WED was the original editor for 3D GameStudio and was based off of really old, Quake-era technology that they kept updating. WED was actually pretty awesome and easy to use ... back in the day. When it was a fairly "modern" editor, you could do a lot with it. But game development and level design changed a lot and WED couldn't keep up. There comes a point in time when updating old tech is not enough. You need to replace it with something built from the ground up. Apparently Conitec was not prepared or able to do this, so someone stepped in with GED. However, that never was fully realized and the end result is that GameStudio ended up with two editors ... one that is old, clunky, slow, and another that is not really completed.

It's a shame, really, because GameStudio has a long history, (had) a loyal following, and, in the right hands, could have continued to be something really amazing. There's still a lot that could be done with GameStudio v8, but it gets more and more outdated every day ... and it's not fun (anymore) working in either of the editors.