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Wired News: 2002's Greatest Vaporware

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the most-magnitudinous dept.

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."

18 of 349 comments (clear)

  1. Game-to-be-left-unmentioned by MrWa · · Score: 5, Interesting
    And people wonder why it is so hard to make money in the computer game industry...how many people, getting paid how much, have worked for so long to make this game? What are the chances it will come even close to breaking even? If every person that owned a computer bought a copy of this game, at the insane price it would have to be, would that even be enough?

    It has been said before but bears repeating: the games of yesteryear had something that all these new games, with their fancy graphics and supposedly advanced AIs, still can't seem to replace. Repeat after us Mr. Game developers: it's all the gameplay.

    1. Re:Game-to-be-left-unmentioned by fantastic · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This is the same Broussard who claimed that changing the engine mid stream would *not* affect the release date back in 1998

      Yeah right, because it is never going to get released at this rate.

      They need an organized project manager, George stick to getting the strippers in the game just right. Leave the project stuff to someone else, purleeeze

  2. Re:D00000000P! by EvanED · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Have to point out... the [Wired] article is dated Jan 2. Can't be a dupe. Sure, we've had very, very similar stories before, but seeing as the article in question was posted today, it can't really be a dupe.

  3. Glad Duke Nukem is taking forever.. by xchino · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Persoanlly I'm glad Duke Nukem has been taking forever. I know this company has the ability to make a great game, and that they WANT to make a great game. Taking their time to do it right means alot to the overall gameplay. Even the best game ideas can be slaughtered by lack of attention to details.
    They've updated the engine a few times and started over a few times.
    Any coders out there know that sometimes intense modification or starting over is just what has to be done to make your program what you want. Or you could take the easy route and compromise your program concept to account for a mistake. A poor analogy would be that this is like shoveling all the crap in your roomunder the bed instead of cleaning up.

    --
    Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
    1. Re:Glad Duke Nukem is taking forever.. by GlassHeart · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Any coders out there know that sometimes intense modification or starting over is just what has to be done to make your program what you want.

      Yes, in many cases a rewrite is better than reuse. However, you do not discover major faults in your code that require a rewrite (much less "a few times") in the middle of development. To do so indicates that your team does not understand the code base it was to reuse, or did not understand the requirements. Either form of incompetence rightfully results in failure, especially in a cutthroat market like games.

      Also, "started over a few times" does not say "taking time to do it right" to me. It says they don't know how to do it right, and are just fumbling in the dark.

      Note that I am not familiar with their actual development practices, so I am assuming your description is accurate, and basing my comments on that.

    2. Re:Glad Duke Nukem is taking forever.. by Erik+Hollensbe · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Duke 3d had something that very few games (and certainly nothing from iD has ever produced) had:

      panache.

      Duke 3d was funny, the game play was excellent, the weapons had originality.

      There have been a few games out there that have this combo, but none of them are fun in multiplayer as well. :)

    3. Re:Glad Duke Nukem is taking forever.. by Anonymous+DWord · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Duke3D ruled in multiplayer. The laser trip bomb is one of the greatest weapons ever.

      --
      "If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
  4. Gotta toot my own horn, here... by phillymjs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When the request for nominations went out, I posted my nomination, QuarkXPress for OS X, in the previous /. discussion, and also submitted it to Wired.

    Lo and behold, not only is it #7 on the list, but they quoted me in the article!

    To quote Bart Simpson, "There's only one thing to do at a moment like this: strut!" <cues up "Stayin' Alive">

    ~Philly

  5. Gotta' admire that gumption... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "In the end all that matters is the quality of the game," he continued. "So, lessons have been learned, and progress is being made, and we're working as quickly and quietly as we can. You're completely justified in calling us 'turtleware,' at the very least, but the release date is still 'when it's done.'"

    We need more of this in the world.

  6. Re:segway by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Wasn't this supposed to have changed every american city by now?

    Well, I dunno if they will be the last, but San Francisco has already moved to ban them from sidewalks.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  7. Re:Dated != not fun by Zorton · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My sentiments exactly. I can't tell you how many times we have had a LAN party where the game being played was quite dated. Heck I even went so far as to order another copy of TA because my friend who wanted to play it couldn't find his CD.

    The problem with the latest greatest game is that is requires the latest greatest hardware. Not to mention the cost of the game is high.

    Plus there is the problem gameplay, like another post pointed out games like Pacman are still popular while I have trouble keeping interested in teh latest real time because of simple flaws in the interface.

    To quote fight club "I say let's deevolve, let the chips fall where they may". Screw the thousand gibs, the blowing wind on the open field and all the other eye candys and give me a game with the complexity and maturity of empire. Or how bout one that improves on the gameplay and tweeks problems with the UI? Or even better a game that could be played on older hardware and would scale properly on new hardware. That way the guy with the neon bulbs in his case and twelve cooling fans on his graphix card could host for everyone running on their trusty old laptops.

    But then again, I'm just a guy with a computer and a few bytes to send.

  8. Should be vapor games by d3xt3r · · Score: 3, Interesting
    This is just games not software.

    The best piece of vaporware still goes to Microsoft for .Net. A software product that doesn't exist but MS claims to be anything and everything at the same time.

    I hate to complain about posts but, Slashdot belongs in the "King of the misleading headlines department" lately.

    P.S. - you can't really mod me down for being off topic, this whole damn story is off topic.

  9. Half this list is games! by rtphokie · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Am I the only person left on ./ who isn't obsessed with gaming? Computers are wonderfully useful tools for tasks other than playing games.

  10. Video cards? by vistic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe someone can help me.

    What's the name of that one videocard company from Scandinavia or something, the one that keeps promising the best videocard ever, the one that keeps apparently makes money just by putting out promises and tech sheets?

    I kept thinking it was something like Bit Brothers but that's not it. It's Bit something I think.

  11. Re:It's pretty cut and dried... by LMariachi · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The Jargon File would seem to disagree.

    You can't buy Unreal II or a 4GHz Pentium either, but they're not "vaporware" because no one expects them to be out yet.

  12. Re:segway by Accipiter · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nonsense. I've seen a few scooting around in downtown Atlanta. Even the police are using them.

    --

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
    (If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't. :P)

  13. Re:hmm by CrazyDuke · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, intel has been using a quad pumped (overrated) 100mhz FSB until just recently (now its a 133) while AMD has been using double pumped (again overrated) 133mhz FSB since the 1Ghz+ Tbirds. The new opertons, hammers, or whatever supposedly have an fsb that truely runs at 166 to 200mhz. So the ante will be upped again soon.

    Point: Its kinda keeping pace at 3/4's the speed. ;P

    Side note/rant: Personally, I'd rather have a 133 32bit frontside 1.0Ghz AMD than a 100 32bit frontside 2.4 Ghz Intel. Who gives a shit about the difference between 10 and 24 multipliers. What, so the cpu can wait 2.4 times more clock cycles to actually get something to do? Unless of course your PC is doing nothing but "i++;", etc. Then it can run off the cache.

    Hell, I've got a P-classic 233mmx underclocked to 225mhz with a 75mhz fsb instead of 66mhz and it smokes most PII's(except the ones that have an fsb faster than 66mhz of course)

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
  14. Re:hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    There's a point in what you say, and a big one too.

    I remember very well that a P3/450 MHz with its 512K cache on board played DivX better than its 700-800 MHz successors that had only 256K (on the same mainboard, with the same RAM and display card). It wasn't until I upgraded to a P4/1600 that I again had a system that played any resolution/compression DivX I fed it without stuttering.
    Kept a 450MHz around for a long time because of that.

    Intel never advertized this detail.