Goodbye Flash ads

Hello!

If you’ve been following along on the forum thread, you know that WarLight’s new Unity client has been making a ton of progress! The Unity client is designed to replace the Flash, iOS, and Android versions of WarLight with a shiny new client that does more, better, faster, stronger, etc.

The Unity app is a very different beast since it was introduced it on this blog back in January. The app now has almost complete feature parity with the old clients. There’s still a lot to do before it’s good enough to be officially released, but if you want to try it out or make the switch today, there’s an alpha version available now for members.

As announced previously, one of the reasons WarLight must move away from Flash is because Flash is a dying platform. Google is trying it’s darnedest to kill it off, and one way they’re doing this is by discontinuing the ability to run ads from their ad network within a Flash app. WarLight has historically shown these ads and they actually make up a pretty sizable chunk of the revenue it needs to keep the servers alive.

Since Flash ads are no longer an option, I’ve made changes to the game today to replace them with html ads. These come in two forms: a vertical banner ad that sits beside the game, and interstitial ads that play before starting a single player level. Personally, I preferred the format of the Flash ads since they were closable, but Google’s decision to kill them off is understandable.

I understand that nobody likes ads, and honestly I wish I didn’t have to put them in the game at all. In WarLight’s first five years, it never showed a single ad! But that was not sustainable, as the game lost money every year.

If you don’t like ads, think of it this way: ads are what enable WarLight to be free. If ads didn’t exist, didn’t work, or if everyone ran adblock, WarLight would have to be a paid game. It costs over $1,000 per month just to keep WarLight’s servers online, and that money has to come from somewhere. Of course, players always have the option of getting a membership to play ad-free, which also gives you full access to the new Unity client!

Regarding the Unity client, I’m working hard to try to get it released as soon as possible. There are still a few unannounced surprises, so stay tuned — exciting things are coming!

15 thoughts on “Goodbye Flash ads”

  1. The new method of delivering ads does not work with Firefox. 70% of the time, I have to refresh the page because the ad does not display and I just have a blank screen. I experienced the problem on two different computers at two different locations with two different internet providers.

  2. I’d love to buy a membership but refuse to use PayPal anymore due to an identity theft issue I had because of them.
    What other options are available for paying? It seems that PayPal is the only one listed.

  3. Hi Fizzer,
    in the first hours the new appearance worked fine to me (Linux, Firefox). Now when I open a game link both the right and the bottom side are no more visible or usable. (With Opera is still fine).Pls. fix that!
    Regards

  4. GOODBYE FLASH ADS… welcome the newer and the worst

    Before that we saw advertisements with prostitutes anywhere on the WarLight’s page, but not during the game. Now the visibility of maps is considerably reduced because we have to make room for these new html ads, which, you say, are better.
    But I say the internet is full of free games without ads, without their owners complaining about paying for the server. But not WarLight and Wikipedia. You need to tell us how hard is for you.
    What… Are you afraid to die!? We all do this, sooner or later, only some choose to do it with dignity.
    Although I have overlooked the promotion of prostitution, I also participated in paying for a month as membership on your site, but that does not mean that I have to support your business permanently, because that’s just your problem, cos it’s your job. And we both know very well that you win a lot from this game and your greed makes you to want even more.
    Now I expect from you to delete my account, including this message and that it will prove you how panicked you are.

    1. He didn’t say they were better, he said they were the next best thing after google killed off flash ads. You need to actually read things first.
      You say the internet is full of adless free games, this is true but… How many adless free games that don’t offer pay to win are there? not nearly as many.
      Also, so you want Warlight to die? then why are you here?

  5. I have member so adds aren’t problem for me. New Unity Client is. It works very poorly. Game is crashing but main problem is loading time. It is dissaster :-( i love this game and hope when final version of Unity client will be ready Warlight start working flowlessly.

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