| Set On Stun |

Browser games are growing, they’re an absolutely huge business.  Several years ago I had 4 clients who shelled out significant amounts of money to promote via SEO & SEM their browser games.  The past few years have shown a real explosion of these games.

The keyword “browser game” shows almost 92,000,000 results

The keyword “free online games” (which would include flash games) show 301,000,000 results

Variations of these keywords reveal that this is a highly competitive and lucrative market.

BigPoint is one of the top 3 online gaming portals worldwide.  With over 75 million registered users, games available in 20 different languages and boasting more than 200,000 new registrations per day they’re a powerhouse in browser based games, game distribution and web gaming content distribution.

Anther free online game company is Gamesville, which gives out prizes for playing, they have tons of fantastic games and some very smart people there.

The point of this is to show that the free browser game market is brutal, highly competitive and extremely crowded and volatile.  The adspend budgets for these companies are huge, they flood gaming media sites with ads, offers and once you’re signed up, ways for you to add your friends.  It’s cutthroat and companies are looking for ways to get an edge.

This is why I found it amusing, shocking and ultimately disgusted by the Civilization clone game Evony (which was once known as Civony).

Here’s a screenshot of their homepage:

Where this adventure in video game marketing gets really interesting is watching the evolution of their media ads.

The first ad is simple, clear and evokes the fantasy element that is present in the game.  It’s somewhat reminiscent to the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion look and feel.  It’s obviously set in medieval times.  It also lets users know that the game is free forever.  Not bad, kinda interesting…

Hellz yah, a bad-ass knight in armor...

The next ad that Evony pushed out removed the knight added an actual call to action.  It’s an effective call to action that gets people’s attention.  The most noticeable change is the substitution of the knight with the fairy girl.  (Update: This was pointed out that they actually stole the raw image from the Costume Craze company… D’oh).  One of the odd parts about this ad is that as gamers, we’re accustomed to see either ingame art or concept art as a part of ad marketing.  The “real girl” picture immediately struck me as odd and out of place… contextually appropriate, but like someone who knows the right words, but doesn’t understand the context.

She's cute but somewhat out of place

Not a bad ad, it attracts the eyes and it conveys the same fantasy setting of the original ad.  However, what this ad needs is some more “oomph” or even some “zazz”.  So why not spice up the ad a little bit, make it a bit saucier and bump up the click through rates… let’s stimulate the curiosity a little bit and make it even harder to ignore the ad.

Woot! grab me a beer! I love me some twins!

Now the blood is pumping just a little bit.  Remember that this is a Civilzation clone?  I’ve played Civ for years… but this is just HOT!  Well, the next ad reminds you that there are lots of hot maidens in this world for you and just in case you aren’t immediately drawn to the image, there’s a sword to point out the boobs, just in case you missed it.  In this new call to action, you are told to Save the Queen!  She’s apparently in danger, she’s got a sword pointed at her.. uh… ample heart.

OMG! She's being held hostage by the word Evony, dont make a move or she'll get it in the bosom.

Of course, this is all subtlty and innuendo, just in case you were too dense to actually “get it”.  When you see the above ad, you may not want to save the queen, because the first question out of my mouth (and I’m assuming everyone else’s) would be “Sure, you’re the queen, but what’s in it for me?”  Well, if you perservere, she’ll let you know what’s in it for you… she decides to show her naughty side a bit.

Discreetly? This is still a Civ clone... isn't it?

The look on her face closely resembles the look on the face of the classic sculpture The Ecstasy of St. Theresa by Giovanni Bernini in the Cornaro Chapel.

Finally, a classical Baroque sculptural reference.

That’s a come-hither look if I ever saw one.  And you can play discreetly, no prying eyes can see that you’re secretly playing a hot, girl on girl … Civ Game… we’ve gone from believable fantasy to porny domination fantasies all to promote a frakking Civ Clone!.  Don’t worry, it gets better.  Because up until now, they’ve at least kept within the same genre, the same fantasy setting and making sure the user knows that it’s a game with a fantasy setting.  Until now.

OMG BOOBIES! SECRET PLAY! Cleavage!!! Must clicky!!

Yep, that’s real folks.  That was the evolution of the advertising of the Civony game from believable, relevant and communicating to the online game audience to somewhat weird and exploitive to downright soft-core porn.

Marketing is a communication, hopefully it’s a two-way street.  In this case it’s a slap in the face, it’s a desperate grab for clicks and ultimately while it feeds on men’s primitive brain, it does nothing to endear them to the brand, the experience or to the game.  Sometimes it’s absolutely appropriate to sell with sex, Mass Effect had sex, it became a part of the conversation about that game, so it’s not with some prudish puritanical eye that I judge this, I judge this because I have a brain and can see through this obvious bullshit.

It’s a bait and switch, pure and simple.  The ad shows you one thing, sets up an expectation and then completely fails to deliver it.

Using sex to sell, that’s fair game, but baiting and switching just seems puerile, desperate and short term.

Reminds me of this video.

I wonder if the ploy worked. I wonder if the number of clicks gained added to registrations that turned into actual paying users. I’d really enjoy seeing that data.

(update: I just found out that Coding Horror also has an excellent review of this exact same ad campaign… I’d been collecting these images for a while for just this article)

(update2: More new ads from Evony… )

It’s just getting lower… and lower and lower. Another funny bit, I’ve just added Adsense to my blog and immediately Evony/ Civony ads started appearing. So, I’ve made sure to disallow all Evony ads on my site.

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