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Results to "GAF's Greatest Games of All Time 2011 Edition"
- Thread starter Drkirby
- Start date
ahaha what the hell, why was my vote actually counted? I specifically formatted it so it wouldn't be counted! I just wanted to ramble, I'm not remotely "qualified" to decide the ten best games ever across all consoles and my list was haphazard and not even in any order at all or remotely justified. (a little surprised still that somehow no one else voted for harvest moon 64 or gunstar heroes. gunstar heroes! GAF was the place that actually pointed me to that game after I glossed over it for whatever reason back in the day).
anyways, the point of these threads for me certainly isn't the final list at all, which will be inherently useless, it's all about the ballots. I do two things when reading through this kind of stuff:
1) look for the lists from posters whose names I recognize so that I can see where they're coming from. even for people who don't bother to justify their lists, it's still useful to see a catalog. if someone's list is half nintendo games or square rpgs, that tells me something about their experiences and taste that i can keep in mind when they're commenting on other things (I say this as someone who had three nintendo games and two square rpgs on my list).
2) look for interesting well-written mini-essays or insights. stump had something really neat to say about ffvi that helped me view the game in a new way, he's the best person on GAF. ghaleon's always amazing, he reads like an enthusiastic college freshman who wants to show off all the cool stuff he knows, his posts are my favorite. drohne writes really really well and always has funny or interesting things to say. voting threads are nice opportunities for smart posters to highlight overlooked games or write interesting things about well-known games. the actual end-list itself is dumb and provides no value. it's what certain people put into ballots that make it worthwhile.
anyways, the point of these threads for me certainly isn't the final list at all, which will be inherently useless, it's all about the ballots. I do two things when reading through this kind of stuff:
1) look for the lists from posters whose names I recognize so that I can see where they're coming from. even for people who don't bother to justify their lists, it's still useful to see a catalog. if someone's list is half nintendo games or square rpgs, that tells me something about their experiences and taste that i can keep in mind when they're commenting on other things (I say this as someone who had three nintendo games and two square rpgs on my list).
2) look for interesting well-written mini-essays or insights. stump had something really neat to say about ffvi that helped me view the game in a new way, he's the best person on GAF. ghaleon's always amazing, he reads like an enthusiastic college freshman who wants to show off all the cool stuff he knows, his posts are my favorite. drohne writes really really well and always has funny or interesting things to say. voting threads are nice opportunities for smart posters to highlight overlooked games or write interesting things about well-known games. the actual end-list itself is dumb and provides no value. it's what certain people put into ballots that make it worthwhile.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Guevara said:
I highlighted the availability or lack thereof of all of my choices when I voted for that reason; I very much believe that a lot of people read explanations, say "I'll check that shit out", and then if they can't find it one button click away--whether that's Steam for a PC game or the VC or maybe Amazon for some people or in the case of older games I'm sure there's a lot of illegal ROM downloading--they probably relegate it to the back of their mind.
I just finished Spyro the Dragon for the first time ever (great job Insomniac!) and I bought a disc copy on eBay, but 99% of people out there would never check it out if it took eBay to get it. I thiiiiink Spyro is available on PSN but I only paid around $10 for the disc copy so I didn't bother checking for a price comparison. But a lot of people would basically check PSN and if they didn't find it there, they'd bail. That's a total pity.
I feel like there's a lot of strange assumptions being thrown around about the demographics of the people who responded to this poll, especially for those people who voted for Nintendo titles. I can certainly understand that to a certain extent these assumptions may even be true, but it hardly seems helpful or relevant when a large majority of people agree that those Nintendo games are the best games of all-time.
Would this list be more interesting if it included choices like Master of Orion 2, Katamari Damacy, Meteos, or Bushido Blade (all of which are in my personal top 20, but not top 10)? Absolutely. But, I'm not going to put Drill Dozer in my top 10 ahead of Super Mario World just to have a different 2D platformer that's more niche.
I'm 29 years old now, and I've been pretty serious about gaming for 23 of those years. I've played thousands of games, but the fact remains that Mario and Zelda really are that damn good.
If you want to have a "best games of all-time" list that excludes the best games of all time it just seems sort of pointless. Also, I don't think your list would end up looking too much different if you decided to do a judges' panel type list. Sure you would have less entries from single franchises but that wouldn't change the overall look of the list too much. And that would be the result of a conscious decision to mold the list, not necessarily because your imaginary council would think that Wind Waker isn't good enough to be in the top 50.
Would this list be more interesting if it included choices like Master of Orion 2, Katamari Damacy, Meteos, or Bushido Blade (all of which are in my personal top 20, but not top 10)? Absolutely. But, I'm not going to put Drill Dozer in my top 10 ahead of Super Mario World just to have a different 2D platformer that's more niche.
I'm 29 years old now, and I've been pretty serious about gaming for 23 of those years. I've played thousands of games, but the fact remains that Mario and Zelda really are that damn good.
If you want to have a "best games of all-time" list that excludes the best games of all time it just seems sort of pointless. Also, I don't think your list would end up looking too much different if you decided to do a judges' panel type list. Sure you would have less entries from single franchises but that wouldn't change the overall look of the list too much. And that would be the result of a conscious decision to mold the list, not necessarily because your imaginary council would think that Wind Waker isn't good enough to be in the top 50.
The reason there's so many Nintendo games(more that there's so many Mario and Zelda) is simple. Most gamers will have at least one game from those series in their top 10. But opinion, especially in the case of Mario, is vastly split on which game is the best. That's why Mario games are filling the top 20. Almost everyone voted for one but multiple Mario games are considered great so the vote is split. I don't think that's a case of Nintendo 'bias' unless there's ample proof that there was a multitude of lists just filled with Nintendo games.
Starwolf_UK
Member
I decied to look through the list now that you mentioned that. You also see predictable drops in votes along franchises (like no Pokemon generation 3, Zelda 2, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit tracks having a lot less than the rest of their franchise).Popstar said:
Another nitpick with the full list. Are Golden Eye 007 and GoldenEye 007 meant to different games? I'm guessing the former is the 2010 version and the latter the 1997 version (by number of vote for each). That correct?
I always was bad at subtle names
VGChampion
Member
I think I would like to see a "top played of all time" some day. These greatest games are always the same. I think OoT is great but it's nowhere the game I've spent the most amount of time on.
plagiarize
Banned
i have zero problems with this list. good work everyone 
looking forwards to playing that 1 through to completion for the first time on 3DS.
looking forwards to playing that 1 through to completion for the first time on 3DS.
Mr. Lemming
Member
Stumpokapow said:
You mention GameSpite. Their Greatest* Games of All Time list isn't too far removed from the one found here. I'm not sure I understand the disappointment with the lack of diversity. Maybe these really are the greatest games of all time according to a self-selecting sample of gaming enthusiasts with a console-centric viewpoint.
unikGamer is a dedicated site for listing our favorite games. It automatically compiles the list of everyone into a giant master list.
The "Master List" can be sorted out by demographics (gender, country and age).
You can also check out, which gamers have the closest gaming taste to you and check out their lists.
If you like making top lists, you guys should definitely check it out ;-)
In the meantime, check out my awesome all-time Top 25 favorite games list.
The "Master List" can be sorted out by demographics (gender, country and age).
You can also check out, which gamers have the closest gaming taste to you and check out their lists.
If you like making top lists, you guys should definitely check it out ;-)
In the meantime, check out my awesome all-time Top 25 favorite games list.