I know how the vanish bug started... Quakeworld, the first game to introduce the concept of client prediction.

Basically what you see happening on your screen/client isn't what's happening on the server... sure this is a fraction of a second, but that's the area where all "WHAT THE FU**" moments are born from in gaming.

You think you hit that shot in Counter-Strike or got the AWP shot off first... You think you got to the health pack before your opponent.... You think you hit vanish before that swing that killed you / added the bleed effect / etc got applied.

I think there's also probably a concept of a "simultaneously occurring action" happening where you apply vanish the exact same time (or very small timeframe) that someone does something to you.

They will never be able to do a 100% failsafe check that vanish was applied before and cancel out the opposing vanish-breaking/canceling action.

The reason why client prediction / push-latency got added to games 10 years ago was because only a few people had good internet connections and the gameplay experience was only good for them. Modemers whined that they should have the same online gaming experience as people on T1s/DS3s/CableModems/ISDNs and game companies listened... they decided to dumb down the actual gameplay with prediction so the masses would have a better overall gameplay experience.

So there you go... an old school gamer finally reveals the hidden secret behind the vanish bug.

Forward it to Blizzard, print it out and put it on your wall, or whatever... the days of pure what-you-see-is-what's-actually-happening gaming died with Quakeworld.

Send a flame email to IDSoftware for taking a concept developed by a terribad Quake developer named Zoid and incorporating it into multiplayer engines that would end up being the foundation for all multiplayer gaming engines in the future.

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