Flash Based and Social Networking Games

With the rise of the successful Facebook, games over at social networking sites have been all the rage. Many casual gamers and even non-gamers flock to this site for the sheer purpose of playing a game. Certainly there are people who use the site to post pictures and comments on their friend's pages but a large number use it only to game. These people would go play Restaurant City or maybe Pet Society. There's also Mafia Wars. I've got friends who even make fake accounts just to enhance their main account's game as they need more people in their friend list.

All these games are flash based. Flash based games has risen since the early days of flash. It's amazing to see the growth and the complexities of flash based games now. With the integration of social networking - there's a large chance of multiplayer flash based games. I recalled a web-based game - Archmage (wonder if that is still alive can't find it anymore). It's a game where you're a wizard and you train armies to become the number 1 wizard in the land. You're given a turns per ten minutes to a maximum of 200 turns per day. Each action performed like building an army eats up your turn.

If they modernized the concept of that by adding flash graphics and networking everyone in a social network, I think it has a good possibility of making it big. There's another web based game: Urban Dead - a zombie survival game (which is still alive today) that has a similar concept to Archmage. Instead of turns, your stamina is based on time. The actions you perform - attacking zombies, searching for items and moving, all cost stamina. Should you get killed, you get turned into a zombie. A modern version of that with some mini games like shooting would really enhance and probably bring people to play that sort of game.

How about a web based rock band? People could play simulated instruments by clicking buttons on the screen while your friends and strangers can watch you perform. Approval of the crowd will bring up your score in the game but there is no real way to lose the game. Though, it's more of a competition of the best score. Wonder what the future of flash games hold?