Web games the future of gaming?

Almost everyone knows that Macromedia’s Adobe’s Flash has been around for awhile, and that the technology allows games to be written and distributed over the World Wide Web (WWW). Though rather inelegent, Flash can even be leveraged to work with SQL databases, allowing for more dynamic content for multiplayer games.

People have also written games using style sheets and javascript, though these technologies were rather limiting until recently, as we’re now seeing demos of newer web scripting innovations that allows for more complicated games, including games in 3D ala simple first-person shooters.

While textured 3D levels are painfully slow to render, the technology itself is still impressive, since it heralds what is to come in the near future. With free tools, developers won’t have to shell out their cash to Adobe, and with universal compliancy, browsers don’t need specialized plugins for Flash games.

Take games like Norron for example, which are fairly simple strategy games where players build structures and military units, and fight to control areas of land. The interface is text-based, with some graphics strewn about to keep things from being too bland. The game itself only takes a couple minutes a day to play as one makes changes to their city’s production levels, but the potential for something greater is there.

With more dynamic gameplay thanks to newer web technologies, we may one day see a Norron-like game with real-time interaction with other players, perhaps even to the extent of something like EVE Online. For now, we’ll have to see more small steps taken until a more comprehensive game is developed, but with things continuing to move in the direction they have, I anticipate some quality browser-based games to be released, which solves cross-platform, and mobile-variant problems that future games can leverage.

Tagged as: mendax.org