Because, without listing any explorers or programs, you can download programs for your explorer to block ads.
Also, why would you pay money just to avoid watching an advertisement? You're already probably paying money for TV, and you watch THEIR advertisements. So why pay to not watch ads for something that's free?
Do your research. This website started declining a while back, most significantly with the release of their "MMO" category. While a few of them are slightly entertaining, the majority of them are the same thing, with a different setting. A pay to win enterprise. Following this, the quality of the games has gone down, but the quantity remains the same, if slightly increased (for influx of new games, clearly). You no longer show up every few days to see a new 8/10 game. You log in every day to see a new 25-50 rank game. Quantity < Quality. Tower defense shows you this. That is, DECENT tower defense games. Finally, to conclude, the advertisements have gone OFF the charts, and now it's a Pay to Early Access market. (see the recent Beta game release "Sentry Knight"
The only reason I go onto this website anymore is to see a new game, try it, USUALLY leave within 5 minutes, and continue on with my life. On the rare occasion I DO find a game I like, I support DIRECTLY to the creator, not through ArmorGames.
Now I'm not saying they don't have a right to ASK you for money, and by all means, I'm sure plenty of people pay for it. But why not ask them to pay for GOOD things, like a lightsaber, or maybe a Ferrari.
Really though, I think that ArmorGames needs to take a look at it's priorities. You're pushing away loyal, hardcore gamers in favor of shallow, quick smash'n'dash people who will leave once they get bored.
I read an article a year ago in a local paper about a regionally successful group of musicians. They will never be famous to the point of making millions. They were however, making enough to continue playing, until their last album. Due to the free usage of their material through the internet, they made enough to cover production costs, and no more. They were sad that they could see lots of people downloading their material, but nobody was actually buying it. Actual sales were just enough to cover production costs. Long story short, after 7 years and as many albums, they quit.
You can say, "Oh well, the band sucked." And maybe they did...
I think however, that that kind of situation is happening all over, to many artists, and has led to what I regard as a horrible state of affairs with the current "free-to-play" trend in gaming. It is even worse for artists that paint or write or play music. It is slowly destroying the grassroots of all forms of art, gaming included. It hits the unknown players the hardest, the up and coming people, the ones who need that $1, $5, or $20 the most, and will probably buy some rice and fish with the money, rather than make a down payment on a new jacuzzi.
Seems like the players are not happy with it, nor are the developers or anyone else involved. Lottery ticket lock boxes and other silliness have taken over as the primary resource generation method. If that is not feasible, then it is ad revenue to cover costs...
So we can complain about ads, or the method the ads are presented, or complain about lock boxes, or the pay-to-win gaming model, but in the end, we gamers brought it on ourselves, and continue to do so.
The situation is reversible, but I think that is sadly unlikely. That won't stop me from trying!
This is the point where most people would probably apologize for a long winded tirade. But I will not. Thanks for reading.
@Sandunes Well said, and I agree. We're not swimming in a vault of gold over here, we're just trying to continue running a great website and support/make great games!
Are people blind or what? Has anyone looked at the amount of ad's on this site? In the game i play there's an Ad above the game window. Then there's one below the window. Scroll down a little and guess what there's another ad. Then we get this have to sit and watch an ad. Really? Thank god it's not on any more cause i'm sick of watching Ad's that i have ZERO interest in and not to mention it's the same ad's over and over. Here's a little hint keep the Ad's out of the game. I think we all can live with ad's outside the game window.
That being said, I believe no video ads are before MMO's at this point, and them being placed there was an error.
But you just said you'll use whatever ads so why not use the video ads? I mean why not shove the ads down our throats so you can get money to keep the servers up? And on that note, why not keep games that haven't been updated/played anymore/won't see anymore updates up on the site just to say you have X amount of games?
And heck, why take flash games? Those devs aren't paying you anything. MMOs will happily pay you to sling their slop at your visitors. So why be a small dev/one guy flash game site anymore?
You(and just about every website in existence) have the right to make money so you as a site can survive. But making it harder to enjoy the site isn't the right way to go. There are people that will feel like you are trying to cheat them with "Support the site with bad ads or support the site by paying". There are also people that cannot support by paying(read children and anyone without a credit card).
I have no idea how this 'subscription' will work out in the future. But I just really hate admmogames. Oh wait this is armorgames my bad.
And on that note, why not keep games that haven't been updated/played anymore/won't see anymore updates up on the site just to say you have X amount of games?
You never know when someone might want to play those games again. Why take them down? How is this remotely related to ad-free gaming?
If you're angry about the quantity of MMOs, then you're essentially being angry at nothing, because AG can't stop MMOs from flooding the internet. They still accept good Flash games when there are good Flash games, but the sad truth is that the Flash games industry isn't what it was in the past.
You will still be able to play all Flash games for free, people shouldn't feel cheated. At most, you're going to "waste" a minute of your time loading your game. That's not much of an issue to quibble about.
My logic/understanding. If a game is on the site, it is taking up space on their server. If a game is removed, they have more space and thus aren't charged for it. I'm unsure of what kinda of contract they have so am unsure how they are chraged for keeping the site up. But if I'm right, removing less played game or those of shoddier quality could reduce the amount of money they owe per month/year. Again, don't know so if someone could correct me.
And you're right. They can't stop the flood of MMOs, I can't, no one can. Just gonna watch this bubble of low quality MMOs burst. What they could have done is allowed good quality of MMOs onto the site. Instead it's anyone that can pay them. I like your site, I don't want to support certain MMOs in anyway.
At most you're going to waste a minute of your time, have to remute the vocal ads, have your game blocked by an ad if you move your cursor over an ad so it expands, be reminded that you should be playing one of the shoddy MMOs(Stop it Wartune), and several other rather annoying possible ads. But hey if tv channels have 2-3 ads playing while I'm trying to watch the actual reason I went to that channel, I guess I wouldn't have anything to quibble about either.
I'm not mad with Armor games, if anything a little disappointed. I'm mad at the ad company, and a good deal of their customers(R2games for example). Intrusive ads, auto playing auto looping auto unmuting videos, and more; they are getting more noticeable. Which leads to the spiral I've talked about before. Annoying Ads = Blockers = More Ads = More blockers = have to find a way to get more money somehow.
Armorgames wants to do Ad-Free subscriptions? Go for it. I'm not against the idea. Just voicing my complaints about the Ads(and their failure to make money leading to Shoddy MMO Games.com). Times are changing and I guess I'm just to old and bitter in recallying why I came to the site. You know to play flash games. Not get Ads and MMOs shoved down my throat.
People who pay for these things tend to care (about the community, AG and the devs) and are typically better suited than the average player for testing because of that care.
how are people that have a spare few bucks sitting around better qualified to be beta testers?
a bit off topic: I must be old. I remember when beta testing was a privilege that was rewarded with either a free copy of the final game or atleast some sort of bonus stuff in the final product. now so many games want people to pay for "early access" to a game which is just the new term for "hey pay us to test our game".
back on topic: I do agree with you OP. as iv stated before I remember when signing up to this site removed ADs before games. then shortly after everything was moved to the new version of this site ADs before games was added back in. I made a thread about it back then and was told that was never true but I would never have made an account here for no benefit.
this AD free gaming thing feels to me like the bums in a city that toss dirty water on your windshield at red light then want some money to clean it off.
