Most Influential Games

[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.

[a completely inoffensive name]

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

Hello.

[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.