I Think We Need a Futile Gesture

I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.

Eric “Otter” Stratton, Animal House

It has been pointed out that the company which makes Evony has been behaving… badly I guess would be the right term… with their game and ads and spam comments. They have even been declared an aspirant to the title “Most Hated Game on the Net” by The Guardian,

Evony LLC is, I gather, somewhat unhappy about these responses to its game and ad campaign, especially those from Bruce Everiss.

Evony LLC is now positioning themselves as a small company defending itself from abuse and have done what any such small company would do, tried to contact Bruce Everiss and show that he is being unfair in his characterizations of the game and the practices surrounding it.  You know, an outreach sort of thing, because that is what these games are about: Community.

Oh, wait, no they didn’t.

No, they lawyered up first thing and had their attorneys start sending notes threatening legal action on the opposite site of the globe from Mr. Everiss.  Because that is what small US based companies which believe in the justness of their cause do, they hire lawyers in Australia to sue somebody in England.

Craptasitic.

And what can people like you and I do about this sort of thing?

Frankly, nothing.

Nothing except mock the people at Evony for being such transparently bad sports, to put the situation mildly.

I applaud the team at PopCap who have taken to making parodies of the ever-present Evony ads to advertise their own game, Plants vs. Zombies.

But PopCap is somewhat constrained in what it can do, being a business and interested in selling its game rather than scolding a mis-behaving company.  We can do better.

I want to come up with some really hilarious versions of the Evony ads.  Something like a Last Tango in Paris version:

Your Butter awaits, my Lord!

What can we come up with?  And who wants to do some artwork?  You can treat this as a meme if you like, or a challenge.

Should we make this a contest?

And who has some good ideas for parody ads?