GameFAQs Contests

DBZ is arguably the most popular anime in history, and Goku is its representative. I think he could at least beat Crono 1v1 through Toriyama/Anime SFF.

Poll updates and trend charts from yesterday's poll:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CScYzu970Cmutgzbz2i6Ee4SjenVFiSZc1nrHvbmk_A/pub?gid=1375266708

"Yes, I live in the path of totality" had an average board vote and Power Hour. It performed worst during the night vote and morning vote. The ASV was an above average time period for this option, while it performed best during the SNV.

"Yes, I'm traveling to see the eclipse" has very similar trends to "Yes, I live in the path of totality", although this option performs best during the board vote/Power Hour instead of the SNV. Although this option still has a good SNV. Overall, this option had the least extreme trends out of all the options in this poll.

"Yes, but it'll only be a partial eclipse" performs best during the board vote, Power Hour, ASV, and SNV. It performs worst during the night vote and morning vote. In this poll, "Yes, but it'll only be a partial eclipse" managed to reach a maximum vote lead of 247 over "No, I'm not in North America" at 1:30 AM. This lead was wiped out in just 2 hours, 45 minutes with the lead change happening at 4:15 AM. Once "No, I'm not in North America" took the lead, it then proceeded to build up a maximum lead of 360 at 7:55 AM before "Yes, but it'll only be a partial eclipse" made its own comeback attempt. It took 8 1/2 hours for "Yes, but it'll only be a partial eclipse" to erase this 360 vote lead to regain the lead at 4:25 PM. Ultimately, "Yes, but it'll only be a partial eclipse" finished with a final lead of 531 over "No, I'm not in North America" when this poll ended.

"No, I don't care about it" performs best during the board vote, Power Hour, and SNV. It performs worst during the night vote and morning vote, while the ASV was fairly average.

"No, I'm not in North America" has the most extreme trends in this poll. It performs worst during the SNV, with the board vote/Power Hour being its second worst time period. It performs best during the night vote and early morning vote before dropping off after the early morning vote wears off. During this poll, "No, I'm not in North America" had its worst percentage of 10.28% at 12:10 AM. This option gained a total of 25.14% to reach its maximum percentage of 35.42% at 7:35 AM before losing a total of 7.45% to finish this poll with a final percentage of 27.97%.


Even though this poll was basically North America vs. The World, the non-North American countries were less honest in voting for the "No, I'm not in North America" option in comparison to voting for the correct option in the continent polls. The "No, I'm not in North America" option received about 86-94% of the vote in a large majority of the non-North American countries, which is lower than the 97-100% that we would expect to see in the continent polls for whichever option would apply to the non-North American countries. If the "No, I'm not in North America" option had gotten about 97-100% of the vote in the non-North American countries, this option would have done maybe 2% better worldwide. This would have put the non-North American vote roughly in line with the 2013 continent poll (29.55% non-North American). Based on what I've seen in this poll, a re-run of the continent poll should give us similar results to the 2013 continent poll.

LusterSoldier posted...

Even though this poll was basically North America vs. The World, the non-North American countries were less honest in voting for the "No, I'm not in North America" option in comparison to voting for the correct option in the continent polls. The "No, I'm not in North America" option received about 86-94% of the vote in a large majority of the non-North American countries, which is lower than the 97-100% that we would expect to see in the continent polls for whichever option would apply to the non-North American countries. If the "No, I'm not in North America" option had gotten about 97-100% of the vote in the non-North American countries, this option would have done maybe 2% better worldwide. This would have put the non-North American vote roughly in line with the 2013 continent poll (29.55% non-North American). Based on what I've seen in this poll, a re-run of the continent poll should give us similar results to the 2013 continent poll.

Maybe you're leaving out the "I'm traveling there" option?

Advokaiser posted...

Maybe you're leaving out the "I'm traveling there" option?

That option is almost completely a non-factor in the results from the non-North American countries. For the non-North American countries, the "No, I don't care about it" option received almost all of the remaining votes that didn't go to the "No, I'm not in North America" option.

Oh hey, a BioShock play rate poll. Should be interesting. Don't think we've ever had one before.

Team Rocket Elite posted...

Is Goku still really popular? I see a lot of people trash on him these days in Dragonball topics but I imagine most voters probably aren't keeping up with recent Dragonball stuff.

There was always a section of the fanbase that didn't like him, but we've seen these arguments before in a variety of ways. The main character is still almost always the strongest.

Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Luke Skywalker was the straight up strongest Star Wars character.

Team Rocket Elite posted...

Is Goku still really popular? I see a lot of people trash on him these days in Dragonball topics but I imagine most voters probably aren't keeping up with recent Dragonball stuff.

Many people on this site probably havent even watched Dragon Ball Super

The people talking about stuff about Goku like that are a vocal hardcore fanbase

Casuals will just see him as the cool guy who does Kamehamehas and Super Saiyan 3 transformations

Goku will be the strongest DBZ character but he won't be as strong DBZ the series would be in a Show Contest or whatever. He's just not very popular with a decent section of DBZ fans - having a much more interesting ensemble cast surrounding him doesn't help.

pjbasis posted...

Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Luke Skywalker was the straight up strongest Star Wars character.

we can only hope

Actually, I try to think of something where the protagonist isn't the most popular character, and I can't find it other than in Star Wars.

Portal
FF3/6
FFX

FF9

Oh, Portal! Yeah...

But... Does that mean Kefka > Terra? And Yuna/Seymour > Tidus? (Sorry, my only Character Battle was 2013's and I don't remember much...)

Auron > Tidus

Kefka > Probably anyone from FFVI but who really knows

Vivi > Zidane

If we're talking non-video game media, we can only make educated guesses, obviously.

Lots of Final Fantasies, for one! Kefka's the strongest FFVI character, Vivi's the strongest FFIX character, Auron's the strongest FFX character, Balthier's the strongest FFXII character, and while he definitely got surpassed with KH1's release Sephiroth MIGHT have been the strongest FFVII character before then. Rydia's looked good enough that you could probably argue FFIV, too.

Then even aside from games with customizable player avatars that nobody cares about there's also Portal, Mortal Kombat, Pokemon, BioShock, and BioShock Infinite. It looked to be the case for Tales of Symphonia at one point but that might have changed.

It's not common but it happens.

Pulp Fiction

Auron, hmm... Yeah, I must play FFX.

Does Zero > Mega Man X also count?

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Pulp Fiction

Thurman > Travolta/Jackson? That doesn't sound right...

Advokaiser posted...

Does Zero > Mega Man X also count?

It's debatable. They're probably on the same level based on what we've seen. Not sure how it'd go in a head-to-head.

I think MMX is closer to Mega Man than he is to Zero. Recent results don't show Zero being quite up there. Then again, it's been years since the last character battle, so stuff may have changed.

Well, Zero has shown he can hang relatively close to Mega Man himself in the past, although that was a really long time ago.

We've never really gotten a firm reading on exactly how strong MMX is either. He's gotten locked behind potential SFF/LFF or been Draven'd in all of his appearances.

Advokaiser posted...

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Pulp Fiction

Thurman > Travolta/Jackson? That doesn't sound right...

I was thinking Jules Winnfield (Sam Jackson was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars).

Rank the following games in order of contest strength:

Super Metroid
Majora's Mask
Wind Waker
Metroid Prime
Pokémon GSC
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil 4

To think RE4 might be the weakest of these games. :(

have you even played Resident Evil 4

Yes

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Advokaiser posted...

LinkMarioSamus posted...

Pulp Fiction

Thurman > Travolta/Jackson? That doesn't sound right...

I was thinking Jules Winnfield (Sam Jackson was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars).

Oh, I see. That's pretty interesting.

Rank the following games in order of contest strength:

Super Metroid
Majora's Mask
Wind Waker
Metroid Prime
Pokémon GSC
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil 4

To think RE4 might be the weakest of these games. :(

SFF and LFF aside, I'd say:

1._Majora's Mask
2._Super Metroid
3._Wind Waker
4._Pokémon GSC
5._Metroid Prime
6._Metal Gear Solid
7._Resident Evil 4

The first four are massively strong. Super Metroid has definitely gotten stronger somehow (that or it just has had very bad placements in past contests). Then the second block is somewhat weaker but it's still very strong. MGS as a series has also fallen in strength (I would've taken it over Metroid Prime at around 2010 and maybe over GSC as well, but not anymore).

Ownership poll for GoldenEye today. Looking at the options here, I guess I could treat this ownership poll as a playrate poll since the options do just enough to distinguish between those who have played it or haven't played it.

I agree with the rankings of those games. I sometimes wonder if Super Metroid could have pulled it off if there was zero rally spillover, because there were certainly hundreds of outside (Undertale) voters who began voting in all the GameFAQs matches during that contest. 500 votes is a bit much, though.

We really need an "original game" contest just as ( charmander, I think?) mentioned a while back. That's gotta be the freshest idea for a contest right now. We just neeed another character contest first. Oh, wait, why even bother...? Stupid rallies.

But wait! Maybe we can make things better. I think the most important thing is to design the contest to be as rally-resistant as possible. That means doing 24-hour 1v1 matches. We haven't had one of those since 2006. That's right. It's been eleven years! Are there any other means to limit rallies that SBAllen might approve of?

We had 24-hour 1v1 matches our last two contests, technically.

Not in a Character Battle.

Fair enough.

But... wouldn't it make it worse? I mean, I'd certainly wouldn't grant suspicious characters with rally potential anything more than a 12-hour night match. Undertale proved to be strong enough to beat a freaking Reddit rally of Melee in a space of 24 hours, and as far as I'm concerned, everytime Reddit attacked with a massive wave of votes, Tumblr managed to counter however big the number of votes would be. How are we going to counter a 24 hour-built rally?

We can't counter any rally anymore other than creating a contest idea either so vague or so uninteresting that nobody wants to rally, so there's really no point in trying.

I refuse to accept such a depressing situation.

I've already passed through the five stages of grief.

You should begin the healing process, too.

But... I've only had ONE Character Battle. And I'm still a youngling (compared to the GameFAQs demographic)...

It's not fair.

Funny that you posted that, because I posted something similar on some other board a few hours ago

As someone who created this account in 2009, I, rightfully feel like a new user and younger than most people. I'll turn 21 in a few days, which is below the average GameFAQs user's age by more than a few years.

Okay, I meant to suggest just ONE match per day. That way, rally spillover is limited. And yes, 24 hour matches would not limit rallies, but they limit spillover. It was spillover that screwed the 2015 games contest.

And if we really wanted to minimize rallies, we would run a 4-way contest where you vote for your LEAST favorite character, and the one with the fewest votes advances!

Okay, I jest.

spooky96 posted...

Funny that you posted that, because I posted something similar on some other board a few hours ago

As someone who created this account in 2009, I, rightfully feel like a new user and younger than most people. I'll turn 21 in a few days, which is below the average GameFAQs user's age by more than a few years.

That's... incredibly coincidental. Specially when you look at the amount of karma I have today. Where did you write that, btw? Oh, and I'll turn 22 on the 22nd of September. >_>

Haste_2 posted...

Okay, I meant to suggest just ONE match per day. That way, rally spillover is limited.

I see, that makes much more sense.

It still saddens me how a contest can be ruined so easily nowadays, and therefore not giving a chance for progression.

Haste_2 posted...

Okay, I meant to suggest just ONE match per day. That way, rally spillover is limited. And yes, 24 hour matches would not limit rallies, but they limit spillover. It was spillover that screwed the 2015 games contest.

And if we really wanted to minimize rallies, we would run a 4-way contest where you vote for your LEAST favorite character, and the one with the fewest votes advances!

Okay, I jest.

you jest but that's really the only kind of solution that will work

Advokaiser posted...

But... I've only had ONE Character Battle. And I'm still a youngling (compared to the GameFAQs demographic)...

It's not fair.

I feel you. Game of the Decade was the only good contest I got to be a part of from start to finish, but I've already moved on.

A "good" contest will be a nice surprise from now on, rather than something I'm ever going to expect again, much like any game or movie series that I don't care for anymore.

That's... incredibly coincidental. Specially when you look at the amount of karma I have today. Where did you write that, btw? Oh, and I'll turn 22 on the 22nd of September. >_>

I posted that on the Poll of the Day board. One month and a year difference isn't a lot, haha

Haste_2 posted...

Okay, I meant to suggest just ONE match per day. That way, rally spillover is limited. And yes, 24 hour matches would not limit rallies, but they limit spillover. It was spillover that screwed the 2015 games contest.

How? I can't think of a single result that would have been different without rallies.

Also, I understand that a lot of us are disappointed that we won't get contests the traditional way again. But once you get past that, what's really wrong with rallying?

A single result not involving Undertale anyway lol.

After 3 straight days of playrate polls, here are our new playrate results:

BioShock - 60.39%
Zelda 1 - 76.71%
GoldenEye 007 - 78.24%

BioShock has a higher playrate than I would have expected for a newer game (by GameFAQs standards).

Zelda 1's playrate is only slightly lower than its highest recorded playrate of 76.98% (from the 2016 version of this poll).

GoldenEye 007's playrate is higher than I would have expected, since it's roughly on par with FFVII's playrate.


Updated Board 8 wiki page on playrate:

http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Have_You_Played

Going back to one 24h 1v1 match per day would be boring as hell for a lot of matches though, plus we're still going to have rallies interfering with our pathetic votals anyway. Rallies are a necessary evil at this point, I'd rather we accept that and focus on making the rest of the contest as entertaining/interesting as possible rather than keep trying to find ways to prevent rallies at the cost of making the contest dull.

Plus it's not like rallies are all bad. Without them we wouldn't have had Mario/Cloud 1, 2004 Starcraft, Link/Draven, or Melee/Trigger, let alone more controversial stuff like Missingno/Crono and L-Block's run. Hell, you could argue Jay Solano only beat Link due to rallies.

Yeah one 24h 1v1 would be boring as f***. I'd say we should stick to multiple matches a day.

Looking back, Link v Draven actually feels like a legendary match, even though when the match was on-going it felt ugly and disgusting. Idk, Link/Draven was probably better than any match BGE gave us.

GoldenEye 007's playrate is higher than I would have expected, since it's roughly on par with FFVII's playrate.

Even if you never had the game yourself, if one of your friends in that era had Goldeneye, and you ever played video games at their house, chances are pretty high the two of you played Goldeneye at some point.

I look back and I realize that if Link had beaten Draven, not only would the contest had been saved, but Link's reputation as the Hero he so much and often represents would've scaled through the roof. I often just look back at it as a disaster, but while I wasn't a fan of the 3-way format, I loved seeing characters like Adol Christin having a chance to even enter.

I long to see the day Hector from Castlevania: Curse of Darkness makes it in (and maybe throw in Isaac as well, why the heck not?). Shantae and Shanoa are others I'd like to see in.

LinkMarioSamus posted...

How? I can't think of a single result that would have been different without rallies.

hello Chrono Trigger

Both FF7 and Goldeneye were multimillion sellers, and both belonged to systems beloved by GameFAQs. It makes sense to me both would have a high play-rate.

spooky96 posted...

Yeah one 24h 1v1 would be boring as f***. I'd say we should stick to multiple matches a day.

Certainly before 2007, nobody complained about how boring it was to have one match a day! It's not THAT bad! I've changed my mind, though. Since the effect of rallies isn't that much different in 12-hour matches, so I would favor 12-hour matches, for sure.

It's the multiple simultaneous matches that was the problem. I'm not sure if Undertale spillover actually changed any match results (Mario 64 could have beaten RBY in the bonus match), but I think most of us were bothered by the dramatic changes in the performance of the games. Spillover has a high chance of changing match results in the future.

No, get rid of 12-hour matches.

Like, the current format is perfect because we can have 24-hour, 1-on-1 matches with large brackets. The problem is all the other stuff, which is essentially out of our and Allen's control.