Armor Games Inc. (previously known as Games of Gondor) is an online flash gaming company founded by Daniel McNeely but is now owned now to "Zukids aka coold kid". Armor Games launched under the title of Games of Gondor in March of 2004, but was renamed to Armor Games in October of 2005.
Early 2004 Period: The Founding of Games of Gondor[]
Daniel McNeely and a team of talented web programmers on March of 2004 launched Games of Gondor. Games of Gondor was intended to be a hobby, but after much support the site began to grow in popularity. As Games of Gondor grew and the administration team found helpful associates and business partners, Games of Gondor became quite popular and began to earn capital. The site became popular due its mythical and medieval themed games, loosely based around the Lord of the Rings series, just the same as the name.
With all the commotion going on about Games of Gondor, in October of 2005, Daniel McNeely and his team changed their logo and turned Games of Gondor into Armor Games and brought forth the first incarnation of Armor Games.
Armor Games v1[]
After the destruction of the title and logo belonging to Games of Gondor the first incarnation of Armor Games launched, Armor Games v1 (commonly referred to as just Armor Games). Armor Games v1 hosted a larger variety of games at the time, going beyond the medieval themed games and adding categories such as Arcade, Shooting, and Puzzles & Skill based flash games. This increased the site's activity substantially, allowing for a wider range of taste for users of the website. As time passed, Armor Games' games were made public in different sites, advertising both their logo and games during the early and mid 2006 period. It was around this time when Armor Games profit range began to expand, and business partners such as Krin joined the team of business associates.
The aged look of Armor Games v1 became unattractive as time went by, so the administration team continued to work on the site and brought forth a newer installent of Armor Games: Armor Games v2. Armor Games v2 was said to have more game categories and a larger game selection as well. It was in late 2007 that Armor Games v2 launched, creating a new user interface and community capabilities.
Armor Games v2[]
Armor Games v2 is the current version of Armor Games that was launched in November 14th, 2007. Since the launch, Armor Games has had a new user interface, a new community, a larger assortment of games, and more business partners.
One of the most notable features of Armor Games v2 was Armor Points (commonly refered to as AP). Armor Points was a system given to users to mark activity. Commenting, Rating, Posting in the Forums, Merits, and Game Submissions all gave a designated number of Armor Points to a user. Having a certain number of Armor Points also granted a user a rank. These ranks allowed users to unlock special Armatars (a play on words for Avatar and Armor). Armor Points became problematic because they resulted in a spam, which as a result went into a massive banning of users by moderators. This was the first of many issues AG2 suffered from.
The administrators of Armor Games in the 2009 period decided to make a new version of Armor Games, Armor Games v3. V3 would have a cleaner look and more feature full interface. As this project distracted attention from some of the admins, however, management of AG2 became relatively poor. Glitches apeared all over the site, and with spam being created left and right, moderation of the site became poor as well. Armor Games v3 has remained in development since, for currently 4 years.
Community activity eventually decreased as well, due to moderation becoming more strict to fill in the void that the administrators were not properly taking care of. Members left, and the forums suffered. This was the first "dying" phase the site went through. Eventually, a group of members decided to take matters into their own hands, and formed an unofficial group dedicated to increasing forum activity. This group was called "Operation Activity" (later renamed Armor Games Community Activity Initiative, more commonly known as AGCAI).
It became a chore for users to increase site interest, and after a month and a half, the site was in a near stable state. However, due to 70% of Armor Games users being under the age of 18, school forced users to become inactive. This made the site suffer from massive fluxuations of activity, leaving the forums dormant and the messenger system inactive. The site went through more then 6 "dying" phases, and spam increased as well. This eventually resulted in the destruction of AP, which occured in the year 2013. The destruction of AP resulted in a new system of ranking, Quests.
Several of the website's glitches were fixed thanks to new administrators such as Boppins (the site glitch hunter) and Ferret (the community manager).
Currently, activity in Armor Games is relatively stable. Armor Games Community Activity Initiative is currently defunct but the group of users that made AGCAI are currently working alongside Administrators to find new ways to promote Armor Games.
Armor Games v3[]
Armor Games v3 (also known by it's acronyms "AG3" and "AGv3") is the rumored future version of the Armor Games website. AG3 Beta tests were conducted in 2011 through 2012 to see user reviews on the developers' progress. AG3, while it's effort was credited, was often made fun of by users, saying the site "Will never happen in a million years" and "There is no AG3". Users of AG2 made many forum posts criticizing the belated launch dates, the sites updated interface, and the new features - most publically recognized feature being the Quest System. After nearly 4 years of effort the project was dropped due to the newer code clashing with the older codes and lack of respectable development time. AG3 features are said to be put into AG2 but the capability of this task is still to be determined.
According to Ferret and Heyitsleo the concept of "Quests" was a AG3 feature that was going to be put into the new AG3 website but when the project was dropped they placed Quests onto AG2 as a permanent solution to spam and, also, for the purpose of being a teaser of AG3's new features.
Little is known about AG3 except to the known Beta testers. The effort gone into the site was extensive at best and from the reviews of several users a waste of time. Beta testers commented on the site's new interface and how it was complicated to understand and was not very gripping detail-wise. The changes, users reported, were not entirely stylish and not much better from AG2. AG3 features and looks are yet to be discovered, as is the release date.
As Armor Games stands currently it is debatable if the new features that are to be placed onto Armor Games would change the site entirely to a type of AG3 environment or if the new features placed onto Armor Games currently would make the site more so a AG2.1.
AG3 Gallery[]
Armor Games logo Gallery
References[]
- Armor Games Official Website can be found here
- Armor Games Official Blog can be found here
- Armor Games Official Terms Of Service can be found here
- Armor Games Commenting Rules & Regulations can be found here
- Armor Games Official Twitter Page can be found here
- Armor Games Official Google + Page can be found here
Notes[]
- The Armor Games Official Google + Page no longer works, so don't click on the link