Most Influential Games

[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.