Contest Stats and Discussion - Part 1380

Is this why we haven’t had any character battle?

so many characters would be banned

LiquidOshawott posted...

Is this why we haven’t had any character battle?

so many characters would be banned

Only closeup face pics from now on

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1557-have-you-entered-the-spring-contest-yet

Another pre-contest poll, which doesn't really tell us anything about the contest itself, but we can compare it to the same poll that was run the year before for the 2004 Games Contest.

There was notably less interest in entering the Villains Contest, but approximately the same percentage of people had no clue there was a contest at all!

Also I checked Ngamer's contest archives for Villains, and this was CJayC's original post about it:

Know any good... villains?

You may nominate up to 10 of what you consider to be the greatest video game villains of all
time. To nominate a character, simply enter their name, and the game (or series) they are
featured in. Please note the following ground rules:

* Once you enter a nomination, it is permanent, and you may not delete it.
* Using multiple accounts to nominate more than 10 characters or the same character
multiple times will invalidate all of your nominations.
* Characters must have their origins in a video game. Characters who were first featured
in comics/movies/books are not eligible.
* Characters nominated should be villains: an enemy character in a video game. While not
necessarily the final boss, the nominated villain should be someone the player must battle as
part of the game. "Evil" protagonists (Kratos from God of War), friendly rivals (Knuckles from
the Sonic series), or villains-turned-allies (Magus from Chrono Trigger) aren't really
"villains", although characters that are villains in one game but allies/heroes in another are fair game (Dr. Robotnik, Donkey Kong).

why didn't Donkey Kong get in if he was allowed!

pjbasis posted...

why didn't Donkey Kong get in if he was allowed!

Less noms...?

sounds like mario/sonic got less noms

pjbasis posted...

sounds like mario/sonic got less noms

Now that was a conspiracy to ensure it didn't get in

Maybe people took nominations more seriously back then

Speaking of which, I still wonder if Seifer didn't get in because he and Ultimecia split nominations too much or because he wasn't considered a "true" villain

Knuckles should've been allowed under the rules though because he's a villain in Sonic 3, not a friendly rival, if only one game being a bad guy is enough

Knuckles becomes an ally at the end, though.

EDIT: Oh wait, in Sonic 3 alone, yes. He teams up during S&K.

Big_Bob posted...

Knuckles becomes an ally at the end, though.

At the end of Sonic & Knuckles

Which, as this site has repeatedly enforced, is separate from Sonic 3

I mean, we could argue Magus should still be considered a villain since you can certainly play the game without mending fences with him

Hell, if you are slightly over-levelled, you can bypass the choice entirely.

True, but the option exists, so that's probably enough to disqualify him.

I wonder what a Villains bracket would look like now.

Yeah, I'm wondering who the most powerful villain that wasn't in that contest would be. Here are some that come to mind:

Rufus Shinra
Malenia, Blade of Miquella
Kamoshida (Persona 5)
Odin (God of War: Ragnorok)
Mr X. (Resident Evil 2)

Crazy Hand

I wonder if a Villains Contest 2 would spoil a bad guy's identity the way the first one did

Something like Persona 4 comes to mind

Big_Bob posted...

Yeah, I'm wondering who the most powerful villain that wasn't in that contest would be. Here are some that come to mind:

Rufus Shinra
Malenia, Blade of Miquella
Kamoshida (Persona 5)
Odin (God of War: Ragnorok)
Mr X. (Resident Evil 2)

just by results it’s the Boss

followed by maybe Dracula? Or even Dedede/K Rool?

Big Boss might be the strongest character now who wasn't in the original contest

GlaDOS would probably do well too

I would feel...reasonably comfortable in taking the Smash villains over The Boss.

It's been really bad for MGS for the last decade!

...The answer actually might be Wario.

Yeah, but we're about to get the MGS3 Remake, so that ought to help her out.

Wario ain't beating Big Boss though

Dracula fared fairly well in 2013 and has quite a few reasons to be better off nowadays. I'd strongly consider taking him over even Big Boss in a hypothetical match.

MetalmindStats posted...

Dracula fared fairly well in 2013 and has quite a few reasons to be better off nowadays. I'd strongly consider taking him over even Big Boss in a hypothetical match.

You shouldn't.

He got doubled by Sonic and lost to Barret. Alucard/Big Boss would've been a 55/45 match in 2018. I doubt the Netflix show gives Dracula enough of a boost to bridge that gap.

Like I get Metal Gear ain't what it used to be, but Big Boss is still pretty good.

*Ocelot hand gesture*

Also for what it's worth Wario and The Boss were practically equals in 2018 and well above Master Hand, K. Rool, and Dedede, assuming those are the "Smash villains" you mean.

You can assume The Boss has dropped since then, but those three probably have too since 2018 was in the middle of the Smash Ultimate hype cycle.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1987-what-attribute-is-most-important-for-the-villain-in-a-video

We got a couple of villain polls leading up to the contest. This is another reminder of why "all/none of the above" options in polls like this are dumb because it just dilutes the results.

So for those of you who still care and hope for a contest

undefined posted...

abdou
Sorry if this has been asked/answered before
will we ever get another character battle contest like the old times?
DToast
I want to but it hasn't been in the cards yet

There is still a chance we get another contest just not very soon. That's from the current site admin.

I wouldn't bet on it ever happening

DToast saying he wants to is definitely the most positive thing in regards to getting one that I have heard in a long time. And that's despite the rest of the sentence.

I agree but it's better than a "Nope, never we moved on" . I would like us to get one last contest, especially with so many new games, zelda, FFVII remakes etc, could be interesting.

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath on another contest, but it's at least a tiny bit of hope there.

Leonhart4 posted...

I wouldn't bet on it ever happening

This. Prior to Allen departing I held out hope that he'd at least make GotD 2020s happen in 2030. At this point, even that is looking unlikely. Though I still feel like that would be the clearest opportunity to resurrect contests if anyone higher up cares at that point.

Honestly at this point, I'm not sure I'd want another one

The vote totals will be pitiful and I'm not sure I trust DToast to run it right

I'd like to see another bad one before I'd say I don't want another one

Yeah it sounds like a monkey paw if we ever get one

Gamefaqs Character Battle XI brought to you by DraftKings

pjbasis posted...

I'd like to see another bad one before I'd say I don't want another one

Nah, don't shame its legacy or go out on a sour note

the legacy is already shamed by the rally contests

Nah, those contests still had good moments despite the rallies. I'm not sure another contest would even be good at all.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1988-which-underdog-would-you-most-like-to-see-pull-off-a-major

This result made us a little nervous about Kuja, although I think most of us stuck to our guns anyway. Most of us expected Bison to win, so him doing well wasn't a surprise.

Writing was on the wall for Kuja.

CATS should have won that btw.

If you held on to the idea that CATS was just an obscure meme that could only get 20% on anyone regardless of strength based upon his contest history at that point, that poll might have actually been validating.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1989-mushroom-division-round-1-bowser-vs-pyramid-head

Bowser got to kick off the Villains Contest because CJayC loved to lead off with a Nintendo character. The Oracle average was within a tenth of a percent of the final result, so they nailed it right off the bat.

Bowser actually beat Pyramid Head worse than he beat Guybrush, so either this was a stronger Bowser or Pyramid Head was just that bad. This might have been our first hint of what would later be known as the Nintendo Boost (although it was a Mario boost more than anything).

Pyramid Head did get to finish ahead of Chris Redfield a couple years later, so at least that's something.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1990-mushroom-division-round-1-sigma-vs-andross

The Oracle average was nearly 60% for Sigma, and that prediction was looking good early on. However, Andross tanked his percentage throughout the rest of the match and even briefly brought it under 53% at one point. He was no real threat to win though.

The other thing of note was the vote totals. We couldn't even manage 70,000 votes here. The totals had dropped from 2003 to 2004, and they continued to fall in this contest. Was it a trend, or were people just not interested in this contest?

(I'd kill for 70,000 votes now)

Wasn't Villains one of the contests where the poll was further down the page? I attribute a lot of the lower votals for those contests due to that.

_SecretSquirrel posted...

Wasn't Villains one of the contests where the poll was further down the page? I attribute a lot of the lower votals for those contests due to that.

I thought that was 2004, but maybe it was still happening into 2005 (although the vote totals rebound a bit with SC2K5).I know the original Games Contest featured CJayC occasionally trying to run a PotD alongside a contest match.

_SecretSquirrel posted...

Wasn't Villains one of the contests where the poll was further down the page? I attribute a lot of the lower votals for those contests due to that.

The poll didn't move back above the fold until the Series Contest in 2006. It was still below an ad in 2005

https://web.archive.org/web/20050722033942/http://www.gamefaqs.com/

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/8027-division-1-final-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-vs-dragon-quest-xi

And we're back to Game of the Decade 2! It feels weird to say that 30% was impressive, but after how Breath of the Wild had looked so far, expectations were through the roof. The Oracle average was 75% here, so this is the first time it didn't beat the average.

DQXI's 30% here might be the most impressive 'still got blown out' since Magus vs. Link.

Was nice to finally see Dragon Quest break into a somewhat higher tier.

how do its stats match up to what we have for DQVIII

pjbasis posted...

how do its stats match up to what we have for DQVIII

The best barometer we have for DQVIII is 55% on Persona 3 in 2015, which got 31% on FFIX in 2010.

Everything else DQVIII-related is vs. Chrono Cross or Trigger, which is...questionable in how much can be gathered from that.

oh nah DQXI would wreck it then