GameFAQs Contests

SwiftyDC posted...

What if we had mini contests for GOTY each year instead of those usual polls we get

Yeah, I'd like to see that happen.

I would love to see the GotY polls taken more seriously on the site. Allen does absolutely nothing to get people excited about the GotY polls because they are advertised as regular PotDs. When the GotY polls look like regular PotDs to the site visitors, they are more likely to be overlooked. This is very sad to see because the GotY polls are more interesting than most of the regular polls we get.

Turning it into a mini-contest would definitely help with that issue.

I'd be down with unofficial GotY mini-contests with no prizes. I mean we know what this year's winner is gonna be anyway but it'll make the non-BotW matches more interesting (and it's not like the usual GotY polls would be that exciting anyway).

Just do a 16-game GotY overall poll, two matches a day if you want to breeze through it. Do rough seeding without making actual seeds. Cut a few tertiary major releases in favor of some strong-looking indies. Randomize all seeds if you must, but I imagine you could get some good matches between indies and second-tier major releases.

In the 2016 GotY polls, we had a total of 67 different games appear in at least one poll and some games appeared in more than one poll.

I would prefer a 32 game GotY mini-contest. We could do 32 games if we run multiple matches per day. With 4 matches per day in round 1, 2 matches per day in round 2, and 1 match per day after round 2, the GotY voting would take 15 days. If round 3 was also 2 matches per day, you could cut the length down to 13 days.

32 games is a bit much IMO though I guess it'll avoid snubs and allow variety

Here's a decent list of 16 games though I did exclude remakes (Twilight Princess and Skyrim likely would have replaced something) though this was made in hindsight...

Dark Souls III
DOOM
Final Fantasy XV
Fire Emblem Fates
Firewatch
Forza Horizon 3
Gears of War 4
Overwatch
Pokemon Go
Pokemon Sun/Moon
Pokken Tournament
Sid Meier's Civilization VI
Stardew Valley
Super Mario Run
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

I can't wait until our GotY tournament polls are rallied and everyone demands we return to the current format.

Throughout the history of the GotY polls, rallies have been quite rare. Part of that is due to the polls being advertised as regular PotDs, making it harder to rally them. The other problem is that you can't link directly to the poll results page (or a dedicated voting page) if you want to rally. You'd have to link directly to the homepage instead.

We did get a lot of rallied votes in the 2016 GotY polls during the 3-way final poll and the 1v1 poll. Both polls got rallied hard since there were rallies being hosted on both the FFXV board and Pokemon Sun/Moon board. I estimated about 2500 rallied votes in the 3-way final and about 6000 rallied votes in the 1v1 poll.

Current polls can be rallied too! Either way though: as much as I love a good bracket, I don't like the idea of shrinking the number of games we see each year because it would suck to see a notable snub. Some of these vote totals will be real poor too for one-on-matches between games a few months old, so bigger brackets don't help there either.

I liked how 2012 was done by genre instead of system. If SB returned to that format and added extra polls specifically for exclusives and indies, that'd be ideal for me. GotY-polls have a contest-like feeling for how we crown a winner, but I don't think that feeling would convert well to make it more like a bracket.

Make more brackets instead of replacing this format with a bracket.

HaRRicH posted...

Some of these vote totals will be real poor too for one-on-matches between games a few months old, so bigger brackets don't help there either.

I already stated earlier the 2016 GotY polls featured a total of 67 different games in at least one poll. Cutting that down to 32 games would remove most of the crap that would otherwise drag our vote totals down in 1v1 matches.

However, we would benefit from a vote total boost by not having these GotY polls advertised as regular PotDs. Vote totals would be higher simply because they are no longer seen by site visitors as regular PotDs.

Restallver Lossalot

I don't know why that randomly popped into my head but it did

You need to update your nanomachines

f*** it, First half of 2017 Bracket:

1) Breath of the Wild
8) What Remains of Edith Finch

4) Yakuza 0
5) Gravity Rush 2

3) Mass Effect Andromeda
6) Prey

2) Nier: Automata
7) Night in the Woods

---

1) Persona 5
8) For Honor

4) Nioh
5) Yooka-Laylee

3) Horizon: Zero Dawn
6) Hollow Knight

2) Resident Evil 7
7) Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment

1) Breath of the Wild
4) Yakuza 0
3) Mass Effect Andromeda
2) Nier: Automata

1) Persona 5
4) Nioh
3) Horizon: Zero Dawn
2) Resident Evil 7

---

1) Breath of the Wild
2) Nier: Automata

1) Persona 5
3) Horizon: Zero Dawn

---

1) Breath of the Wild
1) Persona 5

---

1) Breath of the Wild

Just realized I didn't put Tales of Berseria or Fire Emblem Echoes in there. Oh well.

I think the GotY is fine as PotDs.

foxhead84 posted...

Anyone doing a PCA this year? Ulti?

¨
Had this been a character or games contest (or something more interesting to me than years), I would've liked to, but I have never been as uninvested in a contest here before.

I also don't think people in general found it interesting enough to care to read a second one, but that didn't get to play a part.

creativename posted...

I think the GotY is fine as PotDs.

With the current format of GotY, we get people that complain about the polls excluding certain games. People complain about the GotY polls in the same manner they complain about other PotDs. If GotY was changed so they are not advertised as PotDs, we won't be getting those complaints anymore.

"Why isn't Tales of Berseria in the 16 game bracket!"

That could be avoided by expanding the size of the bracket at least 32 games or more.

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is literally winning today's poll right now because there's no major headliner game for June. I know Allen has included an option for "Nothing this month" in similar polls like this one, but this option is totally absent in this poll. With such poor group of game releases for June, this poll really needed that "Nothing this month" option.

i voted for arms

i am only buying the n. sane trilogy because its existence is bulls*** and i will only get a new crash game if i buy it

lol at Crash beating Arms.

In a time where anything from last generation gets remastered, bundling 3 PS1 games together and perhaps exposing new generations to a dead series is a rather nice thing imo.

Arms looks horrible. Crash trilogy deserves this !

Voted for the Crash collection, really surprised to see it winning though.

GameFAQs doesn't care about new games/series. Crash and Tekken existed in the 90s while Valkyria Chronicles was before the 2010s. Even Wipeout is beating a handful of games.

It doesn't help that this new Valkyria game is much different than the previous games and reportedly is a worse game too.

What is the strongest game here from a new IP released this decade?

Dark Souls? The Last of Us? Undertale?

Red Dead Redemption's a good contender too.

Oh wait theres Red Dead Revolver

And Dark Souls? I thought Demon's Souls is considered to be of the same series more or less

The Last of Us
Bloodborne
Undertale

Not sure which to go with. Even if overlooking the rally factor, I'm sure Undertale's meteoric run gave it a real boosted playrate on this site. My bias leans toward Bloodborne though. I think that game has aged quite well and could easily be stronger than it was in 2015.

If you mean the strongest game from a franchise that started in the last decade, The Witcher 3 and Dark Souls would be solid choices. If you mean the strongest original game of the past decade, Last of Us or Undertale are the only real options I think. Xenoblade isn't bad if you count it. Original games usually aren't that strong in general though. GotD stats only have two original games - CT and RBY - in the top 25. KH and SotC were the only ones in the top 25 in GotD.

Based on statz, Last of Us and Witcher 3 are the strongest in that category.

I meant between 2010-now (I forgot about Demon's Souls)

Sequels are fine, but the series had to have started by 2010.

I now want a Best Original Game contest, where no sequels of any series may be included. We'd have CT/RBY for a likely championship, games that started great series but have since been outdone by their sequels get remembered, and one-off games without a series get a chance to shine.

Contest probably needs a better title though.

I like it, but it might turn into a pseudo series contest. I can see The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy placing right behind Chrono Trigger and Pokemon Red/Blue. Mario Bros. will likely do very well too (or are we going with Donkey Kong as the first game in the series?).

I'd expect those three to do among the best anyway, so that doesn't phase me if they overperform a bit due to the format.

I'd be more curious to see if Sonic 1, Mega Man 1, Castlevania 1, and other classic series with less-than-stellar first games would still do okay. I think so to a degree based on that theory you mentioned -- Sonic 1 suggests so anyway -- but it'd be neat. We'd also see some powerful series either snubbed or tested here, to play devil's advocate. Resident Evil 1's not a strong game despite its big series, don't count on Street Fighter 1 or Elder Scrolls 1 to appear, etc. Series would have an influence, but series would always be important for those games anyway. It'll still be a games contest first.

And don't forget we'd finally see the secret powerhouse that is Super Smash Bros! Unless we let SB replace it again, rabble rabble.....

Not really sure Sonic 1 fits as less than stellar. It's the best game in the series.

GameFAQs voters are pretty smart about voting criteria, so I don't think LoZ and FF1 would really represent their series.

Choosing which games qualify would get kinda messy anyway. Would Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario, and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga all qualify? Would Goldeneye?

The semantics of such a contest would be terrible. Red Dead Redemption is kind of a sequel to Red Dead Revolver, so would it automatically get disqualified? Is Super Mario Bros a sequel? Is Earthbound disqualified because it's a sequel to a game never released stateside?

Not to mention Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne would all be eligible because they're not technically related, even though they're all by the same devs with (mostly) the same mechanics.

HaRRicH posted...

I now want a Best Original Game contest, where no sequels of any series may be included.

sounds like a recipe for a bunch of fodder

You can make a 64-game bracket without showering the bracket with too much fodder. Through in spin-off series (Super Mario Kart, Mega Man X) or spiritual successors (Xenoblade, Bloodborne) and things get easier.

This just sounds like the logic that led to the Rivals Contest (which in practice, really was a main characters only contest).

Oh boy, we're already getting a early GotY poll for the first 5 months of this year.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6730-

_SecretSquirrel posted...

This just sounds like the logic that led to the Rivals Contest (which in practice, really was a main characters only contest).

Well, when you place limitations on the field, you open the door for more fodder. Sometimes it can work, like Game of the Decade, but it's a risky proposition.

My opinion's to be pretty lenient on what a separate series is. Donkey Kong, DKC, SMB, SMK, SMRPG, MM1, MMX, Demon/Dark Souls, Bloodborne...all that's okay with me. Earthbound...I'd be okay with a first-release-in-America rule, but I'm open for debate here. Don'r know enough about Red Dead to say.

No prequels either for this contest, sorry MGS3 fans! I'd count MG, MGS, and MGR though.

Fire Emblem's one game that'd probably break the rules, considering the first one to come stateside was the seventh in the series, and they just called it "Fire Emblem". SB would have to omit it entirely.

Nintendo actually gave it an official subtitle now, it's called Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/4594-best-of-2011-game-of-the-year
https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6730-five-months-in-to-2017-whats-your-pick-for-game-of-the-year

Skyward Sword vs. Persona 5, who ya got?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw5yEeFIBIw

Play Shadow Hearts.