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Quote:Tonight during John Smedley's annual Community Address, Jeff Moyer, President of the Zam Network announced the creation of Zam.com, which will combine all Zam Network sites such as Thottbot, Wowhead, MMO Interface, and the Allakhazam game sites into one complete gaming destination. He also announced that in partnership with SOE, the first game to get a full Zam.com site will be EverQuest II.
AutumnKiss, posting from Alla's, does not have a release date ready:
"At this point, I'm not aware of any date for when we will release it. Please understand we are still making sure all of the data is properly displayed, that the interface is user-friendly, and that you guys can have what you want... when you want it.
Rest assured... as soon as it is ready, we will be blasting it across the network. "
Will it be free? That's an interesting question! When asked directly, Cathine from Alla's posted on the EQ2Player boards:
"At Allakhazam traditionally all game content is free. Premium gets you advanced searches (they are significantly better than the site search) and premium features on some games. But anyone can go to Alla's and look up game info without so much as a login.
A premium subscription is $9.99/3 months, $17.99/6 months, or $29.99/one year. The most expensive of those is $3.33/month.
Edit: Premium also turns off the ads."
She added that as far as the cost for the new service, "The latest information I have is 'This is still under discussion.' I promise I'll post as soon as I know."
The bottom line is, SOE has intelligently decided to use the existing database functionality of Alla's and the Zam network to assist players. Whether it will cost to use the premium features on these sites remains to be seen. LinkInteresting.
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I like the idea... but i don't like the way there doing it. When Eq2 came out, Allakazam was the site people went to for information. But WoW came out and Allakazam didn't put may resources in to Everquest2. Site like Eq2i, lootbd, eq2llinks were created to fill in the quest, and loot db that were missing from Allakazam. And now Allakazam get an exclusive access to SoE eq2 item/quest databases. It really feel like a SoE is giving the middle finger to the rest of the community sites.
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I met Calthine and her husband before, and I can tell you that they are very determined individuals. I know it's off subject, but I'm happy the community sites have gotten to the point they have. It's nice to see community fansite members rewarded financially....well I assume there is some financial gain. If you say me down and ask me if I would I pay for any service like this? Not at all, not one bit..
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Dardore wrote:I met Calthine and her husband before, and I can tell you that they are very determined individuals. I know it's off subject, but I'm happy the community sites have gotten to the point they have. It's nice to see community fansite members rewarded financially....well I assume there is some financial gain.
If you say me down and ask me if I would I pay for any service like this? Not at all, not one bit.. Exactly my thoughts on it. I didn't pay for it with SOE, and I am not going to pay for it with Zam. I think SOE's relationship with ZAM (and Affinity) has been very interesting over the years. To a point, somewhat hypocritical. But I will say that at one point I DID pay for Alla with EQ1 just because of how good the DB was. I wish Zam the best, but is sucks that SOE didn't just open up their database them selves for free for everyone. Its a pity they decided to go with a pay service when they could have just developed an API that ANY SITE could use for free and build from there.
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Cyanbane wrote:
I wish Zam the best, but is sucks that SOE didn't just open up their database them selves for free for everyone. Its a pity they decided to go with a pay service when they could have just developed an API that ANY SITE could use for free and build from there.
That exactly what i want as well. Though it probably because both of us are programmers, and most programmers tend to want things like that.
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ogrebears wrote:Cyanbane wrote:
I wish Zam the best, but is sucks that SOE didn't just open up their database them selves for free for everyone. Its a pity they decided to go with a pay service when they could have just developed an API that ANY SITE could use for free and build from there.
That exactly what i want as well. Though it probably because both of us are programmers, and most programmers tend to want things like that. they would encourage so much more grass roots development of tools that way, I hate that they didn't go that route.
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I had the pleasure of sitting next to the founder of Allakazham on the bus ride back from the "off site" party at Fanfaire. This dude was super cool and I'm telling you their site is going to kick major ass. It's so cool, it's not even funny. I dunno whether or not they are going to charge for the service, but it might be worth it if you are an avid SOE player. For games like VG, where there is very little information available out there - this will be huge.
Laz
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Lazaretto wrote:
I had the pleasure of sitting next to the founder of Allakazham on the bus ride back from the "off site" party at Fanfaire. This dude was super cool and I'm telling you their site is going to kick major ass. It's so cool, it's not even funny. I dunno whether or not they are going to charge for the service, but it might be worth it if you are an avid SOE player. For games like VG, where there is very little information available out there - this will be huge.
Laz
Vanguard was also supposed to be super cool and going to kick major ass too. The only thing that matters is the final live product. SOE just let an opportunity slip by them again by opening up for everyone to build and not just a single site (don't get me wrong, if it was wikia or eq2llinks or anyone else I would have the same problem - it isn't specifically because it is Zam).
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Vanguard's not super cool and kick ass? LOL... Sure it wasn't on release but it's pretty tight now.
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Lazaretto wrote:Vanguard's not super cool and kick ass? LOL... Sure it wasn't on release but it's pretty tight now. I can't say much on that front, I haven't played it in awhile, I am sure it is much much better than when I played it. I hope :)
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Dardore wrote:
If you say me down and ask me if I would I pay for any service like this? Not at all, not one bit..
Same here, I just don't feel like paying extra for a pay per the month game, its not the amount of money that puts me off but its kind of a line I draw when it comes to games, either the monthly fee has a playable game I enjoy without crutches or somethings wrong that I need to spend extra cash to get help. If SOE are planning to make this an extra value feature I think they'll find there isn't much interest in paying for information in one area when someone else has it somewhere for free. Personally I'd like to see these sort of databases integrated in the game instead, there is a great add-on in WoW that lets you search and go through items, its a good way to pass the time when travelling from one area to another researching up on where to go next and does fill in the spare time and enrich the gameplay experience (there is a weird restriction though in this, unless you've fought X boss you can't see any details for the items he drops, Blizzard have enforced this for some reason).
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Lomax wrote:
Same here, I just don't feel like paying extra for a pay per the month game, its not the amount of money that puts me off
I won't get started on if I feel the MMO monthly fees are out of line or not. I could validate points on both sides of the fence. I mean on one side, at $16.23 a month, that is basically about the same cost as a pizza order, but on the other hand, if you add up the rig, the expansions, and then the monthly fees on top of it, then I really don't like paying that much a month. There's all kinds of opinions on both sides of the fence I am sure. But again, there's no way I am going to pay even more for a value added service 3rd party website for convienence. I still can't believe that people do pay $32.46 a month for station access. Not to mention if you DO play all the games on there, you still have to buy the expansions for it. (ie. Say you play EQ and EQ2... so you play $32.46 a month + the 2 expansions a year for each game that comes out to $54.12 each time. You end up spending $606.04 a year) And then, if you're a superfreak and go to Fan Faire, you can tack on another grand or so. Although I will admit, that part is totally worth it.
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Looks like this is already making some fan sites throw in the towel. Major bummer. Less Happy Gaming News
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eq2llinks.com has also had similar news.
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http://www.allakhazam.com/story.html?story=14688 wrote:Live Broker Data. You will be able to log onto our site and see exactly what is for sale at that moment. You will also be able to request that you get e-mailed or texted when certain items come up for sale at certain prices. Oh boy, I can hear the arguments now... "Sorry Honey, I was on time for our anniversary dinner, but I got a text message that silicate loam was on the broker for 96 Gold a piece and I had to run home." Come on! Do we really need that?! Someone has to pay me for the hassle of that feature! I don't want to know when something is for sale at a good price and I am not around!
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