The diversity of what can be produced using the Flash platform is pretty extensive. When I tell someone “I make things in Flash”, in no way does that help them understand what sort of thing I make. There are Flash apps, Flash games and Flash animations, and within those there are subcategories based on the developer’s skill level, the year the thing was produced (which often has a profound impact on the thing’s visual aesthetic) and the intended audience. Flash covers a lot of ground.
So I had an idea just now. Why can’t we apply music genre-related terms to Flash stuff on the web? For instance, “folk Flash” might refer to the contents of such sites as Newgrounds and Albinoblacksheep. It’s not pretty, but it’s not meant to be; it’s a low-fidelity layer of the Flash community that focuses on Internet memes and crappy addictive games. “Pop Flash”, on the other hand, might encapsulate all the overdone Flash sites that entice visitors but quickly become dated (whatever happened to Xeo Freestyle?).
In twenty years, when we can reflect on them more clearly, pop Flash sites would make ripe material for a “Where are they now?” look back on the interactive web, while folk Flash would probably have the same aesthetic and target audience as it does now. These are characteristics that define these types of Flash works, and categorizing them might help the Flash community better understand trends in our own culture. Just an idea.
