Thread Background Coming from a long-time lurker born in 2008, I have noticed that Armor Games is facing a recent "slump" of activity. In other terms, Armor Games is becoming inactive. In my quest for answers, I've contacted several Armor Games users, ranging from new users to veterans. Thinking that I gave people something to think about for the day, Ernie15 gave me a bold idea to convert these ideas into a thread where one can give his/her ideas on the matter instead of letting this issue be small-talk. In many's minds, this is an issue that needs to be addressed to immediately. There have been threads like this, but this is the central HUB of what we view of Armor Games today.
Armor Games, I give you The User's View.
Armor Games Background AG3, a major update to the Armor Games world, has been in development for around 2 years. There are tons of beta testers for the website. Prior to and starting at the development of AG3, Armor Games was once a bustling "city," if you will, of ideas traveling by means of public forum posting to comments to one another, or "small talk." Many of these users have left for reasons we will discuss and are being replaced by users we will later discuss.
Staff Changes Late 2011, Cormyn, a very popular admin, resigned from his duties and became a regular user. He was somewhat replaced with Justin Royster, aka username jroyster22.
Part 1: Cormyn Cormyn was undoubtedly known for his ability to be publicly active within the community and was often described as strict. As strict as he was, he kept the trash out and helped shape our modern-day Armor Games. He wrote code for the community, laid down a lot of the rules, appointed moderators alongside the moderation team, and, short and sweet, held Armor Games together. In many people's opinions, he was the administrator's community face of Armor Games. Once Cormyn left, jroyster22, alongside his duties with AG3, became the one to contact if you needed help. Justin Royster had big shoes to fill, and so far, he's done a moderate job. He prefers to contact via email, taking away from that on-site communication charm. In my opinion, Justin Royster has been a little vague with his duties. I and others have complained that Armor Games needs a new head, and if Justin Royster was a little more open, we'd have that strong, great leader. I am not criticizing his work- I understand he's busy. I'm just asking that he showed a little more of his face.
Part 2: Inactivity Sadly, many of Armor Games' moderators have been caught up with daily life to successfully fulfill their duties on a daily basis. Similarly, admins are busy preparing AG3 for its release and have a lot to do. I understand they have lives as well. Many other new members have complained that it is impossible to get in touch with anyone on the staff team. Cormyn had written moderator-selection software, and many are thinking, if it is still available after Cormyn's resignation, perhaps it could be used to find another addition to the moderator team. Freakenstein has been a fantastic addition, but I feel as though we need more. I'm not going to name names because I respect what our moderators do; I feel as though we need more. Maybe it's time we eliminated the "small staff team" tradition for the time being until we recover. As for admins, we don't need a lot, but just one public face to get contact with would be fantastic.
Migration I know AG3 is going to be very different. I know forum activity has sunk. I know your friends have left. Because of multiple things, many users, newbies and veterans alike, have moved on to different websites. This is not going to help our inactivity problem. It will only make it worse. I am not only asking you all to stay, but I am asking you to help out. We can't sit around and let our users leave. Part of it is our problem; we can make things interesting again. We can make people want to spend all of their time here. We can show people Armor Games is the best darn website out there!
Generation Transition Jeol brought this to my attention and it struck me. What if the reason so many people are leaving is because they are older? Now, some people will never change, but others will grow and move on. And, who replaces them?
Part 1: Veterans It's summer. You've finished school and want to enjoy the outdoors. You've finished school and have to work. You've finished school and want to try something new. Whatever it is, whether you've gotten too old for Armor Games, or have something else taking up your time, you can't visit your favorite website in the world. You know what? That's quite OK. Just remember to drop by once in a while and talk to your old friends. Many users are finding that they are having difficulties connecting with new people if they leave right away. Sadly, this leaves many users bored and craving for a good conversation.
Part 2: New Users The size of Armor Games' user list is rising exponentially- it's skyrocketing! Most would think this would create more activity, wouldn't it? Frankly, no. Many games require an account for online saving to work, and the new generation replacing the previous one seems to be filled with people who join, stay active for a day, and quit dealing with the forums, leaving a large gap to be filled by no one.
Armor Games v3 As mentioned earlier, AG3 is being developed. By my count, there are currently 5 admins developing it. Unfortunately, users are complaining because there is little or no status updates on what's going on. Not to sound demanding, but more frequent updates could make the waiting all the easier. Also, the new achievement system may scare veterans who are used to and have gained recognition by the current AP system. AG3 will also result in a clean slate for the forums... By deleting all of the material there. Of course, much of the material is repeatable, but many veterans have good memories of posting here.
Conclusion We've lost the face of the admins, Cormyn, and would like to have another public face again. Many moderators are busy with their lives and some more help would be fantastic. A lot of people have given up on Armor Games and have outright quit. Old faces are being replaced with people who aren't as devoted the site. AG3 is coming with big changes, but has gone very quiet recently.
~Salvidian
Those who contributed to this information in some way, shape, or form -jeol -Ernie15 -daleks -Skeleton_Pilot -Cenere -GhostOfMatrix -MrDayCee -johnmerz
im a huge forumer, (although im new,) i post at least 1 time a day and check my profile every day. im largly devoted to AG and i will be with it for quite some time.
I haven't seem enough of really any Admins to actually vote. :l Hate being newish.
They both aren't really active forum wise. I don't think Joey will be a community manager. He's busy with the flash games. Justin does post occasionally. I don't know.
1) Another admin was hired with username mmorrison. He also has the following about:
I'm a backend/web programmer for Armor Games.
I've been playing games my entire life, and have always loved online flash games, and am very excited to be working here
In addition, mmorrison has made the following comment on his own profile:
no official community manager at the moment, and I don't have any information on plans for one. you can use the feedback tab (should be on the left side of your browser), and we'll see it.
2) heyitsleo added the following about:
Hi everyone! I am a web developer at Armor Games and I LOVE IT. I get to stare at John and Joey making games EVERYDAY o_o
Between my stares, I try to get some work done.
Conclusion: AG is adding more admins, but there are no signs of a community manager. Instead, it appears that the admins would rather communicate through the feedback tab and getsatisfaction.
Instead, it appears that the admins would rather communicate through the feedback tab and getsatisfaction.
Then the responsibility is left to the users who have getsatisfaction accounts or are willing to make them to contact the admins until they finally decide to find someone who will take charge of the community.
Also, why has the thread name changed? It's confusing to me because it no longer starts with "O" and that's how I find it.
More Important Update: I just found out that there is a way to increase admins' activity by letting them know how useless the feedback tab is. The feedback tab requires a getsatisfaction account, which Ernie15 calls useless in the following post (from the Forum Error thread):
Are we even sure the admins know about this issue, or is everyone waiting for someone else to let the admins know through getsatisfaction?
Seriously, that feedback tab is useless. If you don't have a getsatisfaction account, it's about as helpful as an ejector seat in a helicopter.
Ernie15 was referring to the forum error as the issue, but that's besides the point. The point is that we could let the admins know how useless the feedback tab is and therefore increase activity. My reasoning from my response to Ernie15's post is here:
Given that the admins are trying to increase their visibility through something like the feedback tab, showing how useless the feedback tab is would increase the chance of a community manager, therefore increasing activity and visibility by the admins.
Here is one thing for sure. I won't be leaving Armor Games.
Ever since I've came here in 2009, I've been looking around the Armor Games community. Before then, many people were active in the Forums. However, ever since I made my account this year, the activity decreased. Although the activity decreased, I think Armor Games is still a great gaming and social community.
Since Armor Games 3 is coming up, I believe things will get better. More people will join a new community and will certainly be better than this one.
I have to be the one to ask... have the admins done anything so far to acknowledge the existence of this thread? Or are we just humoring ourselves in thinking that the site is going to change for the better? =P
Someone that can be trusted with permanent ban powers.
That's just it. There isn't anybody who can be trusted with those powers who doesn't already have them, at least in the eyes of the admins. If you aren't personally affiliated with the AG office or on their payroll, you're not going to be managing this community.
Keep in mind how few moderators they're willing to appoint, and they don't have half the power admins have.
There's obviously something going on. The Feedback tab wouldn't have taken much, but I haven't noticed the staff team expand so much anytime before we started complaining on such a massive scale.
@GoM Thanks for the help on GetSat. I tend to forget about that thread a lot. It's a shame it hasn't gotten as much attention as this one did.
The thing is, we still aren't getting any answers. I mean, take our new friend mmorrison for example. Doesn't he work in the same room as Dan? And heyitsleo admits to being in the same room as John and Joey. Surely they're all in the same building at some point or another. Unless AG has dozens of unseen employees, you'd think one of the admins could turn around in their adjustable chairs to face Dan and ask him about this. How clueless can you get? Of course, I don't work there, so I couldn't say anything for sure.
GetSat is essentially pointless. Invisible guardian angels isn't anything in comparison to what a community manager could do. >_>
