Dear Flash Developers:
Please, please, in the name of all that is unholy, STOP.
Knock it off, guys.
Limiting the options in the right-click menu is not professional. It does not make your game look sleek and polished. It just makes you a douchebag for taking away some of the most basic tools the user needs.
This is only the latest in several disturbing trends that show the future health of flash-based games is not good.
The massive amount of interest that flash-based games has generated online is a driving force for online advertisements, and it stands to reason that corporate bigwigs would get their greasy fingers into the mix.
Flash games today are a critically important area to watch, for one reason: advertising. Let me say that again: advertising.
Games are fueled by advertising, and if you need any further proof for this then try playing anything off ArmorGames‘ atrocious site without ad blockers, popups, and firewalls enabled. Sadly, AG is one of the cleaner examples of a game site.
Flash is also an extremely powerful language, with many of its capabilities left untapped by the advertising arena – at least, thus far. Things like interactive advertising offers the horrific possibility that interactivity be provided not just to engage a user, but to REQUIRE the user pay attention to the advertisements!
Currently, flash advertisers have discovered (and are making the most of) how to embed dynamic advertisements into an otherwise static game. This allows them to pipe in any advertisement they may like, essentially creating advertisements in-game. These are currently used with restraint, usually to cover up loading screens and always with a “Click to Skip” button.
The disturbing trend I begin to see, however, is the widespread use of flash capabilities for less positive purposes. Bubble Tanks 2 will limit the user’s possible upgrades if it cannot detect that it’s being hosted from ArmorGames, and in the place of the upgrades it places an advertisement and link to the “preferred” site.
This is quite frightening. Mainstream games are now using rewards to funnel their users toward chosen sites (read: advertisements) and punishing the user if they don’t comply. Unless users begin to take issue with this practice, I fear that we will soon find ourselves in a much more aggressive marketing environment.
