100 Days of Evony
So I joined my first MMORTS – Massively Multiplayer Online Real Time Strategy – www.evony.com. This was for a number of reasons, including:
- I’m a geek at heart. I used to play alot of Age of Empires and the appeal of playing a Real Time Strategy that was free, no less, was a powerful lure.
- I was actually interested in the notion of “community” which I had read about in several reviews, specifically when you joined an Alliance.
- The Advertising was just crazy. It has copped an enormous amount of negative press and criticism, most notably because once you got into game play, there were no references to the said advertising (sad for some). Coding Horror had a particularly funny blog post on How Not to Advertise about a week before I joined. That tipped me to have a look.
- 8 million users as at 3rd September 2009. When I joined in July ’09 – 5 million were active according to www.evony.net. That’s ALOT of people.
Evony Global View
The Game itself
When you first log in, you are confronted with a list of servers to join. If logging in in for the first time, you get automatically allocated to the most recent server which has space on it. I got logged on to Server 41, and started to play. Each server can have up to 120,000 active players on it, before they create a new one. At time of writing they were clearing through Server 86. So lots of people online.
Essentially, Evony is a fairly static game from a visual perspective, in comparison to the sprawling armies which you command in Age of Empires. Progress is measured by the notion of “Prestige” which is a combination of building upgrades, technology advancements and conquests, by way of territory or battles. Game play is based around the real time creation and improvement of your City(s) overall level and state of advancement from a technology perspective which consists of different types of buildings.
- Resource generation – Farms, saw mills, quarries and mines. These produce food, lumber (wood), stone & iron.
- Barracks – production of fighting units in discreet numbers, limited by your resources available and the number of idle villagers in your city. The higher the barracks level, the broader the range of units that can be created.
- Cottages – are used to house city population in turn allowing taxes to be levied which create gold. The higher the cottage level, the higher the population = higher gold generation.
- Technology buildings to enable improved states of play by way of game improvements ranging from unit strength, across to production capacity or production speed – Includes Academy, Workshop, Forge, Relay Station & Warehouse.
With the above variants, upgrading each takes real time consumption i.e. going from a level 1 barrack to a level 2 barrack takes 5 minutes. The kicker is that you can only do 1 upgrade at a time, in sequential order and you can’t queue this production – meaning an onerous amount of time can be spent online waiting for things to upgrade/finish, so that you can click the next one. As you progress up to higher upgrade levels, the time to complete increases exponentially. For instance, at time of writing, I was upgrading my Archery at the Academy from Level 8 to 9 which entailed a completion time of 127 hours, meaning that I couldn’t cue any other technology research at that particular city. That’s a REALLY long time! What makes it tantalising at the start is that you get a set of supplied “Speed Up’s” which are cued almost to the second to assist in speeding up production time. Of course Evony don’t supply enough to upgrade your entire city to a level 10, just enough here and there at different times to keep you interested.
Game mechanics
Resources generation is shown in real time and measured in production output per hour e.g. To cite lumber/wood as an example 3,000 lumber per hour. The actual output is governed by 5 different attributes. In all the below, the higher the numbers, the better the net outcome on your production.
- Level of the lumber yard i.e. Level 1 to 9.
- The politics attribute level of your mayor (Hero given Castallan status at Feasting Hall).
- Magical assistance from items with defined time period of effectiveness e.g. Arch Saw adds 25% over 24 hours
- Capture of requisite valley local to your city which adds a percentage contribution to production i.e capture a Forest will yield a % increase production
- Level of research at your Academy for the respective resource technology improvement completed i.e. Level 1 to 10.
So what’s the aim of the game?
It is essentially about building armies and gaining territory.
In the early days of the server, whilst under 7 day beginner protection meaning I couldn’t attack or be attacked, I observed people typing/talking in “World Chat” and everyone was talking about completing the “Quests”. With the above in mind, I began to take the advice and start following the Quests which are little tasks which teach you how the game mechanic works and rewards you for completion of each task. Very quickly, my city and technology started to “level up”, I was getting promoted, my armies were getting bigger, I conquered my first valley, I won my first battle.
Fun. Addictive fun. REALLY Addictive fun.
Consumption of resources falls into 5 areas:
- Research Technology/Improvement at academy
- Production of Troops at barracks
- Levelling up of buildings and structures
- Battle – March, Camp, Loss of troops in Battle
- Being plundered by an enemy army.
Evony City View
Alliances, Leadership, Politics and War
With 120,000 potential competitors sharing space on the server, and the game mechanic geared towards having battles and contesting territory, one of the wider goals within the Quests where emphasis is placed is to join an Alliance, which loosely surmised is a collective of 100 people. The advantage of an alliance is you pool knowledge, reinforce and support each other with resources and can chat in the “Alliance Chat”, which is a private channel for Alliance members only. Structurally each Alliance is founded by a Host, with 2 Vice Hosts, 6 Presbytyr’s & 20 Officers enforcing order and discipline on the 100 members. When a Host founds an alliance, they can call it a suitably appropriate name. On Server 41, Alliance number 1 was “Paladins”. They had a 20,000 Prestige entry requirement. At the time of my looking into applying, I was a very princely 1,215 Prestige. Hmmm – quite a bit of work to do.
This is where the game started to get interesting. As alluded to earlier, I used to play Age of Empires, so citing the need for a suitably thematic alliance, I decided to bypass ones called “Kings, Elites, The Unit etc” in favour of one called 300. How very Spartan of me. I applied and they let me in, with my hard earnt 1,215 Prestige. From this point on joining 300, my Prestige started to go into an orbital trajectory. 2,000. 4,000. A week later 15,000. 3 weeks later 70,000…. The alliance people were helping me get higher, offering me suggestions, advice and encouragement. Over the ensuing weeks, I met some real characters in here – funny, helpful, informative. Initially everyone was feeling their way around, trying things out, offering advice and learning a hell of lot from each other. I hit gold in joining 300, as it seemed to be mostly adults, who had jobs, families, real lives. Some people got booted along the way, for poor behaviour, others for inactivity. Somehow, I got promoted to Presbytyr. Apparently for being helpful and knowledgeable about the battle engine, which I had taken some time out to learn and exploit by way of the Evony Forum’s. Life was pretty fun.
Then politics entered. Yea. I hate politics, both in my online gaming and in real life. Some people started to go away on extended leave, moved house, and so forth, so they left their account details with some “trusted” people. It went particularly badly when one of these people had control of 5 accounts, including the Host, Vice Host & 1 of the Presbytyrs. That’s when it all went south as suddenly you didn’t know if you were talking to the person whose account it was or the person “minding” it. It really got nasty when they started to threaten people in Alliance Chat and everyone got wary and couldn’t work out who was actually online. I left.
Evony Town View
I joined WAR IV, the 4th division of a very active alliance with about 15 others from 300 who were fed up with the poor outcomes of the account swapping fiasco. Was quickly promoted back up to Presbytyr again. Then it went south with the host of WAR I, logged in and started to abuse people in Alliance chat, for no good reason. I left again, with the same original 15 from 300 and joined SPQR with trusted colleagues from the original 300. This also coincided with my leanings towards the Roman Legions being reflected in the SPQR name.
It was at this time, that Server 41 was starting to get tough. My prestige was now 180,000+ and the armies that were being commandeered were hitting their 100,000 limit (125,000 if they used a war banner), comprising of hordes of archers, swordsman, ballista, cavalry, scouts, the whole kit and kaboodle. I was starting to get hit by armies of 60,000 archers, 5,000 ballista and 35,000 warriors. There were a few occasions where I was online and I was able to scramble Alliance assistance to garrison at my Embassy 3 X 45,000 (135,000 total) archers and assorted other troops to defeat invading armies, due in part to my Level 10 Infomatics and Level 10 Beacon. Nothing quite like watching an enemy army of 100,000 units getting thumped by an garrisoned alliance force of 175,000+ troops. These times were quite satisfying as the requisite jump in Prestige and Honour were substantial. 1 battle alone, I recall getting some 630,000 Honour points. I had a happy hero on my hands which ended up costing me a fortune in salary increase. The problem overall though was that little SPQR with our 15 members was but a minnow in a very large and nasty ocean made up of Paladins, Kings, WAR and a few choice others who were dominating the server. The smaller (read 50K prestige) members of SPQR were getting chewed up. Badly. We ended up re-merging with 300 again, because we were just too darn small to survive out there against the big alliances. It helped greatly that the few malcontents who had made life unpleasant in the first place had since left 300.
A different Server. A new beginning.
So with the win’s few and far between, the server getting tougher and the lack of comaraderie that had characterised the beginnings on the wane, I decided to start another account on the newly minted Server 66. This served me really well, as I had the experience of Server 41 behind me and wouldn’t make the same mistakes. I logged in, reveled in 7 day beginner’s protection and promptly started to charge up my Prestige and my armies. To follow the same path, as the first server, I followed the quests and chose an alliance to join.This time they were called Storm, because the person I was chatting too (one of the Presbytyr’s) seemed reasonable and the other people I played online with when I logged in were similarly so. Until I logged on 2 days later. The Vice Host turned out to be of a social order that took its lessons in human interaction from rabid fighting dogs. Language, abusive tirades, a biting, sarcastic, framework of communications were what stemmed forth from their mouth. Forget it, I wasn’t here to be somebodies punching bag for no good reason. I left.
I wandered around on my own for a few days, getting attacked and easily fending off the initial battles, as my army was some 2,000 spies and 4,000 archers , whereas I was getting hit by armies with 20 spies and maybe 500 archers. Combined with a forest of Archer Towers in my main city and other assorted surprises. Offers to join alliances were thick and fast, but the level of diplomacy and diction quality in the greeting missives and the subsequent dialogue left a lot to be desired. I stuck it out on my own having a bit of sport with the local populace. If they attacked me and inevitably lost, I’d send them a polite message requesting truce and if they were rude (7 times out of 10), I responded back,with extreme prejudice. Wave attacks, 5,000 archers, then 5 waves of cavalry to plunder their population loyalty from 80 down to 40. They got the picture and quickly gave me a wide birth.
Then I get a lovely, well written, diplomatic and polite email from a host of an alliance called Angels. Angel 7 to be exact, which was the 7th branch of a 670+ member strong super alliance. And by lovely, I mean that the host of Angel 7 was female, which interestingly in the Evony world isn’t that rare an occurrence which adds a nice dimension to what could otherwise be the usual (so I have read) male dominated MMORTS experience. The message to join Angel 7 was eloquent, polite and advocated peace and a fun, friendly environment. Suited me, as I was a bit over my warring ways and was looking forward to a more peaceful existence of being in an alliance which was more about the community side of things than the battles and stuff.
Angel 7 was fantastic. A bunch of really nice people from the day I joined, and anytime I logged on, there was interesting chatter about real world things. This may sound odd, but something I had noticed in the other alliances I’d been members of (and been promoted up) was that the conversations rarely deviated from the game at hand – battle tactics, target of the day, how to maximise resources, those sort of things. Angel 7 was refreshingly different – people talked about their hobbies, families, jobs, asked advice and received, on the whole, very good points of view and balanced responses. I spent 10 days in Angel 7, got promoted again to Presbytyr (what exactly am I doing to warrant these escalations of responsibility?) and life was nice.
Then I got tapped on the shoulder to start Angel 8. Nice one.
This is where the game got tough for me. Angel 8 was the 8th branch of a 670+ strong Super Alliance network of 7 other Angel branches, each managed by a terrific host. My remit was markedly different however. I was tasked to take the “tough, troublesome or suspect spies” from the 7 Angel’s branches. I had 35 applicants to start with and my job was to assess them each and everyone. So I marched off into the wilderness and did just that. Only 14 members came across. It was determined the other 21 were spy accounts. They just never appeared again.
So of my intrepid band of 14 members, I determined that they were a mix of young kids (say 15 years old) and a good slice of snot nosed, obnoxious and spoilt brat types. My interest in Evony was declining by the hour. From my perspective, I had gotten saddled with the losers, the people that the other hosts couldn’t or didn’t want to handle – maybe I was the first of the “losers” to get these guys. What countered was the sanity check of 2 key players who turned out to be fantastically supportive in our little fiefdom of 15 members and adding to the case against this dim and dark existence we were living as outcasts was the constant stream of information I got from the Angel network. Status updates of the target of the day. Encouraging emails from the Angel’s overall leader, encouraging messages from the Host of Angel 7 who had both recruited me and seconded me into Angel 8. All was not lost.
After 2 weeks of running Angel 8 and writing a number of reports, I tendered my resignation. I recommend on the whole that the 15 players who had come over weren’t spies – they were just either young, quiet or both. The quiet types ended up being some of the most interesting people who played the game – one was an ex USMC marine, who I had indepth discussions around topics like world politics, our respective families and other things that were influencing our respective lives. The other was a car industry type, who I obviously resonated well with. Leaving Evony and a 3 to 4 hour a day existence, wasn’t what I would call pleasant – I had played close to 3 months – 90 days – straight of this very addictive game, but it was time to end the relentless time commitment this game takes. I had a lovely – and extraordinarily patient – wife and infant son to spend time with. I had my mountain bike to ride. I had other things to do. Evony needed to take a dose of perspective and be rebalanced with my life.
The leadership of Angel’s took it pretty badly, which surprised me, as I had really been out in the woods when running Angel 8. I got offered to join Angel 1, the Elite Angels, as my battle experience was deemed to be highly valuable. When I responded that I couldn’t commit the time, I was asked to go to Angel 2 instead and assist in training the up and coming members to battle readiness. I acquiesced and joined for a couple of weeks. Whilst the people on here were nice, Angel 2 was all geared around training everyone to be battle ready and join the Elite Angel’s into their territorial push. It was all a bit too serious for me and to be fair, the Host & I didn’t quite see eye to eye in how to manage people. his style was “do this, because I said so” where as I tend towards being collaborative and explain the situation, using logic to rationalise my orders. To be fair though, I was by this time just over it – I was longing the absence of the Evonylised world and hankering for some real life interaction. What is not in question was the Host’s commitment to looking after the “family” and ensuring the best outcome for all concerned. In this the community aspect of Evony is quite extraordinary. The small point that it appeared I knew more than most people online about battle tactics and defense, only added to my dismay and inability to commit the time. My view is that my absence would only take up a valuable spot within the Angel 2 group. So I left.
I logged back in a week later, having left my defenses ready for assault. I had been attacked numerous times, but my defenses had held firm. 19,000 archers and 8000 archer towers will do that on a relatively young server. I had an invitation from Angel 7, from the original host who heard I had been cut loose. I rejoined and it felt like I was home. I only log in now about once a week for half an hour or so – mostly to chat to people, catch up, listen to a few stories and offer a bit of advice here or there. It’s working out pretty well.
Incidently upon writing this post, I worked out that near enough, I had spent 100 days in Evony. It was an enriching experience and I can certainly see why people end up getting their lives sucked into the vortex of upgrades, interaction and general time consumption. Having done this, I can truthfully say, now that I’ve had a taste of an MMORTS, I an see the allure and the appeal. I may return sometime in the future, but I don’t see it being a significant part of my life for many years yet.
A time line and thanks to the following players for making my time enjoyable:
Server 41 – i2adiant
- Joined 300, promoted to Presbytyr
- Left 300 to become Presbytyr WAR IV,
- Merged with WAR II, stayed Presbytyr
- Left WAR II to become Presbytyr SPQR,
- Merged SPQR with 300
King Awesome, EarthAxe, V3NOM323, Tonic, Tinkerbell, LordTitan, Mousey, FlippinSweet, Arbitable, Xoakie, McMission, Sir Donnie, ~LadyDelia.
Server 66 – Sabre
- Joined Storm,
- Left Storm and joined Angel 7, promoted to Presbytyr
- Left Angel 7 to form Angel 8 as Host,
- Disbanded Angel 8 and joined Angel 2,
- Left Angel 2 and rejoined Angel 7
Frosties, Meena, 350, Zet, TheDutch, Vincente, Imzadi, Chrisagon, The Inimitable Dark Horse,
Game improvements
- Battle map – War Reports diagramatic heat map showing hot zones of activity based on defence statistics from attacked city co-ords and depending on the level of infomatics, an origin of attack vector and timings would also add a totally different dimension to the game.
- Improved messaging for Hosts between alliances. Once you are in an alliance its very easy to get lost in the microcosm world of the other 99 players and lose touch. This is particularly challenging for Host and Vice Host whose job it is to promote diplomatic relations. I learnt this first hand when I was appointed host of Angel 8 on Server 66.
- Some animations for battles. It’s a small thing, but a structured set of battle results that are graphically represented by little soldiers fighting would add so much. Call me old fashioned – I love watching when two armies collided as in Age of Empires. An option to switch these off would be nice too.
- At the Rally Point in the Exercise Battle Practice Area, add in the ability to select City Fortifications and defences i.e. Archery Towers, Rolling Logs, Traps, Abatis & Catapults as part of the Battle Engine.
- Add the ability to trade resources for specific items like Medals. Server 66 was particularly scarce on medals being able to be found within Valleys. Annoying.
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Nice piece of writing on Evony.
And the Angel Alliances offcourse.
As you noticed, you are more then welcome there.
//TheDutch
Thanks Dutch – you and the rest of the Angels made me feel welcome.
Sabre.
Wow. It seems unreal to read it like that. I guess I have been sucked into the vortex which is Evony as well. I agree, interesting read.
Thank you! You often write very interesting articles. You improved my mood.
A lovely piece of writing about gaming in Evony.
I’m on Server 67, and have been playing about 6 weeks. The Alliance I petitioned to join has turned out to be a really good one. We’re like a big family — supporting each other in the game and in life. I’ve been a Vice Host for our Alliance the last 4 weeks or so. I’m not sure how long I’ll be as active as I am now, but for now I’m sinking the better part of my free time into Evony and loving it.
King Awesome – Thanks Buddy! The Vortex is good – I still log in every now and again. Spread the word!
Peter – glad I could improve your mood! Thankyou for the compliment
Hawksana – Thanks for the kind comments. Server 67 has a top guy called EarthAxe on there – he’s also on Server 41. I believe he’s a host of an alliance on there. Enjoy your journey – being VH is a tough and demanding gig.
[...] Read the original here: 100 Days of Evony [...]
I love it hun!
very nicely done
u r missed in Angel
if/when u can come back, u r most welcome
hope all is goin well for u hun, take care an stay in touch
Excellent write up, everything so very true, I myself have been drawn into this game, often waking up at 2 or 3 o’clock in the middle of the night simply to upgrade and/or check my account.
Awww Imzadi – you know how to make a fallen Angel sad and missed! Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed the post. Somehow I’ve ended up Presbytyr of Angel 7 again – I don’t log in THAT much.
Noddyneeds – long time no see! Logging in at odd hours of the day and night was when I knew my addiction had to be addressed. I ended it cold, for a straight 2 weeks. I might just log in every now and again and say hello to the peeps in 300 when I get some time.
I really like your blog and i respect your work. I’ll be a frequent visitor.
Interesting read, have been playing for 1 and a half weeks and found this game to be hugely addictive. The temptation of getting up extra early before work and last thing at night has proven too great already. I just don’t want it to start effecting my time with my young family. If that happens then I think I will know, and hopefully quit. Like you, I am a big fan of the A of E series, but prefer this as its all much more tactical.
I have joined an alliance by recommendation of a friend, and they seem a loyal, helpful bunch. We did have a few show their true colours recently when we were almost wiped out by 3 of the top alliances in our region. Those that remained fought back, but were forced to quite Carinthia for Saxony. I cant wait for my city to be in a position where I can fight back with a big army. My only criticism is the deliberate lack of medals and the time it takes to get established. The temptation to raid Paypal is too great! Great article though, you were obviousluy liked and respected within your alliances.
Duncan, thanks for the comments. My time in Evony evokes a number of responses – it was fun, memorable and certainly as you comment, tactically challenging. That temptation you speak of to succumb to PayPal and buy credits is no doubt the core of why Evony has a successful business model – the thirst to succeed and endure the onslaught of the enemy tied to the allegiance to your fellow alliance members is a great motivator. I managed by challenging myself that the course charted where no money was exchanged was all the more satisfying for the success it meant.
WOW HEY BRO ITZ V FROM 300 U ACTUALLY POSTED MY NAME UP…THAT MEANZ A LOT..AZ FOR UR POSTING.. VERY NICE AND UNDERSTANDING AS I HAVE REALIZED I AM OVER ADDICTED…I HAVE JOINED AND BEEN IN THE ALLIANCE DAM ON SERVER 41 UNDER THE NAME OF PREDATOR.. MATYAS IS RUNNING 300 NOW AND YET AGAIN WE ARE ENEMIES…I AM ON SEVERAL OTHER SERVERS ITD BE NICE IF ME AND U STARTED A NEW SERVER AND WENT FRESH BRO SOUNDZ A LIL LAME BUT I MISS OUR 15 MEMBERZ BRO ESPECIALLY U CHRISSY LT CLOUD MCMISSION AND A FEW OTHERZ STAY IN CONTACT BROTHER AND LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST WITH NO REGRETS…..
URZ TRULY
V3N0M.323
Hiya V,
No probs – glad you liked the post and certainly its my pleasure to acknowledge those that I enjoyed playing online with. My playing days are somewhat over – I haven’t got the time and am finding much else to occupy my time with – keep in touch though, that could all change sometime in the future.
Cheers,
i2adiant/Colin
Too bad I just now ran across this article as I play on server 41 as well. 300 is no more on server 41 as the alliance I belong to decided to come in take out 300 one member at a time. A couple of their members joined us (SpinDocs), some went to different branches of Defiant, and then there are the ones who decided to just form a new alliance UTU which was founded by Matyas who was the host of 300.
Wauslee,
Shame we never crossed swords on the battle field – it appears much has changed on Server 41 in the 2 months I’ve been offline. Thanks for the update – SpinDocs were one of the original Alliances I had heard about in the early days of Server 41, but never really came across. Although to be fair where I was located in Lower Lorraine, most of my time was occupied in those early days defending against Kings, Ragnarot (sp?), Elites and later WAR when they went out of favour. As I was leaving, Paladins were starting to make their presence felt as they had a large number of the top 300 players move across to them and they were expanding heavily. Thankfully, they left me alone – maybe because I was relatively fair and only targetted the troublesome types. I still keep in touch with a few of them, having crossed into the real world with IM and emails every now and again. Best of luck fighting UTU – look out for EarthAxe and Abe Froman – they are old 300, SPQR colleagues who still play heavily.
Cheers,
i2adiant/Colin
I love 300. Every member is soooo loyal and no one stabs eachothers back. Oh wait, thats ALL that 300 has done!! Time and time, I am sooo sick of 300 alliances. I was member of 300 on alliance 71, 82 and then again on 89 and nothing but ugly politics once the game gets about 3 months deep. Yes their players can be funny and cool. and Yes we talked on the phone a lot to coordinate attacks. One member even drove 2 hours to meet me in person! Nice person but too friendly. And his hands sweat wayyyy to much. God i hope he does not read this. Overall, I would never join any 300 alliance ever again.
300rulzdroolz,
Seems to me you have had both the good and bad end of the bargain. I can’t speak for the servers that you quote, as I haven’t logged into those particular ones, but something to reflect upon. If 300 on servers, 71, 82 & 89 were all consistently poor after 3 months, is there perhaps a case that the common factor is more likely to be yourself as opposed to the 250+ other people that were online? Food for thought….
Cheers,
i2adiant/Colin
i am the host ofalliance rowan on server 41 iwas reading thru stuff on google to share with the group and i seen thisandread it very interesting but what syked me out it i have king awesome in my allince asa prebyster ha … you outta comeback well get you set up its all older guys here and all that its just a game not a serious competition thats how i fee and most agree with me
Best regards: josh
Josh,
Thanks for the kind thoughts about this article. As for King Awesome – give him my regards – occasionally we speak on Google Chat when he and I are online at the same time. Thanks for the invite to Rohan – at this stage its unlikely I’d make a comeback on Server 41. It would probably be a bit of a battle to get back up to a decent status again, as I have 1 city left and it is totally level 1 across the board, with no resources. I don’t think I’d have the patience to build up again!
Cheers,
i2adiant/Colin
Great stuff. http://www.theculturemind.com rocks.
i love evony is alsome spacily server124
Very interesting and for some unknown reason, a bit emotional. I am on server 131 and i keep reseting my accounts (i have 2) every time my prestige gets to 500,000. And here alliance DarkAngl is the top dog, next to Element. Sorry for writing to much thats how i am.
Francisco & Kandy – WOW Server 124 and Server 131 – that’s ALOT of servers! Kandy, thankyou for your feedback; I’m glad you liked the post and I’m intrigued by your pursuit of excellence in resetting your characters when you get to the not insubstantial 500K prestige limit. Must be a nice bunch of people on your server!
Hi,
I’m from server’s 140 and NA4, I have 2 accounts on each,
and it really is taking up too much of my time.
Thanks for helping me to realize!
I keep trying to quit, but I alway’s end up going back to it –
what makes it worse is that I keep starting on new servers
and I don’t want to leave my alliances…
Hi J,
I know what you mean – part of quitting is filling the void with something else. As mentioned, I have a young family, a great job and a house to renovate, so my time is being evenly divided up by these. Recently I’ve started playing Combat Arms, which is a first person shooter that is quite different from Evony. Being less reliant on my logging in, I find it easier to play overall. Good luck in your decision which ever you choose is best for you.
Cheers,
CY
As an aside, anyone reading this post should also look at this Evony Addiction website – it is fascinating some of the comments and the journey which the author (and some of the post contributors) goes through:
http://evonyaddiction.wordpress.com/
You could say that given my experience that I understand the commitment required to run the alliance and keep the family together.
Hello, my brother has been playing this game for over 5 months and must be addicted after reading about evony addiction. Thanks for giving me an understanding first off, I am going to help my brother! He was some sort of leader with a huge following I remember him saying.? Today he totally had a break down as his “hero” got killed, he was screaming he yelled out to his girlfriend come here now grabbed her into the car and said they were coming to get him as they know addresses. is this possible? he drove the car at high speeds with police getting involved in the situation as was way to control. He is staying with other family now ..Is this for real, he always talked about it but only started learning about it today as I had concern, please let me know what really bad things can actually go on? can people track you down? is it possible for someone to get sick mentally over this game? what does it actually mean if his hero gets killed or dies? what is the implications of having to quit or getting killed when you have hundreds of thousands of followers do they get angry and why do they get angry?
Please let me understand more I really want to figure out to help my brother with his problem and addiction.
If you could answer any of my questions I would be appreciative.
Thanks.
Brad,
Wow, that is a crazy story about your brother. Firstly, I’d like to thank you for writing on this blog. Whilst I can’t say that I personally was affected by Evony to that extent, it certainly can be quite over whelming for someone who is suddenly surrounded by a community of people who value their opinion and “follow” them if they hold an influential position within an Alliance.
I will point out that my point of view and answers to your questions are entirely my point of view and I strongly suggest that you seek the opinion of other trusted family and friends.
1/ Can people find out your address? In the game system No. In the world chat or alliance chat if your brother has told them his address, well yes, they can. There is no where in the login that asks for anything else than your your email address. So unless he has told people where he lives, or information that can lead to this being found e.g. his real name and state/country he lives in, than it is unlikely.
2/ The bad things that can go on are limited to the expectation you place upon yourself. Unless he is playing online with other people who are his friends in real life, I would suggest that perhaps there are other problems that he is confronting/dealing with that are making him act this way. The game is in itself innocent – its the expectation that you can potentially place yourself under that is the thing to look out for.
3/ Can anyone one get sick mentally over this game? Well in reality, anything focused upon with too much fanaticism can lead to a state where you are mentally affected and your judgement is impaired. In my experience people who can get this affected by any one thing, are potentially unbalanced in other areas – seek professional help is my advice.
4/ Hero’s in the game of Evony are special characters that have attributes which assist you in battles or in some other aspect of the game. Measured in quality by how high they are in a/ intelligence b/ politics c/ attack d/ salary e/ loyalty. These attributes take time to increase and if you lose a hero that has taken you a certain amount of time to build up, than that is going to be an event representing effort, time commitment and ultimately loss. A good summary of heroes attributes is here http://hods.com/evony/heroes. If you lose a hero, it doesn’t mean a whole lot – you just create another one. Most good players have up to 10 heroes available.
5/ Implications of quitting? This is a complex question. People play Evony because of a number of reasons – the intellectual challenge, the strategic thinking, the friendships with other alliance members and for some, the power of being in control. The last one is the most destructive and difficult to manage, as people who have not had “power” before, in their real lives, suddenly find themselves the focus of attention of dozens, if not hundreds of people who follow their advice and value their input. I find it hard to believe there would be “thousands” of people following your brother. I was part of one of THE largest alliances of any Evony server on any battleground with 7 branches and that was a huge 670+ members. If your brother was one of the top players on the server, thousands of people “may” have seen his name on the leaderboard, but make no mistake, he is just a name for people to know – hardly and I say that again hardly ANY would actually know him.
My experience with Evony is that generally on the whole its a bit like real life with the people you meet in their. You meet some idiots, you meet some obnoxious and rude types, you meet some really quiet and slightly odd people. But on the other side, you meet normal people, terrific people your age, great people who are your parents age and the whole range in between. It is these people who can make logging into the server that much more fun and engaging. The reality is if their people were really your brothers friend, they would value his well being and be on the look out for him if he were struggling to see a sense of normality and reality in his day to day dealings.
My suggestion for you is to remind your brother that he has good friends and family around him who care about him and value his place and worth in this world. Each of these people will support him and offer advice and understanding in an unquestioned and unconditional manner.
It was this aspect that made me leave Evony and comfortably take up my normal life again – Evony never meant much more to me than an idle curiosity and a bit of a sideline distraction. I learnt alot of things about myself and humanity in general which I value. Your brother needs to be shown that his time in Evony was valuable and that he learnt many things about himself. More importantly he needs to be shown that he can apply his successes in the Evony world, to the real world. The fact he has a girlfriend and a brother like yourself who care about him is something that he may not fully appreciate yet. I imagine that he also has a good circle of friends and family who are similarly inclined – that’s all he has to really know and learn to accept.
Finally, there is no shame in getting professional advice. The impartial nature of someone you don’t know, but who is educated in listening to a persons problems offers an unbiased perspective that is in itself valuable. My advice here is based on the experiences of having a young family, a terrific family and friendship network that I grew up with and managing a bunch of people in my day job. It is by no means “correct”, but based upon a common sense approach to dealing with a situation in a measured and respectful fashion. I encourage you and your brother to seek help if you deem it required and don’t hesitate to do so.
Best of luck over the coming weeks/months,
Thanks for writing in,
Colin,
Awesome post, very informative!
hello. can someone actually help me? alliance ‘wantoks’ are attacking me more than 100 times a day.
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