IGE's recent newsletter to their customers was titled: "Let's Clean Up the Industry". The letter had a similar goal that we here at GameRates.com are trying to accomplish; the legitimization of an exciting new RMT industry that for too long was run by a bunch of thugs. The following are some important quotes and comments from the newsletter:
IGE® was established because its founders saw a need, to provide online gamers with services they were requesting at a fair price, with real customer service and with rock solid customer guarantees.
We personally know the founders of IGE (Brock Pierce & Alan Debonneville). Alan would later sue Brock for sort of screwing him out of a great share of the business. That lawsuit resulted in a huge document that more or less details a lot of the shady things IGE was doing at the time and how crazy Brock could be. Least we forget, Brock got his start first in Disney movies and later was a founder of Digital Entertainment Network (DEN) an internet startup during the bubble years that failed when it's three founders (including Brock) were engaged in sex scandals with underage boys. Furthermore, instead of fighting the charges they fled overseas and were living on a houseboat hidden in Spain evading Interpol. What better escape that nightmare than EverQuest (where IGE got started and where Brock met Alan)! In Norrath no one knows you are responsible for losing millions in investor money and are fleeing sex charges! It was Brock and IGE's early practices that created the criminal/thug image of RMT!
In the 7 years since its inception, the RMT industry has evolved greatly. Today, it is not driven by gamer-to-gamer trades. Instead, it is a billion dollar annual market place, with the majority of currency provided by professional “farmers” working in third world countries. While this has brought the convenience of more inventories for purchase, it has also brought with it a host of problems. The purpose of this newsletter is to discuss those problems, and what we can do together to help solve them.
The good news is that IGE have evolved a lot as well. It's under new management, Brock isn't involved, and the company has made massive changes to shed it's old image. The new IGE is nothing like the old IGE and if anything it is an example of a more transparent ethical RMT company. However, we find it disgraceful they would start a newsletter about "cleaning up the industry" with a statement about how much the founders cared about the customers and low prices.
We believe that fraud hurts all of us. Unfortunately, because the industry is largely unregulated, and gold sellers are often located in countries where it is hard to prosecute fraud, there have been too many examples of abuse over the last few years. We would like to work with you to change that.
True.
Knowledge is power!
Knowledge is power? Come on, your customer's aren't 5th graders! I know this is most likely due to cultural/ESL factors of whoever wrote the article, but it just strikes me as silly! Knowledge is power! Right on!
We recognize that there is a significant shortage of trustworthy information available for you (the customer). It is practically impossible to find recommendations from experts that allow you to make sound decisions about where (and from whom) you can safely purchase virtual currency. Fortunately, a few excellent resources are emerging. Our favorite is www.wowgoldfacts.com
Maybe we are just bitter that they didn't give us a shoutout.
To correct this, about two years ago, we began quietly providing real insights to our customers regarding virtual currency supplies and industry matters as part of our commitment to ‘clean up the industry’. If currency is scarce, we admit it. If prices are moving up or down, we admit it. If a refund is requested prior to delivery, we give it. For years, we have taken a strong stand against spam and supplier fraud. We require those who work with IGE® to adhere to these same standards or we stop doing business with them. Period.
Not lying to your customers is a good thing and GameRates has long preached the need for greater transparency in the industry.
In January, IGE® began reaching out to competitive gold sellers, explaining our goal of building a group of trusted member sites dedicated to standardizing the industry, and stopping all fraud and abuse. Self regulation worked well for Hollywood as well as the video game industry. We think it will work just as well in RMT. We began by eliminating sites which don't meet the standards set above as well as those with histories of abuse, specifically; buying currency from suppliers who are known to commit fraud, account theft, dealing in stolen credit cards, power leveling abuses where customer accounts are used to farm currency, black hat SEO and SEM techniques which hurt everyone by driving up costs, false advertising, etc.
We are pleased to put forth below a list of companies who conform to the standards outlined above, and from whom you can buy with confidence. There may be other companies that meet these standards, and if so, we will happily recommend them. The list below is not meant to be complete or comprehensive. It is simply the list we have today. These companies operate with high standards of business ethics and you can purchase with confidence, knowing that if there are issues, they will work with you to resolve them fairly. You may ask, why in the world would IGE® recommend that you shop at competitive sites? It is because we believe the issue of “cleaning up the industry” is more important than competitive worries. We are confident that we can, in a fair and clean market place, earn your business.
The sites which we own are denoted by an asterisk (*).
Sites which you can trust (listed alphabetically):
1. www.EpicToon.com
2. www.Gamemasta.com
3. www.IGE.com*
4. Mogs.com
5. www.Mymmoshop.com
6. www.Mysupersales.com*
7. www.RPGtrader.com
8. www.Vipgamer.com
9. www.Videogamegold.com
10. www.WoWgoldpig.com
11. www.WoWtreasures.com
Our message is clear - You have the power to regulate this industry by only buying from trusted sites.
I think this is a great idea. I also like how they note the sites that they own with an asterick. The old IGE would have done this and then just listed 11 sites they owend. We are going to go through and do some fact checking on these sites and see if we can add them to our review database. Overall this is a great step forward for the industry and seems to be more than just a PR ploy.