A point system would theoretically add more granularity to the system. Someone may have a top 5 that's scored (out of 10): 10,9,9,9,8. Someone else may feel more like 10,6,4,3,1. The current system doesn't distinguish between those two scenarios while a score-based system would. It also adds a lot of complexity though.
So, if adding number doesn't do that better...I'm not seeing the point.
First off, I want to say that this poll is my favorite thing about the PA forums. I think the way @mcc calculates it works just fine, and it doesn't need to be changed. That doesn't mean we couldn't toss around ideas about what the numbers mean or what different numbers could mean.
What I'm mainly trying to do is cut out the popularity metric. If 1000 people played Bioshock but ranked it 11th, it could still beat out a game 400 people ranked first. A lot of people didn't get to play Super Mario 3D World (myself included), but it would have ranked rather high based on score I'd imagine.
The other thing that I see happen is that people will just throw a game on the list they're not particularly fond of that ends up high on their list, thereby getting a lot of points perhaps unnecessarily. And on the other side of that, some people played more than 20 games and feel bad about leaving the 21st off and not getting any points. Assigning a score would completely get rid of that problem. Of course, it would come with its own set of new problems. The biggest would be the trolls that tried to game it by bringing down a good game with a 3 (which would be harder to catch than a 1 troll). And as I have noticed on my average recalculations, you have to have a cutoff in most cases to deal with the person who was the only person to vote for a game.
So what I'm saying is we need a BCS-style scoring system that takes multiple polls into account.
A point system would theoretically add more granularity to the system. Someone may have a top 5 that's scored (out of 10): 10,9,9,9,8. Someone else may feel more like 10,6,4,3,1. The current system doesn't distinguish between those two scenarios while a score-based system would. It also adds a lot of complexity though.
This is kind of what led me to think about this. The Last of Us is my only 10. The next 5 games on my list would be 9s. Then the rest are 8s and 7s.
I guess I really do need to check out Gone Home! From listening to podcasts about it, I kind of thought that its interesting aspect was how "mundane" it is and the bravery in not stuffing ghosts and whatnot in there, and I thought that now that I know that I can respectfully nod toward it but not really need to play it...perhaps there is more to the actual experience of playing it, though!
Not at all surprising to see it so low, but more people need to play Pikmin 3 if the Wii U becomes a less crazy purchase down the line. Hopefully PS4-but-not-PS3 owners will be able to at least stream TLOU later this year as well.
Instead of combining ALL nominations for the 'best game ever' poll, why not use the Top 20 (or 30 or whatever) from the results for each year as at least a baseline. Surely if it finished 75th in 2006 it won't sniff the top 20 for Best Ever.
The only reason I suggested that is because some games have become vindicated by history. Alpha Protocol, for example, regardless of @Tube inevitably disagreeing.
The simple solution (well, "simple" from a satisfactory standpoint, not from an implementation standpoint). Normalize the scores based off number of voters over the past 10 years. Throw all the results into a single list. Pick out the top 50 from that, and top 50 from our previous "best game ever" poll. Alphabetize them separately, put them at the top of the nominee list, then have a general "the rest of the bunch" list available below it.
If there's something specific someone really wants? They can find it, no problem. But there'll be 100 games up at the top which will generally cover what we can reasonably assume most peoples' top 20 would be amongst.
In the most recent game I created, you are trapped in a tiny liferaft, bobbing up and down on an angrily frothing ocean drawn in red wireframe. You can look around from a first person perspective but you can not move or affect your environment in any way. Forty seconds after the game begins, totally regardless of anything you do, the waves finally begin to calm, a little, just enough for you to see you are steadily drifting toward a giant whirlpool hole in the sea, which your little boat tumbles into, probably just as you are beginning to notice it coming toward you, and your vision blurs out and you die. The game quits.
I don't find the question of what is or is not a "game" very interesting
This is basically how Bioshock 1 worked when I tried to play it without shaders.
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Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
Thanks @mcc for running this again. You're the swellest.
Also, apologies to @monger for not having gotten around to Zenoclash 2 this year, where it certainly would have displaced at least two major titles another position.
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
Also, apologies to @monger for not having gotten around to Zenoclash 2 this year, where it certainly would have displaced at least two major titles another position.
Instead of combining ALL nominations for the 'best game ever' poll, why not use the Top 20 (or 30 or whatever) from the results for each year as at least a baseline. Surely if it finished 75th in 2006 it won't sniff the top 20 for Best Ever.
The only reason I suggested that is because some games have become vindicated by history. Alpha Protocol, for example, regardless of Tube inevitably disagreeing.
IIRC, it didn't do that poorly in the vote. Double checking, it was 17 (and 10 in FPP)
I didn't vote this year. Yeah, I know, I'm sure you're all broken up about it. But the reason I didn't vote this year was because I have been so busy this year that the only game I could think of that I played last year that was actually released last year was Animal Crossing. Maybe there would have been a few iOS games, I don't know. But frankly, in other years I've been hard pressed to come up with twenty new games I've played. Which means in my vote that maybe me just having played it will get it points, regardless of how good it was. I have worried about that in previous years actually. If I played things but thought they were bad I will leave them off even if my list is less than 20, but what about games that would drop off if only I'd had time to just play more games? This year I would have had to put Animal Crossing as #1, and really, I do love the game, but would I have it as #1 if I'd had time to play other fun games?
syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
I did not have The Last of Us in my top 20, because I haven't played it.
I am pretty sure it would have been in my top 3, easy, had I played it... but you can't vote on what you don't know.
So no, I don't let the fact that I couldn't get around to everything keep me from voting on my top 20. The rest of the community will round off the rough edges in my collection and land on the general consensus.
Gone Home was in my top 5 of the entire year, and I am pretty sure I played nearly half of the overall top 20, so I am happy with this list.
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Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Exactly, I'd be more than willing to help do whatever was necessary to run a 2nd poll for last years list (or I guess it's the one before last now), if mcc were willing to put the script up, like @evilbadman did for the decade poll?
Glad to see Gone Home doing so well on the list. I also voted for it on TychoCelchuuu's poll, because I want to see someone do e-sports commentary on that game.
But um, I don't recall doing a lot of S'ing in that "FPS" game, Gone Home.
Glad to see Gone Home doing so well on the list. I also voted for it on TychoCelchuuu's poll, because I want to see someone do e-sports commentary on that game.
But um, I don't recall doing a lot of S'ing in that "FPS" game, Gone Home.
Yeah, it's a classic adventure game from a first person perspective, not an fps
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Glad to see Gone Home doing so well on the list. I also voted for it on TychoCelchuuu's poll, because I want to see someone do e-sports commentary on that game.
But um, I don't recall doing a lot of S'ing in that "FPS" game, Gone Home.
Yeah, it's a classic adventure game from a first person perspective, not an fps
So more of a FPE (First Person Exploration), or FPA (First Person Adventure)?
Regarding the GOTY lists, I'm pretty much satisfied with the whole lot of them. For all the raging debates and discussions that Gone Home has spawned (regarding its authenticity as a video game) last year, it's nice to see more and more games like it break the mold as to how people today view gaming and entertainment (both visual and interactive) as a whole.
Edit: And by that account, so does Stanley Parable.
I think the PA list is probably a better measure of the general video game playing population then the Twitter list but they are both subjective and thus equally correct. And I can use the list as a way to narrow down the list of games that released last year that I should play. I would have liked to see Monster Hunter higher on the list but I recognize it is still a pretty niche game here in the states and not for everyone.
I did not have The Last of Us in my top 20, because I haven't played it.
I am pretty sure it would have been in my top 3, easy, had I played it... but you can't vote on what you don't know.
So no, I don't let the fact that I couldn't get around to everything keep me from voting on my top 20. The rest of the community will round off the rough edges in my collection and land on the general consensus.
Gone Home was in my top 5 of the entire year, and I am pretty sure I played nearly half of the overall top 20, so I am happy with this list.
Yeah, that kind of thing was tricky. I was pretty sure The Last of Us would fight to the death with my other games to be number one on my list. Then I played it. I ranked it 10th.
Quite happy with this list but two games I felt should have been way higher are monster hunter and, more importantly, Rayman Legends.
Rayman Legends is one of the best platformers i've ever played and it's fantastic at every turn. Monster hunter, also, is brilliant.
Well done all games that did well though! Hooray for games and us!
Edit: Also, pikmin 3 was my game of the year. Delightful game, but i can see why it's not for everyone. Not everyone can have the best taste ever.
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Bubsy 3D: Bubsy visits the James Turrell Retrospective was amazing. Also A Dark Room. I haven't played most of the fancy new games because I don't have an awesome computer, but I have a pretty good idea of what they are offering. I'm a lot more interested in new experiences and stretching the medium.
You might be really interested in BioShock Infinite, which stretches the medium into questions like "what if a society were racist but then the game didn't say anything interesting about that" or "what happens if you shove an articulated hook into a man's face and then withdraw the hook?"
Infinite may have been pretty much another shootyman murdergame, but it did have a fun mindfuck of a story. I think I literally had smoke coming out of my ears trying to piece the ending together. It was pretty great in that regard. I can see why it'd be pretty high up on a GOTY list.
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
You might be really interested in BioShock Infinite, which stretches the medium into questions like "what if a society were racist but then the game didn't say anything interesting about that" or "what happens if you shove an articulated hook into a man's face and then withdraw the hook?"
I liked Bioshock Infinite a little more than you appear to, but I have to agree with this. It's why I left it off my list.
The phenomenon Navarro's Constant remains true, wherein any time Bioshock Infinite is mentioned, somebody will go out of their way to tell you why you shouldn't like it.
99th!? Game Dev Tycoon was robbed!! OK, I kid, but I'm glad to see some other folks voted for it. It's one of those games that wasn't huge, but did a great job of executing what it set out to do.
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
The phenomenon Navarro's Constant remains true, wherein any time Bioshock Infinite is mentioned, somebody will go out of their way to tell you why you shouldn't like it.
Navarro's Constant is rubbish and you shouldn't refer to it.
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GTA 5 at #12? I can only picture Rockstar crying on a large bed, constructed out of currency.
I was going to GOTY RtH:R but well, there were a couple hookers you couldn't get in the sack. Totally ruined it for me.
What, no Last Light?
I hate you all!
What I'm mainly trying to do is cut out the popularity metric. If 1000 people played Bioshock but ranked it 11th, it could still beat out a game 400 people ranked first. A lot of people didn't get to play Super Mario 3D World (myself included), but it would have ranked rather high based on score I'd imagine.
The other thing that I see happen is that people will just throw a game on the list they're not particularly fond of that ends up high on their list, thereby getting a lot of points perhaps unnecessarily. And on the other side of that, some people played more than 20 games and feel bad about leaving the 21st off and not getting any points. Assigning a score would completely get rid of that problem. Of course, it would come with its own set of new problems. The biggest would be the trolls that tried to game it by bringing down a good game with a 3 (which would be harder to catch than a 1 troll). And as I have noticed on my average recalculations, you have to have a cutoff in most cases to deal with the person who was the only person to vote for a game.
So what I'm saying is we need a BCS-style scoring system that takes multiple polls into account.
This is kind of what led me to think about this. The Last of Us is my only 10. The next 5 games on my list would be 9s. Then the rest are 8s and 7s.
This is a clickable link to my Steam Profile.
I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as 2033, unfortunately.
I like that it won Giant Bomb's Worst Game of the Year award, but only because Vinny didn't want to give RIPD any awards, even Worst Game.
Not at all surprising to see it so low, but more people need to play Pikmin 3 if the Wii U becomes a less crazy purchase down the line. Hopefully PS4-but-not-PS3 owners will be able to at least stream TLOU later this year as well.
Did you really need to call me out over this?
If there's something specific someone really wants? They can find it, no problem. But there'll be 100 games up at the top which will generally cover what we can reasonably assume most peoples' top 20 would be amongst.
This is basically how Bioshock 1 worked when I tried to play it without shaders.
Also, apologies to @monger for not having gotten around to Zenoclash 2 this year, where it certainly would have displaced at least two major titles another position.
But only just.
I've got my eye on you.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
IIRC, it didn't do that poorly in the vote. Double checking, it was 17 (and 10 in FPP)
Does anyone else worry about these things?
Wii: 4521 1146 5179 1333 Pearl: 3394 4642 8367 HG: 1849 3913 3132
I am pretty sure it would have been in my top 3, easy, had I played it... but you can't vote on what you don't know.
So no, I don't let the fact that I couldn't get around to everything keep me from voting on my top 20. The rest of the community will round off the rough edges in my collection and land on the general consensus.
Gone Home was in my top 5 of the entire year, and I am pretty sure I played nearly half of the overall top 20, so I am happy with this list.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
But um, I don't recall doing a lot of S'ing in that "FPS" game, Gone Home.
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Yeah, it's a classic adventure game from a first person perspective, not an fps
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
So more of a FPE (First Person Exploration), or FPA (First Person Adventure)?
Regarding the GOTY lists, I'm pretty much satisfied with the whole lot of them. For all the raging debates and discussions that Gone Home has spawned (regarding its authenticity as a video game) last year, it's nice to see more and more games like it break the mold as to how people today view gaming and entertainment (both visual and interactive) as a whole.
Edit: And by that account, so does Stanley Parable.
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Yeah, that kind of thing was tricky. I was pretty sure The Last of Us would fight to the death with my other games to be number one on my list. Then I played it. I ranked it 10th.
You've done me proud, Penny Arcade! Bioshock Infinite over The Last of Us and definitely Brothers over Gone Home.
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Super Mario 3D World probably belongs in the top 6, even though I haven't played it.
The drop off in AAA titles after the top 6 is pretty amazing.
I think this was finally the year of the PS3.
(Skip to 24:08 in this video and for the full experience keep listening for 10 minutes)
Rayman Legends is one of the best platformers i've ever played and it's fantastic at every turn. Monster hunter, also, is brilliant.
Well done all games that did well though! Hooray for games and us!
Edit: Also, pikmin 3 was my game of the year. Delightful game, but i can see why it's not for everyone. Not everyone can have the best taste ever.
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I liked Bioshock Infinite a little more than you appear to, but I have to agree with this. It's why I left it off my list.
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Navarro's Constant is rubbish and you shouldn't refer to it.