3 ms·

Controversial MMO developer Evony sends in lawyers to attack blogger

8 points by halo 17y ago

halo 17y ago
They've also sent in a legal complaint to The Guardian over their article from earlier this year (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/jul/15/games-evony-spam-internet http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/jul/15/g...).
henning 17y ago
MMORPG Marketing LOLcat sez: "Marketin ur game. ur doin it rong."
elai 17y ago
Where do they get the money for their large advertising campaigns? Does the game really make up for it in money?
- teej 17y ago
  You would be surprised. Games like this have micropayments built in to the gameplay. While the number of users who fork out cash is low (~1%), the amount they pay on average is high (~$50). With good metrics, you can A/B test your way to doubling those numbers.
electromagnetic 17y ago
Okay, I've been conned out of money by game developers forever, since pong kept taking my quarters and since Maxis and EA released a quadrillion expansions for every game they produce. Seriously, how is this any different, they just use a different tactic. Except that a guy is allegedly being sued, despite it being a claim on some unknown forum by a guy who I can't even find the blog of. IMO it's all made up because this moron has taken a hating to a game instead of ignoring it and letting it go the way of a million other webgames.
- Novash 17y ago
  Interestingly enough, this game is a clone of Civilization, which happens to have a multiplayer mode, and a very active community which basically gives you endless online game time, if you so desire. Why would one take this game over the original one?
  - wlievens 17y ago
    It's browser based iirc. You don't have to install a client.
    - Novash 17y ago
      Being browser based actually would make me even less likely to play it. I dropped both Free Realms and Cartoon Network's MMO because they were both browser based. Free Realms was specially poor designed to handle slow connections since it downloads everything on demand, every time it is demanded.
      - wlievens 17y ago
        I'm not saying Evony is a good game. I even won't play it on principle (boob ads? wtf?). But being a browser game is a competitive advantage (if your can deliver quality) because your users threshold to try it out is orders of magnitude lower.
        Novash 17y ago
        I disagree. I believe the user threshold to be higher because it does require a good connection. And good connections are not common. You may probably have a good (or even a decent) connection to the net, but I have a painful 3G connection that lately have been dishing out a performance worse than my old US Robotics 33.6 Modem. Playing browser based games nearly mandate that you have both a good and stable connection. Stable being a often forgotten keyword. Connection spikes can kill you easier than the challenges you face, even very small spikes can bother you severely. However, desktop based game tend to be very network-cheap. Civilization can be easily played on a 56k dialup connection, without much hassle. But the latest batch of MMOs are very network demanding, which is the main reason I won't even bother to try them for a good while, even the desktop ones. Devs seem to be only cattering to the very small percent of the gamers that happen to have good connections.

8 points by halo 17y ago

halo 17y ago

They've also sent in a legal complaint to The Guardian over their article from earlier this year (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/jul/15/games-evony-spam-internet http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/jul/15/g...).

henning 17y ago

MMORPG Marketing LOLcat sez: "Marketin ur game. ur doin it rong."

elai 17y ago

Where do they get the money for their large advertising campaigns? Does the game really make up for it in money?

teej 17y ago
You would be surprised. Games like this have micropayments built in to the gameplay. While the number of users who fork out cash is low (~1%), the amount they pay on average is high (~$50). With good metrics, you can A/B test your way to doubling those numbers.

electromagnetic 17y ago

Okay, I've been conned out of money by game developers forever, since pong kept taking my quarters and since Maxis and EA released a quadrillion expansions for every game they produce. Seriously, how is this any different, they just use a different tactic. Except that a guy is allegedly being sued, despite it being a claim on some unknown forum by a guy who I can't even find the blog of. IMO it's all made up because this moron has taken a hating to a game instead of ignoring it and letting it go the way of a million other webgames.

Novash 17y ago
Interestingly enough, this game is a clone of Civilization, which happens to have a multiplayer mode, and a very active community which basically gives you endless online game time, if you so desire. Why would one take this game over the original one?
- wlievens 17y ago
  It's browser based iirc. You don't have to install a client.
  - Novash 17y ago
    Being browser based actually would make me even less likely to play it. I dropped both Free Realms and Cartoon Network's MMO because they were both browser based. Free Realms was specially poor designed to handle slow connections since it downloads everything on demand, every time it is demanded.
    - wlievens 17y ago
      I'm not saying Evony is a good game. I even won't play it on principle (boob ads? wtf?). But being a browser game is a competitive advantage (if your can deliver quality) because your users threshold to try it out is orders of magnitude lower.
      - Novash 17y ago
        I disagree. I believe the user threshold to be higher because it does require a good connection. And good connections are not common. You may probably have a good (or even a decent) connection to the net, but I have a painful 3G connection that lately have been dishing out a performance worse than my old US Robotics 33.6 Modem. Playing browser based games nearly mandate that you have both a good and stable connection. Stable being a often forgotten keyword. Connection spikes can kill you easier than the challenges you face, even very small spikes can bother you severely. However, desktop based game tend to be very network-cheap. Civilization can be easily played on a 56k dialup connection, without much hassle. But the latest batch of MMOs are very network demanding, which is the main reason I won't even bother to try them for a good while, even the desktop ones. Devs seem to be only cattering to the very small percent of the gamers that happen to have good connections.