Just wanted to briefly go over the outlook of 2020 for Vizzed. I've got some good, I've got some bad, and then I've got some plans that I hope many can be part of.


The Bad
As everyone probably knows, Flash gets discontinued at the end of this year. This affects the Retro Game Room because the RGR Plugin relies on Flash to work. Without Flash, Vizzed RGR Plugin doesn't work. So in other words, the plugin will probably be discontinued at the end of 2020.

I unfortunately do not have the budget to have it updated to not require flash so the HTML5 emulators are going to be its replacement, specifically RetroArch. This doesn't resolve the lack of netplay issue, which is a big issue. Netplay has been a big part of why this site has had such a great retro gaming community over the past decade.

RetroArch is capable of netplay but not the emscripten (HTML5) version which we use. It could potentially be compiled to support that and that's something I will be investing many hours and weeks into in the upcoming months but we'll see how that ends. I don't plan to invest more than 100 hours into that and if I start tackling that project and realize it's going to take me more than 100 hours, I'll probably just not continue.


The Good
I honestly think the site's community is picking back up. We've had a lot of high posting days over the past few months, far greater than what we've see in the past few years, and we've also had a lot of new posting users, which is amazing.

While all of that is news you all mostly know, what you all don't know is that the site's traffic is actually starting to pick back up again. Here's a graph showing the site's traffic over the past year:


This past summer was a real low point for some reason, which really was terrible since the traffic usually rises at that time. The traffic is up by 65% though since last summer and up by almost 50% compared to a year ago.


The Plans
Well since Netplay will more than likely be a thing of the past a year from now, my focus will be to do those old Netplay sessions I use to do with users years ago. Streaming multiplayer RGR games with users was something I and many others really enjoyed doing and I will always cherish those memories of hanging out with the users of this site while gaming in the RGR.

I'm not sure if I'll do any more Netplay Tournaments since those haven't had enough interest in the past years (unless of course I can rally up enough users to take interest) so I'll end those with the upcoming Bomberman '94 tournament but I could try out day long tournaments, similar to what I've been doing with the current Minecraft tournaments. Most of all though, I just want to do some gaming with users. There were some really fun 4 player and 5 player co-op games I'd love to beat with users. Lots of different challenges I'd like to do with Foxyman1113 and lilwildwolf21 (Djinn) again.

So starting sometime early next month, I'm going to try and stream myself gaming RGR Netplay games with other users weekly. Wednesdays are always good days to set up stuff like this so that'll probably be the days that I aim for. I'm hoping to get a variety of users involved and I'm also hoping to do a variety of segments. My goal is to try and dedicate 16-20 hours a month into doing Netplay with users for the remaining months of 2020 and I also hope to archive and preserve the memories we will make by putting together YouTube videos showcasing the final memories we all shared together in the Netplay Room of the Retro Game Room

Well this stinks...Guess I'll have to download emulators and roms just to play. I know there's HTML5 but I find it just too slow >.<

Firstly thanks for taking the time to write this.

It's always good to know what plans are for the future and then hopefully as a community we can enjoy it also.

I don't really have much else to say as i don't really use the RGR but i'm sure the people that do will appreciate this heads up.

To the future!

Cant we all just switch to firefox? It's what I use and I've only seen Chrome say its being discontinued.

Btw I'm down for a netplay tourney

While it sucks to hear about the RGR going down at the end of the year with it being the reason my uncle found the site and ultimately introduced me to the site I'm also looking forward to the future. RGR or not at this point I can't imagine anything would make me stop considering Vizzed a home to me so no changes on my part. I'll have to consider joining some of the RGR streams since I use to love it back in the day but it's been so long I'm not sure if it even works anymore so that's something I will have to look into.

It's sad to hear we have no replacement for the RGR, many of us came here because of it, though we ended up staying for everything else this site could offer.

Hopefully RetroArch and its constant updates will eventually allow us to use as many RGR systems as possible. The netplay thing could be something worth of testing if it does get implemented, we'll know more about it in the upcoming weeks.

Good to see the traffic picking up again. We indeed have had new faces popping out, returning veterans and people being a bit more active. This is what makes this site lively, and 2020 is off to a positive start.

Haven't used the RGR in a while, but this is sad news indeed. Appreciate the update, and look forward to the site continuing to grow again

Davideo7 : You know, I've always wondered how you got RertoArch onto a website. Can you possibly teach me how?

I curious about what Blacksmith mentioned. Can't we direct users to flash supported browsers?

Glad to see that the site is picking up again, and I'm glad to be back during this time. Its sad to see that the game room will eventually be phased out. However, I believe that Davideo7 will find a solution that benefits the site and its users. I'll continue to be here on the site and giving my input and greeting the new members that join. Let's have a kick ass 2020 and become a more close knit community!

Davideo7 : personally, I think with Flash going down the toilet at the end of this year, personally, I think it's time for Vizzed to be gone into a brand new direction, such as ditching the whole RGR and maybe, just maybe think about a new idea to bring forths for the entire site in general.

I know that Vizzed was built to house the RGR and such, and sure, the idea has basically went down the tubes since half of the RGR was destroyed with you forced to take down the 1st Party Nintendo games and all of the hacks related those games.

Maybe if we turn this game to one of those Video Game websites that tells like game info, cheats, walkthroughs, FAQs, gaming news, and stuff like that, as well as a website where you can have users to find other users to play online games and content like that, mostly like one of those online hubs where you can share your online profiles to friend on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and Steam.

Plus not just mentioning sharing your online profile, but also a link for users to provide to streaming services such as Discord and YouTube, to gain the user a lot more popularity rather than just hoping for the best if you don't have like a starting platform site like Vizzed to advertise your streaming channels.

Although those are just my thoughts about the future of Vizzed, and I know a lot of other users has different ideas on what they think is best for the future of Vizzed, and ideas that other has is perfectly fine.

Netplay has always been a great thing for me here on this site. This has been the best retro community i have ever joined. I know there are many emulators and rom's out there. But netplay is what this site had compared to most and still around others sites shut down.

Traffic increase is always good and it seems alot of new faces have been coming in which is also good. i know its been tough for vizzed as not everyone is browser focuse as they would be in a console/mobile app. I do remember Vizzed mentioning a possible mobile app what if we had a mobile/desktop app to keep vizzed alive or possibly a extension.

Other then that we all have met great members on this site and it kept us all together. If anyone hasnt be sure to join the official Vizzed discord server. Be sure to post this on discord as well discord is the best way to keep in touch as everyone has access to it 24/7.

it was a good time with the thought of the rgr plugin, i sure will miss all the good times using the netplay as well

its time to say good bye to the netplay and all the items from from the vizzed shop

Well that sucks, I get it cause flash is dying, but the plugin was something I used a ton growing up on vizzed, and honestly the mednafen implementation is several times better than the Retroarch implementation.

Then again I haven't used the plugin in years so I doubt it'll affect me, but for those who prefer it, it definitely will.

Wonder if the RGR plugin being flash dependent is why I've had issues on some of the RGR emulators...

Well, i am definitely glad to hear about site traffic going back up again. Just in time for me to come back lol. The flash game thing probably won't be a huge deal for me since i haven't used this site for games in a long time. I spend most of my gaming hours on my switch nowadays too.

I'm sure that the site won't have too much trouble recovering. If anything, we just have to find something new, not like a new code or whatever, but a new draw to the site.

Davideo7 : hey take your time i'll be waiting on it

The big question for me is when the Flash emulators discontinue, how will we be able to properly play N64 and MAME games? With HTML5, MAME games don't start at all, and N64 games have unbearable amounts of lag that make them much worse than unplayable. No other website allows you to properly play those games, so it will really suck if I have to let go of those titles.

Downloading emulators and ROMs and stuff is WAY too risky for me! If you succeed, you get some games. Otherwise, some damned hacker will strip you of every last penny and you'll end up homeless, and in the long run, doomed.

Past there, though, HTML5 still plays NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy Advance games and the sort reliably well, so I'll still be able to play some games, thankfully. At that rate, I'll be playing here on Vizzed 'till the day it truly dies.

SailorMoon251 : I like what you said about downloading emulators. LOL! Sad but true. It's risky as hell, and I don't know if I would even attempt to do it. You don't know how many of these so called ROMs or emulators contain viruses and malware. There should be a way to load Nintendo games that you played on Vizzed before into the new RetroArch emulators. The site still does have the Sonic games, thankfully.

I've never bothered with N64 or MAME games. I remember the N64 games having issues back in 2015. You had to have a pretty expensive PC to run those. I don't know about MAME. I'd probably try to buy these games in a game store somewhere if I could get to where I had some steady income. That's a whole different story. Maybe David will come up with something in the near future.

So far, Vizzed has been running a lot better and seems more stable. For that, I'm thankful.