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WoW Database Site Sells For $1 Million

Posted by Zonk on from the almost-enough-for-an-epic-flying-mount dept.

MattHock writes "Wowhead (a WoW information database) has been sold to ZAM (Affinity Media) for the price of $1 million. ZAM is the owner of several other WoW databases, including Thottbot and Allakhazam. Until recently Affinity was also the owner of IGE, a highly controversial company that sold in-game wealth for real life money. Affinity recently sold IGE, which Wowhead claims as the reason they allowed the sale to go through. But did ZAM really sell IGE? The blogger who put this story online doubts that IGE and ZAM have actually distanced themselves. He believes that the supposed sale was just actually a means of restructuring to hide the relationship, similar to how IGE's relationship to Thottbot was hidden for a number of months through a convoluted set of parent companies."

5 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Send in the clones. by Funkcikle · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The reason Wowhead is, in my opinion, the best WoW database around is the quality, depth and range of the content followed by the actual design of the site. Compare it to Alla's/Thottbot's/etc hideous design and swollen out-dated information, filled with crap comments, spam and overloaded with adverts. It's a bit like how Google was a few years ago compared to Yahoo and Alta Vista.

    This sale is probably a bad thing, in terms of quality of the site as it currently stands. Thottbot was used to launch that .ani vulnerability a while back too. I expect more adverts, changes in the design to accommodate more adverts, a flood of new users filling it with crap and spam just like all the other sites...

    Still, not bad money for what is essentially a pretty front-end to content other people have created for you! What a shame that something about the whole deal just seems...suspicious. The press release is cringeworthy - full of "We're sure these guys are HIP and COOL!" and "We'd NEVER do anything EVIL! We're not GOOGLE!" crud.

  2. Re:all my mod points... by ringbarer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    FACT: ZAM now own the three most visible sites which support players of World of Warcraft. These sites provide in game support, listing rare in-game items, as well as locations of rare spawns. Combined, these three sites could provide a goldmine of information about what is popular and what will sell well at the moment.

    FACT: ZAM once claimed ownership of a Gold Farming and Selling business, IGE. These businesses thrive by attempting to gain a monopoly on popular and rare in-game items which are then subsequently sold for real world cash.

    FACT: Both Alkhazam and Thottbot were recently 'compromised' by an Internet Explorer vulnerability that installed a keylogger. This Keylogger gathered WoW login details from unsuspecting visitors, and used these details to dissolve the players' virtual assets - transferring them to Gold Farming and Selling businesses. This occurred after ZAM claimed to have sold their stake in IGE.

    SUPPOSITION: WoWhead will find itself similarly 'compromised' in the future.

    --
    "Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
  3. Re:Another conspiracy theorist blogger by Funkcikle · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Wowhead provides a LOT of content. More crucial is what it doesn't provide - pages of lame comments full of crap from kids. It has genuinely useful and informative WoW-related information, written up by intelligent players. The dross sgets very quickly moderated down by the site users.

    It also has a very powerful and customisable search tool compared to other sites.

  4. My son's experience trying to sell a WoW character by ortholattice · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I am not into WoW and barely know what it is, but my son has is trying to sell his character and has gotten several offers of $200-$400. But selling them has so far proved impossible due to fraud. Since he is underage, he has been using my PayPal account, so I know what's going on there. So far, he has been scammed no less that FOUR times trying to sell his WoW account - each time the payment was reversed after several days by PayPal because the payment was "unauthorized". Most recently, he thought the problem could be solved by selling only to a PayPal "verified" account; the money actually went through and I successfully initiated a transfer to my checking account. No go - a couple of days later, the transfer was reversed by PayPal because the transaction was "unauthorized".

    Each time he has given the WoW character to the buyer when the payment came through, and each time he was able to get the character back via Blizzard. But they must be getting tired of this, and I don't know how long they will keep giving him back his "stolen" WoW account.

    I told him to wait for a week (or two?) until the money has finally cleared before giving the WoW account to the buyer. He says no buyer would go along with this - how do they know he's not just scamming them?

    Overall, this has been a unpleasant experience. I have no idea if these fraudulent transactions are threatening cancellation of my PayPal account, hurting my credit rating, or whatever. Another mysterious thing - someone (unrelated to any purchase) deposited $0.01 into my PayPal account.

    Each one of these buyers, when contacted via email, simply didn't answer. If their accounts had been stolen - say via all those PayPal phishing emails - as PayPal suggests, one would think they would at least have the courtesy to reply that "yes, my account was stolen, and I didn't authorized that transaction" - but no, silence. Weird.

    So, I have no idea how he can sell his WoW character reliably. As an outsider, to me the WoW community looks like a den of thieves and scammers. How do other people sell their characters? How does the seller insure the buyer won't reverse the payment? How does the buyer prevent the seller from taking it back, claiming it "stolen"?

  5. Man, their FAQ team works fast: by sabernet · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How can I believe any of this is true? I read on another site that a former employee says this is all false.

    John: I would strongly caution people not to believe all the rumors they read. For example, it came to my attention that the individual who leaked the story about the Wowhead sale supposedly not only owns competitive content properties but also is the partner in a successful RMT site. Like all Internet rumors, it is just that, but please consider the source when you hear damning stuff. Why not take a free shot at your top competitor. If the rumor above is true about the source of these comments, it is of course the height of hypocrisy.

    So you are sure Wowhead will not have gold ads now?

    John: 100% sure. Neither Wowhead or the ZAM Network have ever had gold or powerleveling ads, and they never will. We sold IGE. We are clearly separating our business from those practices. Why would we start running gold ads now?