You’ve probably never played Evony Online, but we’re willing to bet you’ve heard of it. Not ringing any bells? How’s this to jog your memory: massive, scantily-clad breasts. “Play now, my lord.†While the game is – in reality – a swords ‘n’ sorcery-themed strategy MMO, its ad campaign looks more like something Hugh Hefner might’ve dreamed up. Obviously, then, you could be forgiven for writing the game off as gutter garbage and turning a blind eye to its antics (and – in many unfortunate cases – the top section of your web browser as well).
Ars Technica, however, decided to dig deeper, and discovered that there’s more to Evony Online than meets the eye. And those obnoxious ads that have gotten all your favorite websites banned at work? Well, apparently they’re not long for this world.
“What we’ve seen is that our return on investment on strategic ads is better… than the earlier ad campaigns, so we’re shifting to that for the near term. It’s not a spigot: you can’t turn it off immediately, as there are things already in the channel. As we move forward, particularly with Age 2, we’ll get away from those [misleading] ads,†said VP Walt Yarbrough.
Yarbrough also washed his hands of the scummy ad campaign, alleging that the banners were actually outsourced to a different company.
“[We were] dealing with an outsourced ad campaign; you’re going with somebody else who is creating the ad on a spec and then you’re approving it and tracking the effectiveness afterwards. There are lots of ads that are out there that proved ineffectual, but are still out there.”
This was apparently due to the fact that Regan Mercantile – the company that creates Evony – was too small to produce its own ads at the time. The company’s rapid growth spurt has not been without its benefits, however. Regan Mercantile has been able to hire on experienced industry vets like Yarbrough, who worked as a developer on Dark Age of Camelot, an executive producer at Lord of the Rings Online dev Turbine, and a producer at Electronic Arts – among others.
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Granted, only time will tell whether Yarbrough’s speaking the truth or hissing exec speak through a forked tongue. Ars Technica got its hands on a few revealing court documents that cast major doubt on Evony’s entire operation, so they’re well worth reading if you’re interested. We want to believe, though. Hell, Evony Online could be a front for a secret underground ring of murderous madmen who assassinate professional bloggers for sport, and we’d still be a-okay with them so long as those stupid ads went away.Â
via:
Evony Online Finally Cleaning up Its Act?
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