2015 November 17 Archive - EXEIdeas

Back in the day, when the internet was still young, Macromedia’s Flash has brought a revolution. The new technology allowed the creation of never before seen graphics, which could be easily run inside a browser window with the help of a small plugin. And the plugin was free, making the technology accessible to everyone. Flash has allowed the creation of browser games, banner ads and even complete websites with an unseen level of interaction. But it was always filled with bugs and security holes, transforming it from a trusted tool to “necessary evil”. Its problems have prompted Apple to eliminate support for Flash a few years ago, and others to limit their support for the technology.Flash And HTML5 In Online Game:Flash was very popular and very easy to use, so it led to the creation of loads of content – most of them games. Massive portals were built around flash games, offering hundreds of titles to their players. But even game developers have started to explore new possibilities lately. The most popular alternatives are Unity, a game engine supported by most leading platforms, and HTML5, a specification that allows the creation of completely cross-platform, rich content that can be deployed on any of them.Today most games are built using solutions that will make them easy to be deployed on desktop and mobile platforms at the same time. The best example would be mobile casino games, an increasingly popular form of gaming online. Mobile casino developers either deploy their games at the same time on desktop and mobile platforms, or choose the mobile-first approach – and use HTML5 in an increasing proportion, ignoring Flash as an obsolete solution.Flash And HTML5 In Online Videos:Flash was the technology that has allowed us to stream videos online – it was the tech that powered YouTube in its first years. Now even the most popular video streaming platform has abandoned Flash – this January it has dropped its default Adobe Flash player, using HTML5 as a default instead. Today the majority of the most played browser-based games are created using this new specification, with Flash losing space day after day.And Google might have beaten the last nail into Flash’s coffin this summer. The official Google Chrome blog has announced this June that the Chrome browser (with a market share close to 30% on the global browser market) will pause Flash animations by default after just two seconds of play. While the main reason for this change is to reduce power consumption on smartphones and portable computers, its effects might be much more far-reaching: the elimination of Flash-based ads.Last Words:So, the answer seems obvious: no, Flash is no longer vital to be playing online. Unless, of course, you intend to play games that are only available in Flash format – in which case you will have to download and install the plugin on your computer.