Blogger sued by Evony for defamation, libel
by Seraphina Brennan 
Sep 14th 2009 at 3:00PM
Filed under: Culture, News items, Legal, MMORTS
Serve me now, my lord!Blogger Bruce Everiss, author of the website BruceOnGames.com, has been sued by Evony LLC, the company behind the notorious online webgame Evony, formerly Civony. The suit stems from Bruce's Evony coverage and critical stance towards the game, including his assertions that Evony LLC is a company under the WoWmine.org network (a site that is allegedly part of a World of Warcraft gold farming network), his statements concerning the company being based in China, and that their game has infringed on other game IPs, including Civilization and Age of Empires.
Evony usually comes under fire for their very transparent marketing strategy, which is usually slapping a hot woman (who has nothing to do with their civilization/empire building MMORTS) onto an ad to entice gamers to click. However, as we posted prior, some bloggers have found some content that was directly ripped off from Civilization and Age of Empires, however the Age of Empires assets have been removed from the current iteration of the game.
As to the statement by Evony LLC that they are not a Chinese company, we'd like to point out that the game is developed by a group known as UMGE.com... a Chinese company. It says so on their official wiki, Evonypedia. "Evony is owned by UMGE (Universal Multiplayer Game Entertainment). Founded by a small group of avid Chinese game developers, UMGE is based in Guangzhou, China and develops online multiplayer games." Whoops.
Evony LLC alleges that Bruce's coverage has caused "serious damage" to the game's reputation as well as the gaming experience shared by all of its users. If you're looking for some of the things they've sent Bruce to get him to back off, you can check them out over on his site.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Pingles said on 3:07PM 9-14-2009
Ouch. A bit over-the-top of a picture, eh? So much for reading the site on my lunch break at work.
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Alex said on 3:23PM 9-14-2009
Just FYI, that "over the top picture" is quite literally ripped straight from one of the ads for this game (with the speech bubble added of course).
Not much was cropped out aside from the Evony logo and slogan and MAYBE (I won't swear it was there in the first place) the woman's face.
Colin Brennan said on 3:28PM 9-14-2009
Yeah. That's an Evony ad that's serving as the side photo. I just cropped out the woman's face. Not like there was much face to crop out anyway...
jmckinney71 said on 3:14PM 9-14-2009
There's something to read?
/drool
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Macabre said on 3:15PM 9-14-2009
Oh! *ahem* Excuse me... were you saying something?
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snowleopard233 said on 3:21PM 9-14-2009
Nothing could be done to Evony’s name that Evony hasn’t done already.
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Neurotic said on 3:37PM 9-14-2009
Yep, that's it in a nutshell. I can't wait to see how this comedy plays out.
Utakata said on 3:43PM 9-14-2009
Having their asses laughed out of court would be the most appropriate course for justice in this case.
Lateris said on 4:25PM 9-14-2009
I just cant stand the game. Oh no sue me!
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Infurn said on 4:35PM 9-14-2009
You better be careful or else they will sue you using lawyers from Taiwan for ruining their reputation in Switzerland.
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Vulturion said on 4:37PM 9-14-2009
Excellent speech bubble placement, Colin - if Evony had cut scenes, I'd wager that's exactly what they'd look like.
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Myria said on 5:29PM 9-14-2009
They have to know this suit stands exactly zero chance of succeeding -- just for starters, truth is a defense against libel. The only possible goal here has to be free publicity, which they are no doubt going to get a ton of.
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myr said on 5:59PM 9-14-2009
Oh no precious boobies, we would never do anything to slander your good name. No, no, my precious.
*ahem* What were we talking about?
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NT_ said on 6:01PM 9-14-2009
A podcast that I heard some time ago suggested that Bruce did not have the financial resources to defend this lawsuit. This is often the case, especially in the UK, where defendants have a more uphill legal battle defending libel/slander suits.
As such, I went to his blog looking for a solicitation for donations and found none. Perhaps, he has adequate legal resources. But, if not, know that some of us are willing, in a trivial way perhaps, to support his defense. Collectively, that might make a real difference. Please let us know if our assistance is needed.
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DeathMutant said on 7:40PM 9-14-2009
I would not be suprised if Evony LLC itself helps fund the defense! The longer the suit is active in the media the more publicity it generates -- which is, probably, the whole point of the suit in the first place. If the defendant just quietly "went away" the marketing campaign would have to find another strategy.
Brian! said on 11:01PM 9-14-2009
Nice article. I look forward to a follow up on this one.
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Wjowski said on 4:04AM 9-16-2009
The image pretty much sells itself.
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Calarius said on 5:28PM 9-16-2009
I just think the game sucked. I tried it. And as soon as it was fair game on my city, I was getting overrun constantly. At that point, I couldn't generate enough resources to do anything. F*** that noise.
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