Vaporware

[Dausuul]

Depends a lot on the item in question and the company making it.

As long as the company is still issuing releases and talking about the product regularly, and there's no air of desperation or impending bankruptcy, I consider it reasonably likely that the product will sooner or later see the light of day, even if it's way past deadline. But if the company stops talking about it, that's a bad sign. After about six months of silence, I file it in the vaporware category.

For example, Blizzard used to have a bad habit of missing release dates by years. (Lately they seem to have wised up, and now they don't even give release dates until they're well into beta testing.) However, they kept putting out press releases and website updates every few months, and they did usually end up releasing the product eventually. So I seldom regard Blizzard titles as vaporware, even if they've been hanging fire for a very long time.

On the other hand, I now consider the Virtual Tabletop to be vaporware. There's a deep silence hanging over the project which makes me suspect it's quietly descending into the netherworld. Maybe it'll happen someday, but I rather doubt it.

 

[jdrakeh]

I would put the point at 1 to 1 1/2 years.

Depends a lot on the item in question and the company making it.

Both of these things.

For example, I considered the Mongoose Holy Grail to be a non-product for the better part of a year before Mongoose finally announced this to be the case. I currently think the same thing about Beyond Holy Grail as it was announced only once. . . and then promptly forgotten by whoever handles PR at Mongoose. I haven't heard any mention of it since that time.

Similarly, the Fantasycraft (Crafty Games) initial ETA has come and gone more times than I care to count, the publisher is no longer giving regular project updates, and now there isn't an ETA at all. Despite being a pretty harsh critic of Crafty Games, I would have much preferred Fantasycraft to Pathfinder or D&D 4e. . . but I've pretty much written it off at this point.

 

[Starglim]

Compounded licencing problems or major rewrites could easily chew up 6 to 9 months with the best intentions and focus, so I think 18 months is fair.

I'm not particularly waiting for a Dresden Files RPG, but without looking further at the specifics, I'd say the announced choice of pre-existing open licenced rules shortens, rather than lengthens, the time that is reasonable to wait for development.

 

[dm4hire]

Well considering some of my favorite recent releases were delayed for years I can live with it as long as they actually come out with it. Grimm took around three years after it's original release to come out. More than a year for Anima. There's lots more out there that have been delayed. I'd rather a game like Dresden Files be delayed and worked out as much as possible than rushed but updated with various patches/errata after the fact.

Blizzard made the mistake of announcing the release date for Diablo but then finally said "it's out when it's out" and haven't given a date since. Now that they have been taken over by Activision or EA that might change, but then I expect the quality to go down in relation to that. GR has taken that approach now and I think we see the benefit of not giving a date until it's close to release time.

I wish more companies would take that approach, including WotC.

 

[Remathilis]

I go 2 years.

Then again, I'm still waiting for Dune d20, Castle Keeper's Guide, and the revised GSL...

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Duke Nukem Forever!

-O

Dang, beat me to it!

Me too. I still hold out hope. I'm overly optimistic that way.

'course, I also keep hoping in vain that they'll remake FFVII for the PS3...

 

[drothgery]

I clicked "one year", which is probably accurate so far as it goes. Really, I don't give up all hope until it's been at least one year and they've missed two "firm" release dates.

I clicked '18 months', but it's really more like this. Though I'm pretty conservative in applying the term; Wired used to a 'vaporware of the year' list every year, and put Windows 2000 pretty high on the list in an issue that came out after it was released to manufacturing, which I thought was bizarre (granted, it probably hadn't been released when the issue went to press, but anyone paying attention knew it was likely to).

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I voted 2 years +, untill I can play it , download it or kick it its vaporware.

 

[Remus Lupin]

Well, in a certain sense, an RPG is software, and your brain is the squishy hardware.

I think that's called "wetware."

 

[The Green Adam]

Vaporware is a software specific term, so it really doesn't apply to a tabletop RPG. Of course neither does the x.xx numbering system (Damn you WotC!) so I realize it will be used anyway, it's just silly to do so, IMNSHO.

And besides, who ever heard of using software and computer game terms for tabletop RPGs? Its not like people say Controller, Striker, Builds, Crafting or...oh...wait...never mind.

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