Part 21. That means we've now filled 20 topics with approximately 500 posts each for about 10,000 total posts since this all began way back in summer 2002. Amazing. Ten thousand posts of (mostly) intelligent, contest-related stats and discussion. Wow. Who's up for 10,000 more? ;)

Stats websites:

Summer 2002 Contest:
http://solarshadow2002.tripod.com
Summer 2003 Contest:
http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com/2003/index.html
Spring 2004 Contest: (not currently updating)
http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com/sp2004/index.html

Stats topics:

Summer 2002 Contest:
http://solarshadow2002.tripod.com/page1.html
Summer 2003 Contest:
http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com/archive/topic1p1.html
http://www.angelfire.com/games5/sum_contest/Page1.htm (See note)
2003-2004 Off-Season:
http://membres.lycos.fr/shindohikaru/stats1.htm (See note)
Note: Don't use the links in the topic to browse through the pages, change the page number in the URL.
Spring 2004 Pre-Season:
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringPreSeason1.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringPreSeason2.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringPreSeason3.htm
Spring 2004 Contest:
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats1.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats2.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats3.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats4.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats5.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats6.htm
http://sc2k4.com/archive/04SpringStats7.htm
http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=8&topic=14291485 (Until purge)

Oracle Standings:
http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com/sp2004/oracle.html

FIRST POST'D
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Welcome to SpC2k4, where you suck if you presume someone else's opinions.- Tai.

omg, Tai h4x.
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Mega Man in the Summer Contest '04? You better believe it!

well! it's about tiem!

welcome back solar - helluva match going on!

2`D
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Married to smitelf on 5/21/04
I would like to take this moment to politely orgasm over Ulti's Halo/Starcraft analysis. -smitelf

Sorry that took so long, guys. When I left for work it didn't look like you were going to fill it before I got home, and probably wouldn't have if I hadn't been delayed. Oh well, the next one will be more timely. :)
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Contest Stats: http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com

This match is amazing right now, A Link to the Past and Chrono Trigger have been evenly matched for most of the match. Earlier today they would switch leads every few minutes and it lasted for 2 hours. =) Great match, ALttP currently has a 130 vote lead with about 9 hours left. Should come right down to the end.

Oh and I got the 500 topic last time. ^_~
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Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

welcome back solar - helluva match going on!

Yeah, no kidding. Is this one going to go down to the wire too? I'ma go find the update topic.
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Contest Stats: http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com

I'm a little skeptical about LttP's chances right now. It's ten minutes to three o'clock, PST (GameFAQs Time). I don't think LttP will manage to gather enough of the afternoon vote to stop CT's nighttime surge. I'd say CT is in a good position, despite not being in the lead. Still, it's anyone's match at the moment. Very close.
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 87/104, Next Winner: Chrono Trigger

Slowflake, can I have permission to use those rankings on my PCA? You`ll be given full credit for them, of course.

*beats UltiX with a giant twig*

When I looked at the early results of LttP vs. CT, I was quite worried that it would play exactly like LttP vs. FFVI. I'm glad the dayvoters favor CT more than FFVI, though. I'm looking forward to the final results...

Looking ahead to the Semi-finals, we've got a game that fell just short of 60% against Final Fantasy against another game that would receive 59% on Super Mario World. Seems like it would be easy call, but who knows...

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"Ah, a party! We haven't had one of those. It could be fun! So...what is a party?"
"Well, you drink punch and eat CAKE! ...I think."

Why do I suddenly have this feeling that SMB3 is going to win it all?
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 87/104, Next Winner: Chrono Trigger

What the hell?! LttP was over 150 when I did the last 15-min update, and now it's under 100!? Oh..no..
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Welcome to SpC2k4, where you suck if you presume someone else's opinions.- Tai.

I just have to say, these match pics are the best I've ever seen. By far.

Nick Busby and Jeremy Hasse just did a spectacular job. I couldn't believe how beautiful the pics were.

Fitting, then, that we have a classic match. This match is probably the closest match in end-to-end terms ever, though like most I would presume Chrono Trigger will pull away slightly with the night vote. That isn't assured of course.
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Nominate Frog from Chrono Trigger for the Summer 2004 Character Contest!
http://SC2k4.com/frog (click on the galleries)

Haste2:
Looking ahead to the Semi-finals, we've got a game that fell just short of 60% against Final Fantasy against another game that would receive 59% on Super Mario World. Seems like it would be easy call, but who knows...

SMB3 certainly has a great shot to beat Chrono Trigger. I would hurl if that happened, but it could. While earlier I didn't think SMB3 would be capable of defeating A Link to the Past, or any game that defeated A Link to the Past, I now think the match is basically 50/50. You'll be seeing a lot of flaming for that one.

smitelf:
Why do I suddenly have this feeling that SMB3 is going to win it all?

I would say that SMB3 does have all the intangibles going for it, but it's tough to believe that 59% against Final Fantasy would be enough to beat Final Fantasy VII.

And while I don't think it would suffer quite as badly from SFF against Ocarina of Time as other games have, since they are from totally different generations, it is even tougher to imagine SMB3 beating Ocarina of Time.
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Nominate Frog from Chrono Trigger for the Summer 2004 Character Contest!
http://SC2k4.com/frog (click on the galleries)

I find it odd how sclegacy.com is linking people here to vote for Chrono Trigger. o_O

I doubt it will have any effect though (Starcraft fans are just as likely to vote for CT as they are LTTP).

LordOfDabu
A legend beyond all ages.

Slowflake wanted this posted into the new topic...

*** COMPARISONS GAME - Match #59 - (1) FINAL FANTASY 7 vs. (2) LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME ***

Sales

7.8 million for FF7, 6 million for OoT. Not a huge difference, all proportions kept, but it's there nonetheless.

- Advantage FF7.

Franchises

Well, duh. Where did all the hype for that match come from, you think?

- TIE.

GameFAQs Status

Number of FAQs: OoT
Number of reviews: FF7
Average review score: FF7
Board activity: FF7

Wha...? OoT winning the FAQs? I fell off my chair when I saw that, seriously. RPGs usually dominate this... guess FF10 DOES have the longest FAQ page on the site after all. Neither games get really high scores, but a few really low ones are what sank OoT here. And the board... oh my god, this is a slaughter. Of course it doesn't count towards the total, but Advent Children has a board set aside for it. How many movies do you think have that kind of special treatment on GameFAQs? And furthermore, did you know Advent Children is actually a PS1 RPG? According to the board list, it is. ;)

- Advantage FF7

Board Odds Project

PICKS (out of 102)
Final Fantasy 7 - 65
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 34
Also picked: Metal Gear Solid (1), Final Fantasy Tactics (1), Dance Dance Revolution (1)

POINT VALUE
1. Final Fantasy 7 - 4006
3. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 2280

80 brackets out of the 102 have either game winning it all, explaining the high point value. 55 for FF7 to 25 for OoT, explaining the huge gap. I believe the Cloud/Sephiroth final has something to do with it.

- Advantage FF7.

Previous Rounds

FF7's utter destruction of MGS and OoT failing to wow the crowd against Goldeneye following that is a good indicative of how this category goes. Forget that SFF match against SM64. Plus, LttP almost losing to FF6 is cause for worry.

- Advantage FF7

Summer Contests / Polls of the Day

FF7 and OoT get the same numbers in favorite games of their respective series polls, but FF7 does so against more numerous and tougher opposition, while OoT has only LttP to worry about, and to a much lesser extent LoZ and WW.

And Cloud is the defending champion of the Summer Contest. But you already know that.

- Advantage FF7

Intangibles

Seriously, I don't know what to put here. These two fanbases are by far the most rabid on the site, and I wouldn't be surprised if FF7 was able to disable a possible OoT clutch at the end of the poll. Honestly, I'll just call it a draw and leave it at that.

- TIE.

Conclusion: OoT failing to win a single category is a major shocker to me, but maybe it goes with FF7 being far more popular here than anywhere else. Don't trust FF7's shutout, it's still going to be a barnburner.
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Contest: 91/104; Division 128 absolutely pwned me... Perfect Division 8!

It has been thrown around before today, but I second all of the sentiments of Best. Match. Ever. Neither game has lead by more than 500 votes, and in the last 10 or so hours, neither has had more than a 200 vote lead. This is unreal. Have we ever had a match where the time segments were this ridiculously close? Maybe the last couple hours of FFT/MGS, but this has been one helluva match. I cannot imagine how Ulti feels sitting on the brink of the top 10 with this match actually meaning something to him...
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Contest: 91/104; Division 128 absolutely pwned me... Perfect Division 8!

7.8 million for FF7, 6 million for OoT.

7.6 million for OoT, not 6 million.
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

Previous Rounds
...
- Advantage FF7

Summer Contests / Polls of the Day
...
- Advantage FF7

I would say that these two categories are both as close as you can get.

If you count the performance of their franchise mates as well, it's still a tie, because both franchises have had impressive performances (Final Fantasy Tactics, A Link to the Past and The Legend of Zelda in earlier rounds, Final Fantasy VI against A Link to the Past) as well as disappointing performances (Final Fantasy X, Wind Waker, Final Fantasy VI in earlier rounds, A Link to the Past against Final Fantasy VI--marginally). Final Fantasy VI vs. A Link to the Past being only marginally impressive/disappointing, respectively.

Previous Round results and previous contest/poll results are basically dead even for both games/franchises.
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Nominate Frog from Chrono Trigger for the Summer 2004 Character Contest!
http://SC2k4.com/frog (click on the galleries)

Not like it matters though FFVII still wins the category. =P
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

Match #57 Review:

Eh...SMB3 did a bit better than most expected, but that can be easily chalked up to bit of SFF...a surprisingly dull match, really.

Match #59 Preview:

This is it. The match we've all been waiting for.

It seems rather ironic that the one big match we were all looking forward to before the contest started is now overshadowed by both today's match and StarCraft's match on Thursday. FFVII, having the thunder stolen from it? Say it ain't so.

What happened to this contest being so much more predictable and boring than the character battles? ^_^

As for the match itself...well, holy hot damn. It's really impossible to give a solid advantage to either game. Let's take a look at their track record...

FFVII crushed Suikoden II, steamrolled over Xenogears, and whooped Metal Gear Solid to the moon and back.

OoT creamed Fallout 2, destroyed Super Mario 64, and ate Goldeneye for breakfast.

Pretty even, if ya ask me. I suppose the big noodlescratcher for this match is...

Is MGS really more popular than Goldeneye? And, if so, what would the final percentage be if the two would happen to meet in a match?

We'll find out the answer to that question in one more day...
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"Thank you, Mario. But our princess is in another castle."
-Toad in Super Mario Bros.

7.6 million for OoT, not 6 million.

Likewise, Final Fantasy VII sold 9.34 million worldwide as of 3-31-03. 3.9 million in Japan, 5.44 million abroad. (courtesy SquareEnix website) Doesn't give US numbers.

Ocarina of Time probably has the North American edge though. The Magic Box gives sales figures of 3.57 for Ocarina of Time and 2.45 million for Final Fantasy VII, though those might be outdated. 2.45 million does seem very low for a game that sold 5.44 million outside of Japan.
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Nominate Frog from Chrono Trigger for the Summer 2004 Character Contest!
http://SC2k4.com/frog (click on the galleries)

Come on guys... at least wait for Slowflake to get back to defend his analysis before you go shooting it to the ground like its a flapping mallard in Duck Hunt... and having just re-started Chapter 5 in FFX-2, I now remember why I quit playing the game; so disappointing...
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Contest: 91/104; Division 128 absolutely pwned me... Perfect Division 8!

Any attempt to analyze FF7 vs OoT that gves advatnage to one or the other is bound to be picked to death because it's so friggin' close. Then again, we all thought SMB3 vs. LoZ was too close to tell but the end result wasn't that close at all so the winner of FF/OoT may have 55% without breaking a sweat... who knows.
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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow

I have never seen two equal competitors like ALttP and CT. This match isn`t going to end until the poll closes.
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

How do the vote totals compare for this match so far?
And do you expect the match to reach over 85000?

I have never seen two equal competitors like ALttP and CT. This match isn`t going to end until the poll closes.

CT gets the night vote. Lttp maybe able to keep up with CT during its peak but 3 hours from now CT will makes its move and pull ahead. Based on last nights results, Lttp will fall to the night vote.
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''Those whose memories fade seek to carve them in their hearts...''
''All dreams are but another reality. Never forget...''

CT gets the night vote. Lttp maybe able to keep up with CT during its peak but 3 hours from now CT will makes its move and pull ahead. Based on last nights results, Lttp will fall to the night vote.

The problem with that deal is that the "timeframe" votes for this match has been seriously messed with. CT was able to keep up perfectly in the morning and even in the day, for the most part ALttP should be able to keep right up with CT during the night. CT might be able to pull slightly ahead but nothing that isn`t perfectly within ALttP`s reach to comeback from.
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Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

"This match isn`t going to end until the poll closes."

Well duh. :P
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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow

The problem with that deal is that the "timeframe" votes for this match has been seriously messed with. CT was able to keep up perfectly in the morning and even in the day, for the most part ALttP should be able to keep right up with CT during the night. CT might be able to pull slightly ahead but nothing that isn`t perfectly within ALttP`s reach to comeback from.

The scrwed up timeframe is currently heavily favoring CT. Even if it does go back to normal for the night vote, CT wins. If CT does make it move, it will be done 2 hours from now. If Lttp can still close until 8:30pm PST, it might have a shot at the win.
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''Those whose memories fade seek to carve them in their hearts...''
''All dreams are but another reality. Never forget...''

It's matches like these that make me wish Crono would have faced Link
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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow

I find it odd how sclegacy.com is linking people here to vote for Chrono Trigger. o_O

Okaaay…

Some day sclegacy.com will load so I can see this for myself…some day…

This match may be close now but LttP is running out of time. The night vote favors Chrono Trigger. If it can’t pull ahead before, let us say, 9:00 PST, it’s toast, in my humble opinion. And hey, I could be wrong, but I think things are looking up for CT. If it can keep it this close in the day then it should be able to pull ahead during the night, if only enough to make the poll stop reading a near exact 50% every time I update.
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 87/104, Next Winner: Chrono Trigger

I don't think LttP is going to really pull ahead at any point in the rest of the match.
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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow

I just checked it out (sclegacy, I mean) and here's what they're saying:

Thursday: Starcraft vs Super Smash Bros Melee @ GameFAQs.com. Be there!

Do you hate AOL? Good: go vote for Chrono Trigger at GameFAQs.com.

With appropriate links.

I suppose the AOL connection comes from the "65% of AOL fans vote for Zelda" according to CJayC, hence SC fans are still gloating about their victory over WW and want to rub it into LttP. I can't see any other reason, can you?!

I've got to say I don't approve on both counts. This is planet gamecube all over again, only this time with a couple of days warning. I'm really starting to dislike starcraft fans (which hurts! it's such a good game!)...

suppose the AOL connection comes from the "65% of AOL fans vote for Zelda" according to CJayC, hence SC fans are still gloating about their victory over WW and want to rub it into LttP. I can't see any other reason, can you?!

Maybe they still resent the Zelda franchise for Adventure of Link ;)

This is planet gamecube all over again, only this time with a couple of days warning.

It's annoying, but it isn't like PGC because firstly this is a minor site, and secondly the link is not prominently displayed at all. And, perhaps most importantly, the site's fanbase is not going to be pre-disposed to either game--they're Starcraft fans, not Nintendo fans like with PGC. The only reason they'd be pre-disposed to Chrono Trigger is because that's who they're told to vote for.

So it's stupid, but almost meaningless. Of course, even a handful of votes might change the result of this match, but for all we know those voters are voting more for A Link to the Past.
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Nominate Frog from Chrono Trigger for the Summer 2004 Character Contest!
http://SC2k4.com/frog (click on the galleries)

Don't blame all Starcraft fans just because one stupid site keeps linking to GameFAQs. As I said, links on sites aren't appropriate *at all*.
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 87/104, Next Winner: Chrono Trigger

I wish SC legacy would load up. They had a great article explaining why SC needed to win back when SC was involved in a greatest game contest and got screwed out of a win ala Mario vs. Chrono.

sorry smitelf, good point...

and cn, yes it is a minor site, but my comment was referring to the build up to SC vs SSBM, not to today's match. I'm sure SC fans are just as likely to vote CT as Lttp, but they're much more likely to vote SC than SSBM. All this means is that there's a few days warning to get momentum up...

Oh well, will be interesting to see what happens nonetheless.

And:

Maybe they still resent the Zelda franchise for Adventure of Link ;)

:D good work!

The night vote has obviously started and Chrono Triggers gain? 102 at the peak, but what is this ALttP didn`t roll over and die... in fact it got it back down to 43 in a matter of minutes. This night vote isn`t going to give CT the win by any means.
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

The night vote has obviously started and Chrono Triggers gain? 102 at the peak, but what is this ALttP didn`t roll over and die... in fact it got it back down to 43 in a matter of minutes. This night vote isn`t going to give CT the win by any means.

Wait an hour. CT is just getting started.
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''Those whose memories fade seek to carve them in their hearts...''
''All dreams are but another reality. Never forget...''

I'm nervous. Why? Crono does not fare well in extremely close matches with major Nintendo players. >_>
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Chaos Knight-Cerebral Insomniac of the CoS
summoner? wtf! summoner=Yuna Taru=midgit GaryPayton LA

we've been talking about this all day, HM. i am surprised it is coming to pass so close to how we analyzed it in the update topic.

this is not a sharp dichotomy night/day split. it is a soft trend one. all that is happening now is that the "prevailing winds" favor CT. LttP, if its fans get out the vote [or if enough of them saved their vote] can still win - but it is moving "against the wind".

i look for a gradual "tacking" [50 points up, 30 down] increase of CT's lead into a slight win at the end now.

I'm nervous. Why? Crono does not fare well in extremely close matches with major Nintendo players. >_>

True. But Zelda games probably have the weakest "Clutch" factor of the big 3 Nintendo series.
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''Those whose memories fade seek to carve them in their hearts...''
''All dreams are but another reality. Never forget...''

Nervousness is an acceptable feeling for this match... I'm a tad bit, but not really, nervous. But then agian that's how I feel about all close ones. Frankly put I wouldn't worry too much about CT.
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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow

And there goes ALttP retaking the lead by 9. Again, far from over.
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

I'm really starting to dislike starcraft fans (which hurts! it's such a good game!)...

As Sir Alex (a great guy and a major SC fan) said, "sclegacy.com is by far the worst Starcraft fansite on the net; their articles are pretty much always IotD [Idiot of the Day] fodder." Don't get on our case because some people are stupid.

And there's little more I can say about this match other than "wow". I didn't expect this to be that close, especially after LoZ lost.
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Smart Ask! National Champion (2003)
www.rpgdl.com

Ok, found what I was looking for finally. This is an explanation of a Starcraft vs. Diablo 2 match on gamespy.com which was reacted to the same way as Chrono vs. Mario here:

The Last of GameSpy
Posted by XG3 on Friday, March 26 @ 18:33:05 EST

This is the post to summarize what has happened after we lost the vote yesterday and where we go from here regarding GameSpy. I emailed Fargo twice but did not receive a response, but found out later that he was away at the Game Developers' Conference. So John "Warrior" Keefer, GameSpy Managing Editor responded instead. He didn't want this posted in public because it would encourage people to use dynamic IPs to vote, but how is it possible to take away integrity from a contest that has none?


Hey,

I saw you emailed Fargo, but he is away at GDC so I am happy to answer since I was the one who did the investigation. I hope you will understand why I am NOT posting this in a public forum.

We checked into it. The good news is we found out the script does not work. It attempts to vote multiple times, but since we track IP and GameSpy ID, the script does not allow it to change IP addresses. So any time the page refreshed and the vote went up, it was probably another voter registering their vote. The script kept running off the same IP and therefore was only counted once. This explains why the guy said that it doesn't work a few times, because the vote would appear to be tallied only when other people's votes were being recorded.

We are not going to publicize this fact since we do not want them to try to allow dynamic IP voting. But I am going to respond to each email I get and point this out. All the script did is drive up our page views.

The bad news for StarCraft fans is that it looks like Diablo 2 won legitimately. http://www.DiabloII.net and http://diablo2.ingame.de/, two of the largest fan sites, posted news of the voting on their sites last night. Our stats showed that more than 13,000 people came in from those two sites alone. So the win appears to be legitimate.

Starcraft fans probably won't be happy, but it appears everything is kosher.

John "Warrior" Keefer, Managing Editor


Here was my response. Some of it may sound childish but it was in the moment and that's how I really felt at the time.


Hey,

Thanks for writing me, even though I wasn't going to email you to ask since I am already...thoroughly disgusted with this whole thing...including the fact that Diablo II is as far as it is in what is supposed to determine the best game of all time. I will therefore take your word for it, that you checked and investigated it and there was no sign of foul play. However, none of the Starcraft sites will support this tournament further including the extra life poll since GameSpy has not taken steps to legitimize the voting process. It should be noted that dynamic IP voting already takes place and has been done in every vote for every game more or less depending on which community is the most fanatical. Diablo II fans know that in a legitimate Best Game of All Time poll their game has no chance of being in the top ten, so they have to resort to this type of thing to "show the rest of us" how great their game is. The Starcraft community was confident we could win this poll, but I guess we didn't so that is that. Once again, thanks for letting me know and good luck with the rest of this "tournament."

Jeff
sclegacy.com

From this point forward, none of the major Starcraft fansites will post anything related to GameSpy for a while. This is our way of saying, "GameSpy, you ****ed up twice. Since you show our community no love, we will return the favor." Darko stood up for Starcraft in their forums saying that GameSpy is in fact anti-Starcraft since they don't have a PlanetStarcraft site, and someone responded that "There is none because none of you Starcraft script kitties know enough HTML to MAKE a website." To which Darko responded:

Please visit http://www.teamliquid.net and create a post on their Brood War forum calling jca and lasgo "script kitties" - I'd love to see what happens to you.

Apparently you've never heard of Starcraft Legacy, Starcraft.org, World Game Tour, Starcraft Millenium, or even the old BroodWar.com. Reason none of them don't want to be a part of the Gamespy network is pretty simple: we want nothing to do with a gaming website that judges a game based on how many units you can download (Yes, that's right, I'm talking about Total Annihilation).


Which summarizes my feelings quite nicely. I have already talked to Ilvy and Ilintar from WGTour and they agree completely and will support our little boycott. I am confident Mazor from StarcraftGamers will agree, and TeamLiquid doesn't post about things like that anyway. Major gaming portals like GameSpot do show us incredible love from time to time so we are grateful for that. The fact that Diablo II is in the top eight of all time is completely absurd. Nearly as absurd as putting Total Annihilation in front of Starcraft. We are done with GameSpy for now so I would suggest everyone to leave this behind in the past, move on, and forget this thing ever happened.

Followup: Napoleic has written a nice letter to the community and to myself that brings up several nice summarizing points to this whole thing. Two parts:


First, to the idiots who don't think the poll matters: The poll does matter, a great deal, if you want to get events like CPL and other offline hosts to host tournies for SC, you have to prove that it has the community to support it. If SC had won this poll it would have gone a long way towards securing additional tournies for us. Now that the game is old, we, all of us, are under constant pressure to show that is not dead or dying. Sponsors and hosts will avoid a dying game like the black death. It is critical that we endure their scrutiny and skepticism and are not found wanting.

Second, to you: It looks as though D2 won legit, so this childish little boycott is pointless and harmful. Our whole goal is make SC look good to third parties who may be debating whether or not our game and community is worth the risk of running a tourney for. This retarded little boycott accomplishes the opposite. If I was you XG3, I'd write back gamespy immediately and apologise for your little rant, and call off this stupid boycott.

There IS a lot at stake here, the world is watching Starcraft and watching our community, and because of the age of the game we must be perfect in every way or we will be written off as obsolete, obsessed, and stuck in the past.

I will address both points. I think that the reason that me personally, as well as many members of the community, are so obsessed with this type of thing, is because like Nic said we are always under constant pressure to prove our game is still alive and is still one of the best current games, not just in the history of games. Our game is six years old and yet Starcraft is still one of the most popular online multiplayer games as well as the game that all other games in the genre are measured against. Diablo II does not have this pressure. It is a nice, popular game where you hack and slash and is not considered competitive. It also isn't going anywhere and there is nothing about the game outside of their hacker infested Battle.net community.
When you talk about competitive games, you mention Brood War, you mention Counter-Strike. But over time, especially now, we are always trying to prove to the world that Starcraft is not dying and is not old news. As for the part directed at me, I must admit that many of the emotions expressed in the above article were of the moment and were a result of the above reasons. The boycott isn't really a big deal, since we don't post much about them anyway and I was already doing it until I got "into" the whole Title Fight competitive mode (you may notice that Redcloak posted the news about the first Title Fight

http://archive.gamespy.com/titlefight/matches/0306.shtml

That's a link to the actual match itself, which had around 1/4 of the votes of the GF match, showing the actual impact sclegacy.com really has. Then again, gamespy.com only got 15,000 votes or so in their final match.

Hey, just curious, is anyone keeping count of the lead changes in this match? =P
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Supporting Super Smash Brothers Melee for the 2004 Spring Contest going ALL THE WAY.
SSBM. Rock rock on!