Throughout history, man has had ideas. Some of these ideas have been strikingly good, such as the wheel, fire, popcorn, and the entire Hardy Boys series. Others, sadly, have not been so good.

Social laws dictate that most bad ideas will naturally die out. Ideas like grunge music, Nazism, and Dane Cook’s sense of humor are all examples of unfortunate things that thankfully haven’t stood the test of time (Dane Cook is hanging in there according to some, but he’ll soon join the list of “things that I’m glad went the way of the dodo”).

However, there are some extremely poor ideas which, for one reason or another, haven’t died out. This is particularly true in the gaming arena. Sometimes this is because it turns out the idea wasn’t so bad in the first place; other times it’s more because the gaming public in general isn’t the most discerning group of people.

This week’s column will examine a few of these bad ideas, and attempt to explain the series of events that led to them not dying like the unfortunate travesties they may or may not be. Read more