Editing 484: Flash Games

{{comic
| number    = 484
| date      = October 3, 2008
| title     = Flash Games
| image     = flash_games.png
| titletext = Although...who else can't wait for them to incorporate that Wiimote head-tracking stuff into games? Man, the future's gonna be *awesome*.
}}

==Explanation==
Dedicated hardcore gamers will often indulge in expensive, top-of-the-line equipment to get the most out of their video games. 

{{w|Adobe Flash}} was a software platform allowing multimedia applications in the browser. Flash became a popular choice for game developers, since playing Flash games only requires a browser and the free cross-platform Flash runtime environment. [[Randall]] was right that Flash games are quite addictive, and gamers would have found them more engaging than anything that runs on expensive (dedicated) gaming systems.

Nowadays, years after the making of this comic, Flash has been completely phased out by modern browsers in favor of {{w|HTML5}} + {{w|JavaScript}}. The open-source movement especially prefers the latter, since no proprietary browser plugins are needed to run it. That said, the sheer number of Flash games that have been made over the last decade means that Flash will likely hold a special place in many gamers' hearts for the foreseeable future, to the point where "Flash game" has become a catch-all term for any {{w|Browser game}}.

The comic may also be commenting that some modern games are too focused on graphics and not enough on gameplay.

The title text mentions the {{w|Wiimote}}, the standard controller for the {{w|Nintendo Wii}} video game console. Wii games are usually controlled by tracking the movement and orientation of the handheld Wiimote, but {{w|Johnny Lee (computer scientist)|Johnny Lee}} devised a method to use a Wiimote to track the position of the users head and demonstrated this with a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw desktop VR display]. It should be noted that this is not the same as the body tracking that is available from Sony and Microsoft with the {{w|EyeToy}} and {{w|Kinect}} respectively, neither of which has earned any real praise as a practical gaming controller.

==Transcript==
:[On the left side of the panel are a massive TV screen, large speakers, and similar devices, all connected to a "Game Station 20,000" console. Cueball, however, is over on the right side of the panel, on a modestly-sized computer.]
:Cueball: Ooh, I think I've got it figured out! Okay, one more hour.
:''Beep Plunk''
:The most powerful gaming systems in the world still can't match the addictiveness of tiny in-browser Flash games.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Video games]]