MMOG Sites Under IGE Merging?

CTD writes "Grimwell Online notes that IGE has announced a merger of networks involving: Thottbott, Allakhazam, OGaming, and L2Orphus. There is a thread in the Allakhazam forums that brings all the release data together - but still leaves some questions about what is to come. Grimwell raises one in his post about this: 'Even more fun for our friends who work PR for gaming companies. IGE = RMT, which is not the Devil - but is not exactly welcomed at most companies. Will this move help push things past the tipping point and force developers to deal with the new, larger network?'"

Sellout?

[Hossicle]

from the Alakazam admin: "We are now owned by a company that owns a bunch of stuff, including IGE. They bought both of us (and several other sites as well) and then split us into separate divisions so that there is no interaction between them. You know my stand on gold selling. Before agreeing to anything like this, I wanted to make sure that there would be no interaction between those divisions and that I would have complete control over the new network, including the sites that used to be part of ogaming." In other words so as long as I am not in the unethical division it is all cool with me. I respect selling your company but ignoring your own morals is wack.

Very thourough detail on IGE, this purchase &

[CTD]

This was put where I could find it, and is a very interesting read. Lots of great detail about IGE/Allakhazam if you want to learn more.

http://wow.azzor.com/445/truth_about_IGE.php [azzor.com]

The Devil is in the Details...

[iCEBaLM]

IGE = RMT, which is not the Devil

I wish he would speak for himself! RMT has almost destroyed the economy of FFXI to the point where you have to buy in game currency (gil) in order to afford anything of even moderate worth. This was due to the RMT gil sellers dominance and monopoly over entire mines, harvesting and logging areas, notorious monsters, etc. Only recently that SE has banned 700 accounts and seized over 300 billion gil [playonline.com] have things been normalizing. This was done in early Feb and prices are still dropping, slowly but surely, on most commodity items.

RMT has real effects on MMORPGs, some games more than others depending on how the economy works.

Re:The Devil is in the Details...

[robosmurf]

It wasn't true that you had to buy gil in FFXI. Yes, there was a period of hyperinflation, but that didn't really make a huge amount of difference as the price of farmed items went up as well, as did the profit from crafting. I never bought gil, and never had a problem with affording high-end gear.

Prices seem to have largely stabilised now.

People keep complaining about the economy in FFXI, but they are usually missing the point. The FFXI economy is much more player driven than, for instance, WoW. This means that you get price fluctuations and other economic problems, but that is what makes it interesting to play a MMORPG. If you want fixed prices, then single player rpgs may satisfy you more.

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