The 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming

Gudlyf writes "GameSpy has a multi-part series this week titled The 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming, highlighting some of the biggest debacles ever to plague our beloved pastime. While only the first part of the series is present, I can already think of a few that the list wouldn't be complete without. Anyone care to offer their own picks?" Predictions for the Top 5 also welcome, we'll run another story at the end of the week to see how people did.

Comments

#26 - Gamespy decides all gamers run 800x600

[wowbagger]

#26 - Gamespy decides that all gamers run their desktops at 800x600, and forces all their pages to be 800 pixels wide.

Wowbagger - Yes, obviously gamers don't buy high-end video cards and monitors that can run at higher than 800x600. Gamers like to see lots of wasted space on their screens.
</gamespy>

Criticize the /. crew all you want for the way they have coded /., but at least /. will use the full width of your browser window, rather than

forcing
all your
text into
a few words
per line
because you are
running high res
and larger fonts
so as to have
a cleaner
display.

Re:#26 - Gamespy decides all gamers run 800x600

[Ruis]

I think it's meant to make the content look longer than it is so they can split it up into 50+ pages so that they can show more advertising.

two words:

[n0wak]

Virtual Boy

Other possibilities: Daikatana, 3D0 (the system, the company, the Army Men...ugh), BMX XXX, maybe some of Acclaim's advertising practices (though not likely), and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (though technically not a game, it's massive failure certainly had repercussions for Squaresoft).

Re:Wow

[meringuoid]

The #1 bloody awful mistake in gaming history:

Nintendo cancelling the SNES CD and leaving Sony holding a half-finished CD-ROM superconsole. Which they promptly decided to finish by themselves, and used to thoroughly brutalise everyone else and take over most of the console market.

Atari's biggest mistake...

[Saige]

Atari's biggest mistake has to be high up on that list, and I'm suprised nobody here has mentioned it yet.

They had the opportunity to buy the rights to produce and distribute a console from a Japanese company, back in the day when American companies were doing all the game consoles. However, it was during the video game crash, and for some reason, they decided to pass, and stick with their own system they were developing.

The system Atari could have had a huge chunk of? The Nintendo Entertainment System. Instead, they stuck to their own products, which really didn't go anywhere.

One wonders what might have happened if they had made the other choice...

Of course, we're talking about a company that had Jack Tramiel in charge, a man who was personally responsible for destroying multiple companies, and seemed to fight against turing the company around. During the Jaguar days, Atari hired someone to help get the company moving and going, a person who ended up quitting because Jack insisted in having control over everything, down to personally deciding when to approve overnight shipping of packages.