When We Are Old is the not-so-tongue-in-cheek companion thread to When We Were Young for more delicious meta-discussion about Armor Games that never seems to leave this site. It is undeniable that things change over time, unfortunately. Being an eighter, a lot of things have changed, mostly diapers, but spamming for AP is no longer the hot topic issue it was three to five years ago. Spam certainly won't go away, but at least we do away with the annoying pretense of "not spamming" when it's fairly obvious you're "making friends with benefits".
What do you suppose the community will be like three to five years from now?
Pessimism is a defining characteristic of the forums. Several years ago, people would think the forums would be overwhelmed by spammers posting for AP with the most inane content. Of course, that was always most of the activity on the forums. Suppose a forum is like a food chain, a weird unnatural food chain. The basal activity would be holding up the other parts.
And for some reason, they always find something to complain about. Accounts with little to no AP, people spamming for AP, lack of admins on the forums, lack of activity on the forums, lower activity on the forums, merits, short comments in the game comments which is really just an extension of merits, etc., which all basically boils down to "eople aren't behaving the way I think they should behave." Everyone thinks they know how thing should be, but they hardly ever realize that other people with different views live in this world or maybe they do and think they're right anyway.
All internet communities basically lie on a single-dimensional spectrum with feedback loops on either end. On one end, the forums are inactive and people will complain about the lack of activity. On the other end, the forums are very active and people will complain about the lack of quality. In the middle, there are less people complaining, but there are certainly more people making suggestions about what could be better (which you could argue is a form of complaining), but changes shift the equilibrium. Certainly there are other external factors, but this is far too much a digression in the wrong direction.
Let's get back to forward thinking.
Sonny 3 should almost definitely increase activity in the community. Sonny 2 really brought in a lot of people. We really haven't had any big games recently. The Crush the Castle series doesn't seem to bring in a forum-going crowd and is more niche with castle builders. Kingdom Rush 2 might bring new people in.
But I think the real issue is "Why should people stick around the forums?" and by that I don't mean the Flash game related ones.
Sonny 3 should almost definitely increase activity in the community. Sonny 2 really brought in a lot of people. We really haven't had any big games recently. The Crush the Castle series doesn't seem to bring in a forum-going crowd and is more niche with castle builders. Kingdom Rush 2 might bring new people in.
It may bring in people, but would it bring in people that are bound to stay or participate for some time? I feel like we are talking about the "ost-n-ditch" type of people here.
But I think the real issue is "Why should people stick around the forums?" and by that I don't mean the Flash game related ones.
I don't think there is any straight-forward answer for this. Trying to do so seems like offering something in return for the person sticking around..which isn't something we can do. What we can offer is probably one of the most interesting and close-knit communities out there..but the person in question for staying would have to be comfortable with our qualities..we can't just expect everyone to be admiring of such a thing.
I've been a member of Ag for 2 1/2 years now and it feels like 10, why is that? Another 2 1/2 year from now seems like a long time and the newcomers will be different from us, I pretty sure. Will flash games still be popular? I hope so, otherwise this site will go to crap.
I will have probably left and come back again with another new account just like Im doing now. Even though i will be over 25 by then and be far too mature for flash games. And yet not nearly mature enough for adulthood.
AG will probably be extremely similar to how it is now, except half of you will be gone, half of you will have much higher post counts, and one of you will be a moderator, be it for the first time or the second :P
Too mature for flash games? What is wrong with flash games that makes them not mature.
I think SSTG hit the nail on the head. It all boils down to if flash games are still popular. Lots of games are now coming out for smart phones and tablets. That could draw future people away from flash games. Guess we will have to see what happens.
As the price per barrel of oil slowly goes up the effects will become further and further reaching.Soon, the cost of running Armor Games (and all flash sites) will become so astronomical that drastic measures will have to be taken. All players will have to view ten ads before logging in. When you change pages you will have to watch an ad before it loads and before playing a game you will have to watch all the ads in the new-and-improved ad-queue. You can get rid of the ads by buying a premium membership only 50 dollars a month.
But, all these new ads will usher in a new era of spambots. Before long the highest ranking user will be xxFiretail_MadnessSpamBot1234xx and at least one member of the forums will say, "I, for one, welcome our new spambot overlords." Everyone will complain about the spambots (which will be worse than the actual spambots) and players will be forced to fill out captchas at every turn (usually after watching an ad). Armor Games will try their best to get rid of the spambots, but it will fail. Unfortunately, spambot technology is advanced, really advanced. This spambot tech will allow spambots to somehow avoid being banned. Armor Games only option will be to open up an ad section in the forums. It will look something like this: Ads Did you make $7,344 dollars this month filling out surveys at home? Post about it here.
As the price per barrel of oil slowly goes up the effects will become further and further reaching.Soon, the cost of running Armor Games (and all flash sites) will become so astronomical that drastic measures will have to be taken.
What does the price of oil have to do with running a flash game website?
But, all these new ads will usher in a new era of spambots. Before long the highest ranking user will be xxFiretail_MadnessSpamBot1234xx and at least one member of the forums will say, "I, for one, welcome our new spambot overlords."
Rule 49: You don't get Armor Points for spamming comments anymore. Deal with it.
This means that the bots would have to hack the quest system to gain power. Spamming the forums will merely give them Google Ranking.
Armor Games only option will be to open up an ad section in the forums. It will look something like this: Ads Did you make $7,344 dollars this month filling out surveys at home? Post about it here.
Spambots can be programmed to post in any forum, so an "Ads" forum would not help.
