Evony is an online game in which players can purchase items to enhance their game playing experiences. Some players spend hundreds of dollars a month to maintain their accounts and compete with each other to hold top player and alliance spots in the game. Recently, Evony started banning players for violating their terms of service - supposedly because several members were employing "bots" to automatically do certain things for them while away from their computer. While the 'botting' was clearly against the terms of service and this method did seem to get rid of some of the cheating players, it also caught several non-cheating players as well - almost every 'banned' player has asked for proof or a response from Evony to show how they have violated their terms of service, and all have been unable to illicit a response from Evony. There are more than just 100 or so players who have been punished and were not cheating. Also, a few players had spent money, upwards of 100 dollars or so, and had their accounts banned at next login before they had a chance to use any of their purchased items. This type of game isn't one that you play at your leisure 'for fun', it's very (extremely) time consuming and costs a lot to maintain an account properly, with the average amount spent on the game over a six month period being upwards of $500 per account for the game's paying players. Evony can, at any time, without reason ban your account, take your money and leave you hanging out to dry. Their own Terms of Service states:
REGAN MERCANTILE US, LLC MAY SUSPEND, TERMINATE, MODIFY, OR DELETE ACCOUNTS AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON OR FOR NO REASON, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU.
Warning - do not play this game or get involved with Evony, LLC or Regan Merchantile in any way. Also, I have heard rumours that this company is apparently China-based and do not recognize the same consumer rights as those living in the US have. The local medias need to get involved and 'put it out there' or warn consumers and make it well known that this game, and others owned by the same company are scam artists who will take your money and rip you off. This is as bad, if not worse, as any Nigerian lottery scheme or other internet scam that's become well-known. A little research and simple google will tell lawyers and other interested parties all they need to know to realize that if this were a business on the street anywhere in the US, a lot of people would be, could be, suing them and holding them accountable for the hundreds of thousands of dollars they have stolen from players, many times from multiple persons in the same household. What is clearly written in their Terms of Service screams "Give us money, and we can do anything we want to the product or products you are purchasing from us and you can't do anything about it." This game is a high-risk investment, and US consumers should be protected and fully informed about it - I'd even go so far as to say the game should be banned in the US, at the very least profiled and investigated.
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