Readers are encouraged to avoid this game entirely. It is a spyware program in disguise.
- Adaptation Displacement:
- Evony is, gameplay-wise, an exact clone of an earlier Chinese browser game known as Kingory (they're even based off the same source code, and may or may not have been made by the same company), which most people have never heard of.
- Oddly enough, the original Evony itself had fallen victim to this. While it was still very infamous (just look at all the various things that reference it), in terms of actual gameplay and player base didn't look good. On top of the "covert spyware" and "lackluster ad campaigning" controversies, it was massively out-competed by its own copycats, who've not only improved on a lot of Evony's flaws as a game but also have refrained from being spyware.
- Crosses the Line Twice: Some of the ads (such as one solely consisting of a pair of breasts in a black lace bra) are so incredibly sleazy that they become laughable.
- Fetish Retardant: In a shoddy attempt to Photoshop bigger cleavage lines onto one ad, they managed to make the woman look like her breasts were pancakes.
- Memetic Mutation:
- Ads featuring an attractive woman entreating "my Lord" are probably a nod to the game's ad campaign. Though given Evony's bad press, ads tend to spoof their style rather than straight-up imitate it — Plants vs. Zombies has an ad with a decaying zombie girl wearing a crown prompting you to "save your queen", while one for Alteil features a girl and boasts "She is actually in our game, my Lord!"
- AdventureQuest Worlds: Pants, m'lord?
◊ - The mobile version’s also-false advertising as a “pull the pin”-style puzzle game has also been subjected to this, with a few games popping up that actually offer the type of gameplay in question as a direct response.
- No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Could be argued that the reason this game was known at all was because of its infamous advertising, otherwise it probably wouldn't have a TV Tropes page either and would have ended up forgotten as a bad game with nothing that stands out about it.
- Overshadowed by Controversy: The original incarnation of Evony was mostly known for its infamous advertising campaign, with promises of sexy women that ended up nowhere to be seen in the actual game. Accusations of promotion via spamming blogs and the game being spyware have also left people more interested in the controversies surrounding the game than the game itself.
Readers are encouraged to avoid this game entirely. It is a spyware program in disguise.
