100 Greatest Videogames of All Time (according to a Fandomania poll)

st3lt3k

Rear Admiral
A poll of "The 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time" was published from September-October 2010 by the Fandomania blog.

Fandomania provided this information on the poll:

What makes a game the “greatest video game of all time”? We asked that when you voted you considered the following factors:

* How significant are the games? Did they further technology and genres or maybe even create their own?
* How interesting are they? Are they well designed, and do they intrigue you? Do they stand the test of time?
* How cool are they? Influence and craft aside, is it just plain fun to play these games?

What games were eligible? Any video game in existence was eligible for this list. We rolled all genres, platforms, and types into one for this one: arcade, shooters, RPGs, mobile games, everything! However, we did have one rule on this one:

* You couldn’t nominate a series. Each vote had to be for a specific game, not an overall series title.

Not sure how big the sample was but it appears to have been in the hundreds.

Here are some rankings that might be of interest (spoilers):
#84 Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom
#85 Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
#90 Wing Commander: Privateer
 
Except what the heck does this mean?

WC4 introduced wingmen into the established space combat simulator

Um...every main line WC game dating back to WC1 had wingmen. And I don't remember any innovations in WC4 about wingmen that would cause confusion (i.e. there was nothing new in the game engine about wingmen). Yes, you had wingmen that you could give commands to. You already had that in WC1 (and in many other combat sims of the day). Yes, you could pick your wingmen. But you could do that in WC3.

The WC4 wingman AI was a bit better, but that reflected the better AI in general. The only wingman-related feature I can remember that was new in WC4 was that occasionally you could pick wingmen flying mission other than your own...but every now and then.
 
I do not understand these lists.

Wing Commander belongs at or near the top of every list of *most influential* games. It is the game that changed the scale of game development from what it was to what it is today. Before Wing Commander you di dn't spend a million dollars on a multimedia game... you spent a fraction of that putting together a game for hobbyists.
 
The WC4 wingman AI was a bit better, but that reflected the better AI in general. The only wingman-related feature I can remember that was new in WC4 was that occasionally you could pick wingmen flying mission other than your own...but every now and then.

Yeah, that's exactly what that is referring to. This was a big feature that was hyped up prior to the release of WC4. The suggestion was that you had dynamic control over larger aspects of the mission than your local sphere. The end product was just a few more wingmen selections and voiceover comms, but someone just reading an old magazine preview would not realize that.
 
The impression I get is that the list was based on the game with the highest votes, so people were choosing the game they thought was the best game of all time rather a top 5. Wing Commander games might not be top of the list (hard to beat Mario...everything knows of Mario in a positive way), but it would probably would have been a lot higher if people could include a wider list of best games

I noticed Thief didn't even make the list, and it is by far deserving a top 50 (or really 20) slot at the least. It practically started a genre on its own (stealth wasn't really a genre so much as a feature at the time and even the other genre starters like the Metal Gears didn't emphasize stealth as heavily as Thief did IMO.... a stealth game without light and shadow doesn't sound like a stealth game to me).

Thief certainly seems to be one of the few (if not the only franchise) with such a massive amount of fan content (Dark Mod included) especially in the areas of missions (1000+) (some with their own involved and unique stories) and multiple-part campaigns plus lots of various resources. I really can't think of another franchise that matches that.

Point being, this list isn't very accurate or includes enough case-by-case critical analysis
 
Thief certainly seems to be one of the few (if not the only franchise) with such a massive amount of fan content (Dark Mod included) especially in the areas of missions (1000+) (some with their own involved and unique stories) and multiple-part campaigns plus lots of various resources. I really can't think of another franchise that matches that.

I think the user content-generated-content award probably has to go to the original DooM games, both for popularizing the concept and probably for sheer volume of available material.
 
In its day you couldn't find a shop without an entire shelf dedicated to third-party published levels for DooM I/II. Was the first game I modded, too.
 
I still have a few WAD-filled CDs lying around somewhere...I think I also have one for Duke Nuke'm.

I used to have one of those super thick 90s era comp manuals as well for creating and editing DOOM WADs. I think it's still at my dad's...somewhere.
 
Hehe, my first month at the CIC was spent downloading as many Quake mods, maps and movies as I could find, as I'd only just gotten into the game. It might not have been as prolific as DooM, but it still is pretty enduring.

Wolfenstein 3D is another one. This was on the front page of ModDB last week:


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I've seend hundreds of such lists...

And seriously, this is the worst "best games" list of all time.

Apart from the "WC4 introduced wingmen" bullshit - they have neverwinter nights and KOTOR but not Baldur's Gate?

And where the hell is System Shock? Bioshock 2 is there for God's sakes but not System Shock?!

Fucked up! At least Monkey Island isn't forgotten. (though, Loom and Zak Mckracken are)

And why is the list clogged up with Mario titles? I could understand it if only the newest Mario titles were there, given the fact that apparently only kiddies voted, but no, they have even the original Donkey Kong from the 80s listed.

And no such list is worth a damn if Planescape Torment, Elite and Starflight aren't listed.

And seriously, the question was "Did they further technology and genres or maybe even create their own?" ... and no C&C and no Dune?

Bah!
 
I do not understand these lists.

Wing Commander belongs at or near the top of every list of *most influential* games. It is the game that changed the scale of game development from what it was to what it is today. Before Wing Commander you di dn't spend a million dollars on a multimedia game... you spent a fraction of that putting together a game for hobbyists.
Just to play devil's advocate, I say 'Greatest' is a nebulous adjective that can be defined in any way by the people who put together these lists.

In which case, you'd definitely see Wing Commander as 'Best' if they are referring to objective quality, and you'dm definitely see Wing Commander as 'Influential' if they're considering that when they say Greatest.
 
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