Evony is at it again. In their attempts to sue Bruce Everiss at Bruce On Games, they’re scrambling to disguise or delete any and all of the evidence he and the gaming community has collected.
The article he wrote about Evony being Malware caught the attention of Eric Lam, the guy who runs the gold-farming UMGE network of businesses and the guy who was sued by Microsoft for click-fraud schemes decided to sue Bruce Everiss. While the details of the case are expertly described on Mr. Everiss’ site, the new wrinkle in this attempt to silence criticism is that there are efforts to disassociate Evony with UMGE altogether to cover up the evidence.
They’ve edited their Evony wiki to remove references to UMGE and when one of the commenters on Bruce’s site pointed out that they missed a reference, shortly after, that reference was removed as well.
"See who's wanting you?" WTF?
The official UMGE.com site is down (and parked by GoDaddy) as well as 321Wan.com (the company that built the original Civony game, then cloned it to other browser games) is also down as well.
A student and reader of Bruce on Games went into the code of the game and found numerous references to UMGE and found that rather than malware designed to hurt the computer, it’s a massive data-mining engine. Evony’s client, once installed, harvests tons of user information and sends it back to UMGE/ Evony. While this is speculation, this would be a great way to scrape emails for spam, track sites you’re visiting and generally invade your privacy. Now, those references are gone.
It’s become clear that the core argument from Evony/ UMGE/ Eric Lam is primarily that Bruce Everiss (and the internet community at large) made fun of him, his business and his game and he wants litigation to cause them to shut up. His case depends on removing the digital trails and deleting the connections so that the claims Bruce made can no longer be found.
All of this deception continues as Evony continues to throw stupid and misleading ads across the internet. Again, while sex in advertising works, there’s very little in those ads that represent what the product actually is. It’s deceptive, pure and simple.
It’s bad marketing, it’s bad business and when called out, they litigate and try to remove evidence.
When you pay for products and services online, it’s critical that the company deserves a basic level of trust. As more people join and play Evony, they’re giving their money to a company that doesn’t deserve that trust.
Donate to Bruce’s fight against the UMGE/ Eric Lam/ Evony litigation here at PayPal.
Check this out if you want. It’s very slow, very boring and the exact same game as any Mafia War, FarmVille Facebook game you’ve ever played.
A friend of mine sent me an invite to play this game, and my first thought was, “you’ve gotta be shitting me, is this an app to promote the same Dante’s Inferno game from EA that got second place on my Worst Video Game Marketing Campaigns of 2009?”
Yes. Yes it is. Despite the slowness of the game, despite the fact that it’s a clone of other popular games on Facebook, the only thing that shocked me about this is that they actually made it. I mean, if you’re gonna piss me off, do so in a way that doesn’t bore me to tears. Even the UI, which seems to be created with the elegance of a crowbar is fitted to promote in the most visible way the upcoming game. I guess subtlety is not in Visceral/ EA’s vocabulary.
Click to embiggefy
Before I sound like I’m picking on Dante’s Inferno, I want to say that they’re doing the right things, they’re creating a bit of controversy, they’re making marketing campaigns based upon the content of the game, they’re expertly using the language of the story and of the game to communicate to its potential customers. All of those things, they’re spot on.
Unfortunately, the execution of these efforts are just wrong. From the #EAFail grope a booth babe contest, to this Facebook application. Yes, they should be on Facebook, yes they should be leveraging social media. Unfortunately, this effort is so slipshod and devoid of any real thought that it almost pains me to say that I miss them pissing me off.
If you’re going to offend me, do so intelligently, not by copying what EVERY OTHER FACEBOOK GAME IS DOING.
Dante’s Inferno marketing, once controversial and offensive has entered into the bland and “meh” category.
Update: Due to heavy traffic from GamePolitics & Kotaku… my site got broken. I apologize for the loss of images and normal theme. It will resume when the traffic subsides, I never expected this much attention.
2009 was a pretty good year for video games. It gave us Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Modern Warfare 2, Dragon Age, Assassin’s Creed 2, Scribblenauts and so many other good games.
On the flip side, we were assaulted with horrible games like NBA Unrivaled, Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust and Dragonball: Evolution.
Some of the video game marketing campaigns left us thinking “what fresh hell is this?” 2009 saw some incredibly stupid, offensive, ineffective and dumb marketing campaigns for video games too. Here are the ones that angried up our blood and became stains on the internet.
Enjoy.
#5: Dead Space Extraction
For a decent game that followed up a fairly successful attempt at an original IP from EA, Dead Space Extraction really pushed what the graphics could do on the simpering Wii. The story didn’t suck, the characters were interesting and there was a surprising reaction to Lexine Murdoch (which is a pretty dumb name) as a compelling character in which people actually cared about her final fate.
Where they went wrong with this was the marketing of the game. It was really nowhere to be found. For a decent prequel to a decent game, the marketing was haphazard. It really felt like EA didn’t know how to market this game. It’s a survival horror – rail shooter game for the Wii. Prominently featured is Lexine, but her game time wasn’t really representative of the top billing on the cover art.
Overall, Dead Space: Extraction’s marketing felt shoddy, incoherent and plug and play. Sad, because it’s a decent game. I felt like EA’s marketing for this game basically said, “Hey gamers, here’s Dead Space, remember you kinda liked the other game? Well, this one’s a prequel, and it’s for the Wii. We think you’ll really enjoy it, or not. Either way, it’s here and you can buy it if you want…”
#4: Modern Warfare 2: Infinity Ward
There’s no doubt that Infinity Ward spent a shitload of money on this marketing campaign. They integrated an excellent social marketing campaign through Twitter, their display at E3 was phenomenal and everything gelled at the right time, had the right message and at all times, reinforced gamers’ resolve to buy this game, twice.
Until F.A.G.S.
Or, “Fight Against Grenade Spam”. Where you see the “Blunt Trauma” perk (get it? get it? It’s a pot joke! OMGLOL) Where Cole Hamels gives this incredibly stupid PSA message about grenade spam.
Ultimately, the video was taken down by Robert Bowling who then issued the standard non-apology apology on Twitter where he said:
I agree. I think the core gag is great, the end is a bit too far from the intent of the joke & can appreciate the concerns. Pulled.
I can see his point and I give Robert Bowling a tremendous amount of credit for his work, effort and excellence in the marketing of MW2, but this video… at the very end of the campaign… just felt like a bitter pill to swallow. This isn’t good marketing, this is a douchebag chestbump to the Xbox Live cacophony.
#3: Rogue Warrior
Gamespot gave Rogue Warrior a review of 2.0, one of the lowest its ever given to a AAA game. From Bethesda no less. This is the studio that’s given us Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth and the entire Elder Scrolls series. Then they roll in Richard (Dick) Marcinko to make this game that’s not worth the plastic its printed on. The entire game feels like someone at Bethesda thought they’d take someone who was marginally cool among militia types and then make a shit-eating game that could actually inspire real violence… that is, if anyone bought the damn game.
Where the marketing went wrong was that it was promoted as a kick-ass, stealth, combat ops game, comparable to Ghost Recon or Rainbow 6 type games. Not even close. Any marketer worth a hill of beans knows that marketing is about delivering expectations and making sure your product can actually fulfill that. In this case… not so much. Bethesda Softworks should have known better.
However, I do like their new marketing campaign.
The Rogue Tour
Also known as Call of Duty: The Quest for More Money
It’s about as believable as Palin 2012
#2: Dante’s Inferno
Dante’s Inferno manufactured controversy wherever it went. From throngs of faux-Christian outrage to the infamous “Sin to Win/ Grope a Booth Babe” contest. Dante’s Inferno effectively got its word out to gamers and pissed them off.
They pissed off the religious, they pissed off women and then, they sent $300 checks to the gaming media to “tempt” them to cash the check in some damned if you do, damned if you don’t marketing campaign.
Most of the video game media told EA’s Dante’s Peak to piss off.
While I understand the controversy as marketing ploy, in this case, Dante’s Inferno & EA seemed to try to piss off anyone who came even close to caring about their game, a game by all accounts, should be pretty kick-ass.
#1: Evony
Oh Evony, how I hate you. You cluttered up the internet with your stupidly ripped off images, you sued people who reported on your gold-spamming and malware, you spammed blogs with comments, you ripped off image assets from other games, you and your sniveling CEO complained about people shining the light on your deceptive practices and lastly…
YOUR GOD-DAMNED GAME SUCKED
Screw You Evony
Buy Rogue Warrior – Go Rogue!
It was the worst Civ clone ever. You stole a shitty game, crapped it out onto a browser, enticed people to play it, charged them for talking, deleted comments and never… ever… gave a penny back.
One of my soap boxes is how technology marketing (including video game marketing) thinks it can still reach women by slapping pink on a piece of gear and think it’s now “girl-friendly”.
Veronica Belmont is one of my favorite tech-people. Her analyses are generally spot on accurate, she’s got a keen insight in what tech works and what tech doesn’t. She has deep roots in the tech community and I can almost always count on her analysis and encyclopedic knowledge of tech, including gaming, to give me good advice, which she does with style, clarity and an abundance of humor.
Her latest post, Pink is the new STFU, skewers NewEgg.com’s email for holiday gifts for women. Here’s the screenshot:
She sums it up nicely:
You know what pisses me off? Getting a PR email from one of my favorite online retailers showcasing a buyers guide for “great gift ideas to pamper the women in your life,” including a pots and pans set, a hair dryer, and tons of gadgets in hot pink.
Thanks, Newegg. You sure know how to make women feel special!
Is this it? Stuff for cooking and cleaning (oh and some tech) in Hot Pink? Classy NewEgg. Still, to be fair, I really enjoy NewEgg.com, they’re really one of the best online technology retailers and I have never had a bad experience with them. However, it still seems that they’re in the same mindset that permeates most tech marketing that marketing for women = household gadgets and pink.
Not true.
Women in general tend to be value based shoppers, they look for the benefits of a purchase. They look how their life will be easier, more productive, more fun and more enriched. As a purchaser, they tend to take a more long term view of a purchase and weigh that against family, time, budget and perceived benefits.
According to a Harvard Business Study, 61% of technology purchases are unplanned by women who make up 82.5% of the shopping decision making.
When marketing technology to women consider the following:
There needs to be an immediate recognition of VALUE.
There needs to be a distinct visual identity differentiation.
Focus on perceived value
Provide features as it relates to value
Avoid the “pink it and shrink it” look
So, thank you Veronica, what took me over 500 words to describe, you did it in 3 sentences.
According to an NPD study, 45% of all electronic hardware is purchased by women and over half of technology purchases is influenced by women. Technology companies are rushing to serve (and sometimes exploit) this emerging market. Women purchasers and influencers are enjoying a compounding, year over year, influence of consoles, TVs, phones, computers & laptops as well as other gadgets. Yet marketers of video games and consoles often forget that women make up a significant portion of their player and purchase base.
With regards to gaming, over 28% of console gamers are now female, with the majority of those girl gamers playing on the Wii, then the Xbox 360 and lastly the PS3. Interspersed among those consoles are the mobile gaming consoles. Women prefer the Nintendo DS series over the PSP. While there are no hard numbers to support this assertion, anecdotally some say the preference is as high as 7 to 1 women prefer the DS over the PSP.
Establishing the prevalence, the growth, the power and the influence of the girl gamer is not difficult at all. Women of all ages, races, socio-economic backgrounds, marital status and sexual identity/ preference play games that range from the simple to learn, difficult to master flash or mobile game all the way up to the competitive FPS game or PvP in MMORPGs.
The difficult part is defining what hard-core is. If you lock 10 gamers in a room and have them come up with a definition of “hard core gamer”, you’ll end up with 12 different opinions, a huge mess and probably a body to hide. I tend to use the term hard core by combining a quantitative and qualitative aspect to the description. When I say “hard core gamer” I refer to a person who plays more than 3-4 hours per day, regardless of game, who frequently consumes gaming media on YouTube, Kotaku, Joystiq, 1UP or other gaming media site, and who has the desire to master and be recognized as an expert on aspects of a video game. While I know that this is a fairly bulky definition, in most cases, it fits.
So with the considerable amount of evidence that shows that female gamers are a powerful force to be reckoned with as purchasers, influencers and gamers, why do video game marketing campaigns consistently communicate to them as if all girl gamers wanted were pets, gardens, pink things and animals with big eyes and poor spelling.
This is the kind of marketing that allows someone to think that for the second episode of Nintendo’s Girl Gamer magazine, it’s just fine to have a contest for a girl to win an actual baby simulator (from Ubisoft by the way). Because apparently, the ultimate prize for a girl is to grow up and make babies! Good thing there’s a video game simulator that will train them how to be prepared for such a task.
Thanks Ubisoft!
Molly Wood, executive editor of Cnet TV, the Buzz Report and the Gadgettes, responds that women enjoy style as well as function. Rather than designing for pure functionality, as we’ve seen with some of the console UIs, some of the controller pads and other peripherals, women, more so than men, take into account the form, design and style. On the product level, ignoring this audience and their desires lead to such colossal failures as the pink Playstation 2.
Thanks Sony, This Really Helps.
In regards to video game marketing, this means that marketers need to know that between 20 and 30 percent of people viewing their ads, their media, their videos, their trailers, their box art, their posters and their contests are going to be women. If you’re marketing a game that can have broad appeal it’s probably not a good idea to focus on the porny S&M armor. You may get a short term boost of interest and conversions, but in the long run, if you’re ignoring what is nearly a third of the potential audience, that’s a long term loss.
We saw what this kind of short term thought did with EA’s “Sin to Win” campaign, we saw the progression of the horrible Evony ads yet even more subtley, this kind of persistent campaign for the stereotypical male gamer at the exclusion of the female gamer is no longer acceptable. People, and not just women, are pushing back. Gamers have grown up, the gaming industry is growing up & it’s about time the video game marketers grow up too.
