Zam.com Q&AFollow

Under optimal circumstances, I'm sure Alla's word is good, but it's that "as long as we continue to turn a profit" clause that has me worried. Furthermore, having been a part of a business that was "eaten by a bigger fish" as I like to call it, I know that the promises the bigger fish use to lure you in don't always indicate what the reality of the situation will be once you've actually been swallowed up. What safeguards are in place if the parent company doesn't respect the agreement to keep IGE completely separate from Zam.com?

What, exactly, happens when zam.com DOESN'T turn a profit? Will they take management of the site away from Alla, thus taking the decision out of his hands? Will they simply give him dictates that him must allow such-and-such banners?

And what safeguards are there to guarantee that Zam.com would remain separate from the IGE side of the business? What if six months down the road, the dictate comes down that the new owners want Zam.com to start carrying IGE banners? Does Alla then get to cry "breach of contract" and divorce his site from the merger, setting up Allakhazam as its own entity once again? Somehow, I sincerely doubt that's a possibility under the contract. So, what's the alternative? Does Alla have to just swallow it? Or does his share of the contract get bought out and Zam.com fall under more ameniable (to the parent's wishes, that is) management?

I remember when my little fish company was bought out by a big fish corporation.

First it was "Nothing's going to change, our supply channels will be better, we'll have access to better R&D, corporate atmosphere will remain the same, we even get to keep our own brand name."

A few months later, they decided our brand name wasn't moving enough of their product, so we had to start selling under their brand name.

A couple months after that, corporate atmosphere changed as the relaxed friends-and-family workplace attitude got a new dress code, new comportment policies, new vacation and sick time regulations (read: reductions) and our CEO was suddenly bumped down to a VP answerable to corporate headquarters.

Next thing we knew, former corporate office was shutting down and all the staff of that office moved into our office and took over the whole operation.

So, yeah, we got the better supply channels and R&D, but the rest of the "promises" didn't end up meaning squat. So what is Alla going to do when the anonymous parent company decides IGE needs to move into Alla's offices?

Couldn't you have just taken the money and run? You could've walked away, we could've walked away, and there'd be money in your pocket. No ties to the fun-sucking bottom-feeding IGE.

I just don't post much because I just don't have much to say. Today it is just good bye, WoWReader uninstalled, and autorenew = off.

By everyone this is my last post as a premium member

The bottom line of this entire thing is this...they are going to use the data they mine from this site to focus their gold mining activities. That is why they buy up these sites, it helps them to know what the players want and therefore they know what items to farm. I refuse to help them out in this activity, you people can make your own decisions on that matter.

Ones using unpaid EZ-Boards!

They can't leave before they see the responses to their hissy-fit.

It would be interesting to see traffic numbers now and in the future. There is always a backlash and then people come back usually more too.

I equate this to being like when Wal-Mart decided it wasn't going to try to fill the store with "American Made" products. People were pissed for all of 2 mins and then realized they would prefer cheaper crap as opposed to American Made crap.

I only remember this because of someone's signature.

Allakhazam wrote:



Sorry, Al. You're the one who just got owned.

Eh, you people are over reacting. This place is still a great source for information and sharing thoughts and ideas. So they're owned by the same people who own IGE big deal.

I'm excited about the idea of no more slow servers personally. If a bunch of people want to pay for me to be able to get accurate information about games and quick forum responses through buying online currency let them. At least now they're doing me a favor instead of just ******** up my economy.

I just want to say thank you to all the people that have posted all the wonderful information that is on this site. I never would have made it to where I am now without your advice, guides and walk throughs.

I don't agree with the business practices of RMT companies. I would highly suggest people reading the following article.

http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001493.php?page=1

Gilsellers aren't the villians. They are working at a job, and make barely enough money to feed their kids. The corperations that buy and sell gil are the villians. The gil buyers are the villians. It disgusts me that a site I have respected for so long, has been sold to the very corperations that are corrupting the games we love, and exploiting workers in poor nations.



Again thank you for the help I recieved in the past. May this site, it's parent company and it's sister companies burn in the deepest pits of hell.

Lazrical wrote:
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I mean honestly. How many of you continued to buy your clothing cheaply from The Gap, even after you knew full well that it was all pieced together by children in dismal sweat shops? The bad PR was enough to make them make cursory efforts to clean up their act, but it wasn't as a result of poor sales.

How many of you fellows bought engagement rings for your wives-to-be, fitted with stones that were provided to your jeweler via the diamond slave trade? Make no mistake about it ... almost every single diamond currently on the Western, English-speaking market is actually a so-called "blood diamond". There's almost a guarantee that if you've bought a diamond at any time, it came from one of these African countries: it was mined by a slave, who is kept in line by torture and sheer terror.

How many of actually stopped eating at KFC because of reports of inhumane cruelty to chickens on the part of its suppliers? How many of you stopped wearing your Nikes because of human rights abuses in the sweat shops in which they were assembled? How many of you purchase items, knowing full well where and how they were made, yet somehow manage to not care "enough" on a moral level to be a bit more discretionary with your buying habits?

Edited, Thu May 4 06:16:12 2006 by Lazrical
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Whilst not technically on-topic for this situation I feel compelled to answer this because I have such strong feelings on this subject.

I use only free-range eggs.
I buy fare-trade coffee, chocolate, wine and other products.
I do not shop in Asda supermarkets (UK) because it is owned by Wal-Mart.
I do not buy from KFC because of their cruel treatment of the animals and the filth they are forced to live in.
I do not buy from McDonalds because of their deforestisation of our planet.
I do not use any products made by Proctor and Gamble (or those of any company they have bought out) because of their animal testing policies.
I do not use L'Oreal (or any of the companies they have bought out) because of their barbaric treatment of animals in cosmetics testing.
I do not buy Iams pet food because of their invasive surgical procdeures during food testing.
I do not buy Nike brand products because of their abuse of people in their sweat shops.

I could go on but the point is, I put my money where my mouth is - I do not say I believe something is wrong but then go buy the product just because it saves a few pennies or it tastes nice.
And that's what everyone needs to do - money talks....
you believe something is wrong - don't buy it.

My earlier question of who owns the information posted has not yet been answered, I would still like to know that.

Also it occured to me. People that have premium accounts should try to get refunds on their subsriptions. If you just allow your accounts to keep going thinking that by turning off auto renewal were hurt it wont. The new company will still be earning the rest of the subscription, such as if you renewed 4 months ago and have like 9 months back the new company will be making 9/12 of the rest of that 30$....I suggest if you want to prove your point demand that money back and prove to the new company and old company get your money back and kill their profits they are expecting to earn for the next several months.

After sleeping on it, I find that I'm still of the same mind I was before. While I do think Bodhi and others have taken things overboard, the basis for their dissention still stands.

Right now, my biggest concern is who the "parent company" is and who controls it. If it is RPGholdings, then I think everyone's furor will likely be justified and I believe this whole thing could end very badly. That company's only concern with online gaming is finding ways to line their pockets. They don't care what it does to the games and they don't give a rats *** about the game developer's wishes and terms of use. They've proven it, time after time, and become a multi-million dollar company through this ruthless, and mostly illegal, exploitation. In the world of MMOs, RPGholdings, for all intents and purposes, is the equivalent of the Devil.

If it turns out to be a new company that has bought IGE from RPGholdings along with purchasing Alla and others, then their intent and purposes remain unclear. Personally, I would expect them to be virtually identical to RPGholdings, in that companies generally just want to maximize profit and don't give a crap what they have to do to get it done, but I don't know that yet.

I have my auto-renew turned off, but it doesn't run out until Sept. That should be plenty of time to see how this plays out.

I have also uninstalled Wowreader until I get some more concrete info about what is going on and who is running what. I'm sorry, Alla, but my trust in your integrity has been shaken pretty good and I don't feel comfortable using your data miner any more.