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Colonel · 08-26-2009

I'm sure you've seen the advertisements somewhere. If you play games on the internet, or even watch videos, you're bound to run into them. They are the ads for Evony, a poorly constructed internet game designed by the Chinese as a method of spreading malware and to spam advertisements. On top of this, they don't even veil the fact that they use sex to advertise. If you click on one of their links, you are almost certainly believing you're headed to a porn site.

Coding Horror: How Not to Advertise on the Internet Has a great article showing the advertisement progression, starting with an armor-clad knight, and ending literally with just a picture of breasts and tiny text saying "Evony". Check the link. You'll find I'm actually understating the issue.

REAL Evony Ad

But that's not all. Noted game critic and marketing expert Bruce Everiss points out on his blog that Evony is malware (Is Evony malware? — Bruce On Games), and why you shouldn't play (Don’t play Evony — Bruce On Games), and even the further detrimental effects of joining (More about Evony - Bruce On Games). Popcap even ridicules them (Wonderland: PopCap's Evony ads parody for Plants vs Zombies), as well as lesser known blogs and gaming sites (NFOpocalypse Blog Archive Evony: It’s official… worst ad campaign ever.) (This EVONY ad on McCovey Chronicles: Is it one of the worst and most annoying....agree/disagree? ... - McCovey Chronicles) (Is Evony malware? - GamerNook, The Social Network for Gamers)

As a result of criticism by people like Bruce, and even the Guardian (the reputable London newspaper), the Chinese owners of Evony have chosen to sue the two sources for libel using an Australian firm to use Australian bureaucracy as well as long distance courts to stop them. (Online gaming: Has Evony become the most despised game on the web? | Technology | The Guardian) (Evony want to sue me for telling the truth — Bruce On Games) (Internet Drama: Evony Suing Blogger - Quarter To Three Forums)

It's difficult for sources like Bruce and the Guardian to fight back (this article explains why Why use Warren McKeon Dickson to threaten me? — Bruce On Games), so Bruce has appealed to use the Streisand Effect to fight back. (Streisand effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Most people know by now that Evony is malicious. Please help spread the word, since it seems that reputable news outlits cannot. Thanks for your time.

As Mr. Everiss requests in his final article (concerning the Streisand Effect), he doesn't want a victory for obliviousness by having to remove the information, so as a result, he requests that it be spread to as many sources as possible, even if he is given no credit.

Original text of these articles is preserved in the spoilers below.

Spoiler

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruce Everiss, first post

Evony is a new, free, browser MMO. And their marketing consists of spamming up the internet like crazy. This blog is receiving a huge number of spam “comments” from them. Fortunately Akismet anti spam puts them automatically into the bin. Here are some of the email addresses they are using for this spam:

tsenseless.evony.com/bx8s07@naplesnews.net

tsenseless.evony.com/4cdtyg0fv@hotmail.com

tsenseless.evony.com/m36fqptkw2@naplesnews.net

tsenseless.evony.com/sfhwrv@live.com

tsenseless.evony.com/fhgpzdbk80@naplesnews.net

tsenseless.evony.com/w85@darkhorsefan.net

tsenseless.evony.com/xycw5vd@student.com

tsenseless.evony.com/ndh4pr1@bolt.com

tsenseless.evony.com/f3ypkg6@postmark.net

tsenseless.evony.com/ftcs@usa.com

tsenseless.evony.com/6n8ck@naplesnews.net

tsenseless.evony.com/rjd@email.com

And so on. They are doing this from the IP address 63.223.110.211
Whois Record

OrgName: Beyond The Network America, Inc.
OrgID: BNA-42
Address: 450 Springpark PL
Address: Suite 100
City: Herdon
StateProv: VA
PostalCode: 20170
Country: US

NetRange: 63.216.0.0 - 63.223.255.255
CIDR: 63.216.0.0/13
NetName: BTN-CIDR5
NetHandle: NET-63-216-0-0-1
Parent: NET-63-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS.CAIS.COM
NameServer: NS2.CAIS.COM
Comment: ADDRESSES WITHIN THIS BLOCK ARE NON-PORTABLE
RegDate: 1999-12-09
Updated: 2004-11-12

OrgAbuseHandle: PAD13-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: PCCW AUP Department
OrgAbusePhone: +1-703-621-1637
OrgAbuseEmail:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruce Everiss

This is a massive story, so I thought that I would expand on the original article. If it was in the automobile industry or the banking industry it would be front page headlines. But the old people who are in charge of the media don’t understand games. So firstly I will do some explaining.

Gold farming I have written about before. It is the practice of playing games to generate valuable in game items which are then sold in the real world to lazy Western players who can’t be bothered playing the game properly themselves. It is a massive industry employing around 400,000 people in asia, mainly in China. Gold farmers are often on the edge of legality and they use every underhand internet technique to market themselves. They generate mountains of spam as they attack blogs and forums with their advertising. They are amongst the bad boys of the internet.

Free MMO (Massive, Multiplayer, Online) games are known as persistent world games because they are always running and provide an alternative reality. The big names are Runescape, Habbo, Club Pernguin, Maple Story and Free Realms. They have many millions of players each, all around the world. Whilst the game is free to play they have revenue models based on purchasing in game items, playing an enhanced version of the game, carrying advertising etc. They are a huge phenomenon of our times and many people you know play them.

Eric Lam is a Chinese businessman who owns or is associated with a whole cloud of companies and websites. He was sued by Microsoft for online advertising click fraud. It is thought that Lam owns the gold farming company Wowmine and that he could be earning as much as half a million dollars a day from this alone.

Now it looks like Lam has decided to go first party with his own MMO, thus cutting out the middleman. That game is Evony. And its heritage shows. When you play the game, just about everything in the game can be obtained by paying instead of playing. A blatantly exploitative business model never seen before.

The game itself is a rip off of some very well known games. The game mechanic and some in game content comes from Sid Meier’s highly successful Civilisation series. Much of the graphics came from Age of Empires.

The game itself is so flaky and bugged that it is very easy for things you have paid good money for to just disappear. Lots of people are losing money this way. And, surprise, surprise, Evony never give a refund.

Something very devious is iEvony. This is an application that you download into your PC to invite your friends to join the game in exchange for in game rewards. This could very well be a Trojan designed to harvest email addresses messenger passwords and much else. Would you trust a Chinese gold farmer inside your computer? Many gullible people are.

The advertising for Evony consists of fairly lurid female imagery. These images were mostly lifted from lingerie catalogues and, amazingly, have zero relevance whatsoever to the game. Evony are carpetbombing game websites with these adverts using multiple accounts of Google AdWords. When website owners block one source of these adverts another appears. Site owners have complained repeatedly to Google, but to no avail.

But advertising isn’t the only marketing going on. Evony are using automated spam programmes to add comments to articles on blog sites. Not once or twice. No, they are blanketing game related blogs with comments that advertise the game. Exactly what you would expect of a Chinese gold farmer.

This article just skims over what is going on here. There is enough to write a whole series of articles or even a book. What is for sure is that Evony is best avoided by everyone. Go and play Runescape, Habbo or Free Realms instead.

But even if you fell for it, it's not enough that it's malicious: it also sucks as a game. It has poor, unbalanced quality (http://www.mmocrunch.com/2009/06/10/evony-review/), and claims to be free which is technically true, but offers ungodly bonuses to anyone who is willing to pay (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121929248368)

Bunnay · 08-26-2009

Okay I've seen them too. They annoy. But I've got one thing to say about their ads: They damn well know how to catch attention because those are some nice tits.

Colonel · 08-26-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bunnay

Okay I've seen them too. They annoy. But I've got one thing to say about their ads: They damn well know how to catch attention because those are some nice tits.

You could at least pretend to be outraged by the Chinese censorship.

Bunnay · 08-26-2009

I could

Chione · 08-26-2009

I ignore the hell out of them.

Being a total heterosexual and all, the cleavage holds no power over me.

Bunnay · 08-26-2009

Well they're smart. They censor it out so you'll click it. Who doesn't wanna see nice tits?

Colonel · 08-26-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bunnay

Well they're smart. They censor it out so you'll click it. Who doesn't wanna see nice tits?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chione

I ignore the hell out of them.

Being a total heterosexual and all, the cleavage holds no power over me.

Asked and answered. Or rather... answered then asked.

Evony doesn't actually include any pornographic images. That's why one of the links I provided is to an article aptly commenting, "tricking perverts into playing a poor civ clone".

Bunnay · 08-26-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colonel

Asked and answered. Or rather... answered then asked.

Evony doesn't actually include any pornographic images. That's why one of the links I provided is to an article aptly commenting, "tricking perverts into playing a poor civ clone".

Don't be shy, Colonel. We all know you watch porn. But so does 80% of the American population, so...yeah.

Chione · 08-26-2009

Having said that, they're still annoying. Somewhere out there, I just know there are people clicking them and fueling their endeavors. That's what bothers me.

Not all of the internet population is bisexual, sorries.

Bunnay · 08-26-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chione

Having said that, they're still annoying. Somewhere out there, I just know there are people clicking them and fueling their endeavors. That's what bothers me.

Not all of the internet population is bisexual, sorries.

Yeah unfortunately for me.

Just kidding, Chione.

08-26-2009	#2
Bunnay Original Gangsta Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Bay Area, CA	Okay I've seen them too. They annoy. But I've got one thing to say about their ads: They damn well know how to catch attention because those are some nice tits.

08-26-2009	#5
Chione The Easily Amused Join Date: Feb 2009	I ignore the hell out of them. Being a total heterosexual and all, the cleavage holds no power over me.

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