OpenBracket

What do you see when you think of the future of web games? What is going to to pull this genre out of the niche that it’s currently in, and out into the mainstream? Will it be AJAX? Or maybe flash integration? Possibly better graphics?
Personally I don’t think these will be the kickers for the next ‘gen’ of web games. And I’m sure some of you who read this article or my blog regularly have an idea of what I’m going to say next. The most important thing that will pull web games out of its little corner niche will most likely be game play. This is where some may start to get confused but I’m going to set things straight. Using better technologies DOES NOT mean it will improve game play.

Let me give you an example, a rather popular one: Weewars.
Now this game is pretty advanced, utilizing some great technologies. But does just because it has a really slick interface make it a good game? No. Don’t get me wrong; Weewars is fun, but I wouldn’t give it the game of the year for game play. Game interface or technology usage maybe. Plus I really love that they are pushing the genre with new technology but that isn’t enough. The game itself is very limited. You have a handful of units, and you goal is to beat the other player. Simple, fun – but only for a period of time and then the games start to look the same, and start being played out the same ways. Overall the game is lacking in the game play department. But this is a far cry from the worse example (I mean no offense to the game or it’s makers so please don’t bash).

Now a game that I loved for game play reasons was TornCity. That game was addictive. Nothing special technology wise. Just plain php and html. But god it was fun. I had options, I could play the way I wanted, I could do what I wanted. If you go to TC now, it’s dying due to lack of innovation and expansion, but in it’s hay-day it was great.

But it still wasn’t enough.

What I see when I think of the future is a game the resembles Renaissance kingdoms, but… fun. I see a game where players activity take part in how the game world is form, how items, money, everything works in the game. I see a game play style that is a mix of traditional Pen and Paper RPGs and current MMORPGs. I see a living, breathing world where players can shape events. I see a world where new content is not just being created by the admins or GMs, but by players. Where content isn’t added every few months, but very few days.

And this can be achieved with basic PHP/HTML but people now want the fancy AJAX menus or options since they know they exist. Which is fine. AJAX is a great technology that will allow us to push or games further, but as I stated, it isn’t enough. So what is keeping designer/developers from creating such huge intertwined games?

One reason, would some people aren’t recognizing that they need to actually sit down, and spend two or three months developing their games on paper before looking at a computer. Another would be the sheer size and difficulty to produce/maintain something of this scale. But this is where I believe many are wrong. A game that in depth, that completed as the one I see when I think about the future of web games wouldn’t be that difficult to create or maintain.

Sure there’s going to be a mountain of coding involved, but it won’t be overly difficult. And maintaining: that’s only as difficult as your custom tools are bad. The same applies to adding new content. We soon won’t be able to produce web games by ourselves (which I don’t think we should be doing now). We will eventually need a team of coders and a group of designer to successfully create a enjoyable game. Long is gone the day where I will play a game, even casually where I can’t foresee a in depth, ever changing game play model.

Some may disagree with my visit of the future, and think it’s all in the technology. But I see technology as just a medium, a support, not the driving force of games. Game play is and has always been the thing that revolutionizes a era of gaming, pushing it forward, and I don’t think that will ever change.