It seems to me that Evony’s advertisements are everywhere. Any web page I seem to load which has adverts on it seems to be trying to draw me in to trying this game. Admittedly I do play MMOs and so I am, presumably, in their target audience but these adverts don’t begin to tempt me into the game.

For those of you that haven’t seen the Evony’s adverts, there have been a series of them. Initially they depicted an armored warrior which actually did suggest a medieval style game. Lately the advertisements have changed somewhat, now showing an attractive woman in a low cut, medieval style garb. In some cases even, only the woman’s chest with her bra is showing. You can see the selection of adverts they have used here.

There’s no denying these advertisements are eye catching. Indeed I’ve noticed enough of them to write this article. They have caught my attention and been in so many places to make me quite aware of the existence of the game. In most cases I would applaud them for creating a successful advertising campaign and would offer my congratulations to their marketing team. In this instance, perhaps they might have been a little less blatant though.

We all know sex sells and that is presumably the motivation of these adverts. But there are websites which I would like to be work-safe – my RSS reader, for example. With the danger that an Evony advert will appear it would seem that no website that has advertising is safe any more. To be fair these are, strictly speaking, work-safe – everything is covered in their adverts. But they are certainly work-uncomfortable.

The adverts don’t do a fair job of advertising the game either. This is a game of raising armies and of conquest in a medieval setting. This is perhaps not the most original concept but it is a solid grounding for a game and one which will attract players. What isn’t in the game, unless I have completely misunderstood, is a beautiful woman waiting for you to ravage her. While this is probably for the best, not least because many on-line gamers are minors, it does seem to be what Evony are promoting.

So congratulations, Evony, for being everywhere on the Internet at the moment. Good job. But please change the adverts to something that represents what you’re promoting and doesn’t make me want to navigate away from the page straight away for fear of someone looking over my shoulder.