The long-gone days of extremely popular browser-based video game websites like Newgrounds and Miniclip, as well as fully fledged MMORPGs like Runescape, has raised an intriguing question: why isn’t web-based interactive content more popular today? Despite many technological advances and the widespread use of internet browsers, it seems that interactive content on the web has failed to capture the same level of interest as it did in the past.
Take of your nostalgia goggles and let’s find out.
With all the metaverse hype finally settling down, it is worth exploring whether web-based 3D content will become the standard for the virtual realm, given that the metaverse is often described as the evolution of the internet in 3D. To imagine this future, we must first understand some key technologies in the recent history of web-based interactive content, such as Flash for video and animation and WebGL for 3D graphics.