1. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

    This is looking like one big scam. They have ripped off the game and are ripping off the players. You can find details if you do an interweb search. It is run by Chinese gold garmers, so they have gone first party!
    They also have a tool called iEvony which allows them to harvest the details of player's friends.
     
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  2. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

    "Free" MMOs like Runescape and Habbo are massive, amongst the most played games in the world.
    400,000 people are employed in China and asia gold farming for MMOs! http://www.bruceongames.com/2008/08/25/making-gold-in-china/

    So I suppose that it was inevitable that the Chinese gold farmers would go first party and get rid of the middle man. Evony (formerly Civony) is that game. It is a rip off (in many cases direct) of Civilisation as this article explains: http://www.arksark.org/blog/2009/07/05/evony-a-patchwork-of-stolen-parts/

    Evony say that they are "Free for life" but they have a number of strategies to milk lots of money from players: http://www.nfopocalypse.com/index.php/2009/05/13/civony-gold-farmers-go-first-party/ and http://bbs.evony.com/showthread.php?t=5280

    To recruit victims Evony are spamming the internet like crazy, this is what brought them to my attention. They are using all the devious and underhand methods of the gold farmers. http://www.popehat.com/2009/07/10/how-not-to-sell-me-on-using-a-web-product/ They are also flooding Google Adsense with tit based advertising, even though the game is tit free! http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdSense/thread?tid=7c9ef267b8b3c01f&hl=en

    So we have a game which is a massive global scam.
     
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  3. plaf

    plaf Peter Molyneux One Of Us

    huh?
     
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2009
  4. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

    So what happens if the 400,000 people engaged in gold farming in China all go first party? Then the whole imterweb becomes flooded with spam and scam as they all fight for position. And the legitimate game industry would be in deep poo.
     
  5. Brian Beuken

    Brian Beuken Boring Old Fart One Of Us

    I repeat, due to lack of understandable response

    huh?
     
  6. Larry Giddon

    Larry Giddon Gaming God One Of Us

    Well apparently some idiots are bothering people on the internet by pretending to offer a legitimate service while all the time all they're really interested in is promoting themselves and their web sites.
     
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  7. frobisher

    frobisher Industry Vetran One Of Us

    I hate to break it to you, but the interweb is flooded with spam and scam already.

    If gold farming goes first party in China, so what? Those "legitimate" companies will still suffer their current impediments trying to operate on their existing markets, but if they now legitimately trade on the new Chinese market the likes of Blizzard will actually have a proper point of contact to sue now.
     
  8. Recurse

    Recurse Rabidly intolerant One Of Us

    Yes, but how would it be different from today?
     
  9. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

    It seems to me that all the subjects I bring here result in a spirited discussion.

    Which is better than some people who creep through life being negative and disparaging about everything.
     
  10. plaf

    plaf Peter Molyneux One Of Us

    I just feel like someone approached me on the street and began talking details about a subject I know nothing about - critical hit by wall-of-text :)
     
  11. Larry Giddon

    Larry Giddon Gaming God One Of Us

    Too right, those people who just go round groaning at everything anyone posts are a right bunch of stupids.
     
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  12. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

    And as for advertising I just checked Analytics for yesterday (the 12th) and out of over 4,000 unique visitors to Bruceongames the magnificent total of 2 came from The Chaos Engine.

    All the important people in the industry are subscribing to my RSS feed by now.
     
  13. Rusty_Nutz

    Rusty_Nutz BANNED One Of Us

    2 people from here?

    How did that happen?

    We're obviously not doing a good enough job warning people about you and your drivel.

    Cheers for reminding us all.
     
  14. plaf

    plaf Peter Molyneux One Of Us

    hmm.. so only 2 important industry people are on this board.


    what a crock!
     
  15. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

    Over the two year life of Bruceongames there have been a little over 4,000 visits directly from here. About the same as I got from every other source yesterday, in one day.

    My "drivel" has often been used by MCV and is regularly used by iStockanalyst and Seeking Alpha. Many other journalists have plagiarised my content.
    Edge (Colin Campbell) have recommented my site in their weekend reading. http://www.edge-online.com/blogs/weekend-reading
    I made Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketViews/idUSSALPHA13607620090507
    Most of the top gaming sites have linked to Bruceongames stories at one stage or another. Game Politics did again today, for instance.
    And, most important of all, the highest possible accolade, Stuart Cambell doesn't like me. Though we have never met. And I can tell you the story of how he got a job in the industry.
     
  16. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

    You think it is that many?
     
  17. plaf

    plaf Peter Molyneux One Of Us

    I was just trying to make an joke :)

    on a more serious note, I think you're right, actually: your opinion pieces are often thought-provoking / provocative and often lead to a discussion (mainly because many are vehemently opposed to what you say, but then that can be a good thing if it gets people talking and voicing opinions) :)

    in this case though, I just felt like I was walking into the middle of a conversation - I never really got the relevance... you can take that as an ordinary reader's critique of this particular article or not, that's up to you.

    you may just be too clever for me ;)
     
  18. Robert Swan

    Robert Swan Industry Professional One Of Us

    edited for clarity:

    And as for advertising I just checked Analytics for the 4,000th time yesterday and out of over 12 unique visitors to Bruceongames the magnificent total of 2 came from The Chaos Engine.

    All the self-important people in the industry are subscribing to my RSS feed by now.
     
  19. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

    I very rarely look at Analytics because it is historic data. Instead I run Woopra which tells me what is happening on a few sites in real time.
     
  20. Eclectic

    Eclectic Banned

    A good article (better than mine) about this whole Evony thing: http://artgrafi.com/comment-spam-lewd-advertising-and-stolen-assets-abound-for-evony.html Drill down to the links here to get a fuller picture.

    So Evony is owned by Chinese gold farmers.
    The game contains lots that is ripped off from other games, the basic game is largely Civilisation.
    The advertising uses images taken from lingerie catalogues that have nothing whatsoever to do with the game. Tit advertising, no tits in game.
    Lots of people have already lost money in Evony. There are forum threads about this.
    Also Evony has a charging model designed to empty wallets quickly.
    They are spamming up the internet with vast numbers of automated blog comments. Luckily Akismet is providing protection.
    They are carpet bombing the web with their tit advertising, misusing the Adsense system to do so and annoying large numbers of site owners.
    They have something called iEvony which is a scam to harvest people's details.

    Just what the game industry needs.