I really underestimated how popular the "online multiplayer" feature would be!
It's fascinating to see how many people voted for it, but I think it will not be implemented in the near feature for a few reasons:
- it's a very complicated feature which could take a very long time to implement, and as popular as it is I think the other options (like monetisation options) are better to do first since they are probably quicker and arguably more important.
- browser support is still not very good: the Websockets spec was only just very recently finished, and Chrome and Firefox are the only browsers which currently fully and correctly implement it AFAIK. So it may not work well or at all on other browsers or mobiles. Waiting some time will allow other browsers to mature their support and catch up.
- multiplayer games are also difficult to develop even once we've added support, requiring server hosting and very carefully tuned events to make sure it works well in real-time. So I'm not convinced everyone will be able to easily take advantage of it.
Rest assured I'm now well aware of the popularity of the option, but basically having thought carefully about the practicalities I think it would be best to postpone it at least a few months.
So the next features in line are most likely:
- directCanvas (currently working with appMobi to get this working really nicely for C2 games)
- more event sheet features (coming up in next beta release)
- better monetisation features
- family behaviors (partly for completeness, since then the Families feature is 100% complete)
- then I'll probably do another poll...
As in the OP, no guarantees on things actually being done this way, just trying to best sync up the order of work with the best thing for everyone, while taking in to account practicalities.