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Vaporware
- 34 statements
- 3 feature instances
- 34 referencing feature instances
| Vaporware | type |
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Computer or video game software or hardware with revolutionary or next-generation capabilities that is continuously hyped to the public, but doesn't seem to be coming any closer to store shelves. Note that long development cycles do not, by themselves, qualify a product as Vaporware; the game must be repeatedly postponed and put off, all the while being promoted as "Coming soon!" Sometimes this is intentional, done by various promoters and stockholders solely to drive up the company's share prices, lure in new investors, or create a buzz in the marketplace that will keep their name on top. In the most extreme cases, the developing company itself may be a total fraud. That said, the vast majority of vaporware isn't malicious. Most of the time there is a legitimate product being produced, but internal problems simply result in it falling behind schedule and being passed in the marketplace by competitors. The developers simply promised more than their programmers could possibly deliver in too short a time frame. Often, when a big goal is for the product to be up with the current technology, it becomes a self-reinforcing feedback loop of sorts when work has to be scrapped to keep up with the times. Combine this with people leaving the project out of frustration with the lack of forward progress and it gets harder to finish with every delay. More than a few games have also fallen victim to runaway ego and perfectionism, where the designers get distracted by their own artistic visions or desire to create something revolutionary and genre-shattering and won't be satisfied until it's "perfect", cost, publishers, and release dates be damned! (With predictable results). Compare Development Hell and What Could Have Been. Contrast Dead Fic and Orphaned Series, which actually manage to release more than a teaser (thanks to serialization) before eventually being abandoned incomplete. See also Saved from Development Hell for a few who managed to get completed. See also the Canceled Video Games index for pages about games that have been officially canceled by their creators. IMPORTANT! If a work was ever released—if it was ever available for purchase—then it was Saved from Development Hell, not this trope, and such examples should go there (or be moved there upon release). Should not be confused with Vapor Wear, Vaporwave, or so on. Also, perhaps ironically, no relation to Steam. |
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| Vaporware | fetched |
2023-12-08T14:31:25Z | |
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2023-12-08T14:31:26Z | |
| Vaporware | processingComment |
Dropped link to Animusic: Not an Item - IGNORE | |
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Dropped link to FlyingCar: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to Gamebooks: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to LetsPlay: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to MovingTheGoalposts: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to RealSoonNow: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to SavedFromDevelopmentHell: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to SeriousBusiness: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to TropeCodifier: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to TropeNamer: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to TroubledProduction: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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| Vaporware / int_3fbb941b | type |
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| Vaporware / int_3fbb941b | comment |
Sex Robots and Vegan Meat: The book contains several products and services which are clearly much further from market than their promoters would like to admit, but the only one to be called Vapour Ware by the author is the Roxxxy Sex Bot. A crude prototype was shown at a porn industry trade fair, and since then all that we have is a website, and a developer who was always somehow too busy to speak to the author. | |
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| Sex Robots and Vegan Meat | hasFeature |
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| Vaporware / int_6ac55ec7 | type |
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| Vaporware / int_6ac55ec7 | comment |
Castle Greyhawk. Dungeons & Dragons fans have been waiting since the mid-'70s for an official release of Gary Gygax's home dungeon. Gary was looking at releasing the complex as early as 1978, but got sucked into the monumental task of writing The Temple of Elemental Evil and released only a few levels. In 1986, just as he had promised the castle again, he was unceremoniously fired as head of TSR. Any hint that Gygax would be releasing new Greyhawk or AD&D material would have sparked a lawsuit. In 2007, however, Gygax announced that he was creating a non-Greyhawk version of his iconic castle. One box set was released, detailing the castle fortress and the first level of the dungeons. Then Gary Gygax died on March 4, 2008.. Co-writer, Jeffrey Talanian was set to complete the project using Gygax's copious notes, but he was fired within six months and the Gygax Games site seems to be all but abandoned. Gygax's original co-writer Rob Kuntz was releasing material from his notebooks, but he has also dropped the project. Finally, a dedicated fan who knew both Gary and Rob and had played in Castle Greyhawk released his own version of the dungeons starting on level 2, which is probably the closest we will ever get to the actual Castle Greyhawk. | |
| Vaporware / int_6ac55ec7 | featureApplicability |
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| Vaporware / int_6ac55ec7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
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| Vaporware / int_ba1083f7 | type |
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| Vaporware / int_ba1083f7 | comment |
The Guitar Hero and Rock Band fansite ScoreHero announced a giant (and much needed) update in November 2008. Almost immediately it was shoved on to the back burner for seven months when Harmonix turned up to talk about their idea for the nascent Rock Band Network; several mods and developers signed up to help with the rewrite and were promptly stonewalled when looking for information (RBN had the main admin tied up in NDAs). Said developers were subsequently somewhat disgruntled when the RBN announcement was made, and it's tied up JC's time so much now that the big update hasn't gotten off the back burner since (and, with Rhythm Games on their way out, doesn't look likely to). Until it was pulled forward again in November 2013... We Wait. |
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| Vaporware / int_ba1083f7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
| Guitar Hero (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Vaporware / int_ba1083f7 |
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