Using a ad that has nothing to do with the game.

[Mytical]

The worst offenders are games that run with Flash. You will see something interesting looking, click on it, and find that it has NOTHING to do with the actual game play. Or worse, see half naked female toons, knowing the game, and that it has nothing to do with the game. I won't even click on a banner with a half naked female toon (such does not interest me).

Town builder games seem to be the worst culprit, and I don't like town building games anyhow (I am not a big PvP fan, but ESPECIALLY when somebody who has been there two years and has six towns can attack a person who's been there a month and has one town).

What got this rant started was a banner with a mech on it. I thought the mech looked awesome, clicked on it, and yep..another town builder. Which had no mechs at all, and mechs had NOTHING to do with the game. What the frell? Hey I manage to avoid clicking on them because they often use very suggestive ads, now I have to avoid clicking on an add that has to do with mechs? Grrr.

I know deceptive ads are everywhere. Like a wrestler beating up car insurance sells people (which has WHAT to do with car insurance?), but come on..sometimes I like to see what a flash ad is about. Guess I am just going to have to stop clicking through banners altogether.

[Duelist925]

Evony. Friggan. Online.

All the adds have these scantily clad fantasy babes--aaaand its a town builder. A remarkably stupid ones.

[Mytical]

Evony. Friggan. Online.

All the adds have these scantily clad fantasy babes--aaaand its a town builder. A remarkably stupid ones.

That is one of them. Couldn't remember the name. At least it is one I can avoid because of the scantily clad females..some other ones irk me by showing something that has zero to do with the actual game.

[Jetfire]

That sounds familiar... Isn't that the one that not only advertised with "scantily clad fantasy babes" but blatantly stole those babes too? At one point they had Firiona Vie and Antonia Bayle of EQ and EQ2 fame 'advertising' for their game.

Or if not them, then some other sketchy town builder was doing it.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I'm of an opinion that most of these flash/Facebroke games aren't worth the time to even look at the ad.

Largely due to the fact that most of them are the micro-payment scheme in order to get the in-game currency (IGC) that lets you get the nifty mcguffin of the week.

Case in point, Farmville years ago. They had a Fourth of July thing going on. you needed to collect manure from all of the animals to be able to make fireworks. Either that...or pay $10 for the horseshoes (the IGC) to buy the ingredients.

Not being willing to fork over money, I opted to collect...and collect...ad nauseum. Eventually I got the last turd I needed so I could go to the next stage of the thing. But since it was over a week prior (yet they still had me collecting shit), I was told that I was not able to continue on this now defunct quest path.

So I'm of the mind that micropayment games like that are not worth my time. I violently ignore them. I would rather play a game like World of Warcraft or other MMO simply because it's honest. Pay a monthly fee and you too can have the same chance as anyone else to get the "Sword of a Thousand Truths" (or whatever). You just have to clobber the right mob at the right time. Sure there are *some* things that you have to pay cash for, but they're few and far between and usually it's a dorky pet or a mount that really doesn't effect my ability to play.

The sparkle pony (celestial mount) moves at the same speed as my proto-drake and doesn't offer me anything that my lizard can't. Apart from looking like something a 5-year old spilled a bucket full of glitter on that is.

[Jaden]

As a rule, I just don't click on ads. If I see something that intrigues me, I might google it later, but I've hardly seen anything in an ad that's interested me since, umm, youtube became a thing, probably. As such, I usually find these types of things more amusing than anything. The Evony ads are mostly gone now, but a few years ago they had sort of a mini-meme status, because everybody saw them everywhere and they were just so ridiculous with how disingenuous and stupid they were.

[lordlundar]

That sounds familiar... Isn't that the one that not only advertised with "scantily clad fantasy babes" but blatantly stole those babes too? At one point they had Firiona Vie and Antonia Bayle of EQ and EQ2 fame 'advertising' for their game.

Or if not them, then some other sketchy town builder was doing it.

Yeah, that was Envoy. Here's the "evolution" of their ads.

[Aethian]

Yeah, that was Envoy. Here's the "evolution" of their ads.

Dang I had seen some of those but I didn't see the worst of them. I love how other games are mocking them now by saying that the girls are in their games.

[Ginger Tea]

Some of those ads look like they are spoof ads taking a porn shot and shopping it around to a fake evony ad, but tbh I remember some of the older ones, so maybe they are legit.

[Skunkle]

The 2nd ad shown actually came first. It was called CIVONY before it was changed to EVONY.

"Play discreetly," as though it contained adult content. "Unnoticeable now." "Play now secretly." Subtle. But no, those are all real ads.

What isn't shown are the ones I remember most-- which had a woman in lingerie that would slowly, repeatedly slide up and down through the banner ad, sort of the way a camera in a movie might do a close-up and then pan up and down a woman's body to suggest, "Get a load of this! WOW!" Some of those didn't stop animating after a minute like most banner ads, they'd keep moving as long as the ad was up!

There was another game of that sort called Travian that was just the opposite - their banner ads showed towns being upgraded in stages, probably taken right from gameplay.

[Ginger Tea]

There is a new window popup for travian that shows little in the way of gameplay graphics for a 800*600 image, instead it looks like someone is advertising a reboot with different art style Asterix.

[Aethian]

There was another game of that sort called Travian that was just the opposite - their banner ads showed towns being upgraded in stages, probably taken right from gameplay.

I remember that ad and when I was in that building mood I clicked on it but I that early time I got bored fast. So it was a good ad cause it wasn't lying in what the game was. They were going straight for there market.

As for that up and down ad it pissed me off so much. I seemed to get it whenever I was on a page that needed to stay still so I could read it and here's this moving ad to the side. Those "tv" ads also piss me off cause a lot of times they take a bit to load and then my computer is trying to play multiple sound ads as well as whatever video I really am watching.

[Bloodsoul]

I think I'll stick with Adventure Quest, thank you very much. Why be enticed by some scantily clad woman when I can just make my own* who also smashes baddies over the head with a giant hammer while siccing her ebil kitty on 'em?

* Although her full suits of armor provide far better protection than her bikini, but neither is as adorable as her "little me" costume. "Take that, meany butt!"