Gaming Gaffes of 2003 Pinpointed?

jvm writes "It seems that every gaming website has a Best of 2003 feature going now, and we felt that was just too cheery for our tastes. To counter that positive energy, we've assembled Gaming Gaffes of 2003 over at Curmudgeon Gamer, a list of the most embarrassing, disheartening, and bone-headed developments in the game industry over the past year. We've tried to give everyone a little frank criticism, from Sony's PlayStation 2 Online service through the lack of a Loki successor for Linux gaming, as well as specific products like EA's The Sims Online. Did we miss any?"

Comments

Biggest...

[rhs98]

IMHO this is the most embarrassing, disheartening, and bone-headed developments in the game industry over the past year: "one of the participants went to his car, got a gun, and pointed it at the head of a staff member"

Re:Biggest...

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

It was bound to happen at some point. There are bad apples in whatever group of people you bring together. It just shows that gaming is maturing as an entertainment medium and becoming more widespread. If someone pulls a gun outside a football game or outside a race, the local news covers it but doesn't push any line about football being the cause of racing being the cause. The fact that I haven't seen any news reports talking about how a gun was pulled outside a competitive gaming event and, oh yeah, gaming is evil and caused it all, is a good thing. It's sad that people pull this type of inane behavior but perhaps we're seeing that the mainstream have finally given up on saying that video games cause violence? Nah...couldn't happen.

This has got to be the most embarrassing gaffe

[Cymage]

I think this takes the cake for most embarrassing : Half-Life 2 Delayed Following Code Leak

Re:VGAs

[Torgo's Pizza]

No, don't let SpikeTV off the hook. This was their idea, run by their people. Their editorial staff also chose the winners, showing that they really don't have a clue as to what a video game really is. This isn't just some network flunkie putting this out... no, it's the friggin' President of SpikeTV producing this. That show had me gouging my eyes out with a spoon.

Originality vacuum filled with money

[incompetent_bitch]

I guess you can't really blame the makers of games for the originality vacuum, if those games MAKE MONEY!! Just look at #10 for the reason that there's not more original games - game shops are closing, and the ones that have been bought by EA or whoever, is going to put out titles that make money. We've seen this with movies and now that games are getting bigger and bigger and more and more money is being spent, this should not come as a surprise. Makers will take less chances, and bank on proven titles.
But it does suck!

Re:Online Playability for Mario Kart :: Double Das

[EvlG]

Online is a dead end. It has a tiny attachment rate (10% for the XBOX, which I believe is the highest). That means only 10% of xbox customers have Live.

Why bother spending all the time needed to make the game play well online, when only 10% of your customer base can possibly use it?

Re:Online Playability for Mario Kart :: Double Das

[aliens]

Because those 10% are your hardcore gamers spending a butt load of money on games each year(month). They also tend to pass the word along to others about such and such game.

Be cool to see some sales figures from that 10% compared to the rest.

One gaff overdone.

[Inoshiro]

And that'-s #11, "The Originality Vacuum"

I think this is only a perceived problem, not an actual problem. Why? Because there were plenty of original games out this year, games like Magic Pengel: The Quest for Colour. However, because they weren't sequels to popular games, they weren't hyped up as sequels. That's why most people didn't know about them.

Last year, was there a big, "GET READY for JAX and DAXTER" hype? No, because it was an original game, and most people just didn't know. This year, Jak 2 was Jak 2 and hyped as such. The new, original releases this year (I-Ninja, Metal Arms) aren't hyped up at all the same way, so it's pretty easy to think they're not being hyped when you're just being inundated with advertising that's relying on sequel strength alone.

The Real Valve Gaffe

[Anonymous Coward]

It isn't HL2-- yeah the hack was bad but the setup was so anticipated from E3 that it kind of balances out.

The real problems were:

1) Steam-- buggy rollout and ongoing problems, neverending promises of CS 1.6 till it arrived with bugs, and how the heck are you really going to manage all those HL2 downloads???

2) Condition Zero-- 4 (is it 5) dev studios couldn't bring out a decent game based on the most popular online franchise. A captive market opportunity squandered. As I now understand it, it has some bots for CS (uh where's the content?).

2003-- bound to show just how far a developer can lose its fanbase.

Re:Diablo II LOD patch 1.10

[Tofino]

So, you're saying that the 1.10 patch, which was intended to make the game more challenging, made the game more challenging? And also gave you replayability in the form of something to strive for (better armor, a couple more levels)? Sounds horrible to me!

game situation might be much worse

[jermyjerm]

The situation with games might be even worse, because while someone can buy/borrow a cheap digital camera and (theoretically) make a good movie viewable to anyone with a computer, vcr or dvd player, that's not really possible for games.

Well, console games anyway, but that's the risk you take when buying into a corporate funded content delivery tool.

I haven't been a pc gamer in a long time because of the steep price of (re)entry, but thinking about it, if the worst case scenario of game homoginization takes place, owning a gameworthy PC might be the only way to play creative independent titles.