Is this whole GotG thing ridiculous?

Shit dude...it's just some forum fun

The people have SPOKEN! Mass Effect 2 and Dark Souls are the two best games of last gen and I totally agree with that. Some people just can't accept the truth and go do what the internet does best - complain about this and that.

Yep.

Calm down... I have disagreed with the result of many of the matches (in fact, I am still kind of baffled about how far Dark Souls has come), but I have never taken it too seriously. Its not like the winner is going to start advertising as "the best game of the generation", anyway...

The key is to remember that it comprises almost a decade of gaming. Under that context, there are a few things to take into account:

• Every game posted there is fucking fantastic. Out of thousands, 64 were chosen (by popular demand)... Seriously, if you have a favorite game from the last few years, chances are it was there. You can't go wrong with almost any of them, and even those eliminated on the first round or during the preliminaries are quality games.
• It has no retroactive effect. So, many people prefer Mass Effect 2 to Skyrim. So what? Does that means you should feel bad about liking Skyrim? Does that mean everybody that disagree should feel bad about themselves? Does that lessen you experience with Skyrim if you compare it to your experience with Mass Effect 2?
• It has many options available, many of which are not comparable. How do you compare an indie puzzle/platformer released at the beginning of the generation with an action/stealth open world adventure (Braid vs Batman)? The answer: you can't. People will express their preferences there, but those games are hardly comparable. This doesn't mean they are not both great, or that Braid becomes worst by comparing it... its just the nature of the contest.

Actually, I think the playoff format doesn't work as well in this case. I would rather be forced to choose my favorite 5 from that list and use a point system to see which one had more votes. That would balance out games that reached pretty far because they had an easier path (like Batman) with games that were eliminated too soon because of having to face a leviathan on the first round (like Asura's Wrath). The key is not taking it too seriously...

Yes, It's a dumb, goofy popularity contest and I'm fine with that because Mass Effect 2 will win and we'll all go "ok, sure. I guess that works" and then move on our merry way. Of course, I think the entire idea of a singular, all-encompassing Game of the Generation is more than a little silly, which is why my personal list is unordered.

@davidwitten22 said:

Count me in.

Nope #anythingbutmasseffect2

Yes, but that is what is awesome about it.

The idea of pitting games against each other actually has been fun to watch, but it isn't exactly fair. Like portal 2 should not have made it that far, but it got lucky with what it was going up against, so it made it to the semifinales. Doesnt really matter though, since I enjoyed taking part in it. I thought it would be dumb at first, but was pleasantly surprised

Of course it is. Do as I did: See thread, roll eyes, close tab.

It's kinda dumb. But still a little bit fun/interesting. So I can deal with it.

The butt clenching in this thread is reaching new heights.

@tsutohiro: aaaaand followed ;)

Since when does a 'niche' game sell over 2.4 million copies?

Ridiculous, but fun! Who cares? Why would you get upset over something like this? It literally does not matter! It's just good fun. So I won't vote in your poll, because while I do think it's ridiculous, but in a good way, so your answers don't really line up with mine!

According to AAA big budget games those sales numbers are average. I have seen games sell over a million copies in this last generation and the publishers call them a financial failure. Like I don't know... Darksiders? Tomb Raider Reboot? Also of those 2.4 million sales over 3 different platforms I would love to know how many of them actually beat it and or didn't turn around and trade it in after a few hours. It's a niche game, it will never appeal to the majority of people who play video games, and it has become internet cool to say you like it. If anything this makes me feel bad for liking it, even though Demon's Souls is better I still voted for Dark up until Red Dead and I am voting for it against Portal. Just don't expect me to vote for it against Mass Effect 2.

@you_died: Would you describe Dark Souls as a less popular mainstream game, or an extremely popular niche game? Really now. Dark Souls is a crossover hit the same way Dragon Age was, that doesn't change the fact that the target audience is absolutely a market segment rather than the entire market.

The Arcade Fire have done pretty well and are widely popular thanks to a few crossover hits. Would you describe them as a less popular mainstream band, or a highly popular niche band?

I kind of feel the poll is heavily weighted to newer games... who really remembers the great games from around the beginning of the gen? I enjoyed oblivion more than skyrim, for example.

@hermes said:

Yes! Let the hate flow through you!

@belegorm: Maybe, but I don't think that's a good example- I think the court of popular opinion just straight up preferred Skyrim.

The road to victory runs right through Anor Londo, mother fuckers! Watch as your puny games fall, one after the other, before the greatness that is Dark Souls. You can do nothing to stop it.

Also, who cares what games get voted over others? I love just about every game that I've voted against in favor of some other game that I love a little bit more. And if Dark Souls is robbed of it's rightful place on the throne, I will simply agree to disagree with the popular opinion and move on with my life somehow.

No. We riot if it loses. We'll burn this motherfucker down, you and me. We'll burn it all down.

@punkxblaze: Haha! Of course we do, who am I kidding?

I understand your sentiments, and I can respect where you are coming from. Regarding publisher financials, I would be interested to know the development costs of Dark Souls vs a typical AAA title like Tomb Raider or Mass Effect 3. I assume Dark Souls sold well enough for Namco considering they green lit a sequel. I will say that you shouldn't feel bad for liking something because of current popular opinion.

I liked the characters and world a lot in Mass Effect 2 (same with RDR), but I'm more of a moment-to-moment gameplay kind of guy, so I think I will stick with Dark Souls in the polls.

In my opinion Dark Souls is a less popular mainstream game. It's difficult to say, because we are talking in vague non-scientific terms here. I think most modern AAA games (despite developer efforts to achieve the opposite) are only well received by segments of the market. The counter to this is something like Call of Duty, which has become a cultural phenomenon.

@you_died said:

Homefront sold 2.4 million copies, and by industry standards it was considered a failure.

So, yes... Dark Souls is a niche game, targeted to an audience that appreciate the difficulty and exploration through obscurity of earlier games.

@you_died: I can really say nothing other than to vehemently disagree. I absolutely see Dark Souls as a niche title that crossed over into the mainstream, not a mainstream title that only interests a niche.

Dark souls to me, is the polar opposite of something like Medal of Honor. Medal of Honor was designed to be broadly appealing and only stuck for a few. Dark Souls was designed to have a specific niche appeal, and it's extremely successful at that. IIRC their sales numbers are similar, but I'd wager their market segmentation to be completely different. Medal of Honor did poorly with a lot of people, Dark Souls did incredibly well with less. Dark Souls is 100% of 60, Medal of Honor is 10% of 600.

But yeah, this is largely a perspective thing.

Yeah, stinking Super Mario Galaxy lost out to that freaking garbage known as Fallout 3 because eff that.

Super Mario Galaxy is the best goshdanged game to come out this generation. Mass Effect 2 is pretty good though so whatever.

I think its pretty lame that it started with an arbitrary list rather than compile a bunch of top ten lists like we did with goty last year, also the voting for each ends really fast, so its only the part of the community that checks the forums everyday thats actually voting the games up now are all really good and deserving though, it just probably isnt all that representative of the whole of the gb communitys gotg.

regency bias is probably even more of a problem in the voting than the bracket setup. But that's kind of unavoidable in such a long console generation and one that public is voting in. Another factor is given the age of the some of the voters some people may not have even been gaming in 2006

As mentioned before, I just feel like this whole venture isn't fun. It is ridiculous to compare games like this and that is not a problem at all but there is no fun in making the comparisons. People are just clicking vote and moving on.

I tried to put some fun in the "MGS4 vs Dota 2" vote but it was summarily ignored so whatever.

@hermes: While I can not provide solid prove, I can tell you that Dark Soul made Namco a lot of money (not COD money tho). It has been repeatedly stated by the director in various interview that the budget for this game was very low, basically base on Demon's Soul sale number. Namco came out and said it was a great success. Just because this game didn't sell 18+ million copies does not make it disappointing. Profit margin are almost entirely base on budget/marketing budget and this game came to popularity through nothing but word of mouth. Now in the recent E3, you can see Namco ramping up the marketing for Dark Soul 2 and I am afraid with how much they are spending on marketing, that it will not live up to that budget.

@shinjin977: Of course it did. For a game that even Namco would consider niche, it was a massive success. 2.4 million units for a AAA game is a failure, but for a game no one expected much from, its fucking amazing. That is the difference in mentality between those that published Homefront expecting a COD killer, and those that published Dark Souls expecting a Demons Souls sequel.

I am the first to admit I am not a fan of the series (see above), but when I say it is a niche game, I don't mean it as a despective word. A niche game is a game that aims to a specific audience instead of a broad audience. Because of that, it aims to have a small but dedicated public... In a way, its good that its a niche game and it knows it; otherwise, it would have included things like easy mode or better tutorials, which goes against the spirit of the game.

How much money was spent creating Homefront? What about Dark Souls? Can you define 'industry standards'?

@you_died said:

I don't have the numbers, but based on the marketing, Homefront was published by THQ as a "COD killer" (we are talking giant billboards, primetime TV, the side of buses here), which would surely put it in the AAA section. I don't know about Dark Souls, but I can imagine it didn't cost nearly as much.

"Industry standards" depends on the expectancy of sales of a game. If a game is budgeted as AAA, it would easily cost a lot more than 40 million dollars to develop and as much to advertise (as a reference, Psychonauts costed 10 million, and it was a PS2 game with seldom any advertisement). Under those circumstances, its no surprise THQ would find that number of sales underwhelming.

So dumb. It's Ocarina.

I say aye because if Dark Souls is GOTG there is a problem

It's a silly dumb contest that has no bearing on anything ever. Who gives a fuck?

The only thing ridiculous about this gotg thing are the people losing their shit over some of these polls.

I think they've pretty fun.

Just for shits man, not gonna be super accurate, but probably not too far off either.

Yeah, but I play video games.

I'm kinda desensitized to stupid and/or ridiculous shit, and've learned to have fun with it.

No. Chris Pratt is hilarious, so I'm sure Guardians of the Galaxy will be great... err... what were we talking about?

IT'S THE REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAALEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEST!!!!!!!!!

Why is nobody joining the #WindjammersIStheREALGBGOTG campaign?!

'Dick around with' hmm, where have I heard that expression before in the last few weeks...are you...are you a Brad alt account, Truth? It all makes so much sense now!