Most Influential Games

[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.