Adrift Vaporware Awards 2005: Categories

Categories of the Adrift Vaporware Awards

The Demi-Award
Vaporware game with the highest potential of getting released 2006

Some people are just unlucky and have serious and real reasons for not completing their game. An alien abduction, for example. This award is for games which you think will get finished in 2006. That is, if they don't have any accidental encounter with yet another species from outer space. Valid for games and game writers alike.

The Vladimir Nabokov Award
Best announcement for a vaporware game

"I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure of the windowpane;
I was the smudge of ashen fluff - and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.
And from the inside, too, I'd duplicate
Myself, my lamp, an apple on a plate:
Uncurtaining the night, I'd let dark glass
Hang all the furniture above the grass,
And how delightful when a fall of snow
Covered my glimpse of lawn and reached up so
As to make chair and bed exactly stand
Upon that snow, out in that crystal land!"
- Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

Some announcements are gorgeous and magnificent to read in itself, and quite often depict nothing more than a true masterpiece. If only a game would follow such beautiful words... Valid for games and game writers alike.

The '2 + 2 = 5' Award
You wouldn't have guessed it's vaporware - highest noise level

Some authors make so much noise about their vaporware that even the most sane person momentarily forgets that there actually is no game to talk about! Valid for games and game writers alike.

The Camouflage Award
Most interesting excuse for not finishing a game

A good camouflage manoeuvre may take friends and foes by surprise. Was there no backup? Did you mistype the year in your announcement (nothing a good edit couldn't solve)? Did your accidental time travel through a wormhole destroy the timestamp of your Adrift registration and you are now unable to finish that last object? This is the right award to uncover any camouflage attempt. Valid for games and game writers alike.

The Segway Award
Most hyped vaporware game

We've all talked about it, waited for it, longed for it. And yet it isn't here. But we will continue to talk about it, wait for it, and long for it, because rumour has it that this is THE game which will blow your mind. If it only would get finished! Valid only for games.

The 'Duke Nukem Forever' Award
Vaporware game of the year

Any game nominated for one of the other categories is automatically nominated for this award. It is also possible to nominate a game only for this award, though. The question you should ask is: What makes this game more non-existent than all the other vaporware games out there? Valid only for games.

The Santa Claus Award
Vaporware author of the year

Any author already nominated for one of the other categories is automatically nominated for this award. It is also possible to nominate an author only for this award, though. Remember how Santa Claus once didn't show up anymore? That's because he doesn't exist (sorry, kids!). Judging from the track record of this author, he may as well be only a fata morgana. Valid only for authors.