Evony Players Win Victory Over Cheaters

[Dawnseeker]

You may have read very recently about a situation where we needed to take legal action versus a person that we asked to stop perpetrating illegal activities that were harming the integrity of playing Evony. Since the person refused to comply on his own, the U. S. court system was our only recourse.

Nobody likes cheaters. Cheating and hacking harm hardworking small independent video game studios by attacking and disrupting the most important and valuable resource, our player community. Over twenty million people across the world have logged into Evony and enjoyed playing within the medieval atmosphere and made long-lasting friendships and alliances. We've seen even how players have actively helped one another and saved a person's life. This positive community is worth protecting.

Private servers, scripts and bots unfairly tip the scales of balanced gameplay and are a violation of our Terms of Use. These types of items destroy the environment our players enjoy and work so hard to cultivate and our players have been vocal and consistent in that they wanted to see us do something to insure the competitive and balanced fair gameplay of Evony remains just that - fair. We agree with the Court that it costs less to obey the law than to violate it, and while the far majority of players play and enjoy the game as they should; there are very small minorities who simply desire to wreck player enjoyment.

We made our company vision the pursuit of player happiness; investing significant resources into new customer service and feedback portals in the desire for transparency and changed our ads and marketing techniques in response to the community, and so when our players began complaining about bots and hacks, we placed this as a priority to remedy. We publically launched Operation Cerberus in November 2010 alongside our investigation into those who sought to ruin the fun environment our players enjoyed; with our focus on making sure that we protected the integrity of the gameplay and our user experience. While litigation is never our desire, we're in the business of making games, we unfortunately were pressed to initiate this to ensure our community was protected.

To our player community, we thank each of you for being patient as we continue to address your important issues you are communicating with us.

See you on the battlefield!

The Evony Team

Frequently Asked Questions

So, how did all this happen?

• We discovered a hacker was maliciously attacking our software in order to sell a "bot" as well as run a private server. Not only is this against federal copyright law, but bots hurt the game for all players who choose to play by the rules.
• We repeatedly attempted to get the hacker to stop his illegal activities over the course of a year. He repeatedly changed internet service providers to keep his site online and refused to stop his hacking activities.
• Eventually, we were left with no recourse but to file suit in federal court to get a federal judge to order a stop to his activities. This required us to prove the hacker's activities were illegal. The judge ruled in our favor.

Is this going to stop all botting? I still see bots on my server!

This is part of our plan to stop botting and other forms of cheating. Our goal is to make Evony a level playing field for everyone. This case only went to court because of how extreme the hackers activities were and because he was using them to turn a profit at our player's expense.

Operation Cerberus will continue to identify and remove bots from the game servers, and we'll be instituting new methods of preventing bots and removing them.

Is Evony only doing this to make money?

While all businesses certainly have the goal of making money (and we're no exception), the goal of this case is to stop the activities of a hacker who was making money on the backs of our players, by selling bots and "hacks" that gave cheaters an advantage over non-cheaters. These bots then forced us to suspend the accounts of people using them, which is no fun for anyone. While it is in our best interest to protect our wonderful players, it is also in our players' best interests to be protected. In the end, we don't even expect to recoup our own court costs, much less make any money.

[JLafitte]

What a load of self-serving dingo's kidneys! Since when is Evony "a small ... ... video game studio."? The sole purpose of Evony is to make money for it's owners, and the ONLY reason they are (if their claim is true, which is doubtful) going after "cheaters" is that it's starting to cost them. We all know they don't give a rat's ass about things like competition, balance and fair play.

[berkovski]

fair to all players? think about it again, cuz money spenders have full advantages while other players can not achieve many things even they spend many hours, days, like hero gear and stars. you guys better start working about to make this game enjoyable to all players not only for money spenders!

[jaxmthemirc]

Good work. Glad to see some positive changes done =]

[TheFez]

Good work. Glad to see some positive changes done =]

good work and positive changes would be actually listening to their clients instead of blowing them off bottom line is evony ONLY does something if it affects there income

on the other note good job im willing to bet it was eric who they went after cause he was affecting there bottom dollar thats why he is no longer around cheaters hacks blah blah thats there excuss for going after him for making money

[Richie_B]

good work and positive changes would be actually listening to their clients instead of blowing them off bottom line is evony ONLY does something if it affects there income

on the other note good job im willing to bet it was eric who they went after cause he was affecting there bottom dollar thats why he is no longer around cheaters hacks blah blah thats there excuss for going after him for making money

Based on what Dawnseeker said, I'm guessing that he's talking about that map site.

[annagilbert]

Based on what Dawnseeker said, I'm guessing that he's talking about that map site.

did players complain about that site and send thousands of tickets to get it removed?

if not- then we know why they did something against it and my theory will be proven

if you wanna keep stuff - complain about them

if you want a change - shush!

[Rota]

Is there any dollar value attached to the damages in this lawsuit you won?

If so, how much?
Can we spend that money on more manpower to do more bot sweeps?
Can we spend that money to hunt and remove countless multis?
Can we spend that money to track account sharing and put a stop to that?

[jorbaud]

Is there any dollar value attached to the damages in this lawsuit you won?

I'm pretty sure the site was just closed and nothing else.

[TheFez]

Is there any dollar value attached to the damages in this lawsuit you won?

If so, how much?
Can we spend that money on more manpower to do more bot sweeps?
Can we spend that money to hunt and remove countless multis?
Can we spend that money to track account sharing and put a stop to that?

nah there gonna use it to create more servers to make more money and have more problems then take care of those who have dedicated a year or more to the game then whats left there gonna take a vacation to maui and snub there noses at us