I am sure I am like many other gamers who played Duke Nukem 3D when it came out in 1996: I feel in love. I was thirteen, and, while I should most likely not have been playing it, Duke Nukem hit all the right buttons. Pig Cops! Strippers! Pool! Action Hero One Liners! Yea, I bet you want to go play it again right now after all of those words with exclamation marks after them. Go ahead; I'll wait. Back? Excellent.
 
Well, when 3D Realms announced Duke Nukem Forever (DNF), I was thrilled and could not wait to play it. In the end, I did wait. We all waited. Well, now we are done waiting! 3D Realms is closed (well, has been closed for a bit now), and rights to DNF are part of a court battle. We will most likely never see the game, but that's ok. It seems as if there never really was a game. The article that inspired this post, which can be read here, is a very interesting read, especially if you have gotten this far in my ramblings. What the article boils down to is that Duke Nukem 3D was a one hit wonder for George Broussard and Scott Miller. After the success of Duke Nukem, the two had piles of money to fill their swimming pools and float around on while DNF languished in a Sisyphus-esque development hell. The developers would work on a build of the game, and better technology would come out and wow Broussard; this lead to an obsession of being the best on the market, like when Duke Nukem 3D released. This obsession eventually lead to DNF and 3D Realms shutting down. It is an unfortunate story for everyone involved.  I would love to actually hear Broussard and Miller's side of this story, but I seriously doubt we will get the straight poop out of either of them.
 
While reading the article, I was reminded of John Riccitiello saying that the major problem with game development was "Pre-production;" he elaborated: "I'd have teams work to get to far greater design clarity before they begin full-scale production. Lack of clarity up front is probably the #1 reason why games are late, over budget or, in some cases, not that good" (This quote is from " Ten Queastion with the Academy"). I am not saying that Riciitiello is the best game company CEO out there, but he is definitely on to something with this idea. The impression I am left with after reading Clive Thompson's article is that DNF's only direction was "Bigger and Better!" I do not  think anything good could have come from that; sure, the world may have had a really good looking game, but would it have been fun? I can not say for sure, but I have my doubts. However, I may be speaking out of turn here; they could have had a wonderful, humorous, action-packed story that the world has been robbed of because of poor decisions made by the company leaders. Even though it is dead, Duke Nukem Forever will always live on as my favorite train wreck that I have had the liberty of standing around and watching.

I am sure I am like many other gamers who played Duke Nukem 3D when it came out in 1996: I feel in love. I was thirteen, and, while I should most likely not have been playing it, Duke Nukem hit all the right buttons. Pig Cops! Strippers! Pool! Action Hero One Liners! Yea, I bet you want to go play it again right now after all of those words with exclamation marks after them. Go ahead; I'll wait. Back? Excellent.
 
Well, when 3D Realms announced Duke Nukem Forever (DNF), I was thrilled and could not wait to play it. In the end, I did wait. We all waited. Well, now we are done waiting! 3D Realms is closed (well, has been closed for a bit now), and rights to DNF are part of a court battle. We will most likely never see the game, but that's ok. It seems as if there never really was a game. The article that inspired this post, which can be read here, is a very interesting read, especially if you have gotten this far in my ramblings. What the article boils down to is that Duke Nukem 3D was a one hit wonder for George Broussard and Scott Miller. After the success of Duke Nukem, the two had piles of money to fill their swimming pools and float around on while DNF languished in a Sisyphus-esque development hell. The developers would work on a build of the game, and better technology would come out and wow Broussard; this lead to an obsession of being the best on the market, like when Duke Nukem 3D released. This obsession eventually lead to DNF and 3D Realms shutting down. It is an unfortunate story for everyone involved.  I would love to actually hear Broussard and Miller's side of this story, but I seriously doubt we will get the straight poop out of either of them.
 
While reading the article, I was reminded of John Riccitiello saying that the major problem with game development was "Pre-production;" he elaborated: "I'd have teams work to get to far greater design clarity before they begin full-scale production. Lack of clarity up front is probably the #1 reason why games are late, over budget or, in some cases, not that good" (This quote is from " Ten Queastion with the Academy"). I am not saying that Riciitiello is the best game company CEO out there, but he is definitely on to something with this idea. The impression I am left with after reading Clive Thompson's article is that DNF's only direction was "Bigger and Better!" I do not  think anything good could have come from that; sure, the world may have had a really good looking game, but would it have been fun? I can not say for sure, but I have my doubts. However, I may be speaking out of turn here; they could have had a wonderful, humorous, action-packed story that the world has been robbed of because of poor decisions made by the company leaders. Even though it is dead, Duke Nukem Forever will always live on as my favorite train wreck that I have had the liberty of standing around and watching.

I loved Duke Nukem 3D when it came out.  I was a bit younger when it came out than yourself, but I still played the crap out of it.  I can't say I was overly excited about Duke Nukem Forever, as I fell out of love with the series as the console and third-person franchise games came out.  The promise of a bigger, badder Duke was still something that I would appealing, but not something I anticipated.  It's a shame that Duke Nukem Forever was one of the biggest video game scams of recent memory instead of a top-tier game.