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Copyright Violation! Evony.com Vs. Age or Empires.
Dear ES;
This may not be the appropriate forum for this type of information
but as a software developer of many years I have seen many questionable
close calls. But none quite as blatant as Evony.com.
The amount of planning, story boarding, logic, graphics, endless routines,
sub routines, arrays, databases, statistics, percentages, back end control systems
and thousands upon thousands of programming hours we put into our work is a
testament to our ingenuity and creativity.
Intellectual property has taken on a new meaning over the last decade.
The months, nay, the years, we put into gaming development in order to bring people
an entertaining experience is surely worth the intellectual protections the law affords us!
I am simply astounded and at the same infuriated by the blatant and half baked
attempt of an online game taking on the same persona as AOE.
Evony.com presents a 'game' that is easily associated in EVERY aspect of it's
methodologies and play as AOE.
Microsoft has already sued Evony.com owner Eric Lam.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/bu...ref=technology
A lawsuit was recently filed against Bruce Everiss, a British blogger who exposed
information about Evony.com that Evony did not want made public for very obvious
reasons. Evony want to sue me for telling the truth — Bruce On Games
Threads such as the following often discuss and make it obvious that the
community at large sees Evony for what it is, a blatant ripoff of a very good game.
Evony plagiarism--graphics taken directly from AoE II: Age of Kings. - NeoGAF
How would Microsoft react to their newest OS being resold illegally after years
of development? I'm sure Steven Sinofsky, head of Windows 7 development at
Microsoft would surely have something to say about that! I'm sure that Shane Kim,
now corporate vice president of Strategy and Business Development for the Interactive
Entertainment Business (IEB).Previous corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios
would not approve.
I know that all the talented developers and creators at ES put ALOT of work into
these products. To see someone else ripping off this labor intensive work in a watered
down version of an exemplary game is maddening.
Not to mention the disservice this does to the players who have invested in this
great game who continue to support it's development and improvement.
As a strong supporter of Intellectual Property rights I thought it was my duty and
responsibility to bring this issue back into the light. Not to mention being a developer
who understands the trials involved in the development of these complex environments.
If it wasn't for Microsoft developing the tools I use extensively today, I would not
be where I am now. So yes, I do feel a certain sense of protectiveness for Microsoft's
property.
I STRONGLY urge Microsoft NOT to let this issue slide anymore than it already
has! When something is as obvious as this it should be dealt with immediately!
Bruce Everiss is this Companies first public victim. Their private victims are
the thousands of gamers they bilk for tremendous sums of money that Microsoft
and it's developers are losing out on.
This would not be the first time Microsoft has litigated the individual involved
in this infringement. He has already proven that his ethical reasoning is challenged at
best and corrupt.
Perhaps this is Eric Lam's way of retaliating against Microsoft for their fraud
suit against him as mentioned in the New York Times article linked above.
I think that every single member of this forum and all the gamers who play
AOE are extremely important to the past, present and future of this environment.
They should be just as concerned and angry about this issue as I am and others
on the web who have also expressed their angst against Evony's obvious disregard
for Microsoft's Copyright.
Ultimately, everyone loses. And there lies the rub!
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