What's the word on the website and the web version of the game?

I'm getting some conflicting information so I thought I'd just ask what's going on. Some posts on the forums say that the web version is dead, a few, like this one, say that it's still good, and the website still points to a web version, but that doesn't seem to be working for me. So my questions are: is there a current web version (meaning that I'm the problem)? If not, then are there any plans to revive that or is Card Hunter a Steam exclusive forever? And also: if there's no web version then who is maintaining the website which still points to something that doesn't exist?

 

I personally expect the Knights to come up with something better than Steam, because they are better than Steam.
Just my opinion, of course.

 

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

The main reason for the confusion is that the web version was around for (months) longer than Flash was officially supported. If you still had Flash installed and had a browser that wouldn't out right block any Flash content, you could log into the web version after both the Knights and all browser vendors claimed Flash to be dead (all given the known security risks of using deprecated software, aka the then unmaintained Flash and old browser versions). But not for (too) long, some update to the game broke (as far as I know) any existing chances to access the Flash version. Currently, not only the flash version is outdated and wouldn't connect to the server anymore, but it appears that the Knights actively block access to the Flash version (I won't post links here to open them up for hackers, but I still have/know the sub-domain that ran the game, so I just checked and the actual swf-file is blocked by permissions (or out right deleted) nowadays).

As others, I really hope that they bring back a standalone version (aka with no launcher crap and achievement tracking and stuff) of some sorts for this game. And if they don't forget Linux, I almost don't care whether it is a browser-based access again, or an actual (installable) app. The problem: as far as I know, the Steam version still to this day uses the Flash code base that the browser version used (because Steam still supports a variant of Flash). So, making the game available for anything but Steam would require them to rewrite the client entirely. And given that Card Hunter actually got new content in the last year or so - which obviously costs time - I don't know if there is any time to tackle such a huge project with no actual payoff. The Steam sales can't be too bad, otherwise the Knights wouldn't have acquired Card Hunter. Still, making oneself dependent on a single platform (Steam in this case) is never a preferable situation. Just look at the whole Apple vs. Epic case, where it gets clear that the actual content providers can't freely charge anymore what they want. Or this other case where a whole platform was about to (almost completely) vanish from the internet: Don't know how far I'm allowed to reference nsfw-stuff, but just look at the uproar when a prominent "content subscription service" in August (whether or not due to pressure from payment processors) for a few days announced to ban certain adult-content. If payment processors decided to not service Steam anymore (because Steam also features nsfw-titles), the whole platform would be dead over night unless they switch over to crypto-currencies, which is a whole can of worms of its own. TL;DR: You can't achieve a state where literally nothing could negatively affect your existence, but nonetheless you should diversify in a way to make it less likely that external forces can completely block you at will.