Freedom of Flash Games
Jul 2, 2007 Articles
Recently a flash game was published on a site which I frequent, and as a result it riled up a few members of the community. Now, flash games of all varieties have existed for many years. Gory and violent games that could rival Manhunt can be commonly found. But this particular SATIRE touched on a topic of controversial nature, and after a series of events, the game was eventually taken off voluntarily by the developer, although it can still be found on other sites.
A few issues come to mind. Why is it that Flash Games seem to be free of the regulation constraints that plague our mainstream games? Similarly, why aren’t websites that distribute these games required to moderate their content, especially since Flash Games can reach a much wider audience, far wider than your mainstream game, and is distributed faster and to an enormous demography of internet users?
Another big issue is that of opinions. Who could be responsible for rating these games? Efforts in this area such as TIGRS depend on the developer, and do not enforce this. Some of them are simply tedious and require too much effort on the developer’s part to even bother. And just because a developer does not find his game offensive, does not mean that everyone else will think the same.
Thus, the question in the end is “what does the future hold in store for us developers”? How long more will we be able to enjoy this freedom on the internet? And what can we do to ensure developers can enjoy this luxury?
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