The Rise And Fall – And Rebirth – Of Web Games

Web games have gone through quite the turbulent existence, and while many people were convinced that they’d seen the last of their days, that doesn’t seem to be the case yet. It’s true that things looked quite grim at one point, with all major browsers choosing to deprecate plugins like Flash and Java, but things are getting back to normal right now, with tons of attractive options for players to pick from.

Where Things Went Wrong

Traditional web games died out because the technology they were built on got deprecated and is no longer supported by default by any major browser. With that, all Flash-based games, and even those built on the Unity browser plugin, became obsolete overnight. At the same time, the mobile market was picking up the pace at astounding rates, and people were able to fill the void left by web games by playing on their phones. As time went on, many eventually forgot that they used to enjoy small casual games in their browsers, with the experience becoming completely replaced by what can be done on a mobile phone.

The Situation Today

However, things are looking far better right now. We’re seeing a regular influx of quality releases, like the 2 Fast 2 Furious game, and developers have started to convert their work to platforms like JavaScript and WebGL instead, giving them more security about the viability of their games in the long run. On the other hand, the market is becoming more standardized as well, meaning that developers don’t have to work with a messy stack of technologies just to push their vision through to reality. It’s actually quite simple to get started with making a browser game these days, and many people have started to jump on board the new trend.

What Can We Expect in the Future?
At this rate, there is no indication that the presence of web games on the market is going to die down again anytime soon. With many new sites opening up to serve the needs and curiosity of casual gamers on a regular basis, all that one needs to do is to simply pick a game they enjoy and stick to it. The quality of modern web games has gone up significantly compared to what they used to be like in the past, and a modern product can easily be on par with a full-blown desktop game in terms of features, aesthetics, and performance. Not to mention the ease of connecting to other players thanks to the various open libraries for hosting game servers.

So, if you’re feeling nostalgic about the good old days of browser gaming and want to check out what the market has to offer right now, just dive right in and explore! Chances are, a few hours from now you’re going to realize that you’ve spent the entire afternoon clicking around in your browser and having the time of your life, and you will be far from alone either, with a brand-new community of web gamers coming up!

Featured image by Nybygger at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link