Most Influential Games

[TinCow]

Wired has an interesting list of their top 15 most influential games of the previous decade. It's particularly thought-provoking, because influential is not the same as successful. The criteria are summarized as "games that made big leaps and defined what would come to be traditional aspects of the big-budget grand adventure, and others that pushed the reset button on game design." Here's their list:

1) The Sims
2) GTA 3
3) Guitar Hero
4) World of Warcraft
5) Brain Age
6) Halo
7) Bejeweled
8) Wii Sports
9) Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
10) Metroid Prime
11) Silent Hill 2
12) Half-life 2
13) Metal Gear Solid 2
14) Happy Farm
15) Portal

There's a lot of decent stuff there, but there are several omissions that I consider as significant milestones in gaming since 2000.

Diablo 2 - Showed just how much entertainment value there was in online action gaming, and fundamentally changed the entire notion of how to reward players for their game time. Was also a major milestone in online gaming, giving a major boost to MMOs.

Tribes 2 - Introduced vehicles into FPS games in a way never before encountered. The successes of the Battlefield series built off of this game.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Redefined the concept of the scripted event. While the MoH-style scripted levels are now often considered rather boring, at the time it introduced a level of immersion into FPS gaming that had not previously existed. The sheer number of games that adopted this style of level scripting shows its influence.

Farcry - Upped the ante on the open-world FPS concept.

So, what other games can you think of that have changed the way games are made over the past 10 years?

[Fragony]

I think Dune 2 should be on that list, spawned a genre.
System Shock 1 and 2 & Deus Ex, changed how we think about games.
Resident Evil, ALone in the Dark did it first but still.
No one lives forever, just the best damn shooter ever made but it's on all my lists.

[johnhughthom]

A lot of those games aren't from the last 10 years Fragony...

Surprised Silent Hill 2 is in there, was it that innovative in comparison to the first?

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Good call on Medal of Honor there, TinCow. I'd put that in instead of Halo, personally.

I read too much Rock, Paper, Shotgun, so I hear a lot about indie games, but maybe World of Goo as an indie game that really broke through to commercial success? I'm afraid that might be overlooking something that set up the environment for WoG though.

[Fragony]

A lot of those games aren't from the last 10 years Fragony...

Surprised Silent Hill 2 is in there, was it that innovative in comparison to the first?

owwwwwww me getting old

Silent Hill 2 is legendary for it's storytelling, it still has people having flamewars over it's interpretation. It can get really vicious.

[Subotan]

I'd say the only game they missed was...Rome Total War! Otherwise, a very good list.

[caravel]

I'd say the only game they missed was...Rome Total War! Otherwise, a very good list.

"Influential" probably refers to games that spawn, or revolutionise, a genre rather than just a single franchise.

[a completely inoffensive name]

I thought that list was bad. First of all WoW should be number one. I don't play WoW, I could never get into it, but it's influence is the greatest with Sims at second spot. WoW single handily became an a gaming empire over an entire genre that was sketchy at first over how profitable it could become. Now you had all these other companies trying to compete as well all of them labeled as trying to "out WoW" WoW and almost all of them failing badly. I never really liked the idea of separating influential from successful in the first place because when it comes to entertainment those that are influential are the ones that are successful.

[TinCow]

WoW single handily became an a gaming empire over an entire genre that was sketchy at first over how profitable it could become.

I disagree with this. Several MMOs had already been very profitable before WoW was released. Ultima Online was released in 1997, well before Blizzard had even released Starcraft and Diablo 2. It's still going strong today and is extremely profitable for EA. Asheron's Call and Everquest were also very successful and preceded WoW by 5 years each. Both were good enough to spawn sequels, and EQ2 is still doing decently. In Asia, Lineage, Ragnarok Online, and Lineage 2 also did extremely well before WoW was ever around.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that WoW broke new ground and was influential... but it's just wrong to say that the industry was "sketchy" about how much money there was in MMOs before WoW. Blizzard capitalized on the existing MMO market, they didn't create it.

[Subotan]

"Influential" probably refers to games that spawn, or revolutionise, a genre rather than just a single franchise.

I thought that RTW did. I played AoE III after buying RT:W, expecting it to be good, only to be disappointed. It made normal RTSs fail in comparison, including War/Starcraft

[Furunculus]

Operation Flashpoint
Medieval Total War
Deus Ex
Morrowind
Baldurs Gate

[Tony Furze]

Shogun Total War rather than Medieval.

[Martok]

I thought that RTW did. I played AoE III after buying RT:W, expecting it to be good, only to be disappointed. It made normal RTSs fail in comparison, including War/Starcraft

I believe Nagamasa's point was that if you're going to use that argument, then it would be Shogun Total War, not Rome, that deserves to be on the list -- it being the first one in the series, after all. STW was the game that revolutionized the RTS genre, not its successors/sequels (regardless of how much more commercially successful they may have been).

[Kekvit Irae]

Happy Farm? Never even heard of that one.

Brain Age? Influential? Don't make me laugh.

Metal Gear Solid 2? Sure, if you think confusing plotlines about the Illuminati is influential. Take out the "Solid 2" part and then it would be certainly influential to gaming.

Portal? Only if you count internet memes as influential.

World of Warcraft? Replace that with Ultima Online and I'll agree.

Guitar Hero? GH is merely the logical evolution of Dance Dance Revolution.

No Super Mario Bros or Pong or Zork? All three influenced gaming on their platforms (Consoles, Arcades, and Computers respectively) more than the entire list combined.


Man, this list fails in so many ways. It was clearly written by someone who doesn't know gaming history.

EDIT: I'd also like to mention that while UO was the first successful graphical MMORPG (Meridian 59 never enjoyed the popularity of UO), GemStone III was the first successful fantasy MMORPG, six years before UO. UO was also the first MMORPG to include optional expansion packs.

[johnhughthom]

I hope Mount & Blade becomes one of the most influential games of the decade, less for the game itself than the innovative way it was marketed, letting you buy it in beta form and upgrading with each new release. Although I do think it is a great game.

[Reverend Joe]

Happy Farm? Never even heard of that one.

Brain Age? Influential? Don't make me laugh.

Metal Gear Solid 2? Sure, if you think confusing plotlines about the Illuminati is influential. Take out the "Solid 2" part and then it would be certainly influential to gaming.

Portal? Only if you count internet memes as influential.

World of Warcraft? Replace that with Ultima Online and I'll agree.

Guitar Hero? GH is merely the logical evolution of Dance Dance Revolution.

No Super Mario Bros or Pong or Zork? All three influenced gaming on their platforms (Consoles, Arcades, and Computers respectively) more than the entire list combined.


Man, this list fails in so many ways. It was clearly written by someone who doesn't know gaming history.

EDIT: I'd also like to mention that while UO was the first successful graphical MMORPG (Meridian 59 never enjoyed the popularity of UO), GemStone III was the first successful fantasy MMORPG, six years before UO. UO was also the first MMORPG to include optional expansion packs.

The list was limited to the past decade; gotta read the fine print. Which makes it kinda silly, because most of the true gaming revolutions seem to have taken place before the 2000's. I mean, you could even argue that the Elite series pioneered the sandbox game that the GTA games introduced to the mainstream; even the GTA games themselves were (apparently) more of a progressive evolution towards the sandbox of GTA3. And as for the Sims -- the Sims games aren't really influential so much as bestsellers. The only comparative game I could think of when I think of the Sims is Second Life. I'll grant that Halo was somewhat original for having actively cooperative allies in an FPS, but like Half-Life 2, that concept was first introduced in FPS's by the first Half-Life which, like it or not, was the most immersive and interactive FPS by far of its time, and really broke the Doom/Wolfenstein pattern of wandering around mazes and killing bad guys.

Edit: oh, and if you want to talk about the most influential games ever, you're gonna have to bite the bullet and put Pong at the top of the list, with Space Invaders and Pacman tied for number two.

[TinCow]

EDIT: I'd also like to mention that while UO was the first successful graphical MMORPG (Meridian 59 never enjoyed the popularity of UO)

Nice to see that someone else remembers Meridian 59. I lost a good year of my life to that one, and another 2 to UO.

Edit: oh, and if you want to talk about the most influential games ever, you're gonna have to bite the bullet and put Pong at the top of the list, with Space Invaders and Pacman tied for number two.

I'll take that bait. I disagree that the most influential game ever would be one of those. Those were some of the first games, and particularly successful ones, but they didn't fundamentally change gaming. Well, at least not Space Invaders and Pacman. Pong was the first commonly available game, so it does get that notch, but it wasn't the first game ever, just the first to market. Certainly they were extremely influential in their own ways and would rank highly on any list (though I posit that Super Mario Bros. would rank higher), but I don't think they'd qualify for the very tip top spot.

Honestly, if I was going to pick a single game as the most influential ever, I'd probably go with Wolf3D. That single-handedly created what is now one of the most popular gaming genres ever. Most other genres were forged by a mix of several games at once; for instance Dune 2 and C&C both contributing heavily to the start of the RTS genre. FPS was the sole product of Wolf3D, and FPS has become the genre of choice of gaming. Wolf3D truly changed the gaming industry overnight, and in a major fashion.

[Husar]

So Ultima Online is from 1999 or did I misread when it said the last 10 years?

[miotas]

They are making the stupid mistake that all media is making and saying that the first decade of the 21st century was 2000-2009 rather than 2001-2010.

[Chaotix]

They are making the stupid mistake that all media is making and saying that the first decade of the 21st century was 2000-2009 rather than 2001-2010.

That's true, actually. 2010 is the first year of the second decade. 11:59 yesterday made it exactly 10 years since the start of the 21st century.

[miotas]

That's true, actually. 2010 is the first year of the second decade. 11:59 yesterday made it exactly 10 years since the start of the 21st century.

This doesn't really seem the place to discuss this, but 11:59 yesterday marked the end of the "noughties" which was 2000-2009, but since the century started in 2001 then the second decade of the century wont start until 2011, so we are still in the first decade of the century right now.

[Subotan]

Why did the century start in 2001?

[Tellos Athenaios]

Because there never was a year 0. Actually since the calendars are such a messy affair today could be, in fact, 16 December 2015.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12...f_days_decade/

EDIT: The thing RTW -or rather its [modified] engine- has got going for it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Commanders

[a completely inoffensive name]

.Portal? Only if you count internet memes as influential.

Hello.

[lars573]

Why did the century start in 2001?

Play Medieval 2, there is an event about the concept of zero (as we know it) being brought to europe from India via the muslim world. When BC/AD concept was created in the first/third (I really don't know) century there was no zero. So AD reconing starts with 1 AD not 0 AD. However today we recon from 0-9 as being a decade. And adding zeroes for larger units. Even Star Wars uses a year 0 for their time reconings. IE episode 4 takes place in 0 ABY. /NERD!

[Kekvit Irae]

Play Medieval 2, there is an event about the concept of zero (as we know it) being brought to europe from India via the muslim world. When BC/AD concept was created in the first/third (I really don't know) century there was no zero. So AD reconing starts with 1 AD not 0 AD. However today we recon from 0-9 as being a decade. And adding zeroes for larger units. Even Star Wars uses a year 0 for their time reconings. IE episode 4 takes place in 0 ABY. /NERD!

<NERD>
Actually, the majority of A New Hope takes place in 0 BBY. The Battle of Yavin takes place in the third month of the year, so from the first of the year to the third month is considered 0 BBY, and from the third month to the last month of the year is referred to as 0 ABY.
</NERD>

[Subotan]

I wonder if George Lucas knows that.

[lars573]

The better question is would he care. EU cannon is the red-headed step child of SW.

[drone]

Portal? Only if you count internet memes as influential.

Portal is a curious choice. It's a great, original game (albeit short), but influential? If it was truly influential we wouldn't have so many sucky, cookie-cutter games.