Contest and Stats Discussion - Part 1385

I think 1995 proved that not only did pictures matter, but their order did too. Having Chrono Trigger go from the 4th picture where most people already voted before it had a chance to appear, to showing up first alongside Earthbound, and having more of its depth showcased made a big difference from Round 2.

Suffice to say, most people weren't probably heavily researching the merits of each year before voting.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6715-best-year-in-gaming-quarterfinal-1997-vs-1996

1997
Final Fantasy VII
Mario Kart 64
Star Fox 64
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
GoldenEye 007
Fallout
PaRappa the Rapper

1996
Super Mario 64
Tomb Raider
Super Mario RPG
Suikoden
Crash Bandicoot
Kirby Super Star
Metal Slug
NiGHTS into Dreams

1997 took care of business and looked to be in pretty good shape headed into the showdown with 2001. 1996's lack of depth was kinda exposed with the expansion to eight games for the pics.

Interesting to see PS5 leading this poll in the UK while PC is clearly the #1 platform on the site and has been for some time. I have an unsubstantiated theory that our ridiculously high housing costs are putting people off buying PCs (as they take up more space of which we tend to have less).

I always put consoles winning in the UK down to the robbery prices they charge on Steam.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6716-best-year-in-gaming-quarterfinal-1991-vs-1994

1991
Super Mario World
The Simpsons
Street Fighter II
F-Zero
Sonic the Hedgehog
Lemmings
Metroid II
Final Fantasy IV

1994
Super Metroid
Killer Instinct
Earthworm Jim
System Shock
Final Fantasy VI
Donkey Kong Country
Daytona USA
Sonic & Knuckles

Man, what a lineup of games. This was a hyped match for a reason. It was close and went back and forth early, but 1994 eventually took control and gradually pulled away.

Some people complained that Allen never used any consoles in match pics despite claiming they were fair game, and this is probably the match where it could have mattered if 1991 had been able to sneak the SNES in there.

Yeah, picture of SNES after our previous contest probably flips that result. Probably SNES was part of the reason many took 1991 at least.

Yeah, it was definitely a reason I picked 1991 to win there.

How many of us actually made console pictures, though?

In easily made direct comparisions:
Sonic & Knuckles > Sonic the Hedgehog
Super Metroid > Metroid II
Final Fantasy VI > Final Fantasy IV
Street Fighter II > Killer Instinct
Super Mario World > Donkey Kong Country
F-Zero > Daytona USA (maybe, probably?)

And then I'll just broadly say:
Lemmings & The Simpsons > Earthworm Jim & System Shock

Huh...that's closer than I initially expected. But ultimately Super Metroid, FF6, DKC and S&K are superior in total to SMW, SF2, FF4, and Sonic 1.

_SecretSquirrel posted...

How many of us actually made console pictures, though?

I definitely remember people trying and complaining they never got used.

wait a second, is Super Metroid vs Super Mario World closer than 55/45? How does FFVI vs Mario go there?

pjbasis posted...

wait a second, is Super Metroid vs Super Mario World closer than 55/45? How does FFVI vs Mario go there?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/ 6168-best-game-ever-day-35-division-vi-final-zelda-a-link-to-the
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/ 6158-best-game-ever-day-30-round-3-super-metroid-vs-zelda-majoras

Indirectly at least, I'd say it has to be closer than 55/45.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6717-best-year-in-gaming-quarterfinal-1998-vs-2003

1998
Pokemon Red/Blue
Banjo-Kazooie
Final Fantasy Tactics
Xenogears
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Starcraft
Metal Gear Solid
Panzer Dragoon Saga

2003
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Xenosaga
Fire Emblem
Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire
Disgaea
Final Fantasy X-2
SoulCalibur

Come on, this just isn't fair. We knew 2003 was the weak link of the final eight, but yikes. 1998 just made everything look easy this contest.

Does that mean 1998 had OoT and RBY appear first in their image against WW and Ruby/Sapphire?

Leonhart4 posted...

2003
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

You mean Aria of Sorrow, right?

paulg235 posted...

You mean Aria of Sorrow, right?

Whoops, text on the picture was small, so I couldn't read it clearly! Guess I should've double checked!

TeamRocketElite posted...

Does that mean 1998 had OoT and RBY appear first in their image against WW and Ruby/Sapphire?

Yep, as if 2003 wasn't at enough of a disadvantage as it was.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6718-best-year-in-gaming-semifinal-2001-vs-1997

Augh, bad time for creative's site to hit the bandwidth limit! Sorry, I can't post the list of games until it goes back up.

Anyway, 1997 was looking like the clear favorite headed into this match...until Allen made a topic asking people to submit pictures for Fallout and Age of Empires. For all the years Allen spent running these contests, I would've thought he'd have grasped the concept of match pic balance at some point, but this contest more than any other proved he had not.

2001 had a small lead at the freeze and very, very slowly pulled away from there. Despite the final margin, 1997 never made a serious comeback attempt at any point. I do wonder how 1997 could've done against 1998, all things being equal. 1998 wins, of course, but I think 1997 could've done better than 1994 and 2001 did.

Oh, and Allen admitted prior to this match that he had 2001 beating 1997, so take that as you will.

I do not actually believe Allen tried to rig the pics in 2001's favor

I was able to figure out some of the pictures through the Stats archives.

Final Fantasy X vs. Final Fantasy VII
Grand Theft Auto III vs. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Super Smash Bros: Melee vs. Diddy Kong Racing (best racing game of 1997)
Metal Gear Solid 2 vs. Age of Empires
Paper Mario vs. Harvest Moon
Golden Sun vs. Tekken
Advance Wars vs. Star Fox 64
Devil May Cry vs. Fallout

That's a trash selection for 1997 overall.

2001 was a much better year than 1997

1997 was missing Goldeneye and Mario Kart 64 as the main ones? I feel like 2001 got its biggest games, in comparison. Like at least the top 6 are there.

I was fine with it tho because that match meant I won a prize and bought a Switch <_<

Halo was a pretty big omission on the 2001 side in terms of overall importance, but not as damaging as missing Goldeneye and Mario Kart was for 1997.

_SecretSquirrel posted...

Halo was a pretty big omission on the 2001 side in terms of overall importance

Gran Turismo for 1997 as well

Have we ever seen a Gran Turismo in a contest?

Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec got beat in the Fall 2010 vote ins.

If we could get the all fictional character contest how far could a car go

Cars are capable of driving long distances.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6719-best-year-in-gaming-semifinal-1994-vs-1998

Site is still down so I can't tell you what games were here. Not that it matters. 1994 actually had the lead at the freeze because B8 did that thing it always does where it turns on the obvious winner at the end. 1998 dominated from there though.

Leonhart4 posted...

B8 did that thing it always does where it turns on the obvious winner at the end.

Bunch of hipsters, we are. And proud of it.

Was it BotW that also took multiple rounds to drop under 80% and then the semifinals it still won by well over 60%

BotW (and Link 2004) got 80% for the first three rounds. It didn't fall below a doubling until the final match.

so close 98

KamikazePotato posted...

Bunch of hipsters, we are. And proud of it.

Seeing Zelda double Link in the first few minutes of that match was glorious

The opponent of BotW was the lowest in the x-stats for the given round in all of those three rounds as well.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6720-best-year-in-gaming-final-2001-vs-1998

This was almost a repeat of the previous match in terms of percentages. This was the only match of the contest to break 20,000 votes. It also set the record for biggest finals blowout. Link/Mario 2002 held onto it for a very long time, but all records are made to be broken.

Until now because there are no more contests, anyway, so this will forever be the record now.

Final X-Stats:

1. 1998 - 50.00%
2. 2001 - 33.81%
3. 1994 - 33.65%
4. 1997 - 32.64%
5. 1995 - 32.38%
6. 1991 - 31.38%
7. 1987 - 30.83%
8. 2002 - 28.29%
9. 2004 - 27.80%
10. 1992 - 27.15%
11. 2011 - 25.56%
12. 2006 - 23.08%
13. 2008 - 21.37%
14. 1996 - 20.14%
15. 2000 - 19.58%
16. 2007 - 18.94%
17. 2003 - 18.65%
18. 2010 - 16.76%
19. 2005 - 15.79%
20. 1985 - 15.78%
21. 2013 - 15.65%
22. 1999 - 14.85%
23. 1993 - 14.70%
24. 2016 - 13.96%
25. 1990 - 13.59%
26. 2015 - 12.94%
27. 2009 - 12.04%
28. 1981 - 11.86%
29. 2014 - 11.38%
30. 2012 - 8.88%
31. 1988 - 7.82%
32. 1986 - 7.13%
33. 1989 - 6.57%
34. 1978 - 4.57%
35. 1979 - 4.54%
36. 1983 - 3.98%

1973 - 0.06%

wow barely under a doubling at the end

I guess there really was a year that was twice as good as every other

I had forgotten how short this contest lasted until doing this retrospective. It was only three weeks from the first match to the last, thanks to double matches for the first two rounds.

And this was our only contest in between 2015 Games and 2018 Characters.

Yeah, it really flew by.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6721-which-of-1998s-most-popular-games-do-you-think-make-it-the

Bonus poll! Naturally, OoT and R/B take up over half the vote. Only MGS1 and FFT get more than 5% otherwise.

We'll be back in about a month for the Series Contest.

Leonhart4 posted...

1973 - 0.06%

It's wild to think of a hypothetical match between 1998 and 1973, assuming 20,000 votes, 1973 would get just 12 votes.

Bump

Feels weird being able to answer the top option now

The fact that > 20 years having 75% of the vote, even this early, is both surprising and not surprising.

OldFAQs

95% of voters have been here for at least 10 years

That explains a lot

Looks like someone just copied the poll options from 2020 without updating the generation descriptions. Another Fanboner of the day!

FFVII always wins

yeah but it's crazy to see Code Veronica keeping pace with Persona

Persona 6's trailer showed virtually nothing. REV's trailer was well-constructed, built intrigue, and showed Claire with a great model update. I voted for Veronica and I know I'll almost certainly enjoy Persona more.