By Kieron Gillen on July 30th, 2009 at 4:32 pm.
Oh God. Thanks to the forum, I’m advert-blogging. Which can only mean one of two things: i) Post-Darkfall review I’ve totally lost it or ii) it’s an awesome advert that needs immortalisation. Or maybe both. Anyway, Plants Versus Zombies has a new ad-campaign. It’s been seen over at the Penny Arcade – maybe they did it? If so, well done you, Mr Penny and Mr Arcade – and is well worth nosing at. And it’s under the cut because it’s too long to go above it.
Of course, this joke won’t make to sense to anyone with an adblocker on. But if you’ve got an adblocker you’re a bally parasite, so who cares?
Oh god
I lol’d
Hard
report
This is too brilliant.
report
Ah, Evony ad-spotting, critics say it’s the better than the game itself! ;)
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001286.html
http://negativegamer.com/2009/07/07/evony-adverts-i-knew-there-was-something-different-about-her/
As with Limbo of the Lost, I’m trying to identify all the sources of their images, for historical purposes…
report
I’ve been playing PvZ again recently (Must. Complete. All. Minigames), and I found a little easter egg, type ‘future’ while you’re playing…
report
Hahaha. Best. Ad. Ever.
I’m going to buy the game now, just for that.
report
lmao, I peed
report
I subscribe AND I leave the adblocker off just for RPS.
I OWN ALL OF YOU.
Especially you, Gillen!
report
Great stuff once more from PopCap.
@ KG:
Nope, it’s definitely the work of PopCap. There’s also a horizontal version of the banner in that thread if you want to stick something above the ‘cut’.
report
@phuzz
What’s the Hardest part about being you?
Mustache
report
Ian: And you, we love, master.
KG
report
The horizontal one is also great –> click!
report
Actually, the evony ads were brainchild of Popcap. There should be BWAv2 evony parodies going up soon too.
report
Yeah, I don’t get it. Adblock strikes again.
report
@Kieron
D’AAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
report
Popcap wins at pr.
report
Ever since getting infected with a key-logger from an ad on mmo-champion (didn’t even play wow at the time) I refuse to white-list sites anymore, and always keep my ad-blocker up.
Sorry but, if you want to make money from my eyes seeing ads on your site, then keep them simple – I can see that GoG add, but anything script based loading in from an external site is getting nuked.
Bottom line is as much as I trust RPS, I won’t trust ad agencies (giantrealm in this case it seems).
Keep the ads simple (basic images that link), keep them Java Script free and host them on your own website and I’ll happily look at them, maybe even click them if they lead to safe sites (like GoG).
report
Ahahahaha. That’s so, so, so much fun.
I love Popcap now.
report
I surf without images (via ImgLikeOpera), so I had to hit alt-m. So much better than AdBlock hassles! That’s brilliant, Popcap’s promos for PvZ have been more entertaining than many actual games. Also, I am a subscriber, so I do not think I am an parasite; UR RONG.
report
I was laughing for a straight minute from this, its brilliant.
report
That is amazingly wonderful.
Now, to see if I can get ads to display on RPS only…
(After this, what choice do I have?)
report
Hilarious!
report
Saw this a little while ago. I lol’d. I want to see the forum come up with ads for all games based on the craptastic Evony ads. I see the new freakishly-bad Leisure Suit Larry being a great candidate.
report
Those Evony ads are so, so terrible, but this is brilliant.
report
Damn, because of not seeing an ad in years thanks to Adblock Plus (Now with LESS AD!), I had to scroll down 3 comments to get it.
report
Haha, I too lol’d.
Seriously, the Evony ads are so lame. They look like those shady “come meet girls from your area” ads on shady sites. I don’t go to shady sites.
report
Evony’s adds got me to start playing it (the one with the picture of the busty lady with a sword to her chest) Of course once I logged in and realized I was playing Travian 2 I asked in the world chat when I’d get to see the queen naked and the people said “What?” and I stopped playing after that :P
Similar I got roped into playing FreeSkyOnline by similar ads, all thanks to armorgames ! :P But in my defense I have an addiction to that sort of thing that I’ve been battling with for years so SHAME on them for abusing me :(
report
RPS is one of the few sites for which I turn off Adblock.
And yes, that ad’s hilarious.
report
Out of curiosity, how do sites like RPS get paid through advertising? Is it per view or only click-throughs? Are the ads smart enough to detect adblockers? If you get your RPS feed through Google Reader are you denying the site their ad revenue? So many questions…
report
Talk about viral. That was freaking hilarious. Whoever thought this up over at PopCap deserves a raise.
report
Starky, what browser were you using that let an ad install a keylogger on your computer?
report
LOL, awesome!
report
That ad was freaking hilarious!!! Seeing those chicks.. if they are really women is getting into my nerves. Everytime I surf the net finding tips for raiding or where to grind wow gold, I always encounter Evony’s ad as if I never opened a new tab for a browser. I learned that Evony is under Lam’s business (the people who were sued by Microsoft) and it’s said to be a malware. Funny thing though, I haven’t seen an Evony ad as of today, now I’m hoping for the PvZ inspired ad. ^^
report
@Alex
Doesn’t really matter what browser you have if your AV protection isn’t up to par–or if you don’t have any at all. I was seeing reports a couple months back of people getting alerts from their AV protection on FPSBanana. I doubt all of the reports were coming only from people who were using an “insecure” browser.
report
Further too that, no computer is 100% safe because new hacks and drive bys are being invented all the time – they can’t protect against something until they’re aware of it.
report
The universe is about to collapse, ADS GOING META!. whats next? Also, diebroken link of codehorror is awesome.
report
Aah, I just saw this on PA and laughed coffee out my nose.
report
Yeah I use adblock plus so I’m not getting it.
But I bought PvZ at launch! That’s cool, right?
report
I laught at real people.
http://bbs.evony.com/showthread.php?t=11313
I am a bad person?
report
@PleasingFungus
If you have Adblock Plus, just click the arrow next to the icon at the top right, and check the selection for ‘Disable on http://www.rockpapershotgun.com‘, assuming, of course, you’re already here. If you have the icon on the bottom right, it should be a similar action. If you have neither, go put one up, because I have no idea how to do it without them.
I had seen the thread before, but had forgotten to unblock RPS after my most recent browser update/install, and therefore couldn’t figure out what the deal was.
report
Just brilliant Popcap!
report
Adblock Plus stopped working a while ago :(
report
This ad is win. That is all.
report
wait, i use ad blocker plus, and can still see the ad. Me thinks something is amiss
report
APPROVE.
report
There’s also this Bookworm Adventures one, which is “NOT FREE FOREVER” and “Spell Now, My Lord”
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imgad?id=CMbEvNTv5IW6gQEQ2AUYWjIIr6zmvGaAHYc
report
There’s a second PvZ ad over at Offworld:
http://www.offworld.com/2009/07/my-lord-its-evony-vs-plants-vs.html
report
I’ve had several nasty run-ins with adverts installing malware and adware on my machine, and they were both wickedly hard to uninstall. I received those things off gaming websites no less, porn sites never gave me such trouble!
My laptop just plain overheats if I browse RPS without no-script fully enabled, its GPU crapped out three months after I bought it and it refuses to do any sort of graphics for any length of time.
A lot of sites and services have static visual ads and links that appear when you block the scripts. That Good Old Games ad on the right works just fine, and hell it’s even well targeted (I have actually bought a few games on GoG because of RPS). If I want Giant Realms or Clear Spring ads, I have to add about six different sites(!!!), any one of which could get hacked and screw me up the rear with malware.
Heck, I just tried accepting scripts globally, allowing everything on this page and on the main page, and browsing around RPS. Those spaces remain blank. Apparently they’re so complex they just don’t work on my config of Mozilla Firefox 2.
report
Good on you PopCap. Evony can go to hell with its patronising, insulting, desperate ads.
report
Hooray!
I truly hate those Evony ads popping up everywhere no matter how many cookies I try to block, but this is epic-ly amusing.
report
Have you seen the Queen of Evony competition?
http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/07/31/queen-of-evony-competition/
report
That advert is sexist. Women like her should be recognised not just for their body, but also for their brains.
report
BRRRRRRRAAAAAINS.
KG
report
Kudos to PopCap, also kudos to Opera’s selective integrated adblocker for allowing me to leave all the really dirty ads.
report
<3
report
I don’t get it.
What’s this ‘Evony’ malarkey all about then?
report
It’s a casual play-it-and-leave-it web strat/MMO. Its ads have become the latest omnipresent X10/True/etc., while following this progression.
report
There are titties on our lawn,
Wedon’t want titties on our lawn.
(wait wut?)
report
@Alex
I was using Firefox with no script and ad blocker, and at the time I was running Nod32 2.8 I think, it got through all of that because I white listed websites that I wanted to support.
So yeah as has been said new hacks with no signatures known and HIPS didn’t catch it…
There’s not much more I could have done to protect my PC, Nod32, Firefox(+no script), Spybot S&D, sitting behind Comodo firewall (mainly for outgoing control) and a Hardware firewall built into the router.
The infection didn’t do any harm and I got rid of it easily enough, but fool me once…
Now I’ll never white-list any kind of external ad-service.
report
I’ve went ahead and subscribed to RPS, I’d rather part with a couple bucks to support the site than have my laptop burn a hole through my desk running animated flash ads.
From various readings around, I’m pretty convinced that Evony could be hard-core malware. As in, keyloggers and trojans and other doohickeys to steal your money. They’ve already stolen content from Age of Empires and Civ games, so why NOT rip off their customers?
Supposedly Evony is also owned by a company associated with a major Chinese goldfarming organization, and such organizations have been known to hack into accounts on WoW and the like and steal everything of worth.
Now they want you to install IEvony, which merely downloads all your contact lists from instant messengers, Skype, etcetera and sends them invitations, which you then get credited for in-game. … And that’s just the features of the program that they will tell you about, a program you download and install, made by a company that steals most of its ads, content, and then has the gall to collect people’s credit card numbers so they can buy any manner of in-game item.
Stay the f**k away from that company!
The Popcap ads are amazing, and they deserve infinity-billion sales for it. I picked up Plants vs Zombies for its recent pricebreak on Steam, it’s a very polished doohickey that keeps mixing up the gameplay just often enough to make things interesting.
Now if only that zombie queen ad could be more ubiquitous than the google-spammed Evony ads ..
report
That is the best thing ever
report
Decorating with a different gem accessory, shimmer, no minus than the form.To assemble the recent female’s liking, this reduction and coldn thomas sabo jewellery ess, largely to clothes and more to show the women’s boundary of the charm. In detail, many international brands of rage designers have i [url=http://www.thomassabouk.com/]thomas sabo jewellery[/url] ncisive out that the objects on each shape studs sequence. Series includes four different themes of form thomas sabo jewellery
report