Philoscifi

GamePro recently compiled a list entitled “20 games that changed gaming forever.” I agree with some of the choices…and some of the criticism.

First, the TLDR [too lazy, didn’t read] version of the list:

20: Portal
19: Street Fighter II
18: Dance Dance Revolution
17: Resident Evil
16: BioShock
15: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
14: Final Fantasy VII
13: The Sims
12: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
11: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
10: Super Mario 64
9: Half-Life
8: Wii Sports
7: Halo: Combat Evolved
6: LittleBigPlanet
5: Metal Gear Solid
4: Shadow of the Colossus
3: World of Warcraft
2: Grand Theft Auto III

1: Doom

It’s always interesting to read the comments when one of these lists comes out. Anytime you create a list like this, you are bound to get some flack, but a lot of it could have been avoided with some simple/better standards.

Bigger limit - The limit was too small (20) relative to how many games have been released in the last 30 years or so. You will inevitably be forced to leave out some worthy candidates no matter what the limit is; however, you’d leave out less with a limit of 40 or 50.

Some equality standard - “Gaming” encompasses many distinct genres. By tackling such a broad range without some sort of equality standard (ie. allow 5 choices per genre), you might end up with choices that skew toward one genre or other (in this case, FPS).

Some metric or methodology for “changed gaming” - Doesn’t have to be complex; something simple like “set the standard for the genre” or “first one of its kind” or “often imitated…” any one of these would work. Without a standard, you open the door for valid criticism like “Game D was built directly upon Games A, B, C, and these should have been chosen instead.” or “Game A was a great game, but it didn’t materially change games that came afterwards.”

In the end, you can never immunize yourself against all criticism; that’s not the point of this exercise. The fun of creating lists is to promote discussion; however, you want to encourage focused and constructive discussion, not the splattershot variety. This list was an “impact” list which should have been more objective than a “best of” list; unfortunately, without tighter standards, it’s somewhat hard to tell the difference.

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