Results[]
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Contest Semifinal |
|---|---|
| Match # | 126 |
| Match Date | Tuesday, May 12, 2020 |
| Oracle Expectations |
The Witcher 3 - 55.68% 45 for - 2 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
The Witcher 3 - 21.57% |
| User Votes |
The Witcher 3 - 4880 Skyrim - 4173 |
| Anonymous Votes |
The Witcher 3 - 4691 Skyrim - 3383 |
The time had finally come for Witcher 3 to go out there and prove what it had shown us all contest -- it was a stronger game than Skyrim. I said pre-contest that the only way for Witcher 3 to win this match is for all of the following to be true:
-Witcher 3 had to boost from Netflix
-Witcher 3 had to boost from the respect factor due to this contest's title
-Witcher 3 had to overcome a potential disparity in the Western RPG fanbase, which is fairly tight-knit about what they like
-Witcher 3 had to boost from the Switch port more than Skyrim
-Skyrim had to have a Bethesda deboost due to the company acting like a bunch of idiots
All five of this happening seemed unlikely to me, which is why I picked Skyrim. And yet you can go right down the line: check, check, check, check, check, all with ease. Netflix was likely the biggest factor, but the other stuff all happened as well. Skyrim tried to make a show of it early, but it would find out the hard way that slow starts meant nothing for Witcher 3 in this contest. This thing was close for 30 minutes, and then.... swamped. Skyrim never stood a chance, and we all saw it coming for this entire contest. Three of the final four games in the field are open world RPGs, so it's fitting that this contest would be decided by Breath of the Wild, Skyrim, and Witcher 3.
Skyrim may have lost this match with ease, but I don't think it takes away from how well Skyrim did in this contest -- being weaker than Witcher 3 doesn't mean it did badly -- and it certainly doesn't mean Skyrim didn't leave a lasting legacy on gaming. For a lot of people, Skyrim opened the door to the world of open world gaming, and I don't give a toss what anyone says or how games did things better later; Skyrim is an all-time great game. I know it's cool for the internet to hate on it and all, but I don't care. Skyrim deserves every amount of the love it got when it came out, and I hope people aren't holding Bethesda against it.
This would set up the final that we all saw coming right from round one. Zelda versus Witcher 3.
Ctes's Analysis[]
The very hot upset pick which looked to be the favorite since the first round and grew basically every round since then finally happened. As it looked like, The Witcher 3 would have little trouble beating Skyrim to secure its spot in the final match of the contest, a feature it by all means deserved to achieve.
The match was never truly in doubt, but both games today had had significantly bad board votes up until this point for whatever reason. On top of the fight for the spot in the finals, they’d also fight for who had the worse board vote. It turned out Witcher 3 won both of those. Skyrim lead for a very short moment, but Witcher 3 couldn’t close the match at first. It was only 15 votes ahead at the freeze and Skyrim managed to cut that down to 6 at the next update. Witcher 3 pulled that up to 13 again and then basically doubled its lead for a couple of updates as it rose to the easy victory we all thought it would have.
It surprises me that Witcher 3 has such an awful board vote that it could do to Skyrim what Skyrim had done so far. It’s pretty clear to me that the board has a lot more respect for Witcher 3 than for Skyrim and while most of us favored Skyrim before the contest, I’m sure everyone had Witcher 3 in their second chance bracket, which would be the one alive at this point. A lot of us went perfect there. I suppose Witcher 3 does best in Europe, but even so, this seems weird to me.
There’s a possibility that Witcher 3 SFF’d Skyrim a bit here. They’re both from the same genre and played by the same people where Witcher 3 is viewed as having evolved on a lot of things Skyrim did. Skyrim is already third in the x-stats before that SFF so it certainly ended up looking better than it seemed at first. Ultimate and Super Mario Odyssey were SFF’d to a point where we can’t tell how they’d do against Skyrim, but we thought that before the contest too. In the end, Skyrim managed to look basically as good as most of us thought, it’s just that Witcher 3 boosted from a variety of different things. The Bethesda anti-voting exists, but it seems minimal enough, I suppose it doesn’t hurt Skyirm a lot. It wasn’t an issue then.
It’s no coincidence that the Game of the 2010s came down to these two open-world games facing another open-world game. Breath of the Wild, Witcher 3 and Skyrim are the pinnacle of a genre that has largely dominated this decade. Not only has the most popular games been huge overworld games you can spend hundreds of hours in, games have been criticized for being linear more than ever before.
Skyrim deserves a lot of that praise. Maybe it isn’t the best of the genre at the end of the decade, but it sure influenced it the most. Open world games would not have been as big today if Skyrim hadn’t existed, that’s for sure. It could only underperform relative to expectations this contest, but perhaps next contest it will be an underdog instead and can surprise us. It’s impossible to tell if we’ll know more of the next Elder Scrolls game then, but we’ll certainly see Skyrim again.
Safer777's Analysis[]
This is it. The true final match. Yeah okay there was a final after that but let's be real, the instant the bracket appeared there were only 2 things that everyone knew. BOTW would win and the contest winner would be the one that correctly predicted the winner of Witcher VS Skyrim. These were the obvious things, barring a rally of course since well nobody can predict rallies. Now before the contest Skyrim was the favorite for like 7-3 against Witcher but when we reached this match Witcher 3 was the favorite for like 10-0. Yeah things changed a bit eh? Okay first things first. Both of these games are amazing and they are really top tier and they both REALLY deserve GOTD title. In fact I think Watch Mojo did a top 10 of best games of decade a few days before this match and the top 3 games they chose were BOTW, Witcher 3 and Skyrim. So yeah. Even on this site we reached the same consensus. Skyrim came out in 2011 and man oh man. It was HUGELY popular. I mean like everyone played and liked the game and the memes. Man the memes. How many are there? In fact the most famous ones, the one about an arrow, has appeared even in TV shows and a lot of other places. After that Skyrim ported to EVERY console that has ever been made. Seriously, if something can play Skyrim you bet your ass Skyrim has been ported there. Even now it is in top 10 most played games on Steam and even on this site it is constantly in Top 3. So yeah really popular. Plus the mods. An infinite amount of them. But one thing that Skyrim does better than everything
else is roleplay. What I mean is there isn't a predetermined character there so you can put any race you like and any gender you like and do what you like. Kill everything, save everything, be a saint, be a devil or whatever. So yeah Skyrim is amazing. HOWEVER the story and characters aren't really memorable. I mean I know this is the nature of the game but still.
So for Witcher 3. This game. Oh man. Okay it is amazing. You should play it. Witcher 3 is in a lot of systems too, but not as many as Skyrim. It came out in 2015 and it blew everyone out of the water. Geralt, the main character, is amazing. The setting is amazing. The characters are amazing. Witcher 3 does the story and the characters MUCH better than Skyrim since well everyone is established and has a unique personality. Seems fair since well there are so many books and novels and we are at the 3rd main game so it does makes sense right? But it is not just that. Even the sidequests are amazing. Plus it has 2 expansions which are bigger than most modern video games. Yeah even the expansions are amazing. Plus in a lot of quests your answers do affect the outcome and even the ending. HOWEVER you can't be a really bad guy in this one. You can't for example go and kill everyone since Geralt isn't like that. But that doesn't really matter anyways in the grand scheme of things. So yeah both games are amazing and you should play them. I mean if you haven't played them you can't trully call yourself a gamer.
So for the match. Witcher 3 won easily with above 55. But why this happened when in pre contest Skyrim was the favorite? Well as I said Skyrim is really popular BUT we haven't heard ANYTHING about a new Elder Scrolls game since 9 years. We have 5 main Elder Scrolls games by now and the previous longest release between 2 main games was 6 years. Now we are at 9 years and we don't even have a release date for the 6th one! I know that since 5 is damn popular they aren't in a hurry to make a new one but still. People always want new games from established franchises. It makes sense. Okay we do have a MMORPG but nobody cares for this. Single player it is where it is. So yeah obviously people care less and less for Skyrim each year since I mean how long can you play it and care for it? Just give us the next one already. Now you may say Witcher 3 is 5 years old so it is now like it is new too right? Yeah BUT here is the thing. They DID announced a new game where everyone says that it is the Witcher 4! Probably. Okay maybe? Nobody knows that. BUT even without that there was an event a few months ago that REALLY boosted Witcher popularity. There was a Neflix series for Witcher and man oh man. Netflix said that this series was their most successful series of all time and broke all kind of records. I have watched that too and yeah it is amazing. There are only 2 problems with the series, Geralt doesn't use the Signs much and the timeline is wonky if you don't really know the series. But other than that it is amazing. When the series premiered the people that played Witcher 3 on Steam were MORE than when the game first came out. Yeah the series really helped the games and now Witcher is mainstream and a lot of people know at least the basics.
So that is it won easily. More relevant. Plus Witcher games are from a non American company that have never done anything shady and are against micro transactions and everyone loves them. Seriously I haven't seen anyone saying anything bad about them. Elder Scrolls game are from an American company that was respected and well liked but after Fallout 76 everyone hates them or at least doesn't like them. Oh and they LOVE microtransactions and shady practices. I mean paid mods! My favorite! So a combination of all these made Witcher 3 winning easily. Still as I said Skyrim is strong but as time passes less and less relevant. Amazing victory for Witcher 3 of course.
TLDR version. Witcher 3 had a HUGE Netflix Boost Show(seriously MORE people played Witcher 3 on Steam AS the show was going one than people played the game when it first came out! If you know your stuff a game is ALWAYS played more when it first comes out).
Both are open world games but Witcher 3 does the story and characters better.
Plus people hate Bethesda(including me)for not announcing new Single Player Fallout and Elder Scrolls games and the whole fiasco with Fallout 76.
And even though Skyrim is played a lot it is less relevant now than Witcher 3 for sure.
EVERYONE loves the developer, CD Projekt Red, of Witcher 3. Not only it became the BIGGEST video game company in Europe BUT NOBODY has anything bad to say about them. Seriously. They NEVER do do any bad things, no microtransactions, no shady practises, nothing. Just making good games! Yeah apparently it still happens! Seriously.
So yeah. A combination of all these things.