20 Nov, 2007, Noplex wrote in the 2nd comment:
Wow.
20 Nov, 2007, Zeno wrote in the 3rd comment:
I bet you game.org domain sold for a lot.
20 Nov, 2007, Guest wrote in the 4th comment:
It did, but I promised Derek I wouldn't reveal how much.
20 Nov, 2007, Conner wrote in the 5th comment:
Noplex said:
Wow.
Can I just second that? :surprised:
20 Nov, 2007, kiasyn wrote in the 6th comment:
Conner said:
Can I just second that? :surprised:
Noplex said:
Wow.
Can I just second that? :surprised:
Thirded
21 Nov, 2007, Kjwah wrote in the 7th comment:
wow… that's… pretty cool I suppose.
21 Nov, 2007, Zenn wrote in the 8th comment:
Not to fuel the fires of price speculation, but..
Considering that prices on that sort of domain name would be astronomical nowadays, it makes me wonder…
When the heck was that site created? :surprised:
Considering that prices on that sort of domain name would be astronomical nowadays, it makes me wonder…
When the heck was that site created? :surprised:
21 Nov, 2007, Guest wrote in the 9th comment:
According to the whois data, the game.org domain was originally created back in 1994. My memory may not be the best on this, but I'd suspect that valuable domains like this were still easy to get back then.
21 Nov, 2007, bbailey wrote in the 10th comment:
Samson said:
According to the whois data, the game.org domain was originally created back in 1994. My memory may not be the best on this, but I'd suspect that valuable domains like this were still easy to get back then.
Considering that game.org predates even the likes of yahoo.com (not by much, but it does!), I'd venture that even the concept of a 'valuable domain' was still in its infancy. Most high-profile sites were still dominated by long-established corporations, universities and other research institutions, and governments.
22 Nov, 2007, Conner wrote in the 11th comment:
Samson said:
According to the whois data, the game.org domain was originally created back in 1994. My memory may not be the best on this, but I'd suspect that valuable domains like this were still easy to get back then.
That matches what I remember as well. It's funny because in another forum (totally unrelated) just recently there was a discussion (debate, if you will) about whether a game could be successful without being released as boxed software and I held up the fact that RoD had been up for the last 13 years as a free (unboxed) game that was doing quite well.
bbailey said:
Considering that game.org predates even the likes of yahoo.com (not by much, but it does!), I'd venture that even the concept of a 'valuable domain' was still in its infancy. Most high-profile sites were still dominated by long-established corporations, universities and other research institutions, and governments.
From my recollection, even back in 1995 there were folks paying rediculous amounts for specific domains and we had a bunch of folks buying up random domains specifically to squat them for eventual resale. Particularly popular for that were names of major companies and trademarks. Probably still is the case, but no longer as common now that everyone major already has their web presence established.
22 Nov, 2007, bbailey wrote in the 12th comment:
Conner said:
That matches what I remember as well. It's funny because in another forum (totally unrelated) just recently there was a discussion (debate, if you will) about whether a game could be successful without being released as boxed software and I held up the fact that RoD had been up for the last 13 years as a free (unboxed) game that was doing quite well.
From my recollection, even back in 1995 there were folks paying rediculous amounts for specific domains and we had a bunch of folks buying up random domains specifically to squat them for eventual resale.
Samson said:
According to the whois data, the game.org domain was originally created back in 1994. My memory may not be the best on this, but I'd suspect that valuable domains like this were still easy to get back then.
That matches what I remember as well. It's funny because in another forum (totally unrelated) just recently there was a discussion (debate, if you will) about whether a game could be successful without being released as boxed software and I held up the fact that RoD had been up for the last 13 years as a free (unboxed) game that was doing quite well.
bbailey said:
Considering that game.org predates even the likes of yahoo.com (not by much, but it does!), I'd venture that even the concept of a 'valuable domain' was still in its infancy. Most high-profile sites were still dominated by long-established corporations, universities and other research institutions, and governments.
From my recollection, even back in 1995 there were folks paying rediculous amounts for specific domains and we had a bunch of folks buying up random domains specifically to squat them for eventual resale.
I'm sure there were instances of it, as it wasn't an unknown practice, but rather one that was just beginning to gain mindshare at the end of 94 and beginning of 95. Most telling, I think, is that sex.com wasn't created until late 95 (18 Oct 1995, says whois). You gotta give Thoric credit for beating -that- by over 10 months, and for holding onto it as long as he has.
22 Nov, 2007, Conner wrote in the 13th comment:
bbailey said:
I'm sure there were instances of it, as it wasn't an unknown practice, but rather one that was just beginning to gain mindshare at the end of 94 and beginning of 95. Most telling, I think, is that sex.com wasn't created until late 95 (18 Oct 1995, says whois). You gotta give Thoric credit for beating -that- by over 10 months, and for holding onto it as long as he has.
I'll certainly give him credit for coming up with a good domain name before anyone else grabbed it (even back then it wasn't always easy to get the domain you wanted) and for holding onto it as long as he had. As for sex.com, it may not have existed until Oct 95, but the online porn industry had already proved strong before that point.
22 Nov, 2007, Guest wrote in the 14th comment:
Part of the reason it wasn't as easy to get the domain you wanted back then was the ridiculous cost. I remember when I shopped for my first, back in 1998 or so, the cost was $75/yr and I paid it grudgingly because it was as cheap as it got.
Now you can get domains for $1/yr.
Now you can get domains for $1/yr.
22 Nov, 2007, David Haley wrote in the 15th comment:
I just feel sorry for people who, back then, bought the domains for several years… it must have been painful to see the price drop from $75 (I remember those days…) to $35 and now to the ~$10-$15 or so for .com domains.
22 Nov, 2007, Conner wrote in the 16th comment:
Not only was the cost that high, you had to get approved by icann to have that domain name too (I don't think I ever heard about anyone getting disapproved, but it meant between 6-24 hrs before you could "activate" your new domain name) and of course it had to be a name that wasn't already in use.
Yes, it is painful to think of the money I spent back then compared to what it would've cost me for the same domain name and bandwidth today. :sad:
Back in 1994, I had tcdbbs.com and a dedicated fractional T-1 and it was costing me about $750/month. Today I can have the bandwidth of a full T-1 through a regular cable connection for $42.95/month and a domain name would cost me anywhere from $1-20/year depending on where I get it registered. Things have come a long way in those 13 years.
Yes, it is painful to think of the money I spent back then compared to what it would've cost me for the same domain name and bandwidth today. :sad:
Back in 1994, I had tcdbbs.com and a dedicated fractional T-1 and it was costing me about $750/month. Today I can have the bandwidth of a full T-1 through a regular cable connection for $42.95/month and a domain name would cost me anywhere from $1-20/year depending on where I get it registered. Things have come a long way in those 13 years.
22 Nov, 2007, Guest wrote in the 17th comment:
I can get a .com for $4.95. So it's gotten pretty much dirt cheap. But yeah. I can see how it must hurt bad to know you spent thousands 10 years ago when today anyone can afford to tie up a domain for decades at a fraction of the cost.
22 Nov, 2007, David Haley wrote in the 18th comment:
Yeah, but hey, sometimes you get your domain at $5/month and then, I dunno, it turns into RegisterFleas or something. :wink:
22 Nov, 2007, Guest wrote in the 19th comment:
Heh, too true. Fortunately the Registerflea scenario doesn't happen that often. That was perhaps the biggest warning sign yet that ICANN has loosened control over things a bit too much for everyone's own good.
22 Nov, 2007, Conner wrote in the 20th comment:
Aye, it does indeed. If I'd have had the knowledge I have now the money back then I'd have bought a couple of nice dedicated T-3's and opened a huge ISP and then bought up a slot in one of the nationwide dial-up colocation deals that were just starting and I could easily have been NetZero before NetZero was, if not AOL. *sigh*
Random Picks
With his permission, here's the announcement:
I have sold the domain name "game.org", and henceforth all links
pointing to game.org and game.org subdomains will have to be changed to
new locations.
The domains smaug.org and realmsofdespair.com have existed for a number
of years, so these will be available to update any links specifically
referring to the SMAUG code, or Realms of Despair.
I have created the domain "ftpgame.org" to take over for the
ftp.game.org site. Links can be either "http://ftpgame.org/" for the
web interface, or "ftp://ftpgame.org" for the ftp interface.
For links to the original "portal" site that was at www.game.org, you
may link to: http://www.realmsofdespair.com/portal/
Thank-you and sorry for the inconvenience.
-Derek (aka Thoric)
Time is short. The www.game.org domain is going to be switched over within the next day or two. The other subdomains such as realms.game.org and ftp.game.org will be switched over in January to allow time to track down and change those to the new subdomains.