5 ms·

Thank you, I am; that's on my list for reading at home this evening. From skimming, it looks like managerial incompetence, which is unsurprising.

artmageddon 16y ago
Ultimately it can be boiled down to that kind of incompetence, but I got the impression that they HAD to be the best by the time they released... but the bar kept getting raised each time a new game came out(Quake, Unreal, Quake II, etc), and thus got delayed to perpetuity.
- larrik 16y ago
  The root issue is that they interpreted "the best" to be "the best at every single feature," which is completely ridiculous. The fact is that the Duke3d had an atmosphere, depth, and immersive-ness that most games since haven't matched. They definitely should have been able to release a game within a few years that was the best game for its time. Tycho at PennyArcade wrote a great piece about it yesterday: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/3/23/ http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/3/23/
  - artmageddon 16y ago
    The comic touched on a good point, too. The controversy behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's airport massacre level went on for a little while but has since fizzled away-with that in mind, I can't see how long people will be really taken aback by this game mode.
eli 16y ago
There was also an interesting point about the curse of having too much money. With no pressure from a publisher or from outside investors to ship, they were relatively free to keep blowing deadlines.
- jacques_chester 16y ago
  Commercial pressure can often produce better art. Compare old Star Wars to new Star Wars. Or The Matrix to its hypothetical sequels.
  - zipdog 16y ago
    These examples might also be due to collaborative pressure. On Star Wars, Lucas worked with a great editor who could say no to him. Same for script on Empire. For the Star Wars films 1-3 Lucas had total control over everything.
    - jacques_chester 16y ago
      I guess I didn't put it very well. You're right. Put another way: It's commercial pressure that made Lucas subject to collaboration. And it's subsequent commercial pressure that made collaborators subject to Lucas.

artmageddon 16y ago

Ultimately it can be boiled down to that kind of incompetence, but I got the impression that they HAD to be the best by the time they released... but the bar kept getting raised each time a new game came out(Quake, Unreal, Quake II, etc), and thus got delayed to perpetuity.

larrik 16y ago
The root issue is that they interpreted "the best" to be "the best at every single feature," which is completely ridiculous. The fact is that the Duke3d had an atmosphere, depth, and immersive-ness that most games since haven't matched. They definitely should have been able to release a game within a few years that was the best game for its time. Tycho at PennyArcade wrote a great piece about it yesterday: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/3/23/ http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/3/23/
- artmageddon 16y ago
  The comic touched on a good point, too. The controversy behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's airport massacre level went on for a little while but has since fizzled away-with that in mind, I can't see how long people will be really taken aback by this game mode.

eli 16y ago

There was also an interesting point about the curse of having too much money. With no pressure from a publisher or from outside investors to ship, they were relatively free to keep blowing deadlines.

jacques_chester 16y ago
Commercial pressure can often produce better art. Compare old Star Wars to new Star Wars. Or The Matrix to its hypothetical sequels.
- zipdog 16y ago
  These examples might also be due to collaborative pressure. On Star Wars, Lucas worked with a great editor who could say no to him. Same for script on Empire. For the Star Wars films 1-3 Lucas had total control over everything.
  - jacques_chester 16y ago
    I guess I didn't put it very well. You're right. Put another way: It's commercial pressure that made Lucas subject to collaboration. And it's subsequent commercial pressure that made collaborators subject to Lucas.