Wired News: 2002's Greatest Vaporware

Quill writes "Wired News has once again compiled a list of last year's greatest (worst?) pieces of vaporware. The winner (I won't spoil the surprise) has been on the list three times now! The nomination process was mentioned a few weeks ago on Slashdot."

Comments

mostly

[SweetAndSourJesus]

Metroid Prime : exceptional gameplay
Super Mario Sunshine : exceptional gameplay

There are still fun games being released. Good gameplay isn't gone, it's just being drowned out by all the crap out there.

Of course they're the minority, like in anything. How many movies came out this year that were focused on viewer enjoyment rather than glitz and flash?

Re:mostly

[Osty]

Metroid Prime : exceptional gameplay

Metroid Prime: horrid control scheme

Super Mario Sunshine : exceptional gameplay

Sure, but it's nothing new. It's just Mario 64 with fancier graphics and a water gun. That doesn't mean it's not fun, just that it's nothing new.

Now, how about Splinter Cell? It has the graphics thing down cold (mmm ... real time dynamic lights and shadows, soft body physics ...), and the gameplay is new and interesting (okay, so it's not revolutionary either, being an evolutionary step from games like the Metal Gear series and previous Tom Clancy games).

Of course they're the minority, like in anything. How many movies came out this year that were focused on viewer enjoyment rather than glitz and flash?

Exactly. This is something that the retro guys always forget -- they're looking back through rose-colored glasses. For every Super Mario World, or Legend of Zelda, or original Metroid there were hundreds of stinkers, rip-offs, and copies. There were tons and tons of games with terrible gameplay and no redeeming qualities. But, because it's the past, we don't remember those. We only remember the good games. Same goes for movies and for music. The past wasn't any better than now, it's just that time has made you forget the horrendous crap that was released.

The obvious reason for vaporware games

[wackybrit]

I started helping on an open source project called Project Armageddon in 1996. It became a massive thing, with about 50 guys working, artists, programmers, the works. It was due for release in 1998. It still hasn't been released..

Why? Because technology moves too quickly and your game looks old fast. If you write a game with a target for release in two years, you write for the highest end kit, make sure your engine scales, and hope for the best. But what if when two years have passed, you need another year to finish the title? Your title immediately looks old!

What if Red Alert 2 ran a year late? It'd look like an old clunky piece of crap. Okay, it's still an excellent game, but it was more cutting edge in 2000 than it possibly could be in 2001.

So, when titles run even just a year late, the developers have to rush and scramble to make their graphics engine look up to date.. but that introduces new bugs, so they become even more delayed.. then they need to upgrade the engine AGAIN, and repeat ad nauseum.

Re:The obvious reason for vaporware games

[GlassHeart]

technology moves too quickly and your game looks old fast.

So find another niche to play in. Actually invent a new game, and it will look new.

But what if when two years have passed, you need another year to finish the title?

This sounds cruel, because the market is cruel, but your product then deserves to die. Schedule estimates off by 50% are rarely survivable.

Please don't think I'm attacking you or your project, or that I'm saying I can somehow do better. I'm just saying that when trapped in a rat race with otherwise identical competitors, you must either do the job better than anybody else or create a new job entirely.

As (I believe) Nintendo once said

[grahamwest]

A late game is only late until it's released. A bad game will be bad forever. How many people remember when Super Mario 64 was supposed to be released vs when it actually shipped?

In any case if you're going to put "Forever" in your game's title you have to expect a certain amount of jokes about it.

Re:Game-to-be-left-unmentioned

[MuValas]

Actually, the engine, although definitely one of the most technically complex parts, is no longer the "hardest" part. The core engine can still be designed by a small team ( 5, easily, 3 or less if they're really good, a la Carmack), and even in that, the core graphics is pretty much done by one person even on today's game. All the tools for the artist, level designers, and such, take up significantly more programmer time than the engine. And that is dwarfed by the content creation that artists and designers go through. I'd say the hardest part is actually making a fun, interesting game, while still maintaining a shiny patina of graphical goodness.

Go create a single, high-poly, production-level model, including a bunch of animations, and then multiply by about 10,000 and you'll get a feel for the effort involved.

And while I'm sure he was in on the design process, its not like Carmack sat around doing everything himself, surrounded by a chorus of yes-men-and-women, cheering him on. I'm pretty sure most everything outside of the graphics is done by others, please correct me if I'm wrong. Take a look at Armadillo Aerospace, and you'll see where he's been spending his time (and money, yikes!).

And as for needing to sell a copy to every computer user, at an inflated price - do the math and you'll see that's a bit off. Say, $100, and 100 million computers in the country, which makes for a nice cool $10 billion if my maths (as the brits say) are correct. Its a moot point anyway, I'm sure the Duke Nukem' group have made so much cash off the old franchise, that its pretty much a rich-person's hobby at this point.

Hell, I'll be incredibly impressed if they do get a good-quality game out the door any time in the next decade. Give me $50 million or so, and I don't think I'd ever get anything done again, especially not something as demanding and intense as game development.

I'd just get stuck at the stripper motion capture sessions the press has mentioned ;)

Re:Game-to-be-left-unmentioned

[Safety Cap]

And people wonder why it is so hard to make money in the computer game industry...

It is hard if you don't know what you are a doing. Unfortunately, creating software is much like any construction project: without proper planning and design, the only thing you're going to do is spend a lot of money and put out a crappy product. Now, there are exceptions -- particularly if you are working on a single-developer, small project, or you are incredibly lucky -- lucky like my 90-year old grandma who smoked a pack a day ever since she was nine.

Let me quote from the article:

"We're undeniably late and we know it. We've switched engines a couple of times, and we've started over a couple of times. We've made some mistakes, and we've learned from them.
--George Broussard, President, 3D Realms

That pretty much says it all: they had no plan, they're making all of the classic mistakes of software development, and they are burning through the cash as if it were marshmallows at a boy scout outing.

The least they can do is hire a competent project manager to slap those ho's back on track.

Way I figure it, if they had 3 developers and one manager working full time for five years, they've already burned through close to two million dollars and have nothing to show for it. Hope they figure they can sell enough copies to *cough* at least break even. Do'o!

It's pretty cut and dried...

[phillymjs]

...if you can't walk into a store and pick it off a shelf, or otherwise acquire it, it is vaporware.

Companies can demo it and say it's 'almost ready' all they want, but until you can get product in exchange for payment, it's vaporware.

~Philly

Re:Quark

[WatertonMan]

It has really hurt Apple though, which in turn affects many other things. A lot of people think that the two things holding Apple back from large increases in market share were no Quark for OSX (and a crappy version 5) and then Motorola's falling down on the G5. (Which, now that Motorola cancelled it, would get a vote from me for vaporware - however the cancelation sort of neglegates a true "vapor" label)

Here's hoping IBM delivers the 970 soon and that Quark won't release something as bad as I think they will. Not because I'll use Quark, but I know how the "trickle down" effect works. By the same reasoning I didn't own Global Crossing or Enron stock, but their screw ups affected me nonetheless.

Re:Glad Duke Nukem is taking forever..

[KewlPC]

All the funny lines from Duke Nukem 3D were stolen.

"It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all out of bubblegum."
-Duke Nukem 3D

"I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all out of bubblegum."
-They Live (a John Carpenter movie starring Roddy Piper and that black guy from Platoon), release in 1988

A great many also came from the Evil Dead movies, and sounded much cooler when spoken by Bruce Campbell. I guess that's what happens when you get a radio DJ to do the lines for your game.

What's worse, George Broussard said in a magazine interview that all the sayings and such in Duke Nukem 3D and Duke Nukem Forever were original. In the same article, there were screenshots from DNF where Duke Nukem loses his hand and puts a chainsaw in its place (a la the Evil Dead movies). Message for Mr. Broussard: open mouth wider and insert other foot...