INTRODUCTION

Thread Background
Welcome to the second edition of ODOAPAI. The first Pickle thread was released during the summer, while inactivity and community managers were on people's minds. If you're like me, you've probably felt the activity tip up a little bit on the scale, but it's nowhere near where it could be. Because of that, I've decided to return to my lurker mode and seek out the topics regarding the site and its activity, as well as some topics regarding things unrelated to activity. We need to look back on how we got from the summer to now, the winter. We need explore what we have done, and where we need to go next as a community. We need to use the power we have to make AG strong again. We've made progress, but we need to continue paving the path.

Armor Games, I give you The User's View.

In the second edition, discussion will be the primary focus as opposed to large OP presented matters. As of such, any and all participants are encouraged to contribute anything at all.

Armor Games Background
Armor Games has started its onslaught of AG3 updates, which are essentially updates created to modernize the site. We have been promised updates to our messaging, AP, game, and forum systems, as well as some miscellaneous things. As these promises began becoming common knowledge to the common user, the AG city has almost started bustling again. No longer can you come to know every active user closely, and perhaps you like it this way, but we still need to raise activity. We can't let go of what we want.

Staff Changes
Part 1: The Ferret team
Ferret has been added alongside the current Armor Games administrators. But he didn't come alone. Tasselfoot, boppins, and heyitsleo came with him. When the "Ferret team" came about, the community was on the verge of death. Bugs, inactivity, spam, uncertainty, and general insanity rampaged throughout the community, and so the Ferret team was immediately put to work fixing bugs, welcome newcomers, banning spammers, and releasing information regarding AG3. As can be assumed, everything felt fine and dandy, until we finally realized what we needed to do next: keep paving the road back to success.

Part 2: Moderation
As one of the first major bringings done by Ferret, the moderation team chose to promote MrDayCee to the rank of moderator, adding to some much needed assistance with taking care of the community. Not only that, but many of the moderators came to being a common sight again. No longer did we have 1/2 moderators, but nearly the entire team has shown at least a hint that they were still around, still lurking. Could it be the hope that the site had been saved?

Part 3: John
Long-time veteran developer John switched to Armor Games' rival, Kongregate. When asked if this would be a problem, most people would use "John's games are gone" as a go-to response. Not necessarily true (won't go into specifics), because John's leaving was more psychological than literal problem. It hints towards uncertainty in the future of the people who control the site. What will we do without John? he was a piece of Armor Games that gave it its rich, iconic flavor. People came to the site to play games by John. Now, what if Kongregate sucks up the benefits of having an awesome developer instead of us?

Armor Games v3
While we have Ferret and his team, we are still in the dark on multiple issues concerning the new version of the site, AG3. Updates are undoubtedly less frequent than Cormyn's reign, and the community needs to know the absolute truth when it comes to the subject. What is being developed right now? What is only promised and what is planned? When can we expect more updates? What is higher on the priority list? Who is creating the updates specifically? How will they affect the site? Will they be major enough to help us continue down the path? Obviously, we need to have more answers.

Improvements
With the coming of the Ferret team, multiple improvements have been made to the site as per Dan's and the community's request.

Bugs fixes
The deadly Rogue Glitch has been cured. The activity button is repaired. The cache updates. These are only some of the hundreds of awesome bugs fixes the team has made, essentially making the entire site bug-free, aside from a minor hiccup here and there.

Seasonal Armatars
Seasonal Armatars have been reinstated to assist with Armor Game's spirit, as well as giving the community something to do. Not only that, but fortunately this shows progress is being made, not only on our part but on the staff's as well.

Convenient/modernized layout
The site's layout has been improved upon, allowing for simpler reading, and frankly, a more modern feel. No longer does the site hold the same exact feel it has had for years, but some pages have underwent so many changes it looks like a completely different site. New change brings for more activity. The Forum Games and Newcomers section have also been granted AP for users posting.

a. Community page
The community page has had the addition of new sections, as well as the change of unused/inaccurate/outdated sections in order to allow for easier reading.

MMO games
The addition of the MMO category has brought a completely new breed of Armor Games citizens. It has expanded Armor Games from a simple flash gaming site, to a global, major MMO home. This has led to new people coming to the site.

Conclusion
The path is still being paved to success, but must be continued in order to reach maximum awesomeness!

Contributors,
jeol
GhostOfMatrix
daleks
nichodemus
Ferret
boppins
Tasselfoot
heyitsleo
Strop
Devoidless
Zophia
Gantic
pangtongshu
R2D21999
pickpocket
killersup10
Cenere
xeano321
Xzeno
NoNameC68
MrDayCee
Ernie15
sourwhatup2
zonic98
Jacen96
Freakenstein
Santi_
thebluerabbit
ImTheMostManlyMan

Exiting thoughts,
                Remember to keep the community strong by requesting more, participating in the forums, and helping out your fellow man.

Interestingly enough, the first update I noticed when I returned from my hibernation was that the top 10 list and the link to the top 100 leaderboard were both missing from the main page. I'm curious about that particular update because, while the AG2 point system will not be around for much longer, the achievement-based AG3 system will exist sooner or later and people will want to know where they stand in terms of AG3 points, but the removal of this list and the link that goes with it hints to me that there might not be a top 10 list for the AG3 leaderboard?

The extra step in taking it off the front page might just have been a fluke and I could of course just be jumping to conclusions.

It was removed because it took up space.

Thanks to Matrix. I legitimately forgot where it was.

Interestingly enough, the first update I noticed when I returned from my hibernation was that the top 10 list and the link to the top 100 leaderboard were both missing from the main page.

That was also one of the first things I noticed besides a few other changes when I returned from, I guess you could say, haitus. I ended up putting the link on my profile page: Leaderboards

A lot of the things that happened over time I wasn't here to actually experience it. Seeing as how I left about 1 week after cormyn decided to ban me for not taking some links off my profile even though I did.

Anyways that's not the point. The point is that since I've come back it seems to be getting better, slowly but surely. I hope that they will update us on the AG3 stuff more often. I remember being a beta tester for the site back when I was here, and it was going well. After I got back it seemed like they weren't doing it that way and I was reading up on the updates they were having. I read that they were updating the site and it was more of a ''merge'' now than a whole update in itself. But that still works.

MMO games

Okay I'm not going to say these are exactly bad, because they do bring in new users. But let's face it most of those users only come to the community to ask about a certain MMO they are playing, or to add people. Even those who come to the community are a small amount compared to how many people actually play the game itself.

Ahh... It seems I need to post more huh? Well I was vacation. -.-"
Kablooey.

Interestingly enough, the first update I noticed when I returned from my hibernation was that the top 10 list and the link to the top 100 leaderboard were both missing from the main page. I'm curious about that particular update because, while the AG2 point system will not be around for much longer, the achievement-based AG3 system will exist sooner or later and people will want to know where they stand in terms of AG3 points, but the removal of this list and the link that goes with it hints to me that there might not be a top 10 list for the AG3 leaderboard?

Now the Current Leaders board is gone. The Last Month's leaderboard will probably also be removed soon due to being broken. However, I think AG could return the Top 10 if it has only 2 news pieces in the homepage instead of 3.

Okay I'm not going to say these are exactly bad, because they do bring in new users. But let's face it most of those users only come to the community to ask about a certain MMO they are playing, or to add people. Even those who come to the community are a small amount compared to how many people actually play the game itself.

At first, multiple users accused the admins of adding money grabs to Armor Games, but it seems that MMOs are less annoying now except for the frequent server issues. However, I generally don't play MMOs. The only one I have played is ShellShock Live 2, which I stopped playing a month or two ago.

Like I said, I don't think they are bad for the site, but I don't really seem them as a positive, for the community at least.

Now the Current Leaders board is gone.

Hm.. I didn't notice that.

Now the Current Leaders board is gone

That sucks... I was hoping to get up there sometime. After I came back from my vacation it was just gone and I was like wtf... :P

it hints to me that there might not be a top 10 list for the AG3 leaderboard?

Why wouldn't there be? How often do you not see a leaderboard for a ranked website? I mean, obviously admin confirmation is needed, but we'll have to wait and see if Ferret ever makes any input.

Seeing as how I left about 1 week after cormyn decided to ban me for not taking some links off my profile even though I did.

Where are the vets? That's their cue!

Okay I'm not going to say these are exactly bad, because they do bring in new users. But let's face it most of those users only come to the community to ask about a certain MMO they are playing, or to add people. Even those who come to the community are a small amount compared to how many people actually play the game itself.

While the MMO players may or may not bring anything permanent to the community individually, any amount of any type of people while cause the activity to go up. When considering general activity, it's definitely going up because of the MMO players - you can't deny that, because you said it yourself. They'll pop in to ask a quick question and leave. But that's activity, isn't it?

Not only that, but look at the demographic for the gaming forums. Sure, there are some regulars that like to chill there, but there are also a load of non-regulars who'll pop in to the Favorite AG Game thread and will say Kingdom Rush quick. It might not add a whole lot to the community if you look at an individual post, but considering how fast these individual posts stack up, you'd notice if the MMO players left.

Ahh... It seems I need to post more huh? Well I was vacation. -.-"
Kablooey.

:P

Now the Current Leaders board is gone. The Last Month's leaderboard will probably also be removed soon due to being broken. However, I think AG could return the Top 10 if it has only 2 news pieces in the homepage instead of 3.

Frankly, I'm going with Ernie (kind of) on this one. The boards were probably removed due to an imminent bug fix or a score update (maybe not the latter), but something is probably coming. The spot was originally replaced with the 2012 gaming competition, but now that that's over we'll probably see the boards return with a new look sometime in the near future... I hope.

At first, multiple users accused the admins of adding money grabs to Armor Games, but it seems that MMOs are less annoying now except for the frequent server issues. However, I generally don't play MMOs. The only one I have played is ShellShock Live 2, which I stopped playing a month or two ago.

How is that relevant to what he was saying? He wasn't really talking about the MMO games in general; he was talking about the forum activity they brought.

I agree with you on the whole MMO players bringing in activity, that's kind of what I meant. You said it, it's not permanent.. And while it's not permanent it's still brings activity nonetheless, I just think a more permanent thing has to be done.. Whatever that is xD

Where are the vets? That's their cue!

Lol, I guess most of them hated him like I did I guess. I wasn't around to actually see anyone going against him though at the time, at least not much.

When the "Ferret team" came about, the community was on the verge of death. Bugs, inactivity, spam, uncertainty, and general insanity rampaged throughout the community, and so the Ferret team was immediately put to work

Bravo to the admins! I have to agree 100% with that statement. The community was in severe disarray, but thanks to the fantastic work of the administrators, the community is once again functioning, and operating smoothly. My personal thanks to those who pulled the community out of its darkest hour. =D

AG3...Obviously, we need to have more answers.

While there is finally some cooperation between the users and the administrators, the solid communication and activity that existed between the two during Cormyns Administration (that's a nice way to put it) is still non existent. Some improvement could be made here, and that can be accomplished by the users, as well as the admins.

Thanks to you Salvidian, for including my name among the contributors. I can't lay claim to too much, but my expert ideas are mixed in there.