The quest for a good and bad flash website...

So here i am in another Flash class asking myself "Why do i continue to take these Flash classes if my background is in HTML"? I've been creating HTML sites since i was a kid and I've grown very comfortable with it. But here i am in my third flash class still asking myself the same question. I really don't have anything against flash sites. I guess I'm just trying to find some justification to learn the necessary skills to be able to incorporate it into my skill set. I have built flash sites in the past and it was more or less an adventure in frustration and accomplishment but, in the end, I couldn't help but wonder if all the trouble was worth the extra time i had to put into it. Maybe i can get some new perspective out of this class that will help me answer my original question.

Anyways...

The first assignment!

So i have to look for sites that i would consider "good" and "bad". This should be fun. I have done these kinds of assignments in the past and i enjoy them a lot. Depending on the site, i can say so much about them but i think the ones that stand out are the ones that leave me without anything to say. If it leaves me in awe or having me questioning humanity, it is all in good fun. So on to...

The good....

Machinarium

Machinarium is a puzzle based adventure game that is completely flash based. Since its a flash game, the demo of the full version of the game was integrated into the main website. Its pretty amazing. With a playable version of the game being offered right upfront it keeps users on the site for an extended period of time. The interface is clean and simplistic with nothing to distract the user from the game. The music is hauntingly charming and shares its artistic style with its hand drawn landscapes and characters. The whole site itself is a beautiful reminder that flash as a gaming platform can be taken seriously as its web based counterpart.

Now for the bad....

Evangel Cathedral

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Seriously? I LAUGHED when i first loaded this site. I found this site on Blueglass.com with a hilarious description:

"This next one has been on Digg with the headline The Most Intense Web Site Intro Ever.It is intense — some would call it Flashturbation. It seems like lots of churches have heavy flash intro budgets. Is this Religion 3.0? If so, it seems to consist of lightning, woosh sounds and seizure-inducing effects:"

Now that is a perfect way of describing the overall style of this website. Ive never seen anything like this...i just wish i could have kept it that way.

So the first nitpick is that this site takes forever to load. This is someone who has a pretty good DSL connection and download gigabytes and gigabytes of data daily. The intro took about a good minute or two while the main page took about five minutes or more to load. I've made many HTML and flash sites and, i have to say, if they took THAT LONG to download then i would have been in trouble. There is no reason why a website with this kind of content should have to take that long to load. 

The "Flashturbation" of the intro is amazing. I compare it to some 10 year old who watched the whole Dragonball Z series and somehow managed to translate that into a church themed flash animation. Its tacky, lame, and just... amateurish. Within the first five seconds of watching the intro, I lost all respect i had for this site. Its just awful.

On to the main site...actually...i cant say anything about it. One look at the cramped main page i let out a hearty laugh and closed the window immediately! No way am i going to navigate this site. WHAT THE HELL is going on here? Seriously? This is not how to make a website. PERIOD! Technically the animations are...decent. The transitions are...decent but besides that everything is... amateurish. I'm really having a hard time coming up with nice things to say. There is just no artistic direction with this. It hurts my heart....and my laughing glads.

Oh and the music is freaking great! It just screams "COME TO OUR CHURCH!!!!!!"

I really hope we get more assignments like this in the future. It was a great remind that the internet is full of entertaining crap. I love you internet <3.