Your Opinion of Browser Games

[insmek]

Perhaps it's just latent "old-school" gamer snootiness, but my opinion of browser-based games has never been that fantastic. At the turn of the century, I'd see people playing flash games and wonder why they didn't just play real games. As time moved forward, flash games gave rise to Facebook games and more games made their move into the browser space. The further proliferation of smart phones did little to stem the tide of browser gaming, as casual games became a widespread and socially acceptable past-time for individuals of all ages and demographics. Still, my opinion didn't waver--you'd certainly never catch me on Farmville. No sir, nothing doing.

Then I discovered Quake Live.

Suddenly, I found myself sneaking 10 minute Quake sessions while checking my email or paying my bills. I felt dirty, but I couldn't deny how successful the transition to a browser had been for the game. In time, I began to branch out. I discovered how far browser games had come since the flash games I had scoffed at so long ago. I'm not sure that I'm still entirely convinced, but my prejudices against the very format itself have faded considerably.

What do you think about browser games? Is it the future, or an updated relic of the past?

[Vargur]

Wouldn't call Quake Live a traditional browser game. It's an adaptation of Quake 3 onto browsers, so it's essentially a 3D FPS that you can play from anywhere. The browser is just the delivery platform.
I'm currently playing >Torn City< (going on 7 years now) and recently began playing >Illyriad<. Now THOSE are traditional browser games. And waste of 15 mins per day.

[Grable]

I played quite a few and was most attached to Ogame. But I grow bored of them quite fast.

[Blackdecker]

I played The Crims and MonsterGame

[Deleted]

I think they're often very overrated if we're talking about the gimmicky Facebook browser games, though there's a few gems that are both intriguing and innovative regardless of where you look.

[Rampant Rabbit]

They are VERY time consuming.

Also, check out this: http://gamecenter.grantgalitz.org/

It's a website running on Java that allows you to play lots of old Game Boy games without having an emulator yourself.

[Grable]

They are VERY time consuming.

Also, check out this: http://gamecenter.grantgalitz.org/

It's a website running on Java that allows you to play lots of old Game Boy games without having an emulator yourself.

Awesome. Just awesome.

[Waaldo]

I used to play a lot of browser games in high school, they helped pass the time so much!

[Nerraw]

Some are good, some are bad. Just like every other game. I do play a few browser-games myself.

[Deleted]

Sometimes for 10 minutes or so. They can't keep me for so long.
The only browser games I've been playing for long time are TCGs (card games) like Eredan / Urban Rivals.

[insmek]

I think the thing that makes me the most skeptical is because of how big of an MMORPG gamer that I am. Given how much time that one can invest into an MMORPG, do I really want to spend all of that time attached to a browser? At the same time, would it almost be better to be attached to a browser, able to quickly switch tabs for social interaction or information lookup?

[Rampant Rabbit]

Just to add to the conversation, I used to play loads of mafia and fantasy browser games. Anyone played Mobstar?