What criteria should Giant Bomb use for Game of the Generation?

I'm reminded of a early video jeff and ryan did of categorizing video games in the start of Giantbomb's development

Man, this'll be one hell of a conversation if they actually try and have one akin to the Goty podcasts.

If we are going by most influential then Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare already wins, for better or worse. My personal game of last generation is a toss us between Mass Effect 2, Burnout Paradise, and maybe Assassins Creed 2? Kind of hard to think about this logically without taking more time than just a snap judgement. I would also consider saying Team Fortress 2 but since its largely a PC game (as the 360/Ps3 versions puttered out quick) I don't know how that works even though it was released during the time of "last generation".

Categories!

I did a Game of the Generation community podcast and we used categories, which made the whole thing hell of a lot more interesting and a hell of a lot more civil. No top tens. Just simple categories like "Best Box Art" and "Most Racist" alongside the more rote "Best Graphics" and "Music".

The best way to take it is as not-seriously as possible. You can pick out a few games that characterize some aspect of a generation, but you can't pick a "best" because it's simply too broad. We spent quite some time arguing about "best moment" and, frankly, that just has no single right answer. It was fun debating it, that's why I was there, and I had a pretty determined opinion on it, but when looking back it didn't matter much.

A reflection on the generation might be nicer. Just five dudes talking about their own favorite parts of this generation, instead of arbitrarily getting a top ten list or putting things into categories and stuff.

I've never been of the mind that influence is worth praising all that much. I think a conversation about the quality of a game is much more interesting.

They should choose favorite. That's why I come to Giantbomb. For these select few guys' personal opinions and thoughts on video games. If I wanted anything else I could go to any number of bullshit game sites like IGN or Gamespot.

I can't even begin to comprehend how bad a filibuster we could potentially get out of Brad when dealing with a whole generation...

I do think a few different categories would be interesting, as per the GotY podcasts.

Whichever criteria leads to them drawing knives and killing each other for ultimate dominance. Serious game of the generation discussion always seems so callous to me, as if there is a singular greatest game to be found in 8 years worth of them.

Surprised to see Most Influential so highly-rated; that just seems like such a stale, boring way to analyse these games, one that completely rejects the focus of the website (personality-driven discussions). Favourite games is a very loose concept that could breed some heated talks, Most Influential games is a list of games I could get from dozens of others sites already.

Most influential would be borring. I care about these guys opinions a lot more than I care about WoW being nominated. Most influential is a rather dry and objective discussion, we all know which games should be there, some of them aren't even good... its only an issue of order.

I'd say dont number the list and up the list from 10 games to 25. I dont see any value in numbering a list of this magnitude and more than 10 games from last generation deserve a "best of generation" nod.

When we did the community GotG I left it up to individuals to decide what criteria they wanted to use. Mass Effect 2 won so I'm guessing most people went with personal favourite rather than most influential in their thought process.

It doesn't exist, and if it does it's The Last of Us so issue solved.

So is this a thing they have confirmed they're doing? I think I fell asleep during that part of the bombcast

Wait, are there actual plans on doing this? I thought they were just joking around? Either way I think they should focus on, and fight for, the games they liked the most.

But maybe I say that because I can't mention or remember a single influential game in the past console generation. Anyone care to give some examples? I guess Gears and over-the-shoulder camera?

I agree with @believer258, using categories would probably be the best way of doing things.

Gears of War set the tone for every third person shooter that followed in its wake. There isn't a TPS out there (and hell, some FPS) that didn't incorporate cover systems and over the shoulder camera/aiming.

Another incredibly influential game was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. That game's MP completely changed the landscape of multiplayer not just in FPS games, but in all multiplayer games. Persistent progression, loadouts, XP, unlocking weapons in a tiered system, prestige; there's a hell of a lot CoD4 changed.

Mass Effect changed RPGs through the dialogue wheel. Scrolling through lines of text were replaced by paraphrases and allowed for a voiced protagonist which allowed for more seamless interaction between player and NPC/companion. A lot of people tend to forget this, but before Mass Effect voiced protagonists in RPGs were a real novelty, if done at all.

Aside from those, I think you could argue Bioshock was also very influential as that game--whether deservedly or not--kick started games criticism. Before Bioshock people only cared about graphics, gameplay, "fun factor" and the like; after Bioshock, people started looking for shit like subtext and themes and were treating narrative a lot more seriously than they had the year before.

Half in jest I'd also throw Kane & Lynch: Dead Men into that arena. Without it we wouldn't have Giant Bomb.

PC games shouldn't be included. Going by "any PC game released on or after the 360 launch date Nov. ?? 2005" wouldn't be fair to any awesome game that came out a week before, or in some stores early but wide release later, or considering 360's that broke street date, or multi console games like Call of Duty 2 whose PC version might have come out earlier.

Then considering graphics generation, you'd have to include Half Life 2, since you're considering the Orange Box, yet only cause of the PC version would that rank top ten/five. And then end the week before Crysis came out, cause everything since would be part of the PS4/Xbox One generation.

I think they should perhaps consider both, do the usual list thing but have a joint top three games of the generation, still allowing for plenty of arguing but also avoiding the potentially problematic decision of one singular superior game of the last 8 or so years.

@rachelepithet: Congratulations, this is the most backwards logic of the generation.

What's the deal with Burnout Paradise exactly? I know Jeff really loved it but is it really up there with defining a generation? I haven't played it yet so I have no idea honestly.

They should take into account all PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, and PSP titles that weren't released on any previous consoles.

Are they even doing any Game of the Generation stuff other than the brief outbursts during the podcast?

@dalai: I think they've talked about it being a worthwhile feature to do at some point. If they do, I'm guessing it'll be sometime between the delayed until March releases and E3.

So whoever's smart enough to bring a bat?

The answer is Mass Effect. We can squabble over the question if you want I guess. Honestly I think there is no Right answer to this. There were a few pieces of fairly influential work done but I wouldn't call one of them clearly more important than the other. After that it's all personal taste and what you enjoy doing in a game.

I am most interested in hearing what each person on the crew would call their favorite game of the generation. What did they have the most fun with? If they can come to some Giant Bomb consensus that would be interesting too.

If they do decide that it is worth doing, I think they need to work out and agree on the criteria/methodology before hand. I also think considering both would be what i'd like to see at the minimum. Maybe a few other categories, like worst of the generation, best music etc...

If I recall correctly, Jeff did say something like PC shouldn't be included in this discussion during the last bombcast.

Which game has the catchiest Avril Lavigne song.

Two separate discussions with two separate top 10's. The first is most influential where games like Modern Warfare and Wii Sports go and the second is their overall favorite games of the generation. Trying to look at both will just clutter the discussion I feel, how do you rank the importance of Wii Sports against Jeff's love of Burnout Paradise?

And PSP + DS is part of the last generation so they should both be part of the discussion.

I like the way they handle the GOTY list, so I vote to keep it like that. I like the rules Jeff already set out (1 from a series, console games only, no handhelds)

I want to hear this ridiculous conversation very badly.

if we were voting for best Burnout game of the last generation it's Revenge. :)

Braid and Portal for puzzley stuff. Geometry Wars and Braid for the rise of the XBLA and indie game and that type stuff. Dark Souls/Demon's Souls because now everything's a rogue like. Whichever Criterion racing game started the autolog. Wii Sports and Rock Band for sheer accessibility and popularity. I find it hard not to consider a Bethesda game, be it Oblivion, Fallout 3 or Skyrim, important for some reason. Likewise Batman Arkham Asylum and Uncharted 2. And I guess Red Dead and GTA IV.

Well.....wouldn't the most logical and most boring thing be to take all the GotY winners and then order them?

Other then that I really don't care which criteria they use if they actually do it. Go with what you like.

Considering how utterly disorganized and chaotic the GOTY discussion was, I have no hope they will be able to competently organize a discussion of this breadth and depth.

Hopefully we can just give it to Persona 5.

the one that gets people more pissed off.

I say consider as many factors as possible. Only considering "important games" would be really boring to me. At a certain point you're arguing for games you may not even like. It should be a factor, though.

I highly disagree with Jeff about excluding PC games. Yea, the PC doesn't have generations like the consoles do, but PC gaming and console gaming are more closely tied than people give them credit for. Depending on the era, they both are somewhat reliant on the other in different ways. What I'm saying is that they aren't completely different entities. I don't really see the point of even doing it if games like Starcraft 2, Minecraft, etc aren't even going to be eligible. I'm not saying that those games HAVE to be on the list, but it's unfair to not even give them the chance.

The more I think about this, the more I'm starting to think there's really no point in even doing it at all. I mean, it's always a lot of fun listening to to them argue it out. I guess that's the point. Yea...ok, whatever criteria they use is fine since it doesn't matter anyway. I just want blood... figurative blood, that is.

If they do game of the generation now, they're just gonna have to go back next year and give it to Persona 5. </fanboyrant>

Hindsight is 20/20, i'm pretty sure there's more staff fondness for MGSV than there is for GTA4 nowadays. Besides, it'd suck to see great games like Arkham Asylum and The Walking Dead omitted from any discussion.

I dunno best of the generation seems pretty easy to me. I mean its obviously Dragon Age Origins.

@believer258:

a simple discusion of the GB crew of favorite games of the past generation would be cool but a hard thing to say 5/6 games that are your favorite in a 8/7 generation of consoles with a lot of good games

I'd like to see a personal, subjective Game of the Generation from each of the crew members. See what they all think. Arguing over what had the most impact on games is boring.

Most influential is just going to piss people off. And it's way, way too early to be calling anything like that anyway, unless you're talking about games early on in the generation. I mean, who's to say that XCOM, Far Cry 3, or Last of Us won't be just as influential as Gears of War or Mass Effect?

I think they should each pick a (one) favorite, then fight to the death ordering those.

Edit:

Actually, I think you're right. None of this will matter. The entire idea behind it is kind of absurd. Like, no one game is significant enough to carry this title. The fight would be funny though.

Yeah gotta agree with this. A top 10 from each member (just in text form) would be great and would probably make the discussions flow better as they can always point their own list as the "real" list ;)

What?

@believer258: 8/7 year generation

After thinking about this for a while, all I really want is personal top 10s from each staff member, along with a chance for them to talk about each one briefly before showing off their favourite for a bit longer. So pretty much the same as they did for GotY this year, but perhaps allowing a little longer for each video.

I can't see a group discussion being anything other than a complete shitshow by almost any standards. It'd probably be amusing to listen to because just about anything with the GB crew in it can make me laugh, but I think they'd really struggle to come to a clear decision that all of them were happy about - especially talking about favourites.

They'd have to spend longer arguing over the precise nature of the category and things like whether games that are part of a continuing series can't be considered as highly as ones which stand alone, or whether you allow it with the acknowledgement that the experience relies at least in part on playing additional titles.

It's got great open world multiplayer design. It's something that GTA really should have learned from. It's great at incentivizing everybody to go to one spot to barrel roll over each other or have everyone do a wheelie on the same street at the same time or some other crazy thing.

Plus they supported the shit out of it. Motorcycles, a day/night cycle, 150 extra co-op challenges, new vehicles etc were all substantial free updates for the first 6 or 8 months. It was a great reason to keep playing the game long after release. Then they added cops/robbers, party mode and a whole new island of sick ass ramps as paid DLC. Again, the online was designed well. Everybody has everything downloaded whether they own it or not. If a game starts with something you don't own you don't get kicked; you just don't get to participate in that event. You can still go around doing the open world stuff, which transitions from online to offline mode seemlessly.

But Jeff really loves it because it came out during that period of time between Gamespot and Giant Bomb so he played the shit out of it because he had time.

Guys..... what about Proteus?

It's difficult enough as it is trying to do a top ten for a single year so I don't know how long it would take them to do a top ten for the whole damn generation. Granted, it would probably still fun listening to them argue about it for a while but I feel the best way to handle this would probably be to just not have them argue at all and just have each of them mention their own personal favorites, like say dedicate a particular bombcast to just having them talk about their favorite/most influential games. Yeah, you wouldn't get the fun from hearing them fight but I think this would ultimately be the most enjoyable since everyone could just kick back and talk about everything they liked, instead of having them try and fight over something that's pretty much impossible to do since I doubt they could really come to a consensus on a top few games for this.

Personally I'd rather they just played their favourite games of the last generation. Make it a weekly premium video and not have to worry about really making a ranked list.