

Does your project need a Cool Cam? - dood
http://worsethanfailure.com/Articles/The-Cool-Cam.aspx

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bootload
I own that game and I can't seem to remember all the faults as mentioned. I do
remember the _"cool cam"_ which was featured in demo mode. But far from being
the _technical failure_ looking at how the graphics have been upgraded and
mods contributed I'd say this game is a roaring success. Maybe there's a
lesson there to learn. Don't believe all you read. As a user the bugs
mentioned did not distract from the game & game play. And just because there
are some failures in the product doesn't mean you can't make money off it.

Check the Hi-Res terrains in the link below.

\- <http://www.xmission.com/~mmagleby/eaw/downloads.htm>

\- <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Air_War>

Makes me want to find the disks right now to use the mods and look for those
pesky bugs!

~~~
euccastro
The article doesn't say that the game _shipped_ with these bugs, just that
they were there at some stage of development.

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staunch
One of the huge advantages of doing your own projects is you can focus on real
value and not the shiny things that make a suit's eye light up.

This "Cool Cam" story has a lot in common with the Bike Shed story. In both
cases the no-vision executives latch onto small mostly-pointless things they
can understand. Real users are much smarter.

~~~
dood
My reading was that the Cool Cam galvanised the management and the dev team,
when they were feeling pretty stuck. It gave them a taste of the coolness that
the project would be when done.

I sometimes do something a little similar, say I'm bogged down in something
frustrating and complex, knocking up a protoype of something cool can breathe
new life into a project. But its entirely possible that you're better at
keeping yourself motivated and focused (without shiny things) than I am.

~~~
staunch
Galvanized is definitely the most positive way to read into it. This wasn't a
fun project by the developers. This was for the executives who were torturing
the developers like cats do mice. One smart developer put a ball of yarn out
to keep the cats busy long enough to get the cheese.

This was a hack for their crappy executive problem. Exactly what you can avoid
on your own projects. I totally agree side projects can be a good for
motivation, but it's probably a bad sign if it's necessary to the life of the
project.

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jkush
I hate to be a wet blanket, but posts from www.worsethanfailure.com are really
going to bring the quality of this site down.

~~~
dood
I would agree if there was a flood of them, but I thought this one quite
appropriate. Its unusual in not being just some awful random mistake, but a
possibly instructive lesson in turning around a murky situation.

The bigger threat has to be xkcd, which will probably hit the front page every
other day now ;)

