Copyright Violation! Evony.com Vs. Age or Empires.

[KrullKitty]

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/business/media/16adco.html?_r=2&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!

 

[AeonGamer]

AoE 2??????
Or AoE?
Cause I know for a FACT there ain't no way in HECK Evony = Age 2 that's laughable
But it's pretty DANG close to AoE

 

[holo88]

wow. clone much? .... pure coincidence, or belligerent copy/paste? hmm...

 

[KrullKitty]

I think the author was referring to AoE not Age 2.

 

[Kinematic]

Hillarious, I was playing Evony and couldn't help but notice how similar it was to AoE!