The video game hall of fame (apparently)
- Thread starter Cody
- Start date
Oh like Minecraft?
Let's face it, Minecraft really kickstarted the crowdfunding scene for games.
(see what I did there?)
Not to mention spawning eleventy-trillion clones and a whole genre of "boxy survivey crafty game".
I wonder who they're asking for what games should be included. Gamers or head office?
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Well which one would you have replaced? That's the point you can say something like that about the stuff in there. All of these games were real game changers - stuff that has stuck in the minds of millions of gamers over decades.
For me Doom is likely the weakest candidate in there but it's hard to argue with its influence on gaming over the years as well. I can't really argue with Tetris, Pac Man or even Pong simply on history. WoW was and remains the biggest game ever from what I can tell. Finding it hard to argue against Mario as well by similar metrics.
I guess Minecraft didn't make the top 6 simply because it is the newest and therefore less tested by time compared to the others.
For me Doom is likely the weakest candidate in there but it's hard to argue with its influence on gaming over the years as well. I can't really argue with Tetris, Pac Man or even Pong simply on history. WoW was and remains the biggest game ever from what I can tell. Finding it hard to argue against Mario as well by similar metrics.
I guess Minecraft didn't make the top 6 simply because it is the newest and therefore less tested by time compared to the others.
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rootsrat
Volunteer Moderator
Well, for starters:
3 games awarded for the same reason? Where there are only 6 places available? That's quite bad.
The original Elite definitely deserves a place in this list, it was a real game changer, almost unbelievable experience. Dune 2000 was also quite a shocker, it opened gates of real time strategy games. So I'd definitely replace 2 out of those 3 quoted games with Elite and Dune 2000.
Another questionable one is Doom. Awarded for violence? I can understand the modding part - fair enough.
There are many more games that were quire revolutionary or original enough to be included in the list. Transarctica comes to mind, an extremely unique game that has no equivalent to this day. Not a single game even attempted to recreate the experience. What about adventure games from Lucas Arts? They were absolutely brilliant. The quality of writing, especially in The Secret of Monkey Island is stunning.
I think that The Best Of list of games needs AT LEAST 20 places, simply due to the sheer amount and variety of games that were release over the years. And it shouldn't even be 1 is better than 2, just an equal list of 20 best games ever, in terms of cultural influence, industry change, uniqueness, creativity, technology (relative to the times it was released in) etc.
I saw "How Video Games Changed The World" quite a while back. A channel 4 production, written and presented by Charlie Brooker (lots of cutting & sarcastic humour). In this he goes through the 25 "most influential" games (according to himself), they are ordered in chronological order with 25 being the oldest and 1 being the "newest".
You can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/86920129
And you can see the list of games (which includes Elite) here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Videogames_Changed_the_World
You can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/86920129
And you can see the list of games (which includes Elite) here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Videogames_Changed_the_World
I agree that more games should have been included but if you have to narrow it down to 6...
For me stuff like Elite and Dune would never make that list. There's no question that they were great games in their day and that some legacy has persisted but not nearly on the level of the others. Pong remains in the minds of most as the "first game" and who hasn't heard of Pac Man and Tetris? These games are unimaginably huge in decade-spanning popular culture - Elite and Dune just aren't and that appears to be the main consideration here. Doom is definitely the weakest title in there but I'd likely have replaced it with Minecraft. Again though, you just can't argue with its effect on gaming over the decades - it just seems weak in amongst some other titans.
For me stuff like Elite and Dune would never make that list. There's no question that they were great games in their day and that some legacy has persisted but not nearly on the level of the others. Pong remains in the minds of most as the "first game" and who hasn't heard of Pac Man and Tetris? These games are unimaginably huge in decade-spanning popular culture - Elite and Dune just aren't and that appears to be the main consideration here. Doom is definitely the weakest title in there but I'd likely have replaced it with Minecraft. Again though, you just can't argue with its effect on gaming over the decades - it just seems weak in amongst some other titans.
rootsrat
Volunteer Moderator
Minecraft is on the list though, no? You are right about Dune and Elite not being as popular as Pac Man and Tetris, but why isn't Arcanoid on the list? Montezuma's Revenge? River Raid? And a couple dozens of other games from that era, that are equally known and recognised then? To me it looks like a waste of 2 spots on the list and giving 3 games the award for exactly same reason. Which isn't fair IMHO.
Minecraft made the shortlist but not the final 6, same with Zelda and Sonic.
It is all about the popular perception I think. If you asked 100 random people if they'd heard about these games then vastly more would name Pac Man (literally 100 out of 100 would know that game) Super Mario, Tetris (I'd guess over 90%)...if you asked the same people about Arkanoid, River Raid etc those numbers would be down in the low <10% percentages.
It's important to look at this from the perspective of a non-gamer as that's what they've done in many cases. That's why Doom looks weak in the list for me - it's very much a "gamer" game in a list of "famous" games.
rootsrat
Volunteer Moderator
I agree with you now. You make good points sir! I didn't think of the non-gamer aspect.
Yeah I think that's why games like Elite didn't make the list. If you think about it they've done a pretty good job of narrowing it down to what is a list of very famous games as opposed to the types of game that us gamers would pick.
Out of all that I'd only pick WoW as one of my top games, but yeah if they asked me to list the top 6 most influential or famous games I'd find it hard to argue with many of them. I remember how people lost their minds over Pac-man (I was only a 5-year old kid at the time but there were Pac-man machines everywhere you looked). Tetris with that maddeningly catchy tune is forever etched into the minds of people who will never play any other game. I was in France with my sister and brother in law when it came out and my brother in law went and bought a gameboy just to play that one game. He never played another game ever
Even now Tetris is the #1 selling mobile game...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games
Out of all that I'd only pick WoW as one of my top games, but yeah if they asked me to list the top 6 most influential or famous games I'd find it hard to argue with many of them. I remember how people lost their minds over Pac-man (I was only a 5-year old kid at the time but there were Pac-man machines everywhere you looked). Tetris with that maddeningly catchy tune is forever etched into the minds of people who will never play any other game. I was in France with my sister and brother in law when it came out and my brother in law went and bought a gameboy just to play that one game. He never played another game ever
Even now Tetris is the #1 selling mobile game...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games
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I wouldn't replace anything. 6 spots isn't enough. Plain and simple.
I don't think the "non-gamer" perspective is important either. If you build a museum dedicated to the greatest pieces of literature of all time, you don't stick Fifty Shades of Grey in the mix just because nobody reads Jules Verne anymore. Museums are an institution for teaching people about something new. Not playing the popularity card in some misguided attempt to draw more visitors or whatever.
And for the record, Doom is Black Hills-level of monumental. Before FPS games were called FPS games they were called "Doom clones". And that's exactly the type of thing you'd learn in a VG museum that did its job properly.
I don't think the "non-gamer" perspective is important either. If you build a museum dedicated to the greatest pieces of literature of all time, you don't stick Fifty Shades of Grey in the mix just because nobody reads Jules Verne anymore. Museums are an institution for teaching people about something new. Not playing the popularity card in some misguided attempt to draw more visitors or whatever.
And for the record, Doom is Black Hills-level of monumental. Before FPS games were called FPS games they were called "Doom clones". And that's exactly the type of thing you'd learn in a VG museum that did its job properly.