Evolution
Battle Arena
Originally, because GMClans was hosted on Invisionfree, it was impossible to impose custom hacks on the forum software. As a result, the Battle System was centered around a Wager System that utilized Member Post Counts as "Points". The only way to increase one's Points was to win a Battle since, although the Points were based on Post Counts, Posting did not increase your Points on the forums.
The Wager System were quite hasslesome to maintain and extrmely limited in scope. Judges needed access to the forum's Administration Control Panel (ACP) in order to modify Post Counts (Point) and only One-on-One and Clan Battles were doable. In creating Battles, Members would pose their custom Restrictions as well as a Point wager. A Member joining a Battle could barter with the Battle's creator on the number of Points being wagered and, upon completion of the Battle, the winning Member would receive the wagered number of Points, whereas the losing Member would lose those points.
Upon the completion of the programming of Battle Wins (after the site was transferred to its own domain), the Wager System and Points were promptly trashed. In their stead ran the more dynamic Battle Wins, each Battle Win accounting for one person defeated in a Battle. Thanks to the advent of Battle Wins, the number of Battle Types quickly expanded to encompass Open Battles and in fact, a few other Battle types, most of which have gone extinct at this point. Since then, there have been no major changes to the core specifications of the Battle Arena, although there have been numerous addtional rules and procedural modifications to help streamline Battles.
Clans and Missions
Unlike the long history of the Battle Arena, Missions and Clans have stayed true to their original features with virtually no changes to their workings. It is of note, though, that Missions are truly the brainchild of Matthewbot, but are as critical a site component as the more weathered Battle Arena.
