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

Game-to-be-left-unmentioned

[MrWa]

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.

Re:D00000000P!

[EvanED]

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.

Glad Duke Nukem is taking forever..

[xchino]

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.

Re:Glad Duke Nukem is taking forever..

[GlassHeart]

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.

Re:Glad Duke Nukem is taking forever..

[Erik Hollensbe]

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. :)

Gotta toot my own horn, here...

[phillymjs]

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

Re:segway

[ackthpt]

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.

Should be vapor games

[d3xt3r]

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.

Half this list is games!

[rtphokie]

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

Re:segway

[Accipiter]

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

Re:hmm

[CrazyDuke]

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)