Browser Based Games

A good game doesn’t have to cost you any money.

All of the aspects that go in to what I feel is a good game can be found in many online browser-based games.  I include both browser and flash games in this category since you generally need a web browser to play them.  There are exceptions to the rule where you can get standalone copies of popular browser titles like Bejeweled but that kind of misses the point.

The hook with this type of gaming is usually comprised of two factors: price (free) and accessibility.  Most of us have tried our hand at least one browser game over at MSN gaming or armorgames.com when we had a bit of down time  at the office or were stuck on standby at the airport.  The challenge for a developer is to keep your interest but stay within the constraints of a limited resource environment.  Most browser games can care less about what video card you use or how powerful your CPU is.  If you can watch an online video chances are you can play a browser game.

As browser plug-ins evolve so does the possibility for a better gaming experience.  The thing to remember is that browser gaming isn’t meant to replace traditional gaming but rather be a supplement to it.  Sometimes you just want to hear that booming voice say “I N C R E D I B L E” when you have a particularly good combination of gems in Bejeweled.  Where traditional gaming can require a substantial investment in both the game and the hardware to fully appreciate it browser games offer quick and easy access to fun on whatever platform you choose.  The price is usually just your time and a few banner ads.

Smartphones are ubiquitous these days and it’s no surprise that advancements in browser gaming have led to an explosion in game titles adapted or written expressly for them.  This wouldn’t be possible without the original browser-based titles.  Developers have learned how to optimize relatively scarce resources much like early software developers had to optimize software to work with the original 640K memory limits of the IBM PC.

So we know that this type of gaming is generally cheap and demands little more than a good chunk of your downtime but why is it so popular?  Free is a great price but most things at this price point are better left alone so why bother?

The answer is that most people are hungry for any distraction from boredom.  It’s that simple.  I’ve been totally engrossed in a browser game for hours and then didn’t touch it again for months because I just wasn’t that invested in it for anything but a pastime.  That’s another key factor in that games like this that know their audience is comprised largely of a consumer that has at least a touch of ADD.  Make it interesting no matter what level I’m at and don’t make me feel guilty about ignoring it for a while.

There are browser based games that are more like their commercial counterparts.  Browser games such as Lord of Ultima or Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdoms are in some cases spinoffs of commercial titles.  I’m involved in Lord Of Ultima and have been for the past year.  The nice thing with this game is that you get the flexibility to play the game the way you want to play it.  If you want to be the conquering tyrant you can be but only if those you subjugate agree to enter the fray.  If you just want to build cities and play a background role you can do that too.  The bad thing about a more complex browser game is that you have to suffer the same technical issues inherent in any free game but on a larger scale.

So how do browser games like Lord of Ultima manage to support themselves without advertising or a fee?  In Lord of Ultima’s case they have a mechanism to purchase upgrades in the form of diamonds that allow you to activate items that can give you more resources or speed up an operation.  You can play the game for no money but at some point you find the need for a quick upgrade and diamonds are the only way to do it.  That is obviously by design but not an absolute requirement.   The downside of a game like this is that you can end up investing as much time in it as you would a traditional game which defeats the purpose in my view.  For example; Lord of Ultima is all about building stronger cities than your neighbor.  With more cities comes more of a demand on your time and at one point I was devoting 2 hours a day to maintaining 30 of them.  Other players have hundreds of cities and for them it’s a full-time job.  At that point I think we begin to lose focus on what a browser game should be which is low impact and fun without demanding any more time than you’re willing to spend playing the game instead of maintaining it.

To sum it up, as long as there is the possibility of downtime and some kind  of computing device available there will be browser games.  So enjoy them, just don’t take them too seriously.