What is the RPG equivalent of "vaporware"?

[roytheodd]

There are always products being announced that never make it to press, despite the hype or demand. In the computer industry these products are known as vaporware. Is there an RPG / gaming industry equivalent of this term?

 

[Obrysii]

Honestly, we've always just used the term 'vaporware' too ... I'm not sure if there's a more 'real' term out there, though.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Yep, vapourware is the term used for RPG books/products that get announced but not released. Search the General Discussion forum and I'm sure you'll find a number of threads talking about vapourware products.

Olaf the Stout

 

[DarkKestral]

OK, what's the RPG industry's current equivalent to Duke Nukem: Forever then? Ideal candidates preferentially should have gone through several periods of active development only to switch to new systems partway with equally as long periods of little to no apparent development progress, should be notable for having been trotted out to show the system several timesvwhile also having a long track record of each instance failing to actually get shipped to printers or the equivalent. Bonus points if it's a major development house such as WotC or White Wolf with several staff developers and not from a smaller house with only one or two primary contributors. Some systems would qualify without the latter criterion, though I would probably argue they shouldn't be considered if the primary reason for a lack of actual production is only because the primary contributor does not make a full-time living writing for RPGs and therefore development time is limited. However, this last criterion is not to be construed an absolute, as any system officially in development by a professional house without an edition being commercially released or the equivalent for 6 years or more probably still qualifies, as that is roughly similar to the situation of DNF.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Heroes of High Favor: Gnomes.

Although, to be fair, it's already written. Just never made any sense to edit/publish it.

Clarification: I mean that as an example of vaporware. Not as an example of something as hotly anticipated as Duke Nukem. =)

 

[Arnwyn]

In some circles:

Necromancer Games' Sword of Air.
Necromancer Games' Tegal Manor.
Necromancer Games' Wrath of Orcus.
Necromancer Games' Slumbering Tsar.

Hmmm... I see a trend here...

Not sure of an RPG equivalent of DNF - certainly nothing from a major publisher that I can think of (though I'd be curious if there were any!).

 

[DarkKestral]

I'm thinking official D&D "virtual table" products qualify as DNF type candidates; notable for being in production at least 2-3 times, having been switched through 2 or even 3 editions now (maybe four if you count 3.0 and 3.5 as separate editions), the scope of the project has been repeatedly widened and cut back, no release in 6 years with a feature limited release being the most recent (and having taken 2 years even then), announced in a fashion that would indicate upcoming release followed by "well... it's not ready yet, so wait another few months", and reasonably wide anticipation. The best we've gotten recently on this front is Gleemax. And we all know how that's turned out.

Anyway, I wonder if this topic shouldn't be moved to General RPG discussion.

Wulf: If it's written, and in reasonably publishable form, but the market simply doesn't favor spending the work required to finish publishing it (like say a piece that was announced prior to the "no half-orcs in 4e" announcement focusing on half-orcs in 4e) it's not exactly in the same class of vaporware as DNF. That's not development heck. That's just bad timing.

True vaporware-osity comes from being something that if finished, would be feasible to sell immediately were it finished, meaning the only thing that stops it is either unrealistic claims (aka BS technical claims and other such stuff) or unrealistic goalsetting and poor decisionmaking by developers. The prototypical example of the first class of vaporware is a perpetual-motion machine. It is inherently unrealistic. The second is Duke Nukem Forever because the apparent intentions and expectations of the designers have been unrealistically high, and because the devs go back and scrapping things unnecessarily.

 

[Stormborn]

Not sure its in the Duke Nukem catagory but I was looking forward to the Super Powers supplement for d20 Modern that WotC was working on, announced, solicited, and then pulled weeks before it was supposed to be released for not clear reason.

 

[Knightfall]

Spacebuckler

 

[jonesy]

OK, what's the RPG industry's current equivalent to Duke Nukem: Forever then?

Realms of Sorcery. It only took sixteen something years to arrive. Though it's not a current candidate for a DNF since it actually did arrive.