The actual arguments against NaCl have been reiterated many times, and go well beyond the circular reasoning you suggest is being displayed. Unless you want to argue for the fun of arguing, the polite thing to do is to consider the previous arguments as implicitly included in the current discussion, and interpret other comments as charitably as possible.
For the sake of completeness, I'll note one of the biggest detriments of original NaCl: a lack of platform independence.
Platform independence is not an obvious goal for game developers. If it were, you would see the same game show up in every platform, but that's not what we see. Heck, only recently did we really see games show up for Mac. For high performance contexts, you want to be able to express algorithms in a way that takes full advantage of the hardware, and the lack of homogeneity in hardware demands a platform-dependent solution.
With things like Valve and the Mac App Store, installation is a non problem.
I have less issues downloading and updating an app like that, than keening with the subpar experience that is web games, browser compatibility et al.
Not to mention that with the speed of todays networks, even manual installation is a non problem.
We can even put a nice facade on top of it: "just visit this page and click "Install" and you get an app running locally after some small download time. It will even be sandboxed and all-in-one, so it won't mess any part of your system".
For one, it's merely one of around 20 steps you have to take in either case anyway (steps like: type url, press enter to goto page, wait for page to load, click through some license staff, click to start to play, click for fullscreen if you want, wait for assets and loading, click game settings, suffer through the intro, read help for the game controls, etc). So, yes, you might get rid of one measly step -- all the while introducing other steps, lags and inefficiencies.
Second, this step buys you freedom from having the program run on somebody else's mercy. Of course for networked games and apps with central servers you cannot avoid it.
But I would sure as hell like to avoid it for any program that doesn't need a central server. I don't want to use "Photoshop in the browser" and loose all my stuff when Adobe decides to lock me out or kill the service a la Google Reader. Plus have it be susceptible to internet outages, slowdowns, and using technologies and speeds that's 2-3 generations behind a native app. Not all programs gain from running on the browser. A lot of them lose.
That's a lot of strawmen you've set up there. Want a lighter? We can burn them down together.
Yes the scenarios you describe are ridiculous and unacceptable. But thankfully we live in the real world where those extra steps you describe don't actually exist in apps that were programmed by actually good programmers.
As for whether it matters one iota: It matters if you want more people to play your game. You are a progammer, and so you don't perceive the actual difficulty level of software installation. On the other hand, for normal people with average skill levels, having to install software can present a significant barrier to entry.
>Yes the scenarios you describe are ridiculous and unacceptable. But thankfully we live in the real world where those extra steps you describe don't actually exist in apps that were programmed by actually good programmers.
I have not seen even ONE (ONE) online app or game, where most of the above steps do not exist. You might be able to find one. I doubt you'll find two, much less five.
So, straw-men? Puh-lease.
>It matters if you want more people to play your game. You are a progammer, and so you don't perceive the actual difficulty level of software installation.
For one, you sidestepped all my arguments. I proposed systems like the Mac App Store and Valve -- and even more automated solution, like the Java Web Start for the 21st century (click a button on a webpage, and it's installed and running locally).
And yet, you tell me that "for normal people with average skill levels, having to install software can present a significant barrier to entry", as if we were discussing manual installers and stuff.
You are responding not to what I said, but to the preconceived ideas you have about traditional installers. The stuff I discussed (MAS, etc) are not at all "a significant barrier to entry".
Heck, 5 year olds to 70 year olds can use them just fine on their Mac or their iPhone. I've seen that.
People's ability to pirate games is already broken- the more of a game's essential logic gets moved onto a server, the more useless the blob of code you hand over to clients is.
On the other hand, that also destroys a game's ability to be archived, creating a cultural "dark ages" if the approach picks up adoption. "Piracy" is essential to future historians.
For the sake of completeness, I'll note one of the biggest detriments of original NaCl: a lack of platform independence.