What technologies enable online games?
January 19th, 2009
While games for computers and the like have been around quite some while one may ask which web technologies have been the main driver for the fast diffusion and rising success of online games? Let me point out & explain the most important ones (in my opinion) to you:
- Macromedia / Adobe Flash
Although there are some browser based games out there relying purely on HTML/CSS and PHP code, the game experience usually is not the best you can expect. This changed slightly with the introduction of AJAX and extended Javascript possibilities (e.g. enabling “drag&drop” in browsers) but Flash is by far superior. Funny enough, although Flash development is by no means a piece of cake a huge community of semi-professional developers releases new more or less exciting games every week. Flash enabled the previous “desktop only” experience of games (e.g. moving objects, vectors, embedding sounds, transitions, effects, extended gameplay) to be ported to the web.
- Broadband internet penetration
The aforementioned Flash technology was considered to be dull and contradicting the basic principles of the internet (back in 1998). Today, the penetration of broadband internet access (DSL, cable and even mobile) is significantly higher which in my view contributed to the huge success of casual online games. More extensive productions (embedded video in games) can be delivered to players and waiting times are reduced dramatically. Additionally, no clock is ticking (as it was back in ol’ modem times) so the amount of time spent with any game greatly increased.
I assume the online games will continue to rise with new technologies (and possibilities) arising and the trend away from the classic OS to the cloud-based web approach. It’s only a matter of time until we see a big publisher offering a web-only game (other than World of Warcraft).