I think you guys (armor games) are abusively promoting your MMOs. I know it is probably a really good source of revenue, but you are taking away from normal games and their developpers what you give to these games.
The money needed to pay the employees, rent offices, run servers, and cover the costs of everything else it needs in order to not collapse by next Tuesday. You can't conjure websites out of thin air you know. Unless you have a better way for them to make money while keeping the site free for all?
Weird, it didn't collapse back in the day when they DIDN'T have MMOs. I mean unless space time altered itself after armor games shut down for a split second, armor games has trucked along at a decent pace since it's creation.
Why do they need to get all this money from MMOs now? It's because of MMOs. Even before they started hosting them the ads for MMOs started cropping up on the site. Annoying ones, intrusive ones. Heck I couldn't play games due to a certain ad blocking the browser at times.
Thanks to the annoying ads, I'm betting many people started using Adblocker programs. Which is a death sentence for a site that gets most their money from ads.
So where to get the money to host the site and keep it running? Why from the very MMOs that started the ad problem in the first place! If they can't see our ads, well let's shove the game in their faces.
Do I have a better idea to make money? Off the top of my head, nope. Because I have no idea how much money it takes to "ay the employees, rent offices, run servers, and cover the costs of everything else it needs in order to not collapse by next Tuesday". (Side note, never thought of armor games as a 'company' till the ads came in)
But hey if you want to stay up and make a profit good for armor games. Least they can do is come out and say they are a MMO browser site instead of a flash game hub. I await the day when the new games is nothing but MMOs.
Please note this is me being biased against this browser based 'lease keep my kids' busy facebook games. When the ads started rolling in they had a number of ads for everything(heck one of the worst ones was a soap one that got huge the minute your cursor touched it). But this is a problem that's happening with a lot of sites. Finding out that they can't spam ads all day anymore. Some turn to subscriptions, smaller ones turn to selling art, nick-knacks, or Patreon. Others just openingly ask to turn off adblocker for their site.
Taking on MMOs for money was Armorgames' response to this. Is this the best path for them? I don't think so and it worries me what could happen, but the die has been cast so we'll see what happens in the future.
I dot mind MMOs its the micro transaction P2W turds that drive me nuts. there are a few MMOs on this site that are good. right now bushwhacker 2 is the only one that comes to mind. sure it has a small micro trans store but its not P2W.
you want me to play your MMO, make it F2P up to level 20 or so. if I like it I will pay a sub to keep at it. don't disguise it as F2P then put end game gear behind a micro trans store.
I dont know how important the MMOs are, but lately there are more MMOs popping out than every other gems (A bit exaggeration, but you get the point). Many of this MMOs are the same thing but with a different overlay, UI, text and theme. The structure of them are the same. I little bit of variance would be very much appreciated.
I sincerely apologise for necro-ing a post (especially with my first post), but I came onto the forums for the first time to see if anyone felt the same way about the increase of MMOs on AG.
To me, AG has always been about supporting the little guy. People that don't always have a big team. People who are learning to code. People who enjoy making games in their spare time. People who have a vision they want to bring to life and share with others. People who want to make a name for themselves.
I understand that maintaining a site of this size requires a corresponding amount of resources, etc. I agree with @MerlinCross that I would not have the faintest idea how much it actually costs to keep AG running for an extra day, nor do I have any idea what the existing AG market model is. But to me; the promotion of many of these essentially pay-to-win MMOs undermines the brand value and reputation of AG.
I would not make a post merely to reiterate points that have been raised by previous users, so here are some of my suggestions;
1. Donations Micro donations with default values capped at $5. Okay, so this will probably only get pennies and dimes, but I believe every drop of rain raises the sea. Donations will go towards maintenance costs, aiding new devs, etc.
2. Crowdfunding With all these crowdfunding platforms (Kickstarter, indiegogo, etc.) it has shown that people are willing to pay for something that they want. I believe if AG sets a fee lower than other crowdfunding platforms (~4% perhaps? with the condition of publishing on AG), combined with the existing target audience and support from existing devs, it will be able to attract other devs to AG.
3. Selective In-Game Purchases Ideally, everyone would like to get the maximum return on a game that they have invested time, energy and ideas into creating. But this formula only gives rise to pay-to-win games. I propose that games developed only create payment options to access bonus content of a game (one-off, or with future 'expansions' or to content with essentially aesthetic value or slight bonuses (for games with high replay value - MMOs included). Games such as Kingdom Rush, Crush the Castle, etc. have been highly successful games with the option/possibility of containing payment options.
4. Less Saturated Markets I believe that attention to the market is critical also. I do not believe this part is a small undertaking - but I firmly believe in it's ability to help AG continue it's original path and perhaps allow it to flourish. The majority of flash MMOs are too... intense (in my humble opinion). I believe that if AG is able to bring aboard classical games (with an inspired twist), the player base has the potential to expand exponentially. I make this point with a specific example in mind; OMGPOP. That site has to be one of the most successful in the multiplayer game market.
I hope my suggestions will be of some use, but I shall retreat back to obscurity once again!
