   [web] Questions regarding Building a Browser Based MMO
  Hey guysI am in the process of starting up the development for a Browser based Soccer Fantasy Management MMO quite similar on the lines of Championship Manager Online, and had few questions regarding the approach :- Should I develop it entirely in flash or should I do a mix between Flash and PHP/Rails ( Basically all gameplay, Formations sections would be done in flash while the UI, Stats, auction,Chat system would be done in PHP/Rails )- Where would server API's come in picture like Electro Server or Smartfox ?- Which one would be easier to port towards Mobile ?- What would be the advantages of using Rails over PHP and vice versa?These are pretty much the questions I have for now and will update the topic accordingly as I have more queries.Thanks for your time.- Spiffo   
  1) read #3, kinda answered that there in one --edit to thread2) Sorry, but im not sure3) The iPhone and iPod touch are the main handheld devices that run a fully-functional browser. Similar to those that are on desktops. It does not come with a flash plugin, but after googling around there are some ways to get it on. Correct me if im wrong, but CMO looks like a web app, kinda like how facebook games are. Just a lot more to it obviously. The reason to use flash for games is to provide higher levels of interactivity, and animation to it. Such as having a character running around, or providing a great way to have some background music. Im not sure entirely what are goals for the project, but you may want todo an AJAX app for this.4) Either works really well. I tried a bit of Rails earlier in the year, and found it pretty cool. Just a bit too different then what I am used to coding (ASP/PHP/JSP). Can launch some simple apps extremely quickly with it. PHP is also nice, as it has been around for some time, therefore theres lots of information about it, and how to do various tasks. I suggest for you to go with what you're most comfortable with. In both cases, just make sure you use the MVC pattern, and keep things as object oriented as possible. It will make it easier to manage, and less code should run a little faster.   ;  Generally, you want the client to be as dumb as possible, logic and data saving is all done on the server. The client NEVER tells the server "this is the new value", instead it says "I am requesting you change the value to this"... otherwise it's really easy for someone to hack your game.I'd personally recommend a client done in Flash, communicating with a server-side app. PHP is used but I'd prefer a more application-styled approach, using Java or C#. I've used Smartfox with Java and it's pretty good in my opinion, you don't have to write any kind of network layer yourself, just send messages between client & server.   