GameFAQs Contests

Hey, it only took four and a half months to fill that topic!

~*creativename's contest site (all things contest!)*~
http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/drupal/

~*The Board 8 Wiki (lots of useful contest and board information, including all past Post-Contest Analysis from Ulti, transience, Ed Bellis, and others)*~
http://board8.wikia.com/

~*List of All Polls (a search bar is at the bottom)*~
http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.html

~*NGamer64's Archive Sites (good stuff!) and (LOL) X-Stats Sim*~
http://www.thengamer.com/
http://thengamer.com/xstats

~*GameFAQs Contests Hall of Fame*~
http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/GameFAQs_Contests_Hall_of_Fame
http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/GameFAQs_Contests_Match_Hall_of_Fame

~*Character Contest Histories*~
http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Contest_Histories

~*Simple Explanation of Extrapolated Standings*~
A = Strongest Character
B = Character Weaker than A
C = Character Weaker than B
To figure out a character's Xsts Percentage ---> [(CvB)(BvA)]/50 = CvA
To compare how C would do against B ---> [(CvA)/(BvA)]*50 = CvB
To figure out how B would do against A ---> [(CvA)/(CvB)]*50 = BvA

~*All the Match Pics*~
http://www.gamefaqscontests.com/gallery/index.php

~*Leonhart4's Trend Charts*~
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?hl=en&key=tOGmynfNIiNy5VukpEF-PdA&hl=en#gid=0

~*Daily Vote Trends - An Explanation for Dummies*~
http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Daily_Vote_Trends

~*Acronyms and Percentages for Dummies*~
http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Acronyms_and_Percentages

You had a valid concern about how an Indie Game contest would have a low voter turn-out. To alleviate your concern, we could always add more games per match and make it a four-way bracket. Finally, you can get excited.

(I think we saw one-on-ones were generally better vote draws, right? Been a minute.....)

4-ways got lots of votes too. I think it just depended on the site's popularity at the time. I don't know that the format really made a big difference.

I felt four-ways would have better vote totals because it is more likely the average voter would be a fan of one of the options. Of course there would be an upper limit due to fanbase overlap and too many options putting people off...

tAg

Tag

I think 1v1, 2 matches a day would be the best format (12-hour day/night matches substract lots of votes, and I don't like them overall; 4-ways are more restrictive and seem kind of messy).

What would count as indie? Would Player Unknown Battlegrounds count? Because if so I'd imagine that'd clean house with its large player base (and thus rally potential). Otherwise I'd imagine Stardew Valley would go far, depending on its competition. Undertale is a wild card too, though I doubt it'd win this time.

At any rate, I'd be in favor of Best Indie Game as a smaller contest since it'd be unpredictable and might actually lead users to try some awesome games they wouldn't have otherwise.

Not_Wylvane posted...

At any rate, I'd be in favor of Best Indie Game as a smaller contest since it'd be unpredictable and might actually lead users to try some awesome games they wouldn't have otherwise.

Agreed.

Undertale woukd still be my pick to win. It's developed quite a base here (for a 2015 PC game) and AGDQ proved it still has huge drawing power off of GameFAQs. I think I can say that and still say I don't think it would get any more real rallies, but in a close match it would have that clutch x-factor and I don't know that another indie game can break 45% on it naturally. It would take a rally to overwhelm it to defeat it, plus counting on Undertale not be able to defend itself with its own rallies.

As for defining what an indie game is...I'm probably not the best guy. It took me some time to realize it's not right to identify MM9 as indie (downloadable was synonymous with indie for me for awhile, whoops). I think people nominating could figure it out, but to define it in the rules? I don't know enough about studio sizes, marketing, or other details probably worth considering for this.

I would never play an indie game out of protest if we had an Indie Game Contest

When does an indie game stop being an indie game? Would Doom be eligible for the contest?

Also FFVI and almost caught up to FFVII.

Shovel Knight might put up a fight against Undertale.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6101-best-game-ever-day-13-gta-san-andreas-vs-shovel-knight

It'd certainly be my pick for #2 at worst in non-rallied strength.

FFVII might not even be able to win a large multi-way poll this time around. Although FFVII took the lead over FFVI overnight, it started going back down in percentage after 7:55 AM (which was FFVII's maximum percentage).

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­
Also, here's the US result from the 2014 poll (with 14 games):

Final Fantasy VI 21.38%
Final Fantasy VII 22.54%

Compared to today's poll, the US result looks like this:

Final Fantasy VI 24.42%
Final Fantasy VII 20.30%

So in the last 3 years, FFVI has improved its US numbers by roughly 3% (and FFVII has fallen by about 2%).

I would never play an indie game out of protest if we had an Indie Game Contest

That's a shame, you should play the true best indie game, A Hat in Time.

never

If we have an Indie Game Contest maybe Umineko or Touhou can win a round.

Polls for the next 3 days:

10/21/2017 - I don't know. Probably an original poll idea.
10/22/2017 - Over the last year, what's the longest you've gone without using the Internet?
10/23/2017 - I don't know. Probably an original poll idea.

Well, there's still hope for a 1v1 poll tomorrow between FFVI/FFVII. If we do get that 1v1 poll, I'm assuming the poll question is slightly different than the poll we got back in 2014 which prevents me from figuring out tomorrow's poll.

We didn't get that FFVI/FFVII 1v1 poll today. Also, FFVII just barely holds onto the lead in yesterday's poll.

So how does FFIX/FFX go now?

I think it'd be really close the entire time but X would never be in any serious danger other than a couple fluke IX updates giving some brief scares.

I think FFIX would still be able to beat Mega Man X. It's a little risky, but I think I'd take it.

The only thing I can't figure out though, and that is something that I'd like to be explained is, why is FFVIII so far behind to the point were even IX beats it? Is it because of VII/X's SFF or something? I remember VIII being super strong.

FFIX has gained at FFVIII's expense the last couple times we've run this poll.

FF9 has also had remakes for mobile, Steam, and PS4 in the past year or two, which helps its exposure a lot.

GameFAQs seemed to be the biggest source of FF8's fans also, since outside GameFAQs FF8's perception is rather mixed. I guess most of the people who stopped voting were the bigger FF8 fans, while those that remain are more FF9 fans, which has more appeal to the old-school FF fans due to the presentation and numerous callbacks to previous games. Mainly FF9 appealed to older fans while FF8 appealed to younger fans at the time, except those younger fans aren't around on GameFAQs anymore while the older fans are. Or something like that.

I would say most of FFVIII's strength was from the more casual voters on the site.

It overlaps the strongest with FFVII too.

Yeah, FFVIII will always be hurt the most by FFVII, but it was still able to beat FFIX before the last two polls anyway.

Here's a couple of past polls where FFVIII was still stronger than FFIX:

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/2593-
https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/1573-
https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/1443-

I guess FFIX overtook FFVIII around 2010, since FFVIII finished above FFIX in the BGE 2009 X-Stats.

FFVIII doubled FFIX in 2009. I doubt FFIX closed the gap in a year.

It probably happened around 2013ish, where Vivi had his crazy run where he beat Mario.

How apt that he beat Squall at the very same time

I'll never forgive Vivi for beating Mario and preventing Squall from doing it the next round.

Actually, now that Luster pulled those polls out, I remembered how FFIV was even beaten by III, which made me think that people confused it with VI; but the last poll actually proved that FFIV has its strength way beyond the first 3.

Maybe FFVIII is in a case with VII much like Majora's Mask is with OoT. Do you think FFVIII would beat IX (and maybe be in contention with X) if you took VII out?

It'd have a good shot.

Today's poll is highly flawed due to the fact there's no real middle ground between buying it or not buying it, since the option "Probably not, I do own a 3DS, but I'm not a Pokemon fan" includes text that may be inaccurate for some people. There are Pokemon fans who just aren't interested in buying an upgrade to the original Pokemon Sun/Moon. You can see the difference in the performance of that option in these polls:

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6875-
https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6413-
https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/5087-

The "Probably not" option is far higher in today's poll compared to the Sun/Moon or X/Y polls.

LusterSoldier posted...

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6875-
https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6413-

Funny how these two polls suggest that there are less people now with a 3DS than a year ago.

well there are less people voting now than a year ago so I guess many of the ones who've stopped voting are 3DS owners

Advokaiser posted...

Funny how these two polls suggest that there are less people now with a 3DS than a year ago.

The actual 3DS ownership polls would suggest otherwise. In the most recent 3DS ownership poll, the 3DS surpassed the DS's all-time highest ownership mark.

Today's poll just happens to be a badly flawed poll without any real option for Pokemon fans who aren't interested in playing Pokemon USUM. So this is clearly showing itself with the last option. Because these games are sequels and not the first games in a new generation, there wasn't going to be as much interest in these games. Also, not all Pokemon fans are the same. Some fall into the more casual fans and there's the hardcore fans, and even those who fall in between the two.

Today's poll is similar to this poll from back in 2016:

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6232-

Except with some additional games (from the Nintendo portables, plus Yoshi's Island) added to the poll.

I assume we'll be getting a few Mario polls in preparation for Odyssey releasing Friday. Maybe we'll get a 3 vs. World vs. 64 poll.

I really hope that does happen, since we know Mario 64 is going to destroy the 3D Mario poll that's probably coming tomorrow and Wednesday's poll could possibly be a 3-way poll with the strongest games between the 2D and 3D Mario polls.

I'd prefer a 1v1 between Super Mario World and Super Mario 64

Having a Mario Odyssey vs the winner of that poll the day before Mario Odyssey comes out would probably be an amusing poll to have.

LusterSoldier posted...

Today's poll is similar to this poll from back in 2016:

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6232-

Except with some additional games (from the Nintendo portables, plus Yoshi's Island) added to the poll.

It's still early but it looks to me like Super Mario World has improved its number on SMB3 quite a bit, despite that Yoshi's Island being added should if anything hurt it.

Seems to me like SNES Classic is making its influence felt. That probably had something to do with FFVI almost beating FFVII a few days ago, too.

Using the results from today's poll, I removed all of the votes for the 3 additional games that were added to today's poll so I could compare the results between this poll and a similar poll we had last year.

Game ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀| 2016 Poll | 2017 Poll
Mario 1 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀| ⠀ 6.85% ⠀ | 8.03%
The Lost Levels | ⠀ 0.87% ⠀ | 0.67%
Mario 2 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀| ⠀ 4.27% ⠀ | 4.79%
Mario 3 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀| ⠀39.29% ⠀| 34.00%
Mario World⠀⠀⠀| ⠀48.72% ⠀| 52.51%

Mario 3 is performing worse in this poll (and Mario World even better). The effect of the poll question also has to be taken into consideration, since the 2016 poll starts off with "Which was the best of the..." while today's poll asks for your all-time favorite. The differences in the wording of the poll question could account for the performances of these games in both polls.

AxemRedRanger posted...

That probably had something to do with FFVI almost beating FFVII a few days ago, too.

FFVI straight up beat FFVII last time.

Maybe everyone realized it's not as good as they remembered.

pjbasis posted...

AxemRedRanger posted...

That probably had something to do with FFVI almost beating FFVII a few days ago, too.

FFVI straight up beat FFVII last time.

Maybe everyone realized it's not as good as they remembered.

FFVI didn't win the 2014 full-series poll, though; it merely got kinda close. It was the 1-on-1 poll the day after where FFVI won.

AxemRedRanger posted...

LusterSoldier posted...

Today's poll is similar to this poll from back in 2016:

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6232-

Except with some additional games (from the Nintendo portables, plus Yoshi's Island) added to the poll.

It's still early but it looks to me like Super Mario World has improved its number on SMB3 quite a bit, despite that Yoshi's Island being added should if anything hurt it.

Seems to me like SNES Classic is making its influence felt. That probably had something to do with FFVI almost beating FFVII a few days ago, too.

I don't think Yoshi's Island hurts World more than the other Mario games. It's still the same series. Mario 3 is just getting older.

Although it still doesn't totally make sense to me because the site is getting older along with it.

GameFAQs voters now are mostly people that grew up in the 16-bit and, probably to a lesser extent, 32-bit era. It'd explain Chrono Trigger doing much better these days, and Super Mario World crushing SMB3 by a larger margin.

I also don't think Yoshi's Island really affects SMW since it's radically different from the other Mario games and doesn't really have much in common with SMW other than the title and having Yoshi. Hell, it's not really a Mario game but a Yoshi game, in the same way Super Mario Land 3 is a Wario game.

Each time someone votes for SMW over SMB3, a kitten dies.

I voted Yoshi's Island.
What did I kill?

Killed a cat then.

AxemRedRanger posted...

I voted Yoshi's Island.
What did I kill?

Your own soul.