<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>
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<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>
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<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>
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<div>Anyway, that's probably too much analysis into what ultimately ammounts to just a popularity contest :)</div>
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<div>-Devin Monnens<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>The sleep of Reason produces monsters.<br><br>"Until next time..."<br>Captain Commando<br></div>