Arrghhh EQdruids is no more

[Artemisia]

EQdruids is gone! bleh I do hate this as they had some very nice info on there for druids.
had a look on druidgrove but nothing of the "guides" for druids that the other place had.

Anyone have any advise on were I can get some good druid info? Especially looking for something about direcharm.

thanks

P.S *coughs* is it ok to post this here? if not please remove and accept my apologies

[Verdandi]

Sure, it's fine. Sorry you've lost a favorite site though

[Lillanu]

They hosted the Xanthe's Tradeskills guides! That's why I started tradeskilling on my original druid
and that EQDruids is gone

[Nolrog]

Weren't they owned by IGE? Don't be surprised if they wind up on the sellout ******* site in the near future, since he sold his soul to the devil and IGE as well.

[Artemisia]

Weren't they owned by IGE? Don't be surprised if they wind up on the sellout ******* site in the near future, since he sold his soul to the devil and IGE as well.

whoever owned eqdruids did?

seems everyone is very annoyed with IGE, guild portal does not host allakazam links anymore either. Thinks I missed something on this whole IGE business

[Artemisia]

They hosted the Xanthe's Tradeskills guides! That's why I started tradeskilling on my original druid
and that EQDruids is gone

Aye and Xanthe does not play anymore so no chance of getting them from him/her :-(

[KyrosKrane]

According to the page I get, the site isn't gone; they just haven't paid their bill to the hosting company. Their account is just suspended from what I can see. It's possible that someone could pay the bill and restore the hosting service, though if it hasn't been done by now, I judge it unlikely.

Something similar happened to a company I worked for when the person in whose name the account was registered had to leave. When the renewal notices were sent, they arrived to the person's now-defunct address and bounced. The hosting company thought our company was dead, and our company thought everything was peachy since they weren't getting any bills or notices -- until the Web site died. It took a few frantic phone calls to resolve the issue and get the billing fixed, but our Web site was restored pretty quick thereafter.

[Artemisia]

Seems the domain is owned by OGaming Network. I shall write them a mail and see whats up

[Elyssanda]

Weren't they owned by IGE? Don't be surprised if they wind up on the sellout ******* site in the near future, since he sold his soul to the devil and IGE as well.

Around New Year's of 2004, while everyone at SOE was busy eating and sleeping, Yantis announced the acquisition of a few sites. Starting with EQBeastlord and EQDruids, the sites had suddenly sold out to Yantis.

IGE buys out Yantis

In the middle of this frenzy, where Yantis acquired 75% of the websites, IGE 25%, and SOE only moving to help out EQInterface (paying them over $10k/month!), a stunning announcement came: IGE had purchased ************.

Announced on January 22, 2004, the rumored value was that IGE had paid $10 million to Yantis. Of course, my sources confirmed this was not true. Instead what had happened was that Yantis (whose revenue was actually twice that of IGE) had not only realized that his image was tarnished, but also that with them competing with each other and the market growing, it was easier (and likely more profitable) to work together. The end result was that ************ (a brand with a negative stigma) ceased to be actively promoted. In turn, Yantis became the biggest shareholder in IGE, and IGE started to use his backend (and suppliers).

While all this was happening, IGE was still busy expanding. Hiring well-connected talent from other companies (such as Stephen Salyer, a Vice President at both Ubisoft and EA). This was a concentrated effort by them - connect and brand with users through MMO websites, and connect and establish relationships with developers through their hired executives.

And all around this time came the acquisition of OGaming. An upcoming network, IGE's latest purchase continued the trend of buying their way to prospective gold-buying customers. RPG Holdings was created as a new company that owns all MMO-fansite assets. IGE began to start advertising in magazines, and worked hard to hide the ogaming<-->IGE connection, and the Thottbot<-->ogaming connection. To their dismay, this relationship was exposed.

From an article posted here: http://wow.azzor.com/445/truth_about_IGE.php

[Lothay]

The linked article is;

* Light on documentation.
* Makes pretty outrageous and unsupportable claims.
* Should be read with a critical eye.

I'm not on IGE's bandwagon. The Den Mom has stated numerous times that she will never sell out and that's a good thing.

Please, if you need real information, try to get it from someone without an obvious agenda and paranoid ravings.

[Artemisia]

The linked article is;

* Light on documentation.
* Makes pretty outrageous and unsupportable claims.
* Should be read with a critical eye.

I'm not on IGE's bandwagon. The Den Mom has stated numerous times that she will never sell out and that's a good thing.

Please, if you need real information, try to get it from someone without an obvious agenda and paranoid ravings.

As I said, what to trust when you read these things, I know personally how some with bad intentions can make pretty absurd claims, still my beloved site is no more

[Elyssanda]

The linked article is;

* Light on documentation.
* Makes pretty outrageous and unsupportable claims.
* Should be read with a critical eye.

Please, if you need real information, try to get it from someone without an obvious agenda and paranoid ravings.

Lothay I would agree with you on this, but it is SO easy to find out who owns a website now days. and IGE or one of its subsidiaries owns way to much for me to be comfortable dealing with any of them. the light documentation is because you really can look all the ownership stuff up within 30 minutes of semi hard looking. I did alot of checking into most of it before bringing it to these boards.

[Lothay]

I didn't dispute the ownership of any site in the article. WHOIS databases make ownership easy to trace. (On a semi-related note, I'm an internet professional, and have been since before it was household word. )

If you read the rest of the rant you quoted statements like "leverage against Blizzard" and other non-sensical statements not backed up stubstatiated facts cast doubt on the validity of the rest of his arguments.

He claims that EQInterface was getting $10K/month from SoE -- but offers no documentation. He spouts dollar figures for individuals (pay outs, salaries, etc.), but doesn't provide any documentation.

Non-substatiated claims turns it from a reasoned argument into a paranoid rant.

[Nolrog]

To follow up on Elyssanda's excellent history. Not long ago, Allakhazam announced that it had sold out to a company that owns IGE (as well as other stuff.) It's owned by one of the IGE guys or something like that. So Allakhazam and IGE are now affiliated, and money generated by Allakhazam will go into the IGE owners pocket.

[Artemisia]

OK, I am sort of suprised that a single question about a good druids site ends up in a bashing of 'others' thread

Thank you to the person who send me a link to some of the content that was part of EQDruids and thanks for those who posted info here.