Game of the Year

[Evie]

So remove everything that makes Pokemon Go, Pokemon Go, and then compare what'S left to Witcher 3? That basically amount to saying "But let's take the multiplayer aspect out of World of Warcraft and compare it with...".

Pokemon is built around social gaming, location-based gaming and (to a lesser degree) augmented reality. Arguing that we shouldn't consider them in evaluating the game just doesn't make any sense.

That said, I didn't say Pokemon should be considered the best game of the year. I most certainly didn't say it was a better game than the witcher. In fact, I outright said the Witcher was a masterpiece to be certain, and a beautiful accomplishment.

What I did say was that the Witcher isn't a revolutionary game. It doesn'T have the potential to redefine how we view and understand video-gaming. It's just not a shattering moment in gaming history. Pokemon Go might be (it has to show some staying power, and some impact, before we can say for sure, but the potential is definitely there). Witcher is the crowning glory of the old "school" of video game, and it's an amazing glory. But Go belongs to an entirely different, and rather new school, and it's forcibly yanked the spotlight toward that new school. Thus, a revolutionary game-changer.

 

[civvver]

I see you points. But, everything pokemon go does, couldn't it also be accomplished by using facebook and/or texting with gps locations?

Pokemon go is an overlay for a social, gps driven scavenger hunt. That's why I don't really consider it a video game, or not in the same realm as other games.

It's like, if you play the real poker at a casino or online poker. Is online poker a video game? It's a video interface for a real life game.

Pokemon go blurs that line even more cus yes, there's a simple game behind it with throwing pokeballs at pokemon, but the reality is it's a scavenger hunt interface.

It can be revolutionary sure but to me it's in a totally different category. Maybe we call that social gaming or facebook gaming or whatever.

Maybe history will prove me wrong and we'll start seeing mobile extensions of triple A titles for consoles or something, but I kind of doubt it for now at least until mobile platforms catch up in computing power and VR totally takes over.

 

[Evie]

When you get right down to it, pretty much any form of gaming can be reduced to a very simple text-based system. After all, that's how epic action/adventure games ala Witcher got their start.

All that said, you are right that Go is something completely new. That's what makes it revolutionary and a potential game-changer. Games that don't offer something new can't be revolutionary.

What I see for the future isn't AAA extension on mobile. It's entirely new games that are designed to capitalize on the strengths of mobile, rather than using mobile as a cheap alternative to console/computer. And that's precisely what Go is groundbreaking on - the entire core of the game is based on trying to take advantage of the strengths of mobile (GPS location-based gaming, social interaction, etc), rather than on trying to bring computer-style gameplay to mobile.

Which is why Go has the potential to be such a big deal. Because, unlike previous mobile games (which largely came off as vastly scaled down take on computer/console games), Go does things that no computer/console game could do. It capitalizes on the potential of Mobile and show what Mobile *can* do, instead of trying to be a poor man's computer.

That will remain true even when VR starts mixing in. Console-based games will have more power to create deeper, more complex fictional world...but they just won't be able to compete with mobile games for blending fiction into the real world.

 

[cardgame]

VR mixing with mobile in a quality fashion is probably still a decade away. If ever. Probably dependent on whenever we get new battery tech.

 

[Evie]

Except Mobile does not need full VR - mobile's schtick is augmented reality. IT doesn't need to superpose a completely virtual reality (in fact, doing so would be dangerous if not outright suicidal).

That (superimposing a few images) would presumably require a lot less power than creating a full world from scratch.

 

[Zack]

Ok sorry I barely even consider that a game. It's basically like a facebook game at this point. I mean where's the depth or strategy honestly?

It's a social game and will have impact on *real* video games I'm sure, but I don't put it in the same category as what we're voting on here. Has anyone voted for a mobile game? I mean angry birds took the world by storm but would anyone call it game of the year? Heck no.

why is "a real game" even a distinction anyone should care about

 

[civvver]

It's not, but in a game of the year thread I would find any votes for pokemon go a bit silly. That's my personal opinion, which is also what this thread is about. Very few rules, a couple guidelines. So if you guys want to talk about all its merits that's fine, I simply disagree.

It's like anything to do with tastes, food, music, movies, it's all extremely subjective in the end.

 

[Evie]

This surfaced on my feed today, in relation to Go : http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...transforming-downtown-prince-george-1.3696428

It is a game of the year in the classical definition? No, probably not. Even among the games I've played, Stellaris had way more depth and work in it. The "classic" Pokémon games coming out this november will likely have more, too.

But in term of what game had the biggest impact in 2016? Go is the Hiroshima in a field of grenades.

 

[Maniacal]

I think most of the Pokemon GO benefits will die off after school comes back and most places head into fall. The game has little staying power, little to it, though they will be adding more to it as time goes on and more pokemon...

It certainly has had an incredibly effect for this summer at least though. I don't know what else came out this year, but despite being a lousy game Pokemon GO has my vote for 2016

 

[Evie]

Except for one thing.

College. Thousands of players, all gathered in the same small communities where they already have easy networks to find each other, in areas with dozens of pokestops...and Niantic making it clear their #1 priority for adding stuff is implementing trade?

Then you fact in the Go Plus accessory coming out in September. And you factor in the fact that North America, at least, has had an extreme summer (extreme heat + humidity in much of the east, at least), making outside activity much more difficult...

I think Go has the right tools to last well into the fall - right up until Pokémon Sun and Moon launch, really.

And that's assuming they don'T start adding the 600-ish pokémon that aren't in the game yet for a while.

I mean, obviously it won't maintain peak-level craze activity. But I think the staying power might surprise you.

 

[Maniacal]

That is true, lots of kids will be playing it at school or around it.

 

[civvver]

I finally tallied up the last two years, I feel like I may have missed a 2014 vote though because we ended up with 7 titles each getting one vote. Seems off.

Well anyway, was a fun experiment and probably the most action the other games forum has seen in a while. Thanks for participating. If we get really bored maybe we can make a 16 year bracket and vote to find the greatest game of all time!

 

[Arakhor]

It took you three months and there's still potential voting irregularities? I smell a fix!!

 

[civvver]

I mean I don't think there are, I read every post going back 3-4 pages. But the 2014 votes were so few.

 

[Acken]

How does the thread works ? Do I vote for 2015 based on these
(The Witcher 3 - 4 votes
Life is Strange - 1 vote
Cities Skylines - 1 vote) ? Or can I try to give a vote on the travesty that is 2004 ?

 

[Arakhor]

Technically we're done already, but by all means, voice your opinions on any of the listed years.

 

[Acken]

Ok then.

2004 - World of Warcraft.
Simply for being a great mmo at its release and probably the game with the biggest cultural and financial impact in the whole 21st century. Hard to beat a game played by millions for 12 years and earning its company billions.

2014 - Dark Souls 2
2014 was a rather poor year but it still saw the release of Dark Souls 2 which even if it is not the best in the series, I value it higher than anything in that year. A close second for me would be Alien : I.

2015 - The Witcher 3
That year is an easy pick. Pillars of Eternity would be my second choice for being an incline in RPG quality after the stuff from Bioware.

 

[Arakhor]

You're not helping the seven-way tie in 2014, you know.

 

[civvver]

How's alien isolation? I never played it or heard that much about it.

 

[coanda]

Three years of voting. I honestly was sure this thread was going to die along the way; I'm impressed you stuck with it and kept updating long enough civvver (although I think there were a few hiatuses along the way)