[game_preservation] Best game of all time?

[Andrew Armstrong]

It is a popularity contest, but even an incomplete one - Bill and Matt's 
book has more entries then that! I'm pretty sure I am not going to even 
attempt to do anything about this since doing so would be stupid - 99% 
of people will pick an entry from the list and be done with it, and of 
the other 1%, I suspect not many would go for a classic vintage game in 
any case. Pretty useless in both cases anyway!

Castle Woflenstein is referencing the one from 1981 btw - a tad 
different to a 3d shooter, although Wolfenstein 3d honestly was probably 
a lot more influential in general then Doom (or rather, perhaps coupled 
with Doom), despite the close release dates.

Andrew

Devin Monnens wrote:

> The latest IGDA newsletter (yeah, sent a few weeks ago, but GDC makes 

> everyone busy!) mentioned a contest to pick the most influential game 

> of all time. I personally don't think more than a fraction of the 

> games on the list here are worth mentioning as influential, and some 

> (Wolfenstein and Doom) seem to be the exact same thing.

>  

> http://www.focalpress.com/giveaway.aspx?ekfrm=6770

>  

> Anyway, I find it odd that IGDA mentions this but nothing with game 

> preservation. This is clearly going to be more a popularity contest 

> than anything academic, but I'm kind of interested in what people on 

> this list think. I've got half a mind to just say 'Spacewar!' and be 

> done with it - after all, Spacewar! influenced Nolan Bushnell to get 

> into games. Other than that, I'd say Ralph Baer's Pong game (though 

> the videogames would have come around later if Baer and Bushnell 

> hadn't gotten there first).

>  

> In terms of widespread influence though, Super Mario Bros. might be a 

> better pick because it sort of distills a lot of ideas about design 

> and inspires game players to become game makers. A game that is 

> influential should do two things in my mind: inspire someone to create 

> his or her own videogames and to influence the design of other games 

> by allowing other designers to learn from it. It's kind of hard to 

> track both of these, and it's ridiculous to suppose that one single 

> game can be responsible for everything. Of course, a third option is 

> games that create meaning or that act as art, but these have been so 

> recent (Ico and Super Columbine Massacre RPG) that they haven't yet 

> had a chance to influence the industry. So this is more historical 

> than anything else.

>  

> Anyway, that's probably too much analysis into what ultimately 

> ammounts to just a popularity contest :)

>  

> -Devin Monnens

>

> -- 

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

> "Until next time..."

> Captain Commando

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