NFOpocalypse

If you’ve been following my sporadic Evony coverage, then you’ll be glad to know the game seems to be dying off.  Whether as a result of bad press (look at all the links in the comments), their attempt to silence the press causing a Streisand Effect, bad management (hilarious read), even worse management (a much more disturbing read), or bad customer service, players are finally getting the picture: the official forums are littered with people who have proudly left Evony or been banned for speaking negatively about it or its developers (the game DOES originate from a dictatorship).  Now, with versions coming out by far more professional companies, even the few that enjoyed the game itself can find a new home.

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It’s been a little over a month since I last beat the Evony\Civony dead horse.  In that time, I’ve stumbled across posts that demonstrate the game’s plagiarism of art and text, as well as the suspicious iEvony client, a post that shows the early progression of the ads from normal to stupidly raunchy, and a bunch from Bruce Everiss - fellow game blogger, former Codemaster, and veteran marketer - who is being threatened with cease-and-desists to stop talking about Evony’s abuse of AdSense among other things (frankly, I’m a little jealous I haven’t gotten a C&D yet).  These tidbits… they are interesting, but they hardly make up the meat of a post.  I prayed and prayed to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and He delivered a completely original, totally fresh game: Kingory.  Naturally, I had to have a look.

–[ If you’re not up to speed on Civony\Evony, you might consider reading my original post, and both of my updates before taking the plunge ]–

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As a business major, I find myself questioning the marketing decisions of just about every company.  How many people actually know what Aflac sells?  Is Flo from the Progressive commercials funny to any demographic?  Do fast food and annoying pop music ever meet outside of the board rooms of desperate executives? Still, most of these commercials at least get the product name across.  The ad above?  It’s selling a video game, the one noted in the very top left corner - yeah, that text that’s illegibly tiny.  But if you think that’s bad, wait until you see what’s after the jump (Not safe for many workplaces)…

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Civony has taken a page from AIG’s playbook and rebranded; perhaps to dodge the bad press, or perhaps to make it less obvious that they’re hijacking elements of popular games to piece together a money scheme.  Either way, it’s clear their marketing people haven’t changed.

Note their use of “half a million players.”  They can’t say it in advertising if it isn’t true, right?

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Nothing like a good indie competition to get my blood boiling.  The folks over at Eegra (which is one of the best gaming humor sites on the web) recently hosted an indie game competition, giving out some sweet cash prizes to all who participated.  Some of the entries showed promise but fell flat (Color Wars) and some were downright outstanding (Go Beryllium!).  I’ll be sharing my favorites soon enough, but if you just can’t wait, here’s the original article, and both Tim W’s and Derek Yu’s take on the winners.

Just some indie news, since I happen to be a HUGE independent game junkie. James Silva (who did Survival Crisis Z, which I happen to like so much) is gradually getting closer to the completion of his next project, an XNA game called The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. He’s posted a status update on his developer blog, and it has some interesting things on it. For example, there will be a ranked story mode that is about equal to the hardest difficulty. There’s also going to be 3-play co-op in unranked story mode. Sweet.  Check his post for his complete status update. I’m no uncouth enough to post the whole thing verbatim!