Web browsers have come a long way since their inception, evolving from a simple means of displaying text documents over the network to complex software stacks with advanced graphics and network capabilities. As personal computers grew in popularity, developers jumped at the opportunity to deploy cross-platform games with centralized management and a low barrier to entry. Simply going to the right address is now enough to start a game. From text-based to GPU-powered 3D games, browser gaming has evolved to become a strong alternative to traditional console and mobile-based gaming, targeting both casual and advanced gamers. Browser technology has also evolved to accommodate more demanding applications, sometimes even supplanting functions typically left to the operating system. Today, websites display rich, computationally intensive, hardware-accelerated graphics, allowing developers to build ever-more impressive applications and games.In this paper, we present the evolution of browser gaming and the technologies that enabled it, from the release of the first text-based games in the early 1990s to current open-world and game-engine-powered browser games. We discuss the societal impact of browser gaming and how it has allowed a new target audience to accessdigital gaming. Finally, we review the potential future evolution ofthe browser gaming industry.

翻译：自诞生以来，网页浏览器已走过漫长的发展历程，从最初在网络上显示文本文档的简单工具，演变为具备先进图形处理与网络能力的复杂软件栈。随着个人电脑的普及，开发者抓住机遇，推出了具有集中化管理和低准入门槛的跨平台游戏。如今，只需访问正确的网址即可开始游戏。从基于文本的界面到GPU驱动的3D游戏，浏览器游戏已发展成为传统主机与移动游戏的有力替代品，同时面向休闲玩家与硬核玩家。浏览器技术也随之演进，以承载要求更高的应用，有时甚至取代了通常由操作系统负责的功能。如今，网站能够呈现丰富、计算密集型且硬件加速的图形内容，使开发者能够构建愈发令人惊叹的应用与游戏。本文从20世纪90年代初首批文本游戏问世，到当前开放世界与游戏引擎驱动的浏览器游戏，阐述了浏览器游戏的演进历程及其支撑技术。我们探讨了浏览器游戏的社会影响，以及它如何让新的受众群体接触到数字游戏。最后，我们展望了浏览器游戏产业的未来潜在发展方向。