Welcome! Please grab a cup of coffee, and one of those delicious donuts most kindly donated by R2.
As you can guess from the title, this is yet another attempt at solving the AG activity problem. This problem has been ever present since late 2010. Many reasons as to the cause have been presented, ranging from a much delayed release of AG3, to lacking of a community manager, or the end of the flash gaming era.
I do have a couple of ideas concerning activity and how to increase it. Whether these are the keys to solving the issues at hand or not is unbeknownst to me, but I most certainly feel it is definitely worth the effort.
I'm not going into details - yet. Firstly, I'm going to need a few volunteers. More the better, but not more then 20 (20, yeah right...) Don't volunteer then become inactive that would not be beneficial to anything.
Well they changed the name, did you get a reply back yet?
Haven't sent it yet.
I just really don't fell like doing it...
Thanks anyway. This isn't the most appealing project for volunteers, at least you tried.
Should I do something? I should be okay for tomorrow.
Thanks for the offer Sal, but we have just about run out of time. My having to work the past five days did not help the project at all.
I guess the post counting project is canceled, unless you remaining volunteers can count everything in before noon today. (I'm not expecting you to, but you can if you want.) This wasn't the best approach I guess... Oh well, we got the email about ready to go! I'll send it off at 12:00pm today. =D
"I'm reading the ideas and processing them, but while I do. I'm curious your theories on why there has been a decline? Certainly things like promotion on Facebook/Twitter and switching Community to Forums are all things that existed when the community was far more bustling then it is today. What was magical about that time?"
~Ferret
Okay, now what has changed since 2009-10? Was the community advertised during this time?
What answers should we send back to Ferret?
I'm giving us a time frame of around 18-24 hours for all replies and ideas. Lets get going! =D
Well, I dug through all the Facebook records, and the Community isn't really mentioned, aside from an occasional message at the bottom of random posts.
"Armor Games is an online game community..." ETC...
Can someone look into Twitter please? I don't have an account.
I wasn't present in 2009, but to keep this as short as possible: people. That's it. There's nothing magical or special about it, there were simply more people around. Times change and so do people. People come and people go. You can do things that may interest them to use it more or stick around, but ultimately they'll do what they want. As we age more important things may present themselves and less time will be spent on an online forum. Or you get bored from the same old stuff.
Was the community advertised during this time?
I don't know about 2009, but in 2010 I don't remember any community advertising.
I wasn't present in 2009, but to keep this as short as possible: people. That's it. There's nothing magical or special about it, there were simply more people around. Times change and so do people. People come and people go. You can do things that may interest them to use it more or stick around, but ultimately they'll do what they want. As we age more important things may present themselves and less time will be spent on an online forum. Or you get bored from the same old stuff.
The question is, what had attracted that group of people in the first place? What was it about Armor Games back then that attracted people to come to the forums that the Armor Games of today does not?
A lot of things. As Matrix already pointed out, the type of people have changed. The demographic is changing. AG is drawing in the next generation of users, and, for whatever reason, they aren't too keen on coming to the community. Another theory, however, might be that 2008 was the year that the "younger" generation was brought in, and now, in 2012 (and to a point 2013), the next "younger" generation is coming in. It may be necessary to wait a year to let the generation transition finish, but I see no reason to be lazy now.
Other than people, AG has fallen a bit behind. It's been the same old AG while its competitors are speeding along and are paving the way of Flash gaming. AG has a nice homely feel, but AG might go belly up if it only appeals to those who dislike change. The gaming industry is ever-changing, and AG needs to be that way too.
With the mods growing up and whatnot, we don't have a whole lot of "big brother" around. An authorial presence feels nice because it gives us regular users a feeling of protection and security. It's also nice to mix things up a little and give the next generation a chance at leading the pack.
Was the community advertised during this time?
I don't know, but did it need to be? It seems like the AG of old has a larger forum-user base, but it still had that homely feel. My guess would be that members found friends and brought them in. Maybe we just aren't taking that initiative, I don't know.
What answers should we send back to Ferret?
Argue and come to a consensus. We send the answers created with the consensus.
The question is, what had attracted that group of people in the first place? What was it about Armor Games back then that attracted people to come to the forums that the Armor Games of today does not?
Discussion and contests. That is what it has always been about for every forum. Besides the people and activity levels nothing important has changed for the forum, and those two things are not controllable. Advertising the community on their social networks will likely have more people checking it out, but beyond that nothing is certain. You just have to accept that and let it run its course.
The AG of old is, as we all agree, certainly not the same as the AG of now. The people were a lot more engaged with the community back then, a lot more so than people now are of our AG...but we can't just simply sit by and hope that something of the sort will happen again and leave it at that.
We aren't the same AG...and to simply do nothing and hope for the best would be completely asinine of ourselves. We are a new AG...a different AG...and AG that isn't blessed with a natural draw like the one of old. And so, in response, we are adapting and brainstorming ideas to make this AG of now an AG that is bustling.
My guess would be that members found friends and brought them in. Maybe we just aren't taking that initiative, I don't know.
From looking back at certain interactions and whatnot...it does seem that there were a few users that had quite a lot of interactions outside of AG..whether it be knowing each other personally or in another site.
Discussion and contests.
An example of what their power can do...
When the mods/admins created the new Poetry/Haiku contests...for the first round they advertised it (and even offered a prize for the victor). This effort of theirs created a staggering amount of activity in the contest thread.
The rounds after, with no advertising...not so much.
I can only speak for myself, but I know I came to AG for Sonny and Sonny 2. I spent a lot of my time in the Sonny 2 forum and worked my way out to other parts of the forum. I'd venture to say that more speciallized forum sections like the Sonny 2 forum could attract more users to be apart of the community. And like me, they'll branch out to the rest.
