Comment spam, lewd advertising, and stolen assets abound for Evony
by Seraphina Brennan 
Jul 13th 2009 at 6:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, Free-to-play, MMORTS
If you've been on the internet for longer than five minutes then you've probably run into ads for Evony, an online free-to-play browser real-time strategy game. The game is a medieval MMORTS, but you probably wouldn't be able to figure that out from some of their recent advertisements, most of which center around lingerie and women.The game's unorthodox marketing strategy has been a target of the blogosphere for some time, starting back when they were still called Civony instead of their current title. During that time the company was caught by bloggers for stealing images without permission from other sites and using them for their game's marketing. Since then, the name has changed and new advertising has appeared, including an overuse of blog comment spam.
Interestingly enough, the company has denounced the use of spam amongst their users of the iEvony codes, calling it a "unethical" and "abusive."
The company may have more to worry about than just poor taste in marketing, as many sites are also noting that the game's art assets and writing assets have been ripped from other real-time strategy games. Things such as text from Civilization 4 to the castle sprites from Age of Empires have been found in the game, creating the feeling for some users that this developer, whoever it is, is not entirely on the legitimate side.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Oddity J. Oddbird said on 6:55PM 7-13-2009
So this game promises I will be able to see boobies on the internetz?
I hope so as I have been unable to find boobies on the internetz as of this date.
I can see this game becoming a huge success if this is true as the interwebz would be a perfect place for the display of boobies.
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UltimateQ said on 6:58PM 7-13-2009
I've been on the internet for years, and I've never run into an add or any type of spam for Evony, nor have I even heard of it.
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Dawa said on 7:12PM 7-13-2009
An alternate internet universe perhaps? Seriously, those ads are all over the place.
Anticrawl said on 7:13PM 7-13-2009
I first logged online in 1990. I have nevar seen spam/ads for Evony. Then again unlike the blog poster I don't go looking for ads.
Rich said on 7:14PM 7-13-2009
I never have seen the ads either...Then again I never see ads... I
Anticrawl said on 7:15PM 7-13-2009
I first logged on in 1990 and I have never seen an Evony ad before. I guess some people look for ads when they visit a site but I've been surfing for so long I don't even see ads anymore. There might as well be an IV of fiber optic wire running into my vains yet I have never noticed them.
Rich said on 7:16PM 7-13-2009
Hmm it clipped my message.... the last part was
"I heart my ad block and no script."
Anticrawl said on 7:17PM 7-13-2009
veins
Sorry for the double post, the first one didn't show up for me.
interitus said on 9:51PM 7-13-2009
You are all being too literal. The ad's haven't been around for years, but in the last month or so they've popped up everywhere. They have declined in the last week or so. I think action is finally being taken about them exposing loopholes to spam websites
iintrude said on 7:20PM 7-13-2009
Same here, been on the Internet since early '90s and never once even heard of this thing. Makes the article seem like an ad for the game itself :)
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Jeremy White said on 7:35PM 7-13-2009
I have seen this ad EVERY where. It seems like it's taking over every site I visit.
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cozz said on 8:33PM 7-13-2009
I've been on internet since 90's too, and seriously... This ad is EVERYWHERE, basically on most blogs and tech-related websites.
Just look at that link to coding horror, they have many iteration of the ads, all of which I had seen.
If you never saw it then... It's either you don't browse much, has an ad blocker, or very good selective attention.
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Steve said on 9:11PM 7-13-2009
Yeah this ad is everywhere... Judging by the pictures and the fact that it says "play 'discreetly' in your browser" I wondered if it was some sort of erotic MMO
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UltimateQ said on 10:15PM 7-13-2009
I do also use adblock plus. I never see any ads either. It could help explain why I haven't seen these ads.
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S. said on 11:58PM 7-13-2009
Evony is developed and owned by RMT-seller www.wowmine.com (this is not an advertisement, it's the truth). This company earns between $300.000 to $500.000 PER DAY from selling WoW Gold, which enabled them to single-handedly develop their own mmorpg with a CHINESE team.
The CEO of "UGME" (non-existent company!) is Eric Lam. Yes, the same Eric Lam who was sued by Microsoft for nearly a million for ADVERTISEMENT FRAUD just a few weeks ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/business/media/16adco.html
Everything said in this blog post can be verified by e-mailing me. The truth behind Eric Lam, WoWMine and Evony needs to be exposed for once and for all! (this truth is instantly deleted if mentioned on Evony's official forums).
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HexDSL said on 5:48AM 7-14-2009
wasn't it Bill Hicks who first proposed that the greatest advert of all time would be a naked woman and a company logo?
we are another step closer to advertising perfection, congratulations stupid world!
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THAC0 said on 12:42PM 7-17-2009
this is one step closer to Utopia
Tom said on 8:51AM 7-14-2009
Yes, I have seen the ads for this Evony here and there (the breathy, Playboy fantasy "Whatever you say, my Lord" garbage) and they just scream trashy trash trash trash junk junk junk to me.
It's actually good the ads are as tacky and lame as they are, since they thereby warn any thinking person ahead of time to stay away from this game.
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myr said on 11:25AM 7-14-2009
I've never seen any ads for it, but like it has been mentioned above, I use adblockplus and noscript (you should too).
That said, regardless of what they have or haven't ripped or spammed, the game can be fun if you start up on whatever the newest server of the time is. I just got bored of it about the time they did the name change.
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niakori said on 12:28PM 7-14-2009
I stopped using adblock because some sites, especially mods sites that I visit need those ads to stay up (and free). The ads don't usually bother me but those Evony ads were bordering on crazy.