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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."
Man, did you even read the entire posting? The nominations were posted, these are the results of the votes.
how did they forget a Pentium that actually beats an AMD chip running at 2/3 its clock speed?
[December 18, 1998] - I Want My TF (TM) II
Well folks, Team Fortress (TM) 2 will be here shortly and community sites are popping up all over the web. Clans are starting to form, Tournaments are being planned, and information pages are being posted. If you haven't checked out the sites yet, be sure to visit our links section or visit PlanetFortress.com for more information.
Gee, I hope none of the tournaments have filled up yet, my clan was just getting off the ground.
My #1 would be "Intelligent Posts on slashdot".
help fill in hidden movie endings @ End of the Credits
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.
They're still not shipping segways.
Amazon claims they're selling, but isn't releasing any numbers.
Wasn't this supposed to have changed every american city by now?
Come on, even miss Cleo saw this comming.
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?
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
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.
Yes, I used similar reasoning to comfort myself while waiting for Diekatana, and that game sure was worth the wait in the end...
"GNU's not Unix....it's Linux" / Kami "kokamomi" Petersen
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.
mogorific carpentry experiments
Duke Nukem Forever started out on the Quake II engine. When that became outdated, they rewrote it for the Unreal engine. That was the last I ever heard ANY news on the game.
They're going to have to write it again for the new Unreal engine, and then when they're done with that, they'll have to redo it again for the Doom 3 engine.
It's a vicious cycle. Bets that this game won't see the light of day?
the byproduct of years of oppression by the white man
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.
Graham
It's Daikatana, right?
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
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.
The OSX/Quark problem affects much more than "graphics enthusiasts" as they put it. Working at a prepress company as I do, it's a very real problem. I don't know why a "graphics enthusiast" would get Quark anyway, when I think of that I think of people like the Digital Blasphemy guy, not assembling postscript documents in Quark.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
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
If true, that's a huge relief since any game coming out now using the original Unreal (or UT) engine will look _very_ dated.
*GWOE (Games With Older Engines) is not dying
Pac-Man is dated. Pac-Man is still fun. Therefore, in some cases, dated is still fun. Namco still sells copies of Pac-Man on Game Boy Advance. Therefore, in some cases, dated sells. This correlates with the fact that games that remain fun continue to sell.
However, notice that in auto racing, "DNF" stands for "Did Not Finish".
Will I retire or break 10K?
My understanding was always that vaporware was specifically supposed to refer to products that are claimed to exist, and perhaps even exist in some basic stage of development, but are essentially non-existent in any practical term, despite the company's claims it is coming. The reason I ask is that it seems unusual to list products like the GeForce FX as "vaporware", just as it seems odd to list other products that are merely delayed but clearly do exist realistically. So, has the definition of vaporware changed to refer to anything that gets delayed, whether or not it exists....or has my understanding of what constitutes vaporware always been incorrect? -Tom
...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
It's shipping, people have the new motherboards up and running. See Eyetech's (who are making the boards) announcement at http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/oct252002a.php, or the discussion at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amigaone/. The OS itself isn't out yet, but the boards run Linux PPC just fine.
They've always been honest about their release date, and posted it openly since day 1. It's not their fault if the public can't read properly:
Duke Nukem Forever
Prey! Anyone else remember this much vaunted/hyped fps from 3D Realms? It was first promoted back in '96 right before the original Quake was released.
Googled this bit of info from IGN..
http://pc.ign.com/articles/355/355382p1.html
March 12, 2002 - Prey, its very name is the definition of vaporware, and is even perhaps responsible for a lot of the Duke Nukem nay saying. You see, Prey was to be 3D Realms' grand first-person shooting triumph. What it promised to sport in 1997 was a new engine with better than Unreal looks, Max Payne radiosity lighting, and Red Faction environmental interactivity.
It was only after sometime that the reality of lacking technology sunk in and Prey, along with its Turok reminiscent story of a Native American gone alien abductee superhero was axed. From then, DNF was put in full swing, and has still yet to arrive, leading conspiracy theorist gamers with way too much time on their hands to always expect the worst.
However, in 1999, 3D Realm's George Broussard made it abundantly clear that the title was still in some way, shape, or form being developed, but that it should not be expected anytime soon. Despite this, and all the other hype surrounding the title, it seemed Prey eventually wound up on the dreaded backburner (insert Prey falling prey pun here).
That was then... This is now.
Web rumor (as wonderfully reliable as it is) suggests the game has perhaps risen from the dead by the helping hand of Rune's own Human Head Studios. Further speculation cites the latest in Doom technology to be the likely power behind this prey's second wind.
All parties rumored to be involved are obviously tightlipped (the terribly sad norm in this industry). We'll be back with more details if further information arises substantiating or debunking this rumor.
from the I-want-new-shiny-things-to-distract-me -from-my-mind-numbly-unfulfilled-life-and-I-want-i t-now! dept.
I admit, I'm guilty of this too.
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
I'm sorry, but no. The game is fun, and the control scheme is serviceable, but it's also quite bad, and could've been much better. I own the game, and have played a number of hours in it, and I still dislike the controls. I know about the lock on trigger, and the freelook trigger, and I think they're a solution to a problem that never should've existed.
And I know what type of game Metroids are, I don't expect the game to be a Halo killer or a fast-paced Quake. But that's still no excuse for a poor control scheme.
This is the mother and father of vaporware. I mean, look of "vaporware" in a dictionary, and you'll find...
GNU Hurd
Couldn't resist!
Slashdot is a waste of time. I enjoy wasting time.
Step 1. Think up an interesting idea for a game. Spend a few days coming up with mockup graphics.
step 2. Keep working on other projects and spend a few hours a month working on more mockups and prototypes.
Repeat step 2 for a couple years, show the 'game' to reporters. Hype relentlessly, but gradually taper off.
Wait a few more years, occasionally report problems 'we switched engines' etc. everyone laughs, you become the quintessential vaporware, etc. Tell everyone you're waiting because the game is going to be perfect. Ship the games you were actually working on
After 4 or 5 years of this, start working on the game. Everyone's heard of it, everyone knows about it. And when you're finished (in a year or so) everyone downloads the demo, even non-hardcore gamers. Of course, you'll need to make sure the game is fun, and polished, but if you succeed you'll have huge mindshare already, and probably a hit.
Unreal was delayed and delayed, and since it was pretty good it sold well. Daikatana took forever, but it was shitty. If it had actually been a good game, it probably would have done well. We'll have to see what happens with DNF, but I bet it would have sold well if it was good.
With my plan, you'll have years of hype and anticipation waiting for a game that only cost a year or so of development costs.
and licensing my patent will only cost you 4% of the development costs!
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
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.
If you want to applaud the efforts of a game development crew, then pick a team like id or Epic. These guys set internal release dates but tell the world that their games will be out "when they're done". They always seem to deliver a game in a timely manner, they always make good on the hype, and they both leave legacies for their products by crafting engines that other games are built upon. How those guys stay focused year after year and still manage to be on top is definitely book material. I would love to see a project management book by John Carmack and Tim Sweeney hit the shelves some day. These guys know how to get it done.
3D Realms, IMO, is living on their legacy created by Duke 3D. Granted they've spent some time helping other games get out the door (Max Payne, Duke titles for consoles, etc.), but I think someone above summed it up best : their outfit comes across more like a rich man's hobby. Were it not for the reputation of 3D Realms, I think you'd see Duke Forever getting the same treatment as Daikatana, Ion Storm and John Romero got a while back. If you think about it, there isn't much difference between the two except that Romero had a track record with a different company. Let's all hope that Duke 4 doesn't come out as flawed as Daikatana.
So now that I've said my piece, yeah, I think it's cool that 3DR can laugh about the progress made on their latest game. But I would prefer that they quit laughing and joking and actually ship something that even halfway meets the hype they've built. At least the hype has died down in the last year or two, giving them a much lower hype-target to hit!
Am I the only person left on ./ who isn't obsessed with gaming?
Computers are wonderfully useful tools for tasks other than playing games.
I couldn't help it. Dammit, I'm already accruing coal in my stocking for 2003...
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
> "Apple should buy out Quark simply to get this app out," opined
> Stuart Long. "It's the one app holding back the adoption of an
> amazing Unix OS."
First off, the only thing holding back adoption of OS X is time; as
people replace their old Macs with new ones, and as new apps and
versions of apps are released that do not support Classic, adoption
of OS X is a foregone conclusion. No one app matters, really. It
can make the difference of a couple of years for some people, but
in the long run it doesn't fundamentally change anything.
My other comment about this is that for Apple to buy out Quark in
order to get XPress out would probably disgruntle Adobe, which is
probably not something Apple particularly wants to do.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.