Zam.com Q&AFollow

I just renewed my premium a week ago, so I'll have a year to see where this goes. Hopefully that money did stay in Allakhazam.

I have similar concerns as expressed by the other people, but I'm willing to trust Alla enough to see where everyone will be 1-2 months from now. Always the optimist I guess .

So does this mean selling of accounts/items will be legal now???

Edited, Wed May 3 18:57:02 2006 by lysolramuh

While I can understand the financial and business reasoning behind the decision, and it being a definite no brainer in that regards, I think what most people are upset about is how this site was the only one out there who stood above the rest, proclaiming an integrity we could believe in: not supporting in any shape or form the sites who sell gold to others. Now, no matter what angle you look at it, that integrity is gone.

I congratulate you Allah, and your employers, for the ability to do what you have been wanting to do with this site for years, but I mourn what was lost to acheive it.

Visa&MC had me go through a tonne of hoops this year regarding CISP certification, I'm very protective of the user data. The billing database isn't used for anything except recurring account charges (renewals). The credit card companies's rules are really clear on that. Anyhow, nothing is changing with regards to that.

I'm really excited about this, it's been in the works for quite a while. The first thing we did was hire the previously part-time programming team on full time.

I wanted to wait to tell anyone about it, untill our premium users went to thottbot and saw the "Welcome soandso" message there, but there was pressure to get news out before e3.

I'm sorry, but part of the reason why I'm premium member here is that I NEVER visit Thottbot.

Better a network hungry and run with love than a network well-fed on the misery of gamers.

The "no brainer" was IGE's people latching on to this place's collective skull and starting to suck.

Be very, very careful. The pact you've entered into lacks any kind of moral balance at the other side of the contract. You are now part of the Yantis machine.

May it benefit what you desire. I have great doubts in the end that you won't be cursing it later- because the quote above sounds like the beginnings of corporatespeak, rather than a person who's putting his soul into what he loves.

That's all well and good when you're buying a product you want. However, it's my understanding that premium members here consider their payment more of a donation than a purchase.

This site brings together a great community, but it is nothing more than a gathering place; like a public park. There's nothing here that can't be found elsewhere in better condition, except the people.

Nobody buys a place in a public park, but many people do make donations, because without donations the park may erode into garbage dump.

But, you don't need donations anymore Alla.. you've got corperate sponsors. You've just turned your public park into a Starbucks coffee shop. When you need money now, don't look at us.
I couldn't have said it better myself. You don't need donations anymore.
Be careful you don't lose the one thing that you have over the other sites right now - the community. You have your work cut out for you if you want to be the first on the spot with official new game information. Right now the community provides that, by being there to post new finds, and answer new questions about new content. In that respect this site already the first one with new information oftentimes, but only thanks to a community that could easily find a new home. Be careful you don't drive them away.

Bhodi if I was truly a sellout, I would have just sold the site and run off and sat on a beach and enjoyed the profits. That would have actually been the easy thing to do. Instead I cared enough about it to insist that I be the one to run it and develop it. It is the fact that I care about this community and what happens to it that I am still sitting here and posting about this. A more cold blooded type would have just run off laughing into the sunset.

So no free account [:sad:]

You guys ****** up.

Rate down -.-

*sigh* Soon as I read the newspost and saw the words THOTTBOT I KNEW this was going to turn out bad... I have a link somewhere i'll pull up here that was on the WoW boards awhile back showing that ige owned thott/og or something... so now that has changed or something I assume? Hell, that thread is even where alla said that thot tried to buyout him several times and when they WOULDN'T sell they vowed to run alla OUT OF BUSINESS. (well, not in so many words)

All that being said, I really hope you do maintain your firm stance against gold/gil/plat/whatever selling and keep things "safe" however I like other have some real concerns... my premium is a long way from renewing, but for now it is off (like many others) and I have no clue if it'll even go back on.

Also, as someone else pointed out, one thing that made alla so great was the comunity and how much info they submitted... lots of people aren't going to now, and some people like bodhisattva are asking for guides to be removed they wrote. That is really going to hurt the comunity, not only for WoW but other games too.

Well, time to dig up that link rq...

Edit:

Linky

also, what alla posted in there (in case you don't want to follow it >_>)



I will say one thing though, at least Allakhazam is still staying on to develope and manage this new network it sounds like... the big question is just how much power will you have over what goes into it...

Edited, Wed May 3 19:40:11 2006 by Tomec

I see it this way:

Its not the people behind IGE that own this site.

Its the people that just recently bought both sites. The management remains the same on both sites, correct?

All the decisions will still be run through our current admin from what I can tell, so there's no need for worry about IGE influencing this site.

The business execs that bought the sites probably don't know the ethical dilemma that most gamers see in gilbuying/selling, they just see it as a profitable venture. I don't hold that against them personally.