had an entire page dedicated to Allakhazam and wow-reader touting them as best things for MMORPG players.

When thottbot was bought out by IGE I stopped using them.
IGE practices in violations of games TOS. They are (have been) linked to convicted pedophiles and rapists. They are linked to spreading Malware, Spyware and Virus through sites they have owned.
Their in game practices have effected players of many games even now they are sending spam through wow's mail system.
Saying that the game companies don't have a problem with this practice would make the 1000's of accounts banned already by Blizard for buying and selling in game goods in the real world awefully strange.

Believing that Allakhazam will remain untouched is foolish, but it is possible. Look at IGE history to see how foolish. All silly analogies aside Alla and company made a choice, it was thiers to make, and they did. What shocks me is that Alla has always stated his opionons very vocally about RMT, and to do this wow. As for the posts he has made to the forums, well they all sound very much like corporate spin.

I will be removing my info from the site, no longer using wow-reader, getting rid of my firefox search plugins for Allakhazam, and my company has already pulled any links from thier pages.

Be it IGE, RPG Holdings or some as yet unnamed company, they are all a part of this blight on MMORPG's and I wont support anyone who is in bed with them.
Allakhazam, thanks for the help over the years I couldn't have done it without you. I hope you are able to get past this and make this place everything YOU want it to be, sorry I wont be along for the ride...

Wonder when the "parent company" will step in and say you can't remove post about sells or be vocal about how you dislike something we own. I will miss this site glad when my preim. ran out I didn't renew now.

Well, at least for now Warcry hasn't sold out... So I suggest everyone start using Warcry for anything you need. They are a bit smaller then allakhazam, but at least they don't accept (directly or indirectly, it's all the same) money obtained by exploiting asian workers and making MMO gameplay harder on legit players.

http://wow.warcry.com/

"Just thought I'd let you know. Unlike some other fansites out there, we don't take money from the people who make your game harder to play. We're pretty proud of that, and just thought we'd share.

Thanks." ~Orson of Warcry

You could learn something from these guys Allakhazam...

I used to write official press releases for a company larger and infinitely more reputable than IGE. Frankly, as a past specialist in fluff and spin, I weep for anyone who would base their judgement on a press release.

Edited, Thu May 4 16:07:04 2006 by nonokitty

After reading all 12 pages of this thread so far except for the incessant *****, whine and moan posts:

Autorenew is still on Alla,

I don't own a jump to conclusions mat.

Edited, Thu May 4 15:57:28 2006 by LordMnementh

They already stated that they were bought by the company that owns IGE. I belive that RPG Holdings, LLC would be that company

Edited, Thu May 4 16:10:00 2006 by Asier

Unless RPG Holdings, LLC, was recently purchased, and the same company that purchased them aquired Allakhazam. This had been repeated time and again by myself and others. I have to believe that Allakhazam and his lawyers would have looked into the business history of the company seeking to buy them. If they truly felt they were going to become just another branch of IGE, I do not think they would have agreed to this merger.

You're already in the news, and it isn't good.

Kotaku: http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/ige...-171490.php
1Up: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3150282

From Kotaku:



Even the press thinks the deal is sick.

Lame reply. It's not really tinkering with people's ethics or moral beliefs when they buy Oreos but dislike smoking. Smoking is completely legal. Yes, I realize online currency trade isn't exactly 'illegal', but it really seriously infringes on the rights of the people who make the games, and it really upsets people.

Liking Taco Bell but hating KFC is not even remotely in the same kin as liking Allakhazam, but hating IGE. IGE works in a gray area, and does stuff many people dislike or flat-out hate.

Either way Alla, you don't need people's money anymore from Premium accounts.

Way to sell out guys. I'm sure you'll be happy though at night, after all, you're getting more money now or something, so who cares what the people who helped get you there think, right? Who cares what all those Premium guys think, I mean, it's not like they contributed or helped or paid money out of their pockets just to watch you guys sell out like a bunch of asses.

Oh wait...

The main problem I see is Alla has gone into this with stars in his eyes, expecting to retain all control.

IGN and it's "parent" will have entered into this with a plan already in place to take control. Unless of course this parent company is revealed to be an established company with a good track record. I do not have much hope of that though.

Autorenewel cancelled on my account for now.

If all the people using this site in the future are IGE clients too busy to farm up their own gil/gold, who is going to take the time to post the information that people come here to read? It seems to me the gil buyers are certainly too busy to post updated strats. And how much help are the gil buyers going to be to each other in the forums?

The players that respect FFXI or other MMO enough to play without cheating are going to head out to a site that is owned and managed by like minded people who also love the games. And they're going to take their knowledge with them (and maybe even edit/remove the guides they created here before they go).

Rather than re-energise the site as Alla says he wants, this move will hasten its decline by alienating the contributors who've made it great. Who wants to help the IGE family succeed?