I didn't dig Fallout IV as much as I was expecting to, but it was real solid all the same and I can see why a bunch of people really liked it. I only just got around to Life Is Strange and it would have placed highly in my list, but of course we're always going to be finding new favorites unless you're a crazy person who buys EVERYTHING all the time at launch. Glad to see it did well anyhow. It's also great to see something as lo fidelity as Undertale do so well; it really gives me hope that as game creation tools evolve and make development more accessible that we'll see more and more great stuff like that from people with great ideas but limited technical skills.
What a great year. It's a shame to see the likes of Batman and Halo falter so much compared to expectations, but there's more than enough new stuff to make up for it. (Dang, Halo's not even in the Xbox exclusive rankings that is a hard fall, but a deserved one with the F2P bullshit and a campaign that can be summed up as "buy Halo 6 plz".) Anyhow, here's hoping that 2016 also has so many surprises other than the obvious XCom/Dark Souls/Zelda stuff. I'd love to see Nintendo hit the ground running with the NX.
I really wanted it to be good, but only ended up playing a couple hours. Having to do dumb races and whatnot to get new abilities completely destroyed any interest I had in JC3. It didn't help that Rainbow Six: Siege kind of came out of nowhere the same week and basically stole my December from me.
I don't even play it (just not my type of game; I don't have the reflexes or hand/eye for it), but the idea that such a simple concept can become one of the most enjoyed games of the last year makes me so happy. It's inspiring.
Interesting how MH4U fared in the rankings. Doesn't look like many votes total, but almost entirely high votes (hence showing only in the FPtP top 20).
So, do we read that as "people who played/liked it really liked it"?
Interesting how MH4U fared in the rankings. Doesn't look like many votes total, but almost entirely high votes (hence showing only in the FPtP top 20).
So, do we read that as "people who played/liked it really liked it"?
Probably a combination of this and the fact that anyone still buying Monster Hunter games is in all likelihood already a diehard fan.
That is however the main argument I would make for my previous suggestion that FO4 would be better placed two spots down. Fallout 4 reached the top thanks to its popularity, whereas The Witcher 3 and Undertale were both on average ranked significantly higher. I'm not arguing against the structure of the poll it, it serves its purpose, but it is certainly heavily biased towards popular games.
Have a look at the spoilered alternative rankings. First past the post only counts first place votes, gives a different picture.
Yeah, that one's quite informative! Thanks for all the work you have put into this by the way.
It's more @MCC and @Infidel really, MCC wrote the scripts originally which spit out all the various rankings, Infidel hosts it and provides the results. I just sorted out the game list Mainly because I really enjoy voting in it each year.
Just Cause 3 is neat, but wasn't able to capture my attention. It's Just Cause 2, just better in various specific ways.
I'll play it more this year, but didn't play it long enough to be worth adding to my GotY list.
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RandomHajileNot actually a SnatcherThe New KremlinRegistered Userregular
I like the way it ranks. You can see which games are popular easily in the numbers vs games that were beloved by fewer people. When I get back home from this business trip, I'll run my alternative to the alternative rankings, which takes the total number of points divided by the total number of votes. It gives kind of an average ranking. I suspect that The Witcher 3 will win that handily. (Look at last years results thread to see what it looks like.) What's also neat about it is that you can sort of compare years due to taking out the total point factor.
The voting systems I just maintained from previous years, with Borda being the "official" result.
I think, as someone else pointed out in the voting thread, that there maybe should be a little more emphasis on how to rank games with regards to "pick your favourite games" just. Many people correctly list less than 20 if they didn't play all that many and don't have that many they'd like to vote for, but FO4 and some others were put on people's lists with "I didn't like this game!" and others questioning why they ranked it at all then. This does skew results as obviously giving any points to a game you think didn't deserve to win is opposed by the fact that you're helping it win.
In other words, if you only played 7 games, and you pick all 7 and rank them appropriately, that's not quite the intention of the poll I think? People seemed to not agree with it, based on explanations given for the votes and the reaction. Would it be fairer next year to handle it a little differently?
I like the way it ranks. You can see which games are popular easily in the numbers vs games that were beloved by fewer people. When I get back home from this business trip, I'll run my alternative to the alternative rankings, which takes the total number of points divided by the total number of votes. It gives kind of an average ranking. I suspect that The Witcher 3 will win that handily. (Look at last years results thread to see what it looks like.) What's also neat about it is that you can sort of compare years due to taking out the total point factor.
Also, if anyone wants to suggest alternative vote systems to add, I can look at putting them into the scripts to make it easy on us all.
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RandomHajileNot actually a SnatcherThe New KremlinRegistered Userregular
I like the way it ranks. You can see which games are popular easily in the numbers vs games that were beloved by fewer people. When I get back home from this business trip, I'll run my alternative to the alternative rankings, which takes the total number of points divided by the total number of votes. It gives kind of an average ranking. I suspect that The Witcher 3 will win that handily. (Look at last years results thread to see what it looks like.) What's also neat about it is that you can sort of compare years due to taking out the total point factor.
Also, if anyone wants to suggest alternative vote systems to add, I can look at putting them into the scripts to make it easy on us all.
I always have to sort of tune my method, because I feel like there has to be a cutoff where a game needs 5-10 votes. Otherwise you get that one crazy game way down on the list that gets only one first place vote, giving it first place based on average of 20 points. It's not really fair, but whatever. I mean, you could add that to the script, but I'd still probably have to run it to merge the all years results. (Again, it's just total points divided by total votes, with a cutoff of 5--or 10, I forget--voters needed for the game to be ranked. The cutoff idea came from how MLB requires a certain number of at-bats to be eligible for the batting average title.
A December release probably has something to do with it.
Along with some major performance issues
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
edited February 2016
Oh shit! I completely missed the voting window because I assumed this would run closer to a full month like previous years.
Decent showings from most of the major stuff I cared about (Witcher, Metal Gear, Bloodborne, Ori, Necrodancer, Mario Maker), at least. Would still have liked to have put another vote in for Trails in the Sky SC, because that's not one that I would've expected myself to be so into.
Interesting how MH4U fared in the rankings. Doesn't look like many votes total, but almost entirely high votes (hence showing only in the FPtP top 20).
So, do we read that as "people who played/liked it really liked it"?
Personally any year a Monster Hunter game comes out its almost guaranteed to get first place. It's just a formula that works so well for me, and although it has its flaws it's still a brilliant series.
Just realised whilst setting this up I actually forgot to nominate a game myself; one of the best racing games I played last year and somehow completely forgot about.
If it's not a huge pain in the ass maybe we should start splitting out mobile games that are the same in name only to consoles games. Case in point, does Mortal Kombat X really belong on the mobile list or is it just spill over votes from the PC / console releases?
Otherwise it's great to see this come together. Thanks for all your hard work @Mr_Grinch and co.
The voting systems I just maintained from previous years, with Borda being the "official" result.
I think, as someone else pointed out in the voting thread, that there maybe should be a little more emphasis on how to rank games with regards to "pick your favourite games" just. Many people correctly list less than 20 if they didn't play all that many and don't have that many they'd like to vote for, but FO4 and some others were put on people's lists with "I didn't like this game!" and others questioning why they ranked it at all then. This does skew results as obviously giving any points to a game you think didn't deserve to win is opposed by the fact that you're helping it win.
In other words, if you only played 7 games, and you pick all 7 and rank them appropriately, that's not quite the intention of the poll I think? People seemed to not agree with it, based on explanations given for the votes and the reaction. Would it be fairer next year to handle it a little differently?
Agreed, ones list should only enjoy games they liked.
Hmm, maybe next year a system where you give it a score, and the game with the most sorce per vote wins? Idk.
The voting systems I just maintained from previous years, with Borda being the "official" result.
I think, as someone else pointed out in the voting thread, that there maybe should be a little more emphasis on how to rank games with regards to "pick your favourite games" just. Many people correctly list less than 20 if they didn't play all that many and don't have that many they'd like to vote for, but FO4 and some others were put on people's lists with "I didn't like this game!" and others questioning why they ranked it at all then. This does skew results as obviously giving any points to a game you think didn't deserve to win is opposed by the fact that you're helping it win.
In other words, if you only played 7 games, and you pick all 7 and rank them appropriately, that's not quite the intention of the poll I think? People seemed to not agree with it, based on explanations given for the votes and the reaction. Would it be fairer next year to handle it a little differently?
I dunno, if i only played 7 games that year, then those 7 games did something to get me to play them, which is more than you can say about those other games which I did not play.
The voting systems I just maintained from previous years, with Borda being the "official" result.
I think, as someone else pointed out in the voting thread, that there maybe should be a little more emphasis on how to rank games with regards to "pick your favourite games" just. Many people correctly list less than 20 if they didn't play all that many and don't have that many they'd like to vote for, but FO4 and some others were put on people's lists with "I didn't like this game!" and others questioning why they ranked it at all then. This does skew results as obviously giving any points to a game you think didn't deserve to win is opposed by the fact that you're helping it win.
In other words, if you only played 7 games, and you pick all 7 and rank them appropriately, that's not quite the intention of the poll I think? People seemed to not agree with it, based on explanations given for the votes and the reaction. Would it be fairer next year to handle it a little differently?
I dunno, if i only played 7 games that year, then those 7 games did something to get me to play them, which is more than you can say about those other games which I did not play.
And they are also undoubtedly your top 7 games of the year.
The ones I really worry about are people who rank games they didn't even play.
The voting systems I just maintained from previous years, with Borda being the "official" result.
I think, as someone else pointed out in the voting thread, that there maybe should be a little more emphasis on how to rank games with regards to "pick your favourite games" just. Many people correctly list less than 20 if they didn't play all that many and don't have that many they'd like to vote for, but FO4 and some others were put on people's lists with "I didn't like this game!" and others questioning why they ranked it at all then. This does skew results as obviously giving any points to a game you think didn't deserve to win is opposed by the fact that you're helping it win.
In other words, if you only played 7 games, and you pick all 7 and rank them appropriately, that's not quite the intention of the poll I think? People seemed to not agree with it, based on explanations given for the votes and the reaction. Would it be fairer next year to handle it a little differently?
I dunno, if i only played 7 games that year, then those 7 games did something to get me to play them, which is more than you can say about those other games which I did not play.
So, if you watched 7 movies in a year and Pixels was one of them, you'd still put it on a "best movies of the year" list?
The voting systems I just maintained from previous years, with Borda being the "official" result.
I think, as someone else pointed out in the voting thread, that there maybe should be a little more emphasis on how to rank games with regards to "pick your favourite games" just. Many people correctly list less than 20 if they didn't play all that many and don't have that many they'd like to vote for, but FO4 and some others were put on people's lists with "I didn't like this game!" and others questioning why they ranked it at all then. This does skew results as obviously giving any points to a game you think didn't deserve to win is opposed by the fact that you're helping it win.
In other words, if you only played 7 games, and you pick all 7 and rank them appropriately, that's not quite the intention of the poll I think? People seemed to not agree with it, based on explanations given for the votes and the reaction. Would it be fairer next year to handle it a little differently?
I dunno, if i only played 7 games that year, then those 7 games did something to get me to play them, which is more than you can say about those other games which I did not play.
So, if you watched 7 movies in a year and Pixels was one of them, you'd still put it on a "best movies of the year" list?
Well, within the domain of your hypothetical, it's technically the seventh best movie I watched that year in that case. I, for some reason, chose to watch it and not one of the other 200+ films form 2015, so as far as my contributions to this list of best games, I think I should rank it #7.
That seems so weird to me. The point of a GotY list is to recognize games you think were great. I played more than 20 games this year, but ended up only voting for 15 or so because I felt some of them weren't worthy of recognition.
That seems so weird to me. The point of a GotY list is to recognize games you think we're great. I played more than 20 games this year, but ended up only voting for 15 or so because I felt some of them weren't worthy of recognition.
There's nothing wrong with doing it that way, that's just not how I do it.
EDIT: I mean, if a game absolutely pissed me off, I might omit it out of spite in that case, but I'm pretty good recognizing those kinds of games without buying them, so I never play them, usually.
Pneuma: Breath of Life was the worst game I played this year and I didn't care for it at all, but had it been the 20th game I played this year, I didn't dislike it enough to spite it by not ranking it.
To go back to your Pixels example earlier, I haven't actually seen the film. If I did and it was the absolute worst trash imaginable, then I might omit it. If I was "meh" or just didn't care for it, I'd probably rank it at the bottom, but still rank it.
I kind of do the same thing- I barely played Kirby, but what little i did play seemed ok. Not terrible, but not great and didn't really pull me in. I kept it on the list though because of all the games I played, it was my least favorite.
Also I kind of like having a list of EVERYTHING I played in a year as a way of looking back. It would be kind of tough for me to build that list and then go, "Well I didn't LOVE" this game enough to have it listed.
Have a look at the spoilered alternative rankings. First past the post only counts first place votes, gives a different picture.
I think @Vic is saying the alternative rankings should be the default.
I'm not sure what would be the most representative rankings, to be honest. I think that if I did them I might have done something like determine the games put into the top 20 by borda count (as was done here), but then determine the order of those game by average rankings. That would keep the top 20 games representative of games popular on the forums, while reducing the impact of popularity on the top spots.
In the end though it doesn't really matter what metric you use so long as people know what it is and the raw data is available, as was the case here.
To be clear, we ARE talking about games you think are trash, not saying "don't put down every game" if you liked enough to vote.
Since there are ALL games, your vote is also a nomination. If you wouldn't nominate a game for recognition then you probably shouldn't list it? We mention that you don't have to list a full 20 but it may not be clear enough when that is a good idea.
If you played 7 games and want to vote for them then you vote the 7. We are just talking about people that do that and then go "#7 was fucking terrible" in their write up. This also biases if you're someone who hasn't played a lot of games, as your #7 terrible is a lot stronger of a vote compared to someone padding out a #20 with a bad game.
Well, firstly, I believe the goal with the nomination list is to include every game, regardless of quality.
And if that person only managed to play 7 games that year, whether due to time or budget of whatever, then their #7 shitty game is probably worth more to them than my #20 shitty game is to me.
Also, a game being "trash" or "fucking terrible" isn't outright enough to get met to want to spite it. A game has to truly offend me to the core for me to effectively want it excised from my list.
Ultimately, looking at the big picture, if a bad game manages to chart significantly high due to enough people listing it as their last game (be it #7 or #20), then I think that game actually deserves to be on the list.
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SJW infiltration of this most prestigious forum poll confirmed.
Done, though it's a top 11 due to MKX sneaking in there.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Shameful.
Honorary mention to Ninja Pizza Girl, Stretchmo, Proun+, WWE Immortals and Pneuma: Breath of Life, clocking in at a single rank 19 vote each.
I skipped it after finding the 2nd one kind of disappointing.
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
I didn't dig Fallout IV as much as I was expecting to, but it was real solid all the same and I can see why a bunch of people really liked it. I only just got around to Life Is Strange and it would have placed highly in my list, but of course we're always going to be finding new favorites unless you're a crazy person who buys EVERYTHING all the time at launch. Glad to see it did well anyhow. It's also great to see something as lo fidelity as Undertale do so well; it really gives me hope that as game creation tools evolve and make development more accessible that we'll see more and more great stuff like that from people with great ideas but limited technical skills.
What a great year. It's a shame to see the likes of Batman and Halo falter so much compared to expectations, but there's more than enough new stuff to make up for it. (Dang, Halo's not even in the Xbox exclusive rankings that is a hard fall, but a deserved one with the F2P bullshit and a campaign that can be summed up as "buy Halo 6 plz".) Anyhow, here's hoping that 2016 also has so many surprises other than the obvious XCom/Dark Souls/Zelda stuff. I'd love to see Nintendo hit the ground running with the NX.
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
I don't even play it (just not my type of game; I don't have the reflexes or hand/eye for it), but the idea that such a simple concept can become one of the most enjoyed games of the last year makes me so happy. It's inspiring.
So, do we read that as "people who played/liked it really liked it"?
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
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PSN: AbEntropy
Probably a combination of this and the fact that anyone still buying Monster Hunter games is in all likelihood already a diehard fan.
That is however the main argument I would make for my previous suggestion that FO4 would be better placed two spots down. Fallout 4 reached the top thanks to its popularity, whereas The Witcher 3 and Undertale were both on average ranked significantly higher. I'm not arguing against the structure of the poll it, it serves its purpose, but it is certainly heavily biased towards popular games.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Yeah, that one's quite informative! Thanks for all the work you have put into this by the way.
I think @Vic is saying the alternative rankings should be the default.
It's more @MCC and @Infidel really, MCC wrote the scripts originally which spit out all the various rankings, Infidel hosts it and provides the results. I just sorted out the game list Mainly because I really enjoy voting in it each year.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
I'll play it more this year, but didn't play it long enough to be worth adding to my GotY list.
This is a clickable link to my Steam Profile.
I think, as someone else pointed out in the voting thread, that there maybe should be a little more emphasis on how to rank games with regards to "pick your favourite games" just. Many people correctly list less than 20 if they didn't play all that many and don't have that many they'd like to vote for, but FO4 and some others were put on people's lists with "I didn't like this game!" and others questioning why they ranked it at all then. This does skew results as obviously giving any points to a game you think didn't deserve to win is opposed by the fact that you're helping it win.
In other words, if you only played 7 games, and you pick all 7 and rank them appropriately, that's not quite the intention of the poll I think? People seemed to not agree with it, based on explanations given for the votes and the reaction. Would it be fairer next year to handle it a little differently?
Also, if anyone wants to suggest alternative vote systems to add, I can look at putting them into the scripts to make it easy on us all.
This is a clickable link to my Steam Profile.
Along with some major performance issues
Decent showings from most of the major stuff I cared about (Witcher, Metal Gear, Bloodborne, Ori, Necrodancer, Mario Maker), at least. Would still have liked to have put another vote in for Trails in the Sky SC, because that's not one that I would've expected myself to be so into.
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.
Personally any year a Monster Hunter game comes out its almost guaranteed to get first place. It's just a formula that works so well for me, and although it has its flaws it's still a brilliant series.
Fast Racing Neo - WiiU.
Dreadful name, absolutely AMAZING game.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Otherwise it's great to see this come together. Thanks for all your hard work @Mr_Grinch and co.
Agreed, ones list should only enjoy games they liked.
Hmm, maybe next year a system where you give it a score, and the game with the most sorce per vote wins? Idk.
I dunno, if i only played 7 games that year, then those 7 games did something to get me to play them, which is more than you can say about those other games which I did not play.
And they are also undoubtedly your top 7 games of the year.
The ones I really worry about are people who rank games they didn't even play.
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So, if you watched 7 movies in a year and Pixels was one of them, you'd still put it on a "best movies of the year" list?
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
Well, within the domain of your hypothetical, it's technically the seventh best movie I watched that year in that case. I, for some reason, chose to watch it and not one of the other 200+ films form 2015, so as far as my contributions to this list of best games, I think I should rank it #7.
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
There's nothing wrong with doing it that way, that's just not how I do it.
EDIT: I mean, if a game absolutely pissed me off, I might omit it out of spite in that case, but I'm pretty good recognizing those kinds of games without buying them, so I never play them, usually.
Pneuma: Breath of Life was the worst game I played this year and I didn't care for it at all, but had it been the 20th game I played this year, I didn't dislike it enough to spite it by not ranking it.
To go back to your Pixels example earlier, I haven't actually seen the film. If I did and it was the absolute worst trash imaginable, then I might omit it. If I was "meh" or just didn't care for it, I'd probably rank it at the bottom, but still rank it.
Also I kind of like having a list of EVERYTHING I played in a year as a way of looking back. It would be kind of tough for me to build that list and then go, "Well I didn't LOVE" this game enough to have it listed.
I'm not sure what would be the most representative rankings, to be honest. I think that if I did them I might have done something like determine the games put into the top 20 by borda count (as was done here), but then determine the order of those game by average rankings. That would keep the top 20 games representative of games popular on the forums, while reducing the impact of popularity on the top spots.
In the end though it doesn't really matter what metric you use so long as people know what it is and the raw data is available, as was the case here.
Since there are ALL games, your vote is also a nomination. If you wouldn't nominate a game for recognition then you probably shouldn't list it? We mention that you don't have to list a full 20 but it may not be clear enough when that is a good idea.
If you played 7 games and want to vote for them then you vote the 7. We are just talking about people that do that and then go "#7 was fucking terrible" in their write up. This also biases if you're someone who hasn't played a lot of games, as your #7 terrible is a lot stronger of a vote compared to someone padding out a #20 with a bad game.
And if that person only managed to play 7 games that year, whether due to time or budget of whatever, then their #7 shitty game is probably worth more to them than my #20 shitty game is to me.
Also, a game being "trash" or "fucking terrible" isn't outright enough to get met to want to spite it. A game has to truly offend me to the core for me to effectively want it excised from my list.
Ultimately, looking at the big picture, if a bad game manages to chart significantly high due to enough people listing it as their last game (be it #7 or #20), then I think that game actually deserves to be on the list.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch