Contest Stats and Discussion - Part 1365

Fallout 3 probably overperformed on Brawl in GotD.

But yeah, FFVIIR is probably just a midcarder.

Fallout 3 vs. Brawl also had the Brawl antivotes that Brawl started having past Melee, and almost everyone called Three Houses a turd every round (and Xenoblade a star), I was one of few defenders of it!

Sure, of course they can be in line with a contest match, but we know they should not be translated directly.

I mean, I don't believe FFVIIR is an elite game either, but between being a GotY match and Final Fantasy basically never being able to score big on anything anymore, we can hardly be certain of its future strength.

ctesjbuvf posted...

These 1v1 final polls mean very little in contests, we've seen before.

Even more so for this year's final poll because FFVII Remake is still an incomplete game. It will most likely end up being stronger after all of the remaining parts of the game are finally released, but it could also get weaker if the later parts are of subpar quality that weren't well-received by fans. And some people may be holding back on getting this game until the full thing is out there, which may limit its strength for now. This is a pretty good performance despite the potentially decent sized audience of future players who are waiting for the full thing to be released.

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

Okay, so...question time, what do we think wins, Ghost of Tsushima vs. Fire Emblem: Three Houses?

Three Houses really wet the bed, but I can't see it losing to Ghost of Tsushima, I just can't.

LusterSoldier posted...

Even more so for this year's final poll because FFVII Remake is still an incomplete game. It will most likely end up being stronger after all of the remaining parts of the game are finally released, but it could also get weaker if the later parts are of subpar quality that weren't well-received by fans. And some people may be holding back on getting this game until the full thing is out there, which may limit its strength for now. This is a pretty good performance despite the potentially decent sized audience of future players who are waiting for the full thing to be released.

All the parts of FF7R will almost certainly be treated as separate games.

Until they release the complete edition...!

You think they'll do that...? I guess they've been doing it with KH, but they never did it with FFXIII.

Mac Arrowny posted...

You think they'll do that...? I guess they've been doing it with KH, but they never did it with FFXIII.

yeah but people hated FFXIII by the end (and some hated it all along)

So as long as people don't turn on Remake, I'd expect it to happen.

Even a complete collection will still treat them like separate games.

I mean, what do you expect will happen if someone tries to start part 2 or 3 on without playing the first ones? It has to be standalone enough.

Oh yeah, I don't ever expect to see just one standalone game of all the parts, which is why Remake's ceiling is probably limited.

I thought FF 7 R would be damn strong. Strange.

Not strange! Though I wouldn't have expected it to go only 55-45 with a Sucker Punch game. Perhaps it's quite legit.

I mean I would expect the original FF 7 game to at least double GOT. So yeah. Don't know.

As many have said, if it was a remake of the whole thing it could maybe sniff that kind of strength.

I think being a big departure from the original ultimately hurts a lot though, especially on this old crusty site.

It's not that big of a departure. It's pretty faithful in a lot of ways.

The impression is more important.

Would not be surprised if a bunch of people turned off a la last of us 2 just from a few spoilers.

And the gameplay looks straight up action even if in effect it has turn based atb baked into it.

But maybe gamefaqs thought ghost of tsushima was actually developed in japan too.

I mean, going "Hey look we finally remade FF7!" and then not having most of the FF7 cast actually be playable is a pretty massive departure!

Most of the cast is playable in FF7R!

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

I mean, going "Hey look we finally remade FF7!" and then not having most of the FF7 cast actually be playable is a pretty massive departure!

Hey man it's just disc 1

Three discs would be pretty faithful!

pjbasis posted...

The impression is more important.

Would not be surprised if a bunch of people turned off a la last of us 2 just from a few spoilers.

And the gameplay looks straight up action even if in effect it has turn based atb baked into it.

The impression has been mostly positive though! I feel like the negativity comes from a lot of people who gave up on Square a long time ago and thinks they're incapable of good stuff anymore, and those people weren't playing it anyway.

I meant the impression of those people who weren't gonna play the game anyway.

They're here and voting.

pjbasis posted...

I meant the impression of those people who weren't gonna play the game anyway.

They're here and voting.

I mean sure but there probably wasn't much about Remake that was going to change their minds. It's going to be baked into its strength regardless.

Poll updates and trend charts for yesterday's poll:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KIHCwT8eir55iDR-45_aZlczJNIaYTWE1YQvITO8MFc/pub?gid=2056357076

Time | FFVIIR | GhostTsu | Votes | Demographic
EBV | 60.24% | 39.76% | 166 | (0:00-0:05)
PHV | 55.97% | 44.03% | 1031 | (0:00-1:00)
FNV | 55.14% | 44.86% | 2459 | (1:00-6:00)
BSV | 54.70% | 45.30% | 1596 | (6:00-9:00)
DSV | 55.95% | 44.05% | 2733 | (9:00-14:30)
ASV | 57.35% | 42.65% | 2469 | (14:30-22:00)
SNV | 55.68% | 44.32% | 519 | (22:00-24:00)

FFVIIR with a good early vote for once? Totally unexpected and not typical of normal FFVII trends. Although Ghost of Tsushima isn't really the type of game that would have a good early vote since it is a Western developed game and those usually have awful early votes, despite the game being very Japanese inspired. FFVIIR also has a good Power Hour in this poll, despite dropping off a bit from the board vote. But it is the ASV where FFVIIR performs best here. Also not typical of FFVII trends is that FFVIIR did worst during the night vote and early morning vote.

Yesterday's poll result is officially the largest victory by percentage in a 1v1 GotY poll. The full list of 1v1 GotY results:

2020 - 55.89% for Final Fantasy VII Remake over Ghost of Tsushima
2015 - 55.14% for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt over Fallout 4
2018 - 54.33% for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate over God of War
2019 - 53.58% for Resident Evil 2 over Fire Emblem: Three Houses
2016 - 53.08% for Final Fantasy XV over Pokemon Sun / Moon
2008 - 52.10% for Super Smash Bros. Brawl over Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Ghost of Tsushima vs Pokemon Sun/Moon who ya got

Hey Luster, you got last year’s average votes yet?

AxemRedRanger posted...

Hey Luster, you got last year’s average votes yet?

Yeah, I've calculated them already but haven't gotten around to making a post yet.

This is something I plan to post sometime in the next few hours.

With 2020's polls officially locked in, here is the updated history of our average vote totals:

Year | Average | % Increase / Decrease
1999 | 4408 |
2000 | 7062 | 60.21%
2001 | 14019 | 98.51%
2002 | 34435 | 145.63%
2003 | 55397 | 60.87%
2004 | 54598 | -1.44%
2005 | 56643 | 3.75%
2006 | 74644 | 31.78%
2007 | 87908 | 17.77%
2008 | 91112 | 3.64%
2009 | 85797 | -5.83%
2010 | 72588 | -15.40%
2011 | 56882 | -21.64%
2012 | 42981 | -24.44%
2013 | 36506 | -15.06%
2014 | 27323 | -25.15%
2015 | 21162 | -22.55%
2016 | 17492 | -17.34%
2017 | 14282 | -18.35%
2018 | 11360 | -20.46%
2019 | 10464 | -7.89%
2020 | 10483 | 0.18%

For the first since 2008, we have experienced an increase in our average vote totals. The increase in vote totals from 2019 to 2020 was extremely small with only a 0.18% increase. This finally ends an 11 year streak of declining vote totals. It seems likely that our vote totals have finally stabilized at rock bottom. This may sound like good news, but we really need to see vote totals increase far more than this. 2020 was also a really bad year in general for site improvements and features, with Allen's 6 topics on the GameFAQs Announcements board being far less than any previous year. Hopefully 2021 is going to be far better for site improvements and features, especially those that can help boost vote totals again.

I am unsure of whether the Coronavirus pandemic played any role in ending our 11 year streak of declining vote totals, given that more people were able to stay at home during 2020 as a result of losing their job or by transitioning to work from home. 2019 already showed that we were getting very close to the point of stabilizing our vote totals, so maybe the pandemic wouldn't have changed 2020's average vote totals.

The Board 8 wiki page on site traffic has been updated with 2020's vote totals:

https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/GameFAQs_Site_Traffic

Thanks, Luster!

LusterSoldier posted...

For the first since 2008, we have experienced an increase in our average vote totals.

Man, I wonder what happened around that time to suddenly trigger our downward spiral?

redrocket posted...

Man, I wonder what happened around that time to suddenly trigger our downward spiral?

Thanks, Obama

redrocket posted...

Man, I wonder what happened around that time to suddenly trigger our downward spiral?

Archiving the message board topics. Sure it prevented repetitive topics about how to beat the Water Temple or whatever, but making those repitive topics was why people created accounts and became part of the community in the first place.

redrocket posted...

Man, I wonder what happened around that time to suddenly trigger our downward spiral?

The Casual Revolution?

Archiving topics did play a large part in making game boards less fun.

Pretty much, GameFAQs turned into an "in and out" site. Additionally, other community based websites emerged so instead of a central hub the communities were splintered across the internet.

we will never get 90k votes again, sad. Contests were so much more fun with that many more votes/traffic.

I blame Ange for creating the Board 8 Subreddit

Ironically, the Search function on the boards being so good probably doesn't help matters much either. On other sites that archive message boards, it's tough to find anything pre-2010 that's still readable.

Message boards just aren't are a very popular format anymore. It's all about the reddit upvote format.

KamikazePotato posted...

Message boards just aren't are a very popular format anymore. It's all about the reddit upvote format.

>Message boards aren’t popular
>Immediately mentions Reddit

Discord has also emerged as a new form of community for certain video games, so that doesn't help GameFAQs either.

Man 2008 had like 91000 votes on average and 2020 like 10000 votes on average! This is sad.

Also do Americans move around that much? Here 1 house until you are married and then a 2nd house to live with your family and that is basically.

Safer_777 posted...

Also do Americans move around that much? Here 1 house until you are married and then a 2nd house to live with your family and that is basically.

Well, the US is a really huge country, so there's a lot more potential for people to move around, especially when looking for a job. Also, many Americans went to college where they lived on-campus in a dorm room. The poll question itself specifically includes "dorms" in the wording of the poll question.

It's not really an American thing either.

Safer_777 posted...

Man 2008 had like 91000 votes on average and 2020 like 10000 votes on average! This is sad.

You can thank anti-rally tyrants for this.

“Wow a bunch of new people are on the site? Piss off, you’re not welcome here.”

”lol ok boomer”

And thus, everyone left.

Nope

Most voters didn't come here especially the rallied ones

There were a lot of Draven people here!

Though it had to have been a tiny percentage of them overall.

Yeah but they came here specifically to troll and then left until the next Draven match

If that's the new life you think the site needs then maybe you've been buttdevastated a bit too hard

If rallies were the only thing keeping us alive I choose death

I don't even think the lower votals are an indication of less site-wide traffic. people just don't care about the polls or contests anymore, we have way too many polls, thousands? yeah.

The problem is that most people never visit the front page anymore. Google searches take people to specific boards or FAQs.