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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!<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Andrew<br>
<br>
Devin Monnens wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:b96706b70904020858rdae9505u32b0161a49cd60df@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div>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.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.focalpress.com/giveaway.aspx?ekfrm=6770">http://www.focalpress.com/giveaway.aspx?ekfrm=6770</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div>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).</div>
<div> </div>
<div>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.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Anyway, that's probably too much analysis into what ultimately
ammounts to just a popularity contest :)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>-Devin Monnens<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.<br>
<br>
"Until next time..."<br>
Captain Commando<br>
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