GameFAQs Contests

AxemRedRanger posted...

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.

As I stated in an earlier post, the different poll question in today's poll vs. the 2016 poll could be affecting things here. We'll know for sure if tomorrow's poll will be for the 3D Mario games, giving us another comparison between that poll and the one from 2016.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6877-

Well, damn. I was not expecting a modern 2D Mario poll. Well, we can still get a 3D Mario poll tomorrow, and then Friday's poll can be the best games from all 3 polls. Unless Allen wants to have a "Got Super Mario Odyssey?" poll for Friday.

Super Mario Maker is seriously threatening New Super Mario Bros. here.

The freeze has kicked in.

New Super Mario Bros. 30.37% 41
New Super Mario Bros. Wii 14.81% 20
New Super Mario Bros. 2 2.96% 4
New Super Mario Bros. U 17.04% 23
Super Mario Maker 33.33% 45
Super Mario Run 1.48% 2
TOTAL VOTES 135

I don't expect Super Mario Maker to have a good night vote, since the Wii U is going to be weaker in Europe/Asia compared to the DS (which favors NSMB).

Man what a whole lotta "who cares" in this poll

Wow, SMW! (who cares about todays match) Who wins these?

FFVI vs. SMB3
SMW vs. RBY

To think we could've had the answer to the second question in the last Games Contest

But rallies are what make the contests fun and all

Good lord, these vote totals are so bad. I knew today's poll was going to be terrible on the vote totals, but we're currently on track for less than 10000 votes.

708 votes at the end of the first hour in today's poll. This poll is on track for about 7000 votes, which is around half of what yesterday's poll received.

I thought these vote totals were pretty bad at the start, but it's even worse than I expected. It's going to get less votes than all of the GotY polls that happened at the start of 2017.

Haste_2 posted...

Wow, SMW! (who cares about todays match) Who wins these?

FFVI vs. SMB3
SMW vs. RBY

RBY beats all, but the one it could have more trouble with is FFVI I think (since, you know, Nintendo SFF and stuff). But FFVI is hard to predict against serious Mario titles. It has definitely gotten stronger over the years along with Chrono Trigger, but I don't know if the second most powerful FF title would be able to overtake the leagues of the 3 strongest Mario games on the site. I guess it could take down SMB3 (since it seems to have dropped in popularity) but I think that's as far as it goes.

tl:dr
Games' strength in a 4-way poll: RBY > FFVI > SMW > SMB3
Games' strength, SFF excluded: RBY > SMW > FFVI > SMB3

NSMB1 is the strongest huh?

I think that's a neat tidbit. Makes sense, even though it's also kind of the worst.

Yeah, NSMB1 is a drag but I bet that many more people played it than other NSMB games.

Yeah, it's one of the only ones in that poll I've played. I voted Super Mario Run though just because I don't really like the NSMB games and I haven't played Mario Maker.

pjbasis posted...

NSMB1 is the strongest huh?

I would expect NSMB to have a higher playrate than Super Mario Maker by virtue of being on the DS, since Super Mario Maker was hampered by being on the Wii U (there is a 3DS version, but it's an inferior version). But despite NSMB likely having a higher playrate, it's currently not winning the poll.

^That just goes to show that popularity =/= playrate.

Super Mario Maker has a larger streaming presence, not a big one but enough to make a difference in a poll like this.

Advokaiser posted...

^That just goes to show that popularity =/= playrate.

Playrate is still the most important factor in a game's strength. Everything else works off a game's playrate. There are 3 main factors contributing to a game's strength:

1. Playrate - Games with a high playrate are generally stronger than those with a lower playrate, but this is not always true for all games. Tetris has the highest known playrate on this site, but it doesn't make it a strong game since it doesn't have the popularity to use that massive playrate to be an elite game on this site. Modern games absolutely need to have a high playrate to make up for their complete lack of nostalgia.

2. Popularity - Games that are more popular and well-liked are stronger than less popular games, but this doesn't always apply for all games. Smash 4 was a game that a lot of people thought was even better than Brawl (and even Melee for some people), but the game is not as strong as you would expect for its popularity. This suggests that playrate is more important than popularity, since Smash 4's playrate can't be higher than 50% (going off Wii U ownership) while Brawl and Melee are expected to have playrates above 60%. Even though a poll from 2016 shows that Smash 4 is stronger than Brawl, it's a much different Brawl compared to its strength before 2010. We know Brawl is a lot weaker than it used to be, and I don't think Smash 4 would be stronger than 2008/2009 Brawl.

3. Nostalgia - Older games (from the early 2000s, or even older) have more strength than modern games. If you have 2 games of very similar popularity and playrate, but one game is from the 1990s and the other one was released after 2010, the 1990s game would have more strength due to nostalgia.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6878-
https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6233-

Today's poll is the 3D Mario poll. Only one new option in today's poll compared to the 2016 poll, so it'll be much easier to compare the 2 polls (after filtering out votes for Super Mario 3D Land).

What a sad result

The vote totals are so low, but still - why SMG1 is so far ahead of 2
It's like they are the same game and 2 is a little better in some ways
I consider them equal

SMG2 is the correct answer, but sadly a lot of people didn't play it as it just came too late in Wii's lifespan.

Sunshine is doing a lot better in this poll and is almost outright beating Galaxy 1. Now you could blame that on the LFF hurting both Galaxy 1 and 2, but the poll from 2016 had the same issue and Sunshine performed a lot worse in comparison to Galaxy 1.

In today's poll, Galaxy 1, Galaxy 2, and 3D World are performing even worse compared to the 2016 poll. Mario 64 and Sunshine are performing better in this poll. We now have 2 polls (including the classic 2D poll from 2 days) showing clear differences in the results in comparison to their 2016 poll, so I think the poll question is affecting the results.

Just thought about the GOTY polls
USUM will probably win the 3DS poll because of course it will (what other game has a chance? Metroid?)
But then with both BOTW and Mario Odyssey in the poll...it will get crushed so hard

I feel them being sequel pokemon games might hurt.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/4958-best-of-2012-best-role-playing-game-japanese

Granted that doesn't look like a bad performance but I'd generally expect a Pokemon game in a sea of other JRPGs to overperform.

Oh, and this happened in Game of the Decade:

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/4089-east-division-round-1-pokemon-platinum-vs-metroid-fusion

I doubt Samus Returns wins unless the reception to USUM is unexpectedly bad, but it's not impossible.

Almost all of the games in that Pokemon B2/W2 poll are recognized as extremely good modern JRPGs (including B2/W2 themselves). That poll is super stacked even if they are not so strong compared to older games.

man I had forgotten what a loaded year 2012 was for RPGs

Damn, no poll today containing the best games from the past 3 days of polls. I didn't think it was too likely to happen since the poll would have happened on Super Mario Odyssey's release date.

Now that we've gotten all of the polls for favorite Mario game, we can now directly compare the polls with the ones we got in 2016 (minus the games which only appeared in the 2017 polls).

2D Mario poll comparison:

Game ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀| 2016 Poll | 2017 Poll
Mario 1 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀| ⠀ 6.85% ⠀ | 7.16%
The Lost Levels | ⠀ 0.87% ⠀ | 0.67%
Mario 2 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀| ⠀ 4.27% ⠀ | 4.80%
Mario 3 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀| ⠀39.29% ⠀| 34.87%
Mario World⠀⠀⠀| ⠀48.72% ⠀| 52.50%

3D Mario poll comparison:

Game ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀| 2016 Poll | 2017 Poll
Mario 64 ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀| ⠀47.96%⠀ | 51.75%
Sunshine ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ | ⠀12.78% ⠀| 16.04%
Galaxy 1 ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀| ⠀19.93% ⠀| 17.58%
Galaxy 2 ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀| ⠀10.02% ⠀| 7.79%
3D World ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ | ⠀ 9.32% ⠀ | 6.85%

In both sets of polls, there are clear differences in the results. Asking for "best game" is not the same thing as asking for your favorite game. With the "best game" polls, the strongest game from both polls performed worse compared to the favorite game polls.

I'm kind of disappointed in Mario 64. Just barely tripling Sunshine?

Also, I just realized Super Mario World probably beat SMB3 so badly because of the Super NES Classic hype. Run this poll in a year and the gap will probably be reduced again.

Sunshine is like actually not a bad game at all.

Haste_2 posted...

I'm kind of disappointed in Mario 64. Just barely tripling Sunshine?

That seems pretty reasonable, given that Mario 64 put up about 80% on Mario Kart 8 (a game that should be weaker than Sunshine).

Haste_2 posted...

I'm kind of disappointed in Mario 64. Just barely tripling Sunshine?

That'd be good for a 60/40 win over Majora based on GOTD X-Stats.

Of course, there's SFF/LFF to be considered, among other factors, but it's not that bad.

LusterSoldier posted...

In both sets of polls, there are clear differences in the results. Asking for "best game" is not the same thing as asking for your favorite game. With the "best game" polls, the strongest game from both polls performed worse compared to the favorite game polls.

This does call into question the results of the Smash Bros. poll, since it uses the word "best" in the poll question instead of "favorite".

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6235-

Going by the wording of that question, no sane person really consider Brawl to be the best game in the series due to the presence of both Melee and Smash 4. If the poll question stated "your all-time favorite" instead of "best all-time", I suspect Brawl and the original Smash do better while Smash 4 does worse.

Damn 12.54% of gamefaqs is insane.

They probably love Pokemon too

I wouldn't be surprised if Sunshine is stronger now relative to 2015. The game did perform much better relative to the previous Mario poll and the Gamecube is benefiting from nostalgia now.

Sometimes I wonder if the rise of speedrunning is affecting the polls at all. It would explain Super Mario 64 and Super Metroid's rise in popularity, since they're both popular speedgames. Mario Sunshine isn't far behind them, either.

pjbasis posted...

12.54% of gamefaqs is insane.

They probably love Pokemon too

I don't.

You just haven't started playing as Cloud or Ryu yet.

I don't understand what could possibly be the difference between "best" and "favorite". Aren't they just synonyms?

Some people might acknowledge one game is better than another yet still prefer that second game, perhaps due to some weird quirks that most people hate but that person just happens to love.

Of course, there's no real way of knowing who'd vote like that and what games they'd vote that way for.

They could be synonyms but if you have a critical eye you can appreciate great craftsmanship separate from personal taste I think.

Like Sonic Adventure 2 is one my favorite games, but it's really hard to argue it's one of the best made. On a technical and creative level.

pjbasis posted...

You just haven't started playing as Cloud or Ryu yet.

Port the game to Switch and I'll probably change my mind, yeah.

pjbasis posted...

Sunshine is like actually not a bad game at all.

This.

Not a whole lot worse than any other Mario game IMO. Then again I have little nostalgia for any pre-2000 Mario game (maybe a tiny bit for 64 because it was the first video game I had ever heard of).

Advokaiser posted...

I don't understand what could possibly be the difference between "best" and "favorite". Aren't they just synonyms?

They aren't the same. When you ask for "best game", it gets people to take off their nostalgia glasses and take a more objective look at all of the games in the poll before making their vote. With "favorite game", people don't put as much thought into their game and nostalgia is a bigger factor in their vote. Mario World and Mario 64 both did better in the "favorite game" polls than when it was "best game".

My favorites are my favorites because they're the best.

LeonhartFour posted...

My favorites are my favorites because they're the best.

I'll accept this saying for now until I ultimately confirm it when I get the chance to play FFVIII.

But if "best" and "favorite" actually have that crucial value, then later Pokemon Gens should perform better in a "best" poll.

Advokaiser posted...

But if "best" and "favorite" actually have that crucial value, then later Pokemon Gens should perform better in a "best" poll.

As part of the polls that Ulti tried to set up (with input from Board 8), we got the 2D/3D Mario polls, the Smash poll, and this Pokemon poll:

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/6234-

However, the Pokemon poll used "all-time favorite" in the poll question instead of "best". I bet Gen 1 and Gen 2 actually perform worse in a poll that uses the wording "the best" in place of "all-time favorite", while the later generations perform better.

The 1v1 poll between FFVI and FFVII near the end of 2014 was essentially a "best game" poll. The poll question said "which is better", which is pretty much the same thing as "best game". It was not a favorite game poll like the 14-way Final Fantasy poll from the previous day.

Polls for the next 4 days:

10/28/2017 - Got Switch?
10/29/2017 - I don't know. Probably an original poll idea.
10/30/2017 - Has a video game ever made you scream in fear?
10/31/2017 - Which type of video game enemy do you find to be the most frightening?

Looks like a Switch ownership poll is being run tomorrow due to the release of Super Mario Odyssey likely being a major reason why people just recently got a Switch. I expect one of the options to mention Mario as a reason for getting their Switch.

I don't really follow the console ownership polls that much, but 35% seems pretty good for eight months in.

Advokaiser posted...

LeonhartFour posted...

My favorites are my favorites because they're the best.

I'll accept this saying for now until I ultimately confirm it when I get the chance to play FFVIII.

But if "best" and "favorite" actually have that crucial value, then later Pokemon Gens should perform better in a "best" poll.

Well, the point is that I don't make any distinction between the terms. I'm not trying to judge these things "objectively" because there's no reason to do so.

Not_Wylvane posted...

I don't really follow the console ownership polls that much, but 35% seems pretty good for eight months in.

I'm not very impressed at the Switch's performance so far. The Wii reached 34.33% ownership in just slightly over a month after launch with the only game worth a damn being Twilight Princess. The Switch has a lethal combination of Breath of the Wild and Mario right now and it's only resulted in a current ownership of 36.21% (subject to change) after nearly 8 months of being on the market.

I suspect it's a lot harder for people on this site to get hyped for future game systems now that most of us are much older. I guess it was a lot easier for us to get hyped for a new system when we were much younger. Back in 2006 when the Wii came out, almost 40% of the site was still under the age of 18 (at an age where you could talk your parents into getting a new system). Although the Switch is more expensive than the Wii (only $50 more), I don't see making such a huge difference in its performance relative to the Wii. Switch games are also $10 more than Wii games.