I’m afraid I have to report they have gotten worse. I went to SendSpace this morning and was bombarded with pictures of a woman clad only in panties, lying face down to conceal her breasts, accompanied by the caption ‘Come Play My Lord’. I wondered what all the soft-core porn was in aid of, until I noticed the tell-tale Evony font.
SendSpace is the only place I’ve seen it ‘in the wild’ so far. Not safe for work!
According to a comment on this blog
http://setonstun.com/2009/07/video-game-marketing-bait-switch-clickthroughs-boobies/
… the following very risque ad came before all of the above ones, even the very non-sexual ‘knight’ images.
http://blog.arhg.net/2009/04/are-civony-ads-most-risque-ones-on.html
Thus, it looks like what we are seeing is NOT indeed a progression from tame images getting more and more sexual, but more of a continuation of a theme that was established from the very start.
nice ads, nice game. I tried it after my attention was atracted by a pair of nice breasts.
It,s nice and you can play it for free, So no problem there…
These, on the other hand, are outstanding parodies of the ads:
http://www.offworld.com/2009/08/the-new-secretness-popcaps-lat.html
Zombies FTW!
Those are getting ridiculous. I wonder when they’ll cut the money train and measure traffic. Perpetual hype machine - eventually runs out of money. $money_in $money_out
We are web developers and have followed the Civony/Evony ad progression (regression) too. Thank you for the article.
I signed up for the game at Beta stage to compare it with other games. I couldn’t believe the direction of the ads, as it has NOTHING to do with the game itself. The last one and playing secretly is bizzare as again it is unrelated to any aspect of the game.
That they’ve gone this route is one issue, but my problem with it is that the ads are showing up in other serious gaming sites and gaming related sites and are quite inappropriate for the audiences that frequent those sites. I think that the sites displaying the ads should police it, or that Civony/Evony should receive some ‘punishment’ for not taking that into consideration.
As a morally sound, beautiful, classy, sexy, intelligent, (and yes, big breasted) female who would make any female cartoon in these ads bubble over with jealousy, I have a few comments. I was asked to play this game by a male friend. I arrived at the login page and was turned off… That is what lead me to this blog. I am happy to see so many intelligent males in here who were turned off to the cheap tactics and misleading ads. Those are the kind of males “real” and desirable, intelligent females like me want to spend time with. Not because we are intimidated, any of us can “sell out” in a heartbeat and earn millions. Smart men realize that this kind of advertising degrades men as much as it degrades women. I am far from being a prude. If you want sex, go out and start a meaningful relationship with the female of your choice and have it! I realize that sex sells… so I say to all those men who insist that these types of ads are harmless and appealing… then let’s start with ads featuring YOUR MOTHERs or your sisters in them! Men to a great degree still have more “power” in the world, both financially and politically… intelligent men know it’s not beneficial to them to take advantage of women… nor is it wise to take advantage of males less intelligent than themselves, who cannot see the big picture…I hope that when females keep stepping up and gaining more power in society this tactic doesn’t “bite many men in the butt.” Maybe if women require men to wear form fitting clothing that defines the size and shape of men’s sexual organs so they can compare you to each other based on your penis size for just one day, or make a man sit there and view half naked men in ads telling them how old, wrinkled, fat and undesirable they are, that would be enough to snap any guy who doesn’t agree with me out of his breast filled stupor! For any male young or old, who spoke against all this garbage I admire you greatly… and trust me… there’s a beautiful female out there just waiting for a “real man” like you to spend some time with her…so keep speaking out until she hears you! Don’t listen to the idiots out there who tell you that you aren’t a “man.” And parents who read this, teach your sons and daughters the same respect for one another. As for all you other guys who have nothing better to do but itch themselves and drool over cartoon or airbrushed images of females that don’t exist… think about what I am saying when you shut your computer off and have nothing to do but search out more false images in your magazines and tv sets… you will have plenty of time alone to do so… and if you do have an unlucky female in your life… Then why do you have so much free time to play games? I bet she is out now, trying to avoid being with you, perhaps she is running up the credit card bill out of boredom or with her other man “playing discretely”… while you waste your life dreaming about nothing! I can just imagine all the filthy responses I will get to this comment from the disgusting men who feel this smut is pleasing, unfortunately, I probably won’t have time to read them. I will be off making love, traveling, and living out my fantasies instead of living IN my fantasies like you!
@REALGIRL
“intelligent, (and yes, big breasted) female”
Both your tits hit the send key, sit further back 
English translation: “Since you’re a gamer, we know that you’re not man enough for a relationship with a real woman. Here, content yourself with pixels.”
Why is it mostly women who find this message offensive?
I like the game. I have been playing for about four weeks now. Sure, the ads have nothing to do with the actual gameplay. The game, however, is fun and addictive.
And by the way, REAL GIRL, I am happily married. I am a grad student. During the summer, I work as a research assistant. I have the game running in the background while I sit in front of my computer for hours every day. Playing the game does not make me less intelligent or less of a man. Neither does it automatically mean that I condone the advertising tactics that the company uses.
Sigh. The thing about ads is that their goal is to get people to look at what the ad is for, not to ensure people are USING what the ad is for. Sure, the latter’s a nice perk, but it’s not what the ad folks are doing. Ads used to explain what things were for, how they worked, why they were the best choice for this, that or the other. Now, they’re to be as short and “Look at me, investigate me on your own time” as possible.
If Evony is doing its own ads, it’s scoring pretty high on “get people to click”, but it’s probably not doing nearly as well with “get people to play/pay after clicking.” I can’t really see the boobs tactic being indicative of a successful advertising campaign, but the complete opposite: We’ve run out of artists and ideas, and we’re losing money, so here’s some tits.
Could be wrong. Not overly concerned if I am. These ads make me weep.
Out of all of this, I think the fact that they lifted the women’s images from catalog sites without their knowledge or consent and without paying them a thing… bothers me more than the rest of it.
They’ve taken the advertising one step further - now their models don’t even have clothes on!!
I just had an idea!! What if evony and adblocker are in-leage w eachother!! They ake asnnoying adds and people pay ddblocker to stop those adds. Addblocker gives half the money to evony. Meanwhile, the people who do play evony pay money for it and evony gets even more money. I say, “GET OVER IT!!!” And/Or Put up with it!!!
This game sucks. Don’t play it.
XKCD really is the worst webcomic ever
The game looks like something from the 80s. And not a good something like The Simpsons or Delorian… a bad something like crack or HIV.
There’s the full version of the one Adam posted. What’s next? Sexually explicit .gif’s?
…
Ads on the internet either amuse me or anger me, depending on my mood. Either way, I guess I’m not their target audience, eh?
Honestly?
As a girl gamer, I clicked on the Evony ad because the ad popped up all over the place and I wanted to see what the deal was (and because I happen to like the graphics). After playing a while, I stayed for the game. As far as I can tell, genders are fairly even; guys don’t outstrip ladies in the players department by any large margin.
‘Sex sells’- it certainly does, and it’s not going to change any time soon, so just go with the flow. Or get yourself worked up every time you turn on the TV, drive down a main road or surf the net. Whichever.
From here I’ll err from the topic and follow my moral urge to respond to some comments made above on the game.
You don’t need to spend money to be successful in the game. Evony provides plenty of ways to get players the things that they need without having to resort to money.
I notice that a few ex-players have commented that to speak in World Chat, you need to pay. Why on earth do you need to speak in ‘World Chat’ when no one uses it? Just speak on normal(beginners) chat for heaven’s sake- which, may I say, is free.
If you really wish to speak in World Chat, spin the wheel- again, free- once a day, and more often than not, you get speakers, which enable you to chat in world chat. Or just follow the speakers quest and presto- you get speakers.
The only thing that really is a problem is the occasional server meltdowns. Some people also get kicked out of servers on a semi-regular basis, but can’t say that from experience as it doesn’t happen to me.
The ‘play discreetly’ refers to the fact that you can change the browser headline so if your boss is looking at your taskbar, you look like you’re being productive.
Steps off soapbox