http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=185209#post185209

However, during the course of this week some things have changed. Over the past few days, many (if not all) of our Affiliates received offers to buy their sites from a third party that Sigil has no interest in dealing with. The offers, however, were quite high and some owners felt (understandably) that they could simply not refuse them.

Recap of Events

As many of you know, this is the latest in a series of events between game companies and IGE. Selling services such as IGE come to prominence with the growing popularity of EverQuest. IGE deals with selling in-game items, characters, game money, and game accounts. The vast majority of the time this activity is against the EULAs of the games in which these items and characters exist. This can be a sensitive issue to gamers because it brings the real world into the gaming world and has many repercussions.

The Present

Recent articles posted by GameSpot and Ogaming about IGE brought many long standing issues regarding the out-of-game sale of in-game items back to the forefront. Okratas followed up on these articles with additional questions specifically regarding some of the issues of concern to long time gamers. Some of the questions were not answered in full. Sigil, which had turned down a deal offered by IGE last year, then answered some of the additional questions in a public interview taking a stance against the secondary market.

It was recently uncovered that IGE owns Ogaming, one of the sites which did the initial interview with IGE. The Age of Vanguard fansite then receives a buy offer from IGE and publicly posts the letter and their rejection. The latest news to come to light is that IGE has made offers to buy out other Vanguard affiliate sites. Some have accepted the offers and have therefore lost their affiliate status with Sigil.

Sigil is the latest company to have to make tough choices based on their stance regarding IGE. We at The Safehouse respect the choice that Sigil has made and support it, and like Sigil, we find no fault in any choice made by our fellow affiliate site owners especially when that choice could very well be life changing.

The Safehouse

The Safehouse has an illustrious five year history as a gaming site dedicated to the rogue class. It's a history of which staff and member alike are extremely proud, and at multiple points during that history we have been approached by members of the secondary market. We like to believe that this is due to our reputation as a quality gaming site. On each occassion that we were approached, we have made great effort to communicate that we are and will always remain in no way interested in selling to IGE. We have not been contacted recently about this matter by any secondary market vendors, and this is also something in which we take great pride. We hope this implies that our past replies on the subject were clear and understood.

We look forward to our continued affiliation with Sigil Games Online and with the other game companies who provide us with the games we enjoy and the class we love to play. We also look forward to further developing relationships with other sites and services who have a positive impact on the MMOG community at large. However, we at The Safehouse do not view the secondary market contribution as a positive one and we will never sell to IGE.