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<generator>Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/</generator><item><title><![CDATA[Comment spam, lewd advertising, and stolen assets abound for Evony]]></title><link>http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/07/13/comment-spam-lewd-advertising-and-stolen-assets-abound-for-evo/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/07/13/comment-spam-lewd-advertising-and-stolen-assets-abound-for-evo/</guid><comments>http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/07/13/comment-spam-lewd-advertising-and-stolen-assets-abound-for-evo/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/fantasy/" rel="tag">Fantasy</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/business-models/" rel="tag">Business models</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/culture/" rel="tag">Culture</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/mmo-industry/" rel="tag">MMO industry</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/free-to-play/" rel="tag">Free-to-play</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/mmorts/" rel="tag">MMORTS</a></p><a href="http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/07/13/browser-based-mmo-evony-slammed-spam"><img hspace="4" border="1" align="right" vspace="4" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/massively.joystiq.com/media/2009/07/oldadcivony225_2.jpg" alt="" /></a>If you've been on the internet for longer than five minutes then you've probably run into ads for <a rel="external nofollow" href="http://www.evony.com"><em>Evony</em></a>, 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 <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001286.html">lingerie and women</a>.<br /><br />The game's unorthodox marketing strategy has been a <a href="http://www.examiner.com/x-5353-MMORPG-Examiner~y2009m4d14-Civony-the-2D-isometric-MMO">target of the blogosphere</a> for some time, starting back when <a href="http://experiencecurve.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/play-our-shitty-game-because-we-have-hot-womenz/">they were still called <em>Civony</em></a> instead of their current title. During that time the company was caught by bloggers for <a href="http://www.jeffhaines.com/blog/?p=46">stealing images without permission</a> from other sites and using them for their game's marketing. Since then, the name has changed and new advertising has appeared, including an <a href="http://westkarana.com/index.php/2009/07/10/evony-and-irony-why-i-will-never-play-this-game/">overuse</a> of <a href="http://brokentoys.org/2009/07/10/save-the-cheerleader-spam-the-world/">blog comment</a> <a href="http://www.killtenrats.com/2009/07/12/condensed-evony-hatred/">spam</a>.<br /><br />Interestingly enough, the company has denounced the use of spam amongst their users of the <a href="http://bbs.evony.com/showthread.php?t=30299">iEvony codes</a>, calling it a "unethical" and "abusive."<br /><br />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 <a href="http://www.arksark.org/blog/2009/07/05/evony-a-patchwork-of-stolen-parts/">ripped from other real-time strategy games</a>. Things such as text from <a href="http://civilization.com/"><em>Civilization 4</em></a> to the castle sprites from <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/games/empires/"><em>Age of Empires</em></a> have been found in the game, creating the feeling for some users that this developer, <a href="http://www.evony.com/index.do?PageModule=Static&amp;type=TandC">whoever it is</a>, is not <a href="http://www.popehat.com/2009/07/10/how-not-to-sell-me-on-using-a-web-product/">entirely on the legitimate side</a>.<p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com"><img src="http://massively.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="Massively" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/07/13/comment-spam-lewd-advertising-and-stolen-assets-abound-for-evo/">Comment spam, lewd advertising, and stolen assets abound for Evony</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com">Massively</a> on Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href=http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/07/13/browser-based-mmo-evony-slammed-spam>Read</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/07/13/comment-spam-lewd-advertising-and-stolen-assets-abound-for-evo/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/forward/19096393/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/07/13/comment-spam-lewd-advertising-and-stolen-assets-abound-for-evo/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>]]></description><category>ads</category><category>advertising</category><category>blog-comments</category><category>civony</category><category>comments</category><category>evony</category><category>lingerie</category><category>marketing</category><category>mmorts</category><category>plagarism</category><category>shady</category><category>spam</category><category>women</category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Seraphina Brennan]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EST</pubDate></item></channel></rss>
