Bruce Everiss, who works in video game marketing, has written up an excellent piece on the shady side of the “game”, pointing out the fact it’s owned by a guy who has been sued by Microsoft for click fraud and who also runs a gold farming company, that it steals assets from Age of Empires and that the game is spamming people’s blogs and forums with unsolicited Evony ads.
And what did Bruce get for his troubles? Well, of course, he’s been threatened with a lawsuit by Evony’s owner, Eric Lam.
More About Evony [Bruceongames, via Valleywag]
Dr_Stef
August 26, 2009 at 3:15 PM
Would you really trust a banner that says:
Report Permalink“Come play, my Lord?” lol. I mean seriously haha!!
Pete
August 26, 2009 at 4:11 PM
Depends on the woman LOL
Report PermalinkTheDr
August 26, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Wow and just as i was starting to enjoy that one..
Report PermalinkJoshy206
August 26, 2009 at 3:42 PM
Got it: send all of my perverted enemies to this site.
Report PermalinkKorwin
August 26, 2009 at 3:54 PM
I’d be suprised if anyone actually clicked on that banner anyway. Looks like a bad porn ad.
Report PermalinkJoshua Meadows
August 26, 2009 at 4:28 PM
They’ve also threatened to sue The Guardian as well.
Report PermalinkMark Isherwood
August 26, 2009 at 4:30 PM
The first time I saw the add, I thought it was for a porn site.
Report PermalinkPeter
August 26, 2009 at 4:54 PM
me too! In fact I still do.
Report PermalinkWilliam
August 26, 2009 at 5:22 PM
On a site I used to be on I got a add for ebony in my PM box. Not to mention this IS incredibly shady.
Report PermalinkLinkageAX
August 26, 2009 at 5:36 PM
Just so everyone knows, it is in-fact a game I made this discovery when I accidently clicked a banner ad for it while a page was still loading (Augh) and well subscribed a dummy account to see what it was about. It is crap, and it takes time to anything, and it also costs real money to get anywhere. Curiosity is a time-killer.
Report PermalinkBruceongames
August 26, 2009 at 6:28 PM
I have now written a lot more about the Evony censorship attempts and why they are using Australian lawyers: http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/08/26/why-use-warren-mckeon-dickson-to-threaten-me/
Report Permalinkmambodog
August 26, 2009 at 6:47 PM
“If you’re on the internet, at all, you’ve seen its intrusive banner ads pretty much everywhere.”
Some people use adblockers… I’ve only heard about it because sometimes I have to access the net from uni computers.
Report PermalinkAlex Hartman
August 26, 2009 at 6:55 PM
I love it how these ads started off with a drawing of a medieval-ish women with big jugs, then a 3D image of another medieval women with big jugs in a more sexual pose, and now we’ve got this chick in only border-line period clothing and slogans like ‘Come play, my Lord’.
Yeah, you’re really selling yourself as a trustworthy, quality title, and not at all as a bottom feeding glorified email-harvester.
Report PermalinkKhuntza
August 26, 2009 at 7:58 PM
Honestly the first Ive heard of it.. gotta love Adblock Plus
Report PermalinkPaul McManus
August 26, 2009 at 9:33 PM
@Khuntza: Exactly, Firefox and Adblock Plus. I haven’t seen a graphic advertisement online for 12 months.
Report PermalinkMatfei
August 26, 2009 at 10:17 PM
That’s exactly what I’m running (in addition to NoScript), and have been for two years or so now. Perplexes me why people bother to track down domain names of the spam and manually blacklist them when two simple plugins seem to thwart each and every attempt without so much as a blink.
I didn’t even know what Evony was until I read blogs about it, and I’ve only ever seen the ads in screenshots.
TL;DR: Get Firefox, install Adblock Plus and NoScript and you’re golden.
Report PermalinkJames Murchison
August 26, 2009 at 10:50 PM
I read this article about it a little while ago, and the ads got much worse for a little while, they were just a straight up bra.
Report Permalinkhttp://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001286.html
I Jawsus I
August 26, 2009 at 11:01 PM
Luke what about those ads your site promotes…. you know the one with breast feeding working moms sheesh I’m sick of that ad.
Report PermalinkKorwin
August 27, 2009 at 7:41 AM
But when IS sex safe after child birth Jawsus? :D
Report PermalinkSpagman
August 27, 2009 at 10:59 AM
sorry it is just me, or is it ironic that at http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/07/15/more-about-evony/ (a article ragging out the crap that is Evony), that there’s a banner ad to some other free online rpg game?
Report PermalinkRanebuggy
September 18, 2009 at 11:01 PM
Even more ironic is the fact that the RPG that is being advertised was created by the same people that created Evony.
Report PermalinkFlux
November 18, 2009 at 10:39 PM
Ah, Adwords, what will you screw up next?
Report PermalinkBruceongames
February 19, 2010 at 9:08 PM
I have investigated the shadowy people behind Evony and written it up with names, photographs and locations: http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/02/19/the-people-behind-evony/
Report Permalinkshaun
March 4, 2010 at 4:09 PM
Is there ANY online rpg’s thatare safe to play..the net is getting so polluted that i feel like going back to the telly.
Report PermalinkDJRTMUM
November 16, 2010 at 9:09 PM
I had my castle stolen, plundered and repeatedly attacked by two players that now do not exist. My question is one is level 80 one is 90 according to the reports. I was a level 10 player so I will not be playing again. I spent $65 in total so very unhappy and feeling a little stupid because I normally wouldn’t spend money on any game. I was just enjoying this one, and I am not really a gamer. So angry at them and also at myself for falling for it. I am usually more aware then this. CRAP CRAP CRAP
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