Some communities are built to follow trends — others are built with purpose. Today, Forum Flare sits down with Uncrowned Guard, the mind behind Uncrowned Addiction, Uncrowned Gaming, and Uncrowned Armory. From early forum days to building a growing network grounded in identity, transparency, and community-first values, Uncrowned Guard shares the story behind the Uncrowned Empire and what sets it apart in today’s online world.

1. What inspired you to create Uncrowned Addiction, Uncrowned Gaming, and Uncrowned Armory?
A lot of it goes back to where I first fell in love with online communities. My earliest forum experience was on InvisionFree, and that was really where I discovered how much I loved forums and community-driven platforms. At the time, a lot of that was tied to RuneScape, which was a huge part of my high school years. It was not a constant action game, so the community side of it mattered a lot. The forum experience became just as important to me as the game itself.

After high school, I drifted away from forums for a while. College, working full time, and traveling for regional Xball speedball tournaments left very little free time. But once life settled down, I got involved in fire and rescue work, which eventually became my career. That part of my life really changed how I looked at teamwork, leadership, and community. I saw firsthand how valuable team-focused environments could be, but I also noticed how weak many of the online platforms supporting those groups really were.

Alongside my full-time EMS job, I joined my local volunteer fire companies and started helping improve their websites and online presence. I still maintain websites for some of those organizations today. That work pulled me back into building online platforms, and it eventually led to the start of Uncrowned Empire. At first, Uncrowned Empire was a website creation company that built and hosted sites for small local businesses. Over time, though, I realized I did not enjoy making generic websites for companies nearly as much as I enjoyed building something with a real purpose and identity behind it.

Around the same time, I was heavily involved as a training officer in both my EMS career and on the volunteer fire and rescue side. That experience also opened my eyes to how badly many training platforms were designed. A lot of them, especially the larger state and federal systems, felt rigid and impersonal. They often had very little interest in adapting to the strengths and weaknesses of the people actually using them. I was fortunate to pick up many of those skills quickly, but I also saw a lot of good people struggle because the systems were not built to help them succeed in different ways. Helping those people became something I really cared about.

That same mindset carried over into gaming. As paintball faded out for us and gaming took over more of that competitive space, especially with shooters like Halo and Call of Duty, I noticed the same kind of problem. So many players were being told to just copy the top player’s settings, playstyle, or approach. There was very little focus on helping people understand their own strengths and build their own way of playing. A lot of online platforms were not very helpful if you wanted to do something different or improve in a way that actually fit you.

2. How would you describe the purpose of each of your three sites?
Each of the three sites has its own purpose, but they all come from the same broader idea: building communities and resources that actually help people in meaningful ways.

Uncrowned Gaming was the first to launch, and its original purpose was to help players find their own way rather than simply copying whatever the top players were doing. We started with a strong focus on shooters and esports, and while that had some success, I eventually felt that niche was overcrowded and not where my real passion was. Over time, Uncrowned Gaming evolved into a platform focused more on squad-based games, leadership-focused titles, and games where strategy, planning, and team identity matter more. I usually describe it through examples like Mass Effect, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, Conqueror’s Blade, and the Total War series. The goal is to build a strong library of guides and resources while also creating a community that helps players improve in ways that fit their own style.

Uncrowned Addiction launched around the same time, but it was always meant to serve a different role. In many ways, it was designed as the broader community hub for ideas and interests that did not need their own full standalone site. Topics like anime, music, and other off-topic interests fit well there, especially through community spaces like Clubs. Over time, though, it developed an identity of its own and became much more centered on tech, digital issues, and general community discussion. One of the biggest influences on that site has been my growing interest in data rights, user ownership, and right to repair. Today, Uncrowned Addiction is really about helping people navigate modern technology, solve practical problems, and better understand the bigger issues shaping the tech world. It may not focus on “building individuals” in quite the same direct way as Uncrowned Gaming, but it absolutely aims to empower people through useful information and awareness.

Uncrowned Armory is the newest of the three and still has a lot of room to grow, but it comes from a very real place in my life as well. My work has taken me from EMS and disaster response into nuclear security, and those experiences have shaped how I think about preparedness, national security, crisis response, and public understanding of serious threats. At the same time, I have always had a strong interest in war history, world news, and conflict analysis. Uncrowned Armory brings those interests together. The purpose of the site is to create a practical, community-driven platform focused on military history, conflict news, preparedness, defense topics, and serious discussion without falling into fearmongering or turning everything into political shouting. My goal is for it to be a place where people can better understand what is happening, what it means, and how to think about these issues in a grounded and useful way.

All of those experiences came together over time. They pushed me toward wanting to build community-driven platforms that focused on empowering people based on their own strengths rather than forcing them into whatever the general consensus said was “right.” That idea built in me for years, and in 2020 I finally acted on it with the launch of Uncrowned Gaming. Uncrowned Addiction came alongside it, and Uncrowned Armory would come later. Together, they grew out of the same core belief: that online communities should do more than just gather people in one place — they should help people grow, contribute, and find value in a way that feels personal and lasting.

3. What makes Uncrowned Gaming different from other gaming communities online?
What makes Uncrowned Gaming different is really two things: its focused niche and its philosophy.

A lot of gaming communities try to cover everything, and in doing so they often become very broad, trend-driven, and impersonal. Uncrowned Gaming is intentionally more focused. Rather than trying to be a home for every game and every audience, we lean into squad-based games, leadership-focused titles, party-driven RPGs, and other experiences where strategy, teamwork, and personal playstyle matter. That gives the site a much clearer identity than many general gaming communities.

The second difference is that I want the community to actually help players grow in a way that fits them personally. Too many gaming spaces push people toward copying the meta, copying top players, or treating there as being only one “correct” way to play. Uncrowned Gaming was built around the idea that players should understand their own strengths, develop their own style, and find the approach that works for them. So the goal is not just to talk about games, but to build a helpful community and resource platform that empowers players to succeed their own way.

4. How did it feel when Uncrowned Gaming placed second in Forum Promotion’s Site Battle Madness contest?
It felt genuinely rewarding. When you spend so much time building and refining a community, a lot of the work happens quietly in the background, so moments of outside recognition carry a lot of meaning. Placing second was exciting not just because of the ranking itself, but because it showed that people were noticing the effort, the identity of the site, and the direction we were trying to build toward. It felt like confirmation that Uncrowned Gaming was standing out for the right reasons.

5. What do you think contributed most to that success?
I think the biggest factors were consistency, identity, and presentation. I have always tried to make Uncrowned Gaming feel intentional, not just like another forum with a gaming label on it. The structure, branding, and overall direction were built to give it a clear personality and purpose. I also think people respond well when a site feels like it knows what it wants to be. Even if a community is still growing, that sense of focus and care can make a strong impression, and I believe that played a major role in how well we did.

6. Which of your three communities is the most active right now?
That really depends on how you define “active.” Uncrowned Gaming has by far the most views and the strongest traffic around its news and guides, so from a content and visibility standpoint, it is clearly the largest right now. However, Uncrowned Addiction probably has the edge when it comes to pure community engagement and discussion. Its broader range of topics naturally makes it easier for conversation to develop across different interests. So in short, Uncrowned Gaming leads in audience and content activity, while Uncrowned Addiction is probably the strongest in day-to-day community-style engagement.

7. What has been the biggest challenge in running multiple forums at once?
The biggest challenge is balancing time, energy, and direction across multiple projects without letting them blur together. Every site needs attention, but they often need very different kinds of attention. One may need structural work, another may need more content momentum, and another may need stronger community development. The challenge is not just maintaining them, but making sure each one keeps moving forward in a meaningful way.

In a strange way, that is both a strength and a weakness for me. Being able to shift focus when I get burned out on one area can be a real advantage, because it keeps me productive and helps the overall network keep moving. But the downside is that it can leave projects feeling only partially finished. I might make great progress on one site revamp, then shift to another project and realize I am only a third of the way through what I originally planned. So the hardest part is not just managing multiple communities, but managing momentum in a way that keeps all of them growing without constantly pulling myself in too many directions.

8. How do you keep each community distinct without overlap?
Honestly, this was harder before Uncrowned Armory launched. Uncrowned Addiction and Uncrowned Gaming naturally have some overlap because gaming and tech so often exist side by side online. For many users, seeing both under one roof would not seem unusual at all. The way I have kept them distinct is by focusing less on the surface-level subject matter and more on the actual purpose of each site.

For me, the key is the goal behind the community. Uncrowned Gaming has a very specific focus on gaming itself, especially the kinds of games and resources that fit its identity. Uncrowned Addiction, on the other hand, serves a much broader role and is not trying to achieve the same thing. Even when topics touch both worlds, the bigger question is which site they actually fit the purpose of better.

There are still edge cases, of course. Something like the recent Discord drama could potentially fit under tech culture on Uncrowned Addiction or gaming culture on Uncrowned Gaming, depending on the angle. Those little judgment calls still come up. But adding Uncrowned Armory actually helped make the overall network easier for people to understand. Once there were three clearly different communities, people stopped asking as often why everything was not simply one site.

A lot of that separation is also reinforced through structure. Both Uncrowned Gaming and Uncrowned Armory intentionally avoid broad off-topic sections. They have general discussion areas for their own subjects, like gaming or defense, but they do not try to become catch-all communities. That broader off-topic and mixed-interest role belongs to Uncrowned Addiction. Keeping those boundaries in place helps each site maintain its own identity.

9. What role do your members play in shaping the direction of your sites?
A major one. We are very community-focused, so member response and behavior have always played a huge role in shaping the direction of the sites. In many ways, the communities themselves help tell us what is working, what is missing, and what needs to evolve. Uncrowned Addiction is a great example of that, because the direction of its community ended up reshaping the identity of the site in a major way. On the other side, the lack of strong direction from Uncrowned Gaming’s early community was one of the factors that pushed me to rethink its niche and move it toward a more focused identity.

I have always viewed our members as being far more than just users on a platform. In a very real sense, they are the sites. We call them the Uncrowned Legion because without them, the communities are nothing. The structure, the content, and the vision all matter, but it is the members who give a site life, personality, and a reason to keep building.

10. What has been your proudest moment across all three platforms so far?
Honestly, it was a very simple moment. I was in a Discord chat and saw someone bring up one of our guides as being genuinely helpful. It was not some huge public milestone or major award, but it meant a lot to me because it was one of those moments where the work suddenly felt real. It showed me that what we were building was actually reaching people and providing value beyond our own platforms.

That kind of moment sticks with me more than numbers do, because it is direct proof that something we created helped someone. For me, that is what all of this is really about. Building sites is one thing, but knowing that something we made was useful enough for someone to mention it naturally in conversation was a proud moment and a reminder that the work is getting out there.

11. How do you decide what new features or sections to add to each site?
It really depends on the site, because each one is at a different stage and has a different purpose.

With Uncrowned Gaming, the direction is fairly clear right now. We are focused on building out guides and resources, so growth there is less about chasing features and more about steadily expanding the kind of content that fits the site’s mission. It is more of a slow, deliberate crawl than any kind of feature race.

With Uncrowned Addiction, the process is much more need-based. A big question I ask is whether something should become a guide, a discussion area, or a tool. That way of thinking has led to some interesting additions over time. For example, smaller tools like our YouTube Playlist Player and YouTube Thumbnail Puller did not seem like huge projects at first, but they have ended up becoming two of our strongest organic search successes. That reinforced the idea that practical, useful features can sometimes matter more than flashy ones.

Uncrowned Armory is still earlier in its development, so it is not as feature-rich yet. Right now, that site is still in the stage of finding its footing and building the right structure before expanding too aggressively.

Across all three, though, one of the biggest priorities is making sure we are building things that actually empower the community. I am not interested in adding features just for the sake of having more features. I want new sections, tools, and programs to create value for the people using the sites. A good example of that is the upcoming Legion Embassy, which is being built around the idea of helping support and elevate others within the broader Uncrowned network.

12. What is your long-term vision for the “Uncrowned” network?
My long-term vision for the Uncrowned network is to build a group of independent but connected communities that each serve a real purpose and have a clear identity of their own. I do not want to create a giant generic network where everything blends together. I want each site to stand on its own, with its own audience, goals, and culture, while still benefiting from being part of a larger shared brand.

At the center of that vision is the idea of building platforms that empower people. That can mean guides, tools, resources, discussion spaces, or programs that help members build something of their own. I want the Uncrowned name to represent communities that are useful, welcoming, and driven by more than just trends or algorithms. In the long run, I want these sites to be known not just as forums, but as platforms where people can learn, contribute, connect, and grow within communities that actually value them.

13. How do you plan to grow Uncrowned Armory compared to your other projects?
Uncrowned Armory has to grow a little differently than the others because of the subject matter. With Gaming or Addiction, there is more room to experiment and let the community shape things quickly. Armory needs a steadier hand. It deals with serious topics like conflict, preparedness, defense, and military history, so the tone and direction matter a lot.

My plan is to grow it in a practical and disciplined way. I want it to become a community-driven platform that covers military and conflict-related topics in a grounded, useful, and non-fearmongering way. That means focusing on clear reporting, practical guides, thoughtful discussion, and resources that help people understand what is happening without turning everything into political outrage or sensationalism. It is still early in its life, but I see a lot of potential for it to become a strong space for people interested in defense topics, preparedness, and serious world events.

14. What do you think sets your communities apart from bigger platforms like Reddit or Discord?
What sets our communities apart is not just the platform structure but the philosophy behind them. We are very user-first in how we approach the backend of our sites, and that matters just as much to me as the content or the discussions themselves.

I have always disliked the direction so much of the internet has gone in: aggressive paywalls, intrusive ad loads, hidden data practices, and platforms that treat users more like products than community members. I wanted to build something that pushed back against that. We do not use paywalls, we keep ads limited and non-intrusive, and we do not sell user data. We have even made decisions that cost us in the short term because they felt like the right thing to do. For example, when I became more aware of how much user information AdSense could pull in, I removed those ads entirely for registered members. To me, that kind of choice matters.

That same mindset applies to transparency as well. AI is a huge topic right now, and while many sites are happy to use it quietly in the background, we chose to be open about it. We added notices to our news content explaining whether AI was used and how it was used. That level of disclosure is not something most platforms feel required to do, but my view is simple: why hide it? If people are part of your platform, they deserve honesty and the ability to make informed decisions for themselves.

Discord, in my opinion, is a data and platform-control nightmare, and while Reddit has actually done a lot right as a large-scale platform, I still think there is room to do better. What I want Uncrowned to represent is a more open, more direct, and more respectful kind of online community, one where users are not just the audience, but the reason the platform exists in the first place.

15. What’s next for Uncrowned Guard and the Uncrowned brand?
Right now, the focus is simple: we are building. There are no immediate plans for a brand-new site, but I always leave the future open if the right idea and purpose come along. At this stage, the priority is strengthening what already exists and continuing to expand the Uncrowned brand in a more deliberate way.

That includes pushing harder on our social media presence again, creating more for YouTube and other content platforms, and continuing to grow the reach of the network beyond the forums themselves. At the same time, we are also pushing more strongly into the ethical side of what we want this brand to represent. I want Uncrowned to be known not just for the communities we build, but for how we choose to build them — openly, directly, and with more respect for the people involved.

A big part of that is the upcoming Legion Embassy, which is meant to give sponsored creators, paid contributors, and partners a place to interact with each other and openly discuss their terms and opportunities. Too much of online content creation still happens through closed-door deals where only the biggest companies really benefit. I understand we are not going to be funding anyone’s full career overnight, but I still want to build systems that reflect the values I believe in. Even if we are starting small, I want the foundation to be there. That is really what comes next for the brand: continuing to grow, while building the kind of network I believe should exist in the first place.

Final Thoughts

Uncrowned Guard isn’t just building forums — he’s building a philosophy around what online communities should be. With a clear identity, a strong ethical backbone, and a focus on empowering users rather than exploiting them, the Uncrowned Empire is carving out its own space in a crowded digital world.

As the network continues to grow, one thing is clear: this isn’t about chasing trends — it’s about building something that lasts.