Discussion VideoGame / Evony

Because it gathers the following data:

• All running applications
• Websites you visit when the game is open
• Your browser history

Sounds like spyware to me.

As Aazkaal said. They're basically covertly gathering information. Sounds like the definition of spying.

They're doing those ads similar to the fake ones gardenscapes and the other trash mobile games do nowadays. Possible example of Were Still Relevant Dammit

I spoke too soon. They've begun adding damsels in the trailers. I also like that they've gone over from having the main character killed to being scared by the monsters. The monsters being burned in lava or crushed under spiketraps is fine though.

No, it's a spyware program integrated into a horrible game.

Is there any recent documented proof that spyware is integrated into the game? I mean, for a TV Trope's article, that's a pretty ballsy accusation to be throwing out in the open like that.

Does this trope apply for the sequel?

Yeah really, I haven't seen any evidence that this is at all true. We should seriously check this, especially since it's said THREE TIMES.

Most of this seems to be Streisand Effect from blog-clownade of Bruce Everiss starting with "Obviously legitimate western games like [...] can be trusted." and ending with "Now I am not saying that Evony has a trojan in its client software. This would take proper technical investigation." So he confesses he doesn't know anything, but repeats some rumours and that's all. Strange for a "pro", isn't? The mountain gave birth to the mouse, but the mouse was plastic, even though the mountain had a flag on top.

So there are lots of rumours, screams from those who found that "the cheesecake was a lie", but i didn't find any proper security analysis - you know, like it was with Sony^TM Rootkit? Random complains don't help at all, because google returns heaps of downloadable cheats and let's face it, a lot of windows folk are internet-unsafe enough to catch something every 4 minutes anyway, which means some trojan complains, while genuine, would be there even after visiting a blank page. As usual.

Then again, if you don't plan to buy a wagon of in-game money with real, in FLOSS games you won't be on the other end of the same - and probably can have the rest of features. While can be reasonably sure it's safe. And, hilariously enough, less rip-offs. So why even bother?..

edit: McAfee Secure Search says the site and client installers are "clean" - don't contain any malware McAfee knows of. Whether to trust their soft's thoroughness, of course, is entirely up to you. I personally won't rate it anywhere close to DrWeb and Comodo. And it was not a proper "real conditions" test anyway.

If you want to check and are willing to risk, try under a debugger (if you know how to do this), or at least under some monitoring uninstaller, to see whether it tries to crawl out of the browser. Or something like this.

Given the lack of evidence that I could find, plus the lack discussed here, I removed the accusations of spyware. If someone can find reasonably convincing evidence, feel free to put them back, but if you could link to the evidence (either on the page or on here) that'd be fantastic.