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Game of the Year 2013 Poll [*RESULTS*]
mcc
glitchRegistered User, ClubPA regular
glitchRegistered User, ClubPA regular
Game of the Year 2013: Gone Home
CLICK HERE TO JUMP TO THE PRETTY COLOR-CODED FULL RESULTS
Every year since 2004 I've been hosting this Game of the Year poll for the users of some forums I read. There are a lot of GOTY polls out there, but this one I think is kind of special. Most polls, you're given a list of four or five options and you're asked to pick the one you liked best. This poll, people are given a list of a couple of hundred options, consisting of every new game released in the previous year-- and asked to rate their top ten or twenty.
This does a few interesting things. First off, we get to see all the information about what people's second, third etc choices are. Second off, because the second, third etc choices count, people are more likely to vote for the game they want to win, rather than the game they think is likely to win-- they're less likely to engage in "strategic voting". Finally, because we have all this information, we're actually able to provide somewhat reasonable rankings for something like the top hundred or so games of last year.
The full results-- showing the exact number of voters who ranked each game first, second, third place etc-- can be found here. In the meantime, the final results were:
The numbers in parentheses are the final scores each game got under the poll's ranking system. Thanks if you voted, and some more elaborate analysis of the results (plus an explanation of the scores) can be found below.
NOTEWORTHY WINNERS
GOTY 2013:
Top-ranked PC Exclusive:
Top-ranked 3DS Exclusive:
Top-ranked PS3 Exclusive:
Top-ranked WiiU Exclusive:
Top-ranked Browser Game:
Top-ranked Mobile Exclusive:
Top-ranked Vita exclusive:
Top-ranked PS4 Exclusive:
Top-ranked 360 Exclusive:
Top-ranked XB1 Exclusive:
Top-ranked Ouya Exclusive:
Top-ranked Wii Exclusive:
Top-ranked FPS:
Top-ranked "Indie" Game:
Top-ranked RPG:
Top-ranked Sports Game:
"Cult" Award (see below):
NOTEWORTHY LOSERS
Best game of 2013 which somehow nobody considered to be their #1 pick: #30, Guacamelee!
Worst game of 2013 that at least one person considered their #1 pick: Three-way tie between three games tied for the #326 slot: "I Hate the Dark"; Wizardry Online; and "Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok". Each of these games got only one vote, but each of these voters considered it their game of the year.
Worst game of 2013: Two-way tie between the games tied for #402: "Composition 62" and "Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge". Both of these games scored only one vote each, each from someone who considered it their 20th best game of the year.
There were a whole 57 games on the nominations list that no one voted for at all.
ALTERNATE SCORING METHODS
The rankings listed above are based on a version of the Borda count voting method. Each vote cast for a game gives that game a certain number of points. If someone ranks a game #1, that game gets 20 points. If they rank it #2, the game gets 19 points. If they rank it #3 the game gets 18 points... and so on. I have a script that checks a couple of alternate ways of ranking the same data, though.
For example, if we rank games only by the number of first place votes they got, the winner remains the same but almost the entire rest of the list changes dramatically-- a lot more movement than usual this year, it seems like. I bolded entries that are different in the first-place-votes count:
First Past the Post
I also did two more ways of sorting the rankings: an "approval" vote, where nothing is counted except the number of votes a game received (i.e. a first-place and a twentieth-place ranking count the same-- all the matters is if the game was on someone's list); and an instant runoff vote. Usually these two track the main count very closely, but this year, something rare happens in IRV: The first and second place games switch place! If you are qualified to comment on the differences between instant runoff and Borda-based ranked voting, feel free to tell us what that means.
APPROVAL
IRV
FINALLY: PER-FORUM BREAKDOWNS
Okay, so this is where things get… interesting.
PA is where this poll started, right? Every single year, PA has dominated the results. I traditionally link on a couple other small forums-- mostly PA breakaway forums anyway-- but PA provides the majority of the votes.
Except not this year. This year, for whatever reason, my efforts to promote the poll on Twitter took off like crazy; one of the tweets about it got 51 retweets. The result was a HUGE voter influx, to the point where PA was almost outnumbered-- in the end PA contributed about 300 votes, whereas Twitter contributed about 250.
My vote script tracks "where votes came from", and lets me run results isolated to votes from a particular source. The tracking isn't perfect, since it's based on HTTP referer and many voters loaded the site in such a way they didn't even even report that, but this should be able give us an idea how different internet communities voted. And it turns out Twitter and PA voted REALLY differently. Here's how Twitter voted.
And here's how Penny Arcade voted:
(EDIT: Also: Alternate tabulation methods for the "PA voters only" list are here.)
This list is pretty darn different from the overall results! Looking at these two breakdowns, the most pronounced difference between the Twitter and PA voting blocs is how they treated the top two entries from the combined results: Twitter voted overwhelmingly for Gone Home whereas PA put it at #13, and Bioshock Infinite was voted #1 by PA but ranked down at #12 for twitter, one less than Zelda. One thing that may have hurt Bioshock here is that the PA bloc did not vote for it nearly as solidly as the Twitter bloc voted for Gone Home: In fact, the #1 recipient of first-place votes from PA, if you look, was "The Last of Us", beating out Bioshock 39 to 23.
Anyway, that's it. Thanks as always for voting!
CLICK HERE TO JUMP TO THE PRETTY COLOR-CODED FULL RESULTS
Every year since 2004 I've been hosting this Game of the Year poll for the users of some forums I read. There are a lot of GOTY polls out there, but this one I think is kind of special. Most polls, you're given a list of four or five options and you're asked to pick the one you liked best. This poll, people are given a list of a couple of hundred options, consisting of every new game released in the previous year-- and asked to rate their top ten or twenty.
This does a few interesting things. First off, we get to see all the information about what people's second, third etc choices are. Second off, because the second, third etc choices count, people are more likely to vote for the game they want to win, rather than the game they think is likely to win-- they're less likely to engage in "strategic voting". Finally, because we have all this information, we're actually able to provide somewhat reasonable rankings for something like the top hundred or so games of last year.
The full results-- showing the exact number of voters who ranked each game first, second, third place etc-- can be found here. In the meantime, the final results were:
- Gone Home (3426) *** GAME OF THE YEAR ***
- Bioshock Infinite (3373)
- Papers, Please (2506)
- Saints Row IV (2497)
- Tomb Raider 2013 (2490)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (2440)
- Pokémon X and Y (2423)
- The Last Of Us (2263)
- The Stanley Parable (2187)
- Fire Emblem: Awakening (2161)
- Animal Crossing: New Leaf (1924)
- Grand Theft Auto V (1721)
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (1631)
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (1554)
- Rogue Legacy (1547)
- Super Mario 3D World (1393)
- Antichamber (1334)
- Gunpoint (1302)
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (1214)
- Kentucky Route Zero (1130)
The numbers in parentheses are the final scores each game got under the poll's ranking system. Thanks if you voted, and some more elaborate analysis of the results (plus an explanation of the scores) can be found below.
NOTEWORTHY WINNERS
GOTY 2013:
#1, Gone Home
Top-ranked PC Exclusive:
#1, Gone Home
Top-ranked 3DS Exclusive:
#6, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Top-ranked PS3 Exclusive:
#8, The Last Of Us
Top-ranked WiiU Exclusive:
#16, Super Mario 3D World
Top-ranked Browser Game:
#24, Depression Quest
Top-ranked Mobile Exclusive:
#46, 868-HACK
(OR)
#56, Ridiculous Fishing, if you disqualify 868-HACK because of its PC prototype, "86856527"
Top-ranked Vita exclusive:
#67, Tearaway
Top-ranked PS4 Exclusive:
#85, Resogun
Top-ranked 360 Exclusive:
#104, BattleBlock Theater
Top-ranked XB1 Exclusive:
#124, Killer Instinct
Top-ranked Ouya Exclusive:
#166, Towerfall
Top-ranked Wii Exclusive:
#189, Pandora's Tower
Top-ranked FPS:
#1, Gone Home
Top-ranked "Indie" Game:
#1, Gone Home
Top-ranked RPG:
#7, Pokémon X and Y
Top-ranked Sports Game:
#45, Divekick
"Cult" Award (see below):
#46, 868-HACK
NOTEWORTHY LOSERS
Best game of 2013 which somehow nobody considered to be their #1 pick: #30, Guacamelee!
Worst game of 2013 that at least one person considered their #1 pick: Three-way tie between three games tied for the #326 slot: "I Hate the Dark"; Wizardry Online; and "Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok". Each of these games got only one vote, but each of these voters considered it their game of the year.
Worst game of 2013: Two-way tie between the games tied for #402: "Composition 62" and "Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge". Both of these games scored only one vote each, each from someone who considered it their 20th best game of the year.
There were a whole 57 games on the nominations list that no one voted for at all.
ALTERNATE SCORING METHODS
The rankings listed above are based on a version of the Borda count voting method. Each vote cast for a game gives that game a certain number of points. If someone ranks a game #1, that game gets 20 points. If they rank it #2, the game gets 19 points. If they rank it #3 the game gets 18 points... and so on. I have a script that checks a couple of alternate ways of ranking the same data, though.
For example, if we rank games only by the number of first place votes they got, the winner remains the same but almost the entire rest of the list changes dramatically-- a lot more movement than usual this year, it seems like. I bolded entries that are different in the first-place-votes count:
First Past the Post
- Gone Home (52)
- The Last Of Us (51)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (38)
- Saints Row IV (35)
- Bioshock Infinite (33)
- Fire Emblem: Awakening (27)
- Papers, Please (23)
- Pokémon X and Y (23)
- Grand Theft Auto V (19)
- Dota 2 (19)
- The Stanley Parable (17)
- Animal Crossing: New Leaf (17)
- Kentucky Route Zero (16)
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (15)
- Tomb Raider 2013 (14)
- StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (12)
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (11)
- 868-HACK (10)
- Super Mario 3D World (9)
- Hate Plus (9)
I also did two more ways of sorting the rankings: an "approval" vote, where nothing is counted except the number of votes a game received (i.e. a first-place and a twentieth-place ranking count the same-- all the matters is if the game was on someone's list); and an instant runoff vote. Usually these two track the main count very closely, but this year, something rare happens in IRV: The first and second place games switch place! If you are qualified to comment on the differences between instant runoff and Borda-based ranked voting, feel free to tell us what that means.
APPROVAL
- Bioshock Infinite (223)
- Gone Home (205)
- Papers, Please (176)
- Tomb Raider 2013 (162)
- Saints Row IV (157)
- Pokémon X and Y (155)
- The Stanley Parable (149)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (144)
- Fire Emblem: Awakening (140)
- The Last Of Us (136)
- Animal Crossing: New Leaf (125)
- Rogue Legacy (117)
- Grand Theft Auto V (113)
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (108)
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (107)
- Gunpoint (98)
- Antichamber (91)
- Super Mario 3D World (84)
- Don't Starve (83)
- Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (82)
IRV
- Bioshock Infinite (223)
- Gone Home (205)
- Papers, Please (176)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (144)
- Saints Row IV (157)
- Pokémon X and Y (155)
- The Last Of Us (136)
- Tomb Raider 2013 (162)
- The Stanley Parable (149)
- Fire Emblem: Awakening (140)
- Animal Crossing: New Leaf (125)
- Grand Theft Auto V (113)
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (108)
- Rogue Legacy (117)
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (107)
- Gunpoint (98)
- Antichamber (91)
- Super Mario 3D World (84)
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (77)
- Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (82)
FINALLY: PER-FORUM BREAKDOWNS
Okay, so this is where things get… interesting.
PA is where this poll started, right? Every single year, PA has dominated the results. I traditionally link on a couple other small forums-- mostly PA breakaway forums anyway-- but PA provides the majority of the votes.
Except not this year. This year, for whatever reason, my efforts to promote the poll on Twitter took off like crazy; one of the tweets about it got 51 retweets. The result was a HUGE voter influx, to the point where PA was almost outnumbered-- in the end PA contributed about 300 votes, whereas Twitter contributed about 250.
My vote script tracks "where votes came from", and lets me run results isolated to votes from a particular source. The tracking isn't perfect, since it's based on HTTP referer and many voters loaded the site in such a way they didn't even even report that, but this should be able give us an idea how different internet communities voted. And it turns out Twitter and PA voted REALLY differently. Here's how Twitter voted.
And here's how Penny Arcade voted:
- Bioshock Infinite
- Tomb Raider 2013
- The Last Of Us
- Saints Row IV
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
- Fire Emblem: Awakening
- Pokémon X and Y
- Papers, Please
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- Rogue Legacy
- Gone Home
- The Stanley Parable
- Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm
- Super Mario 3D World
- Gunpoint
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
- Ni No Kuni
- Guacamelee!
(EDIT: Also: Alternate tabulation methods for the "PA voters only" list are here.)
This list is pretty darn different from the overall results! Looking at these two breakdowns, the most pronounced difference between the Twitter and PA voting blocs is how they treated the top two entries from the combined results: Twitter voted overwhelmingly for Gone Home whereas PA put it at #13, and Bioshock Infinite was voted #1 by PA but ranked down at #12 for twitter, one less than Zelda. One thing that may have hurt Bioshock here is that the PA bloc did not vote for it nearly as solidly as the Twitter bloc voted for Gone Home: In fact, the #1 recipient of first-place votes from PA, if you look, was "The Last of Us", beating out Bioshock 39 to 23.
Anyway, that's it. Thanks as always for voting!
mcc on
+32
Posts
Edit: nm that was the total consensus
That nomination list is gonna be… … … painful to make.
Shame.
It didn't even get above GTAV
Double shame.
I think this is the first year where I didn't even play the #1 choice.
1. Gone Home (PC)
2. Papers, Please (PC)
3. The Stanley Parable (PC)
4. Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)
5. Pokémon X and Y (3DS)
6. Depression Quest (PC)
7. Saints Row IV (360, PC, PS3)
8. Kentucky Route Zero (PC)
9. Antichamber (PC)
10. Hate Plus (PC)
The standout on that list as being "out of place" is honestly.....Saint's Row, of all things.
Edit: and to think, had my coin toss been the other way I would have put The Last of Us at number 1 and caused that tie. But I loved Tearaway too much not to give it my GoTY.
How many were from that one guy's list?
Tomb Raider was my #2 so it's nice to see it get up pretty high
No DmC anywhere up there, but I pretty much expected that considering the rather cold reception it got around these parts
End result: 3 multiplat, 3 PC exclusive, 3 3DS titles, 1 PS3 exclusive.
So close! At least Saints Row 4 is confirmed to be a better game than The Last of Us. I can die happy now.
I should go play Gone Home and Papers, Please.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
Everybody go play Gunpoint.
But really, if you haven't yet, go play Brothers.
As someone who has over 400 hours on 3U: it's a niche game, it's unforgiving, it's incredibly skill based, it has very particular controls, it's grindy and getting in to it is like pulling out your toenails. It'll never see mainstream appeal in the west, despite being awesome and unique.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
EDIT: Platformers voted Legend of Zelda 3DS as #1
ROBBED
I would suggest that you simply combine all of the nominations lists from every year. We screen for duplicates most years, so there shouldn't be much chance of there being tons of dupes. Do a quick CTRL-F for duplicates then post it.
I am so pumped for another best game ever. I'm still bitter that Deus Ex didn't win it.
I can confirm at least one did, as that's where my vote was tallied. I don't know if 360 Arcadians even exists anymore? And then tigsource is the other main forum (indie pc forum) which has folks who participate.
You can see the breakdown at the main site the poll is listed at
In fact, for all the crap people give FPS games, there's only one on that entire list, with almost half the top 20 being indie games. Really nice.
Brothers just somehow went under the radar for a lot of people.
I agree with a lot of the list though imo Bioshock and Last of Us should switch places.
It's diverse largely because the poll is pulling from several disparate sources. Going by the twitter version of the poll, Depression Quest was the 6th best game of 2013. Now I'm sure that's a fine game/visual novel, and it probably spoke to a ton of people for whom depression is a very real and serious issue. But I doubt that many people who play games as a regular past-time or hobby would hold it in such high regard, especially above all the other great gaming experiences to be had in 2013. Different strokes and all, but consider the source.
As for FPSes, there honestly weren't that many good ones this year. It seems MOBAs have taken over for FPSes as the genre du jour that every publisher wants a piece of.
Now THIS is a list I can get behind. Thanks as always @mcc for your hard work.
I have ten brothers in arms
Come forth, brothers!
You are my Forever Bros.
Favourite list of the bunch.
I don't find myself disagreeing with the proper GOTY list too much but Tomb Raider 2013 is way too high. Drop it down ten places and I'd like that list a lot more.
On the contrary, the problem is that it's not #1.
Hi5!
I'm honestly surprised only 11 peeps picked it as #1. It's so fun. But the pirate life ain't for everyone.
I put it as my #2 since I assumed it would have no problem taking the lead, and I wanted to boost Monaco up a little higher with my vote.
Also Tearaway hitting 67 is pretty good given the relatively small number of Vita owners. I love that game.
And now I'm going to have to give Gone Home a try too.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
The Twitter list is definitely super single-minded, but that makes a lot of sense if it was spread by retweets. You're going to end up with a lot of similarly-minded people flooding in. I'm still sort of bamboozled by the overwhelming adoration for Tomb Raider, but the PA list is otherwise completely solid and pretty even-handed. I am proud.
Salty Bet didn't get as robbed as I'd expected it to, given how many people didn't think to look for it on the list. And nowhere near enough people played Shadow Warrior or Zeno Clash 2. 5 votes for Zeno Clash, and only 1 of them was from somebody around here that wasn't me. What the fuck, PA?
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.
How is it an FPS then?
First Person Perspective.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW