Online game: Macromedia Flash or Microsoft Silverlight and why?
flash, silverlight
Solution
I develop Flash for a living, so my answer should be taken with a grain of salt. I reccomend Flash for the following reasons:
- Size of install base. I don't have numbers for Silverlight but Flash 9 (the latest non-alpha revision) is over 90%.
- Air alows you to deploy to a desktop on multiple platforms with minor changes to your online code. This again increases your potential market.
- Size of community. Flash has been around much longer and there is a huge community developing libraries for most anything you want from animation to 3d to physics. Think of the hundreds (or thousands) of Flash games you have encountered. You will have the leverage of greater experience if you go with Flash. I searched for Flash MMORPG tutorial on google and there are a bunch of results to get you started right now.
- Performance of the Flash player is equal to or greater than Silverlight on tests. (see Bubblemark and GuiMark).
A little while ago I did a simple comparison that I suggest you do as well. Find the best silverlight examples that you can. Then find the best Flash examples that you can. When you compare those to one another I think the best platform becomes obvious.
Problem
Which technology stack is best for the creation of a two dimensional MMORPG and why? This question is loaded, so which are the major factors would you consider for development in such a domain?