Evony Puts the Squeeze on Bot Maker

[Andy Chalk]

Evony Puts the Squeeze on Bot Maker

The creators of Evony have won a default judgment against an alleged bot-maker but they may have trouble squeezing blood from this particular stone.

Evony LLC and Regan Mercantile LLC, the creators of the infamously boobtastic online game Evony, are seeking $825,000 plus legal fees from 23-year-old Philip James Holland, who they claim facilitates cheating through his website at Xandium Studios [http://forum.xandiumstudios.net/]. Holland allegedly offers a complete map of all Evony servers, created a bot that automatically plays the game (and which presumably short-circuits much of its microtransaction-based revenue stream) and operates an unauthorized version of the game on an independent server called Evony Second Opinion.

Evony's lawyer claimed that Holland's entire operation is "devoted to infringing on Evony's copyrights and trademarks," while Holland countered that what he offers "is no more than [players] could do on their own, given time." But Judge Terrence McVerry ruled in Evony's favor yesterday because in the nearly two months that have passed since the suit was originally filed, Holland hasn't hired a lawyer or even filed an answer to the claim.

Holland, who arrived late and came to court dressed in "sweats," said he'd been unable to find a lawyer he could afford and claimed after the fact that he was "barely surviving" on the income he makes off the Evony map. But that didn't earn him any sympathy from the opposing legal team, who want him to pay statutory damages of $825,000, plus interest and legal fees. They also asked the court to order Holland to take down his website.

Holland said he wished he had that kind of money to throw around. A ruling on the damages and the request for an injunction is expected to be made "soon." A full copy of the lawsuit in PDF format is available at Scribd [http://www.scribd.com/doc/47426727/Evony-v-Holland-11-Cv-00064-TFM-W-D-Pa-Jan-18-2011].

Source: Post-Gazette.com [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11074/1132159-100.stm]


Permalink

 

[Kenny Doyle]

I swear as this game got more and more unplayed and washed up, the less the woman was clothed in the ad.

And that still didn't help them.

 

[Evilsanta]

....Huh? Uhhh...Yeah, that's terrible for the guy and I really looked trough the whole article. It's not like I watched the picture of the Ad for about 10 minutes or something....*Cough*

>.>

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

MMO developers need to stop rewarding repetitive time sinks. If they did that the bots would stop.

DDO's system of reward quest compltion, not reward monster killing is a really good one and I think more games should adopt it.

 

[FogHornG36]

What is this i don't even...

I got really confused by the picture, i thought somehow an add for a crappy game jumped into my news article.

 

[HentMas]

ok... i´m all in for being against "THE MAAAN" and stupid little things like that that happen in the internet, but this guy frankly sounded like a JERK

and i dont like those elitistic jerks

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

"Play Now Secretly"

Can't he counter-sue over the fact that he was being made to play publicly?

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

MMO developers need to stop rewarding repetitive time sinks. If they did that the bots would stop.

DDO's system of reward quest compltion, not reward monster killing is a really good one and I think more games should adopt it.

But what if I LIKE just killing shit in MMOs? Rather than walking around doing quests like "Find 5 dohickeys", and then having a bunch of unrewarded killing to find the dohickeys anyway. I'd much rather be able to level up without trite "quests".

 

[Dired]

MMO developers need to stop rewarding repetitive time sinks. If they did that the bots would stop.

DDO's system of reward quest compltion, not reward monster killing is a really good one and I think more games should adopt it.

Of course. And in FPS games the hacks and aimbots would go away if they made it easier to get around and to aim. People only cheat because it's the logical result of design flaws? Bull.

People cheat because it's easier than effort, and they want their shinies without having to earn them.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

MMO developers need to stop rewarding repetitive time sinks. If they did that the bots would stop.

DDO's system of reward quest compltion, not reward monster killing is a really good one and I think more games should adopt it.

But what if I LIKE just killing shit in MMOs? Rather than walking around doing quests like "Find 5 dohickeys", and then having a bunch of unrewarded killing to find the dohickeys anyway. I'd much rather be able to level up without trite "quests".

If that is what you like then you should play Diablo or Torchlight or Titan Quest. Both are a much more satisfying single player "kill stuff, gain levels, get lewt" experience than any mmo.

Try DDO and compare it to WoW or whatever you currently play, its free. Players are rewarded for completing quests, not for killing mobs. They get the biggest reward for both completion, exploration, and clearing the zone. Each instance has varying user-selectable difficulty and diminishing returns so no one instance can be botted to max level. And even then there are kill quests if you just like grinding, but they are entirely optional. And I'm not totally sure they net enough xp to level to 20, and in any case they don't reward gear.

MMO developers need to stop rewarding repetitive time sinks. If they did that the bots would stop.

DDO's system of reward quest compltion, not reward monster killing is a really good one and I think more games should adopt it.

Of course. And in FPS games the hacks and aimbots would go away if they made it easier to get around and to aim. People only cheat because it's the logical result of design flaws? Bull.

People cheat because it's easier than effort, and they want their shinies without having to earn them.

Apples and oranges. Bots aren't cheating unless they are doing something an ordinary player couldn't, other than having no life. Bots generally don't give any advantage. Penny Arcade said it best:

On the other hand, the scenarios described in the WoW Glider FAQ don't seem unreasonable to me, and solve what I see as problems with the core product. Being able to succeed at all in the higher levels requires specific roles with the appropriate levels and equipment, and a point of failure on the social side of this game can keep you from getting the most out of your subscription. But, I mean, good Christ. It's not like bots let you play the game without paying your fifteen dollars a month. It's not (in the ragged parlance of the youth) "hax."

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/12/17/
If the gameplay is so insipid that a few lines of auto-it and a memory scraper can replicate it then to put it simply the game sucks.

 

[DTWolfwood]

get a loan for that money than immediately file for bankruptcy. (assuming one can do that XD)

 

[Formica Archonis]

....Huh? Uhhh...Yeah, that's terrible for the guy and I really looked trough the whole article. It's not like I watched the picture of the Ad for about 10 minutes or something....*Cough*

>.>

Whereas I scrolled past it ASAP because I'm at work.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Given the way some of these companies operate, Mr. Holland shouldn't be surprised if he wakes up one day chained to a desk in a basement and told he's going to have to "work off" that $825,000 judgement by moderating Evony's forums or something.

I wonder how long he'd last before begging for the sweet embrace of death.

 

[Hydrahunter]

Isn't Evony that game that illegally uses images of women for their adds? If so, what grounds do they have to sue ANYONE?

 

[The Random One]

He should have written a rap and asked for money, as is our custom.

 

[Chubbs99]

Wait.

Evony has creators???

I thought something had crawled from hell wrapped in demon piss and black fire and impregnated an amoeba to make the POS.

IIRC Evony's creators were linked to some "Gold Farm" for other MMO's. I have to admit I'm really sketchy on the details cause its been so long since I came across it. But I do recall one person making a blog about it and preceded to get sued over it. But Just like 90%+ of Free to Play MMO's coming from out east, it uses a recycled idea from a major selling game using stolen sprites from another game. In this case Recycling Sid Meier's Civilization with stolen Age of Empires sprites. I've also seen / played briefly 2 games that are blatant recycling of the Hero's of Might and Magic series but thats OT.

I kinda feel bad for the guy, cause Evony was kinda fun when I played it. As much fun as you can have when as soon as your out of protection your just a farm for the guy who's been there longer I guess. But still can't it be argued that Holland is only doing what the creators of Evony did? Steal another companies Idea's and Images and put them to his own use? Maybe the legal issue is that he chose to call it "Evony Second Opinion." had he not done that, I couldn't see a leg for them to stand on legally.

 

[wammnebu]

get a loan for that money than immediately file for bankruptcy. (assuming one can do that XD)

in some states

 

[MonkeySeeAndDo]

I don't know that Evony should be suing anyone. The game is fraught with bot users/cheaters. Players savvy enough to sniff out bugs and exploit them. Evidence collected against players of s63, s64, s66, ss118, ss117, ss116, finally ss50 who were/are clearly botting were ignored. Even a cursory glance by evony staff of numerous players of the top 5 alliances on a server like ss50 can reveal who were cheating. If I had that kind of money they suing Holland for, I would sue them for breaking contractual agreements between player and game owner.

 

[Adnan Motan]

sadly evony has become a joke. giving ''paying players'' their stuff back. i unfortunately have to unlike evony after this mishap on ss42 where they returned a top hero to one of the players who was squarely beaten and then lied about her account being hacked. and its not the first case there have been other incidents on my server where players with top heroes who have spent a ton on boosting hero up get their hero returned after losing it. evony ''free and fair'' actually does not exist. paying players have an advantage over non paying players and higher paying players have an advantage over all. shame on you evony. http://ww.evonyurl.com/tdbnd5 you guys have put shame to the words free and fair for all.. thx for returning that hero back and making me waste my time in planning and executing this perfectly..

all they are after is money and nothing else... xandium studios just facilitated warfare by allowing people to access locations of other players they wanted to hit. no bot there.. evony is lying