| Announced: | January 10, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Started: | March 27, 2020 |
| Ended: | May 13, 2020 |
| Winner: | Winner: Breath of the Wild Runner-up: The Witcher 3 |
| Contest Winner: | azuarc - 429 points |
| Notable matches: |
Octopath > Undertale, SK > Octopath, |
Game of the Decade 2 is the second Game of the Decade contest GameFAQs has had, and obviously is the first such contest since 2010. Last time, the contest covered games released from the years 2000 - 2009 and was won by Majora's Mask. This time around, the contest will cover games released from 2010 - 2019.
A notable quirk from this is that it makes League of Legends ineligible, since that game launched in 2009. A lot of people brought up Minecraft being eligible for this contest, but that game was only in alpha in 2009. It was not officially released until 2011.
KamikazePotato was nice enough to take his adjusted x-stats from the 2015 contest and remove every game from before this decade. Here is his work, as a refresher for Game of the Decade 2:
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim : 33.51
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U : 29.70
Grand Theft Auto V : 28.10
Fallout: New Vegas : 26.66
The Witcher 3 : 26.44
Super Mario Galaxy 2 : 26.35
The Last of Us : 26.24
Mass Effect 3 : 25.51
Mass Effect 2 : 24.54
Batman: Arkham City : 24.14
Dark Souls : 24.10
Red Dead Redemption : 23.60
Bioshock Infinite : 23.50
Xenoblade Chronicles : 22.76
Portal 2 : 22.35
Fire Emblem: Awakening : 21.96
Metal Gear Solid V : 21.49
Borderlands 2 : 20.46
Bloodborne : 20.38
Pokemon X/Y : 19.73
Monster Hunter 4U : 18.31
Shovel Knight : 18.04
Undertale : 17.77
Bayonetta 2 : 17.00
Minecraft : 16.14
Mario Kart 8 : 16.07
Civilization V : 16.04
Super Mario Maker : 15.64
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth : 13.66
Journey : 13.63
Splatoon : 13.05
Animal Crossing: New Leaf : 13.01
Life is Strange : 12.40
Destiny : 12.24
The Walking Dead : 12.01
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors : 10.72
Virtue's Last Reward : 10.27
Hearthstone : 8.25
Ulti's Pre-Contest Analysis[]
After what seemed like forever, we finally got a new announcement. To the surprise of no one, and to the delight of everyone, it was Game of the Decade 2! Second verse, same as the first, but this time we'd be looking at the time line from 2010 - 2019 instead of the previous decade. The contest start got delayed twice thanks to coronavirus and server moves, but it did eventually start. And because there are still idiots who need this explained to them, the de facto standard for the first decade AD is 1 through 9, giving us present-day decades that start on the aesthetically pleasing "zero" number instead of "one". No, you are not clever for telling us there was no year zero and that this decade should actually be 2011 - 2020. Now go away. The adults are talking. Try not to eat Tide pods or lick toilet bowls to get likes on Instagram.
Nominations and the format was easy enough: 128 games in a 1v1 bracket, no loser's bracket this time (thank god), 4 matches per day for the first few rounds, then 2, then eventually 1 as we got down to the end. Board 8 dominated nominations as usual, leading to some hilarious overseeding -- Mass Effect 2, Super Meat Boy, DOOM, and plenty of others -- and Allen quietly stepped in with rules about critic scores and such to make sure Untitled Goose Game couldn't win the contest as a joke. This basically meant League of Legends wasn't eligible, though that game came out in 2009 anyway. That rule was tossed aside for Minecraft, which was in beta in 2009 just like League but whatever. The bracket itself was very varied, and even though Allen never said it directly it was clear there was a personal rule of his about no more than 2 games per franchise. The snubs list is already posted on the wiki, but some of the games on that list are nuts. Skyward Sword didn't get in. Mario Maker didn't get in. Smash 4 didn't get in. None of the Phoenix Wright or Final Fantasy 13 games. Resident Evil 2's remake, Pokemon Gold/Silver's remake, and Persona 4 Golden got in, but not Metroid 2, Xenoblade Chronicles X, or Captain Toad. Yeah I see you, Nick. Total miscarriage! This contest could have benefitted a lot from a few of these games as 14-16 seeds, but the Metacritic stuff was real.
How real? Check out this list that user scaryice put together. Metacritic average by seeding:
Average Metacritic score by seed
(1) 94.3
(2) 92.3
(3) 91.1
(4) 92.4
(5) 87.1
(6) 89.9
(7) 90.1
(8) 89.3
(9) 88.3
(10) 86.6
(11) 86.8
(12) 85.6
(13) 86.9
(14) 84.8
(15) 84.0
(16) 85.8
This might explain why A Plague Tale, and other games that got meh ratings didn't make it in despite being hugely popular. Overall though, no real complaints or criticisms about the layout. We got robbed of a Breath of the Wild vs Smash Ultimate final, but it's understandable not to do it.
The ridiculous anti-rally measures were back and, uh... "better than ever", if you're the type who hates fun. User votes counted double, the poll start time was 8 PM EST again, and the unbelievably dumb must-vote-in-every-poll stuff was back. "Yay."
But hey, it was out first games contest in five years. LFG!!
One final note that I wanted to put in the pregame section, since it was a good discussion during the contest itself. I think personally, one of the following games is objectively the game of the decade regardless of how any poll turned out: Skyrim, Dark Souls, Dota 2, Clash of Kings, GTA5, Fortnite, Red Dead Redemption 2, Smash Ultimate, Breath of the Wild, CoD: Black Ops, Witcher 3, Undertale, Bloodborne, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Mario Odyssey, Super Meat Boy, The Last of Us, Doom 2016, Overwatch, Borderlands 2, Shovel Knight, Hearthstone, Stardew Valley, Persona 5, Dragon Quest 11, Horizon Zero Dawn, Hollow Knight, NieR Automata, God of War 2018, Pokemon GO, and REmake Evil 2. You can pick any game you want subjectively, but any fair "game of the decade" for 2010-2019 has to be one of those games. And trust me, that is not a favorites list.
On we go!
"Whatever happens next, it's been an honor F5ing with you all this evening." -TheCodeIsBosco
Ulti's Post-Contest Analysis[]
"Good write up, Ulti. It’s honestly just genuinely entertaining to read the crazy, insightful, idiotic, galaxy-brain shit that comes out of your head. See ya next time." -ColZach
When the coronavirus turned the world upside-down, the people willing to adapt, overcome, and change got or stayed rich. Rigid Guy went out of business. I understand government executive orders from idiotic blue states played a part in this too, but bear with me.
I could come up with endless examples of Rigid Guy falling off and Adaptable Guy succeeding, but I'll go with just one example. WWE continued putting on wrestling shows, but with no fans in the stands for safety reasons. Sure, makes sense. They put on the same trash they've been putting on for the entire PG era, and they hit new record lows for viewership every week. They're now below peak TNA numbers, just FYI. You guys think Fox is regretting that TV deal yet?
AEW meanwhile did the same type of shows, but they put their wrestlers in the stands as their "fans" and split them up in the arena between faces and heels. Their shows, despite feeling empty, still have a form of crowd noise and actually feel like a good wrestling show. WWE's stuff is sterile, boring, and flat. It might look like a wrestling show, but it's not one.
This might have looked like a GameFAQs contest, but the lack of vote totals made it look like a wrestling show with no audience and no innovation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT3iaK1w04A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnUj9XhWVl0
Watch those matches on mute. Aren't they trash with no crowd and no announcer?
That's essentially what our contests are without voters. You can set up a good bracket, put all the bells and whistles on it, and all the board contests can fire off, but without voters, without excitement, without the usual new user influx, these contests feel like we're just going through the motions. This contest also had few truly great matches, but that's just bad luck. I can live with that. What I don't enjoy living with is a preventable low voter problem, and I should point out that viewership for everything across the board is way up for the things that are actually good.
There are three main causes for the low turnouts:
1 - The site refused to adapt as the gaming world changed. It stayed text-based for way, way, way too long when it was clear that videos and fan wikis were the new hotness. At this point, it's too late to even fix the problem. The only traffic this site gets now are from Google referrals to the Answers sections, with the guides still getting some traffic. Trust me here, I have a big contributor page and I can see the page hits. Individual subreddits and message boards for each game or series is still popular, and we have that, but people left the site in favor of better places to offer that service a long time ago. The leads to issue #2.
2 - EXTREME over-moderation. This site is well-known across the internet for this one, and this junk helped chase off many a user over the years. Lip service has been paid to relaxing things, but it's worse than ever. GameFAQs is as bad as ResetEra or anything other extremist far left site you want to name. When you tell users that only far left garbage is allowed on your web site, people are more than willing to leave. Especially gamers. We are not an easy group of people to please, and we will gladly bail for the latest and greatest if we're not treated properly. It's the entire methodology behind how games sell. The fix here is hilariously easy. Allow for diversity of thought and get rid of the moronic dispute system where mods vote on their own rulings.
If you want people to vote on disputes, leave it entirely up to high level users who aren't moderators. Too many overturns, and the mod loses their job. It's a good system of checks and balances that would get rid of 95% of the biased deletions that happen on here overnight. People like Team Rocket Elite, Raptor, Centurion, spooky, DetroitDJ, and the mods who are actually really good would be fine under that system. It's the bad mods that would all poof, and this site has been in need of checks for a long, long time. Our moderation system being so bad that it's a meme killed our message boards.
3 - Get rid of most of the anti-rally nonsense. This debate is completely settled and over. I've won the argument. Killing the rallies has all but murdered our vote totals. The experiment has failed; get rid of it. I like registered users getting a bonus and I like the poll starting at 8. Everything else needs to go. No more forced voting in every match, no more fighting against referral links, and every round after divisional finals needs to be one match per day. Witcher 3 vs Persona 5 and Dark Souls vs Skyrim both happening at the same time was a joke.
I saw people suggesting some truly absurd methods that don't address any of the actual problems. These ideas ranged from complete nonsense like hiding seeding in the bracket to total idiocy like completely changing the scoring system based on prediction percentage. There are people on the forum stupid enough to think calling a round one match in a seeded bracket tournament should have the same weight as calling a semifinal upset. I even saw people calling for banning Zelda from contests, which is absurd to do. Why should Breath of the Wild be excluded from a popularity contest when it hadn't won anything before this contest happened?
These are the sorts of bad ideas that happen when a contest has no vote totals and a predictable winner. We don't need anything ridiculous. We just need good vote totals, excitement for the web site, and a web site that people actually want to be on because they're treated fairly. I'm not even asking for anything greedy like the crazy vote totals from the late 2000s. I'd be happy with the numbers we got in 2015. It shouldn't take a mega-rally in the finals for one poll to break 30,000 votes. That is asinine. There is a real problem here and some of you are way off with how to fix it.
"Take out mid contest breaks too. Although I appreciated being top of the leader board in the second chance comp for a day, that contest break made me lose all interest after what had been an entertaining week or so." -Ringworm
Contest Ranking
Fall 2015 (Games)
Fall 2010 (Game of the Decade)
Spring 2004 (Games)
Summer 2002 (Characters)
Summer 2013 (Characters)
Winter 2010 (Characters)
Summer 2003 (Characters)
Summer 2005 (Characters)
Spring 2009 (4-way Games)
Summer 2007 (4-way Characters)
Summer 2006 (Female Bracket)
Spring 2020 (Game of the Decade 2)
Spring 2006 (Series)
Fall 2018 (Characters)
Summer 2004 (Characters)
Summer 2008 (4-way Characters)
Spring 2005 (Villains)
Fall 2011 (Rivalry Rumble)
Spring 2017 (Years)
Last, but not least... The Ultimate Loser™!! The big, um.... "winner" this year was....
Terraria! Breath of the Wild > Witcher 3 > Skyrim > Dark Souls > The Last of Us > Batman > Bioshock Infinite > Terraria. It's fitting that one of the many, many overhyped, useless indie games would be the big loser this year.
Thanks as always and see you next time! I'd like to give a special thanks to my readers, and an extra special thanks to the guys you've never heard of behind the scenes who keep the wiki looking nice. Ngamer and I get all the credit, but without those unknown folks also helping out we could never do it all. Igordebraga, Averiah, MetalmindStats, Bwburke94, and anyone I might have missed, thanks guys! I really appreciate the help! Bottom's up, bros.
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/001/274/brofistcover.jpg
Ctes's Pre-Contest Analysis[]
Pre-Contest Thoughts The first Game of the Decade was a fantastic contest. It was quite possibly the best contest we’ve had, so I was very excited when this one was announced as expected. In fact, I’ve been some level of excited since the previous one ended, but mostly instantly afterwards and the past years. A lot have happened here since then, so it’s a slightly different format. While still 128 entrants in a 1v1 bracket, this time 12-hour matches are no longer a thing, instead we have several matches a day, which I do prefer.
Since then we’ve had some large rallies overtaking the contest partly due to the aforementioned low votals, so in 2018 a lot of anti-rally measurements were taken and all of those still apply today. This meant a registered user bonus when voting so that votes count double if you registered an account before the contest began and it also meant you had to vote in every match a day. The former of the two had changed results in the previous contest, so it is worth factoring in. The second thing while smaller likely also makes a difference in earlier matches.
There were no losers bracket this time, perhaps partly because most of the field has not been a contest before, so who would you remove? Of course, we could’ve still had the losers bracket when we reached top 16 if we wanted to, but I don’t mind it not being around this time, in particular if it would be constructed like last time where you run into the same entrant again in the losers bracket instead of being thrown into the opposite side. We did still get a second chance bracket that would go up in a week long break after the first three rounds, so there would still be something other than the regular bracket challenge to work on. Last Game of the Decade we had the Battle Challenge contest. I like that we try out some different things, as long as we keep the ordinary challenge.
Nominations went on for quite a while this time, there was a few delays for unexplained reasons both during nominations and during bracket creation. It did serve the purpose of pushing the contest into the time where the whole world was closed down to the pandemic and I have personally loved having this during the worst of it. The timing was perfect to me. The most interesting thing we learned during the nomination period was that remakes and remasters were in the database making them eligible for the first time. Allen actively removed Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora’s Mask 3D indicating that it had to be full remakes, but the line ended up being shaky. The database had things such as “Shadow of the Colossus and Ico”, which would be very weird and stupid to have in the contest so perhaps Allen only actively removed the Zelda games because people were actually nominating them.
The bracket came out and there’s a lot to talk about there. On the account of remakes, three of them ended up being in and it shows that the line of eligibility is a bit weird. Resident Evil 2 is quite the different game and right after its Game of the Year victory here it was expected to make it in. Then we had Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver and Persona 4 Golden, which were both more debatable. The latter especially is not much more original than the Zelda games, so perhaps Allen just specifically wanted no previous contest winners. Hopefully we’ll still be able to see FFVIIR in a decade from now, that’s a vastly different game! All three remakes were high seeds, so it’s possible Allen were not hugely in favor of remakes in general while these three were too popular to keep out. They made for a lot of discussion about whether or not they would act as proxies for the games they’re a remake of and to what extent.
While we’re talking about Pokemon, one of the first things I noticed were how little representation it had. The only entry is a remake of a 90s game which didn’t even release this decade in Japan. It seems odd that Pokemon GO or some other generation didn’t get in especially considering HGSS was seeded 3. Was it really favored that much? I have a hard time believing that no other Pokemon game had no more nominations than some of the things that made it in, perhaps Allen thought one was enough seeing how similar they are.
No franchise had more than two games in the bracket and this is clearly a rule that have been said. Mario did have three games in the bracket if you count Mario Kart, but it would perhaps be a bit too extreme to include all spin-off games from Mario. I do still think this is a bit too extreme. I understand that Allen wanted the most representative bracket as possible for a contest titled Game of the Decade and I believe the lack of a second Pokemon game is due to Allen thinking they aren’t different enough. It did however not make for a better contest in my opinion. We had a lot of fodder in this contest. That was always gonna happen when we excluded everything before 2010, but it was more than necessary imo. The bracket became a bit too chalky as a result and round 1 would have a lot of expected blowouts. I think the run Mario Kart 8 ended up doing is exactly what Allen wanted to avoid too much of.
Nintendo is by far the most unfortunate when it comes to the bracket. The rule itself prevented stuff like Skyward Sword and a Mario Maker from making it in and I think it’s a real shame. I don’t think a franchise should be punished for being too good. Imagine if a 90s GotY contest only had two of 3, World and 64, everyone would riot! The cap only need to be a little higher than two and we’d have more interesting matches in round 1. It also results in the 3DS, which was a good contender for best console early in the bracket, have almost no games in the bracket, because we slightly prefer console games. Bracket placement was also rough on Nintendo. Allen wanted to avoid Nintendo domination, but I think he went overboard. Ultimate/Odyssey and BotW/the winner of that means that we would get no real read on the other big Switch games and have mostly boring matches. At this point of the contest, everyone was certain Ultimate was winning the former too and while doubt came as we went, and it ended up being true. It doesn’t even stop there though! Big 2015 snub A Link Between Worlds was fed directly to Smash. Xenoblade 2 could’ve been fun elsewhere and if you count them, both Bayonetta games were given completely unwinnable first round matches. After a contest where everything represented in Smash was stronger than expected, only HGSS, Mario Kart 8, Awakening and the winner of Xenoblade/Three Houses had a chance to do that. The biggest shame is definitely not getting a real feel for Odyssey and Ultimate.
When that is all said, Allen did succeed at making a very diverse bracket. Not just by the variation in types of games but also in release years. I have forgotten who, but someone made this nice chart showing that there isn’t too much of a difference between how well each year was being represented:
Of course, some are a bit more than others and rightfully so, we’d learn, but no year was snubbed.
Breath of the Wild was perhaps the most expected winner we have ever had, and for sure for a new entrant unless we count Link/Ganondorf and 1998 as new entrants. All contenders for second were thrown in the opposite half of the bracket. Look at the games seeded 1. I don’t doubt it’s on purpose that the Nintendo game and the two weakest were put into the same half as Breath of the Wild. Except for this however, we knew almost nothing of the field and some of the entries we had seen before like Witcher 3 and Dark Souls were expected to be much stronger due to respect and the contest title. A vast majority of the games were not in the 2015 contest either due to being too weak or just not released. Part of what made Game of the Decade I such a great contest was that most of the big games were left out and it’s the same thing here, only this time we had not had a games contest a small year before so we had much less to base our predictions on, so it was very exciting to get going.
Ctes's Mid-Contest Analysis[]
Just like Character Battle X had in 2018, this contest featured a weeklong break before the top 16, so that everyone could fill out second chance brackets. Different from last time was that there was no losers bracket and a finals division, we just had a top 16 games. That would mean only 15 matches remained instead of the 30 matches there were left last time.
The low amount of matches left made people skeptical, because there would be plenty of people getting all matches correct and it would take very few alt brackets to create every single possible outcome, in the sense of what realistically had a chance to happen. Breath of the Wild was basically guaranteed to win the whole competition and the winner of division 3 was guaranteed to beat the winner of division 4. That’s already four matches out of the way, and those are only the ones where not even a single crazy person took the upset. People recalled back in Rivalry Rumble, when the Battle Challenge had a ton of people going perfect into the final match of the contest and Allen had to create a crazy oracle finish. Would we the see the same now?
Not quite, but the oracle kind of challenge would play a part. Allen worked out a second chance challenge in the best possible way in my opinion. You had to not just guess the winner, but guess their final percentage rounded to nearest integer. You would get 50 points for a perfect prediction and then lose a point for every whole percentage, you were away. However, if you guessed the winner wrong, you would get 0 points. That meant if you guessed Resident Evil 2 with 51% but Mass Effect 2 won with 51%, you would not get 48 points, you would get 0. This created a challenge that was bracket challenge first and foremost and oracle to break tiebreaker. Of course, you could theoretically win despite getting a match wrong, but everyone knew you would be out of contention. True enough, the 27 best brackets had more than 700 points, the maximum you could get with one match wrong.
If we were to have a second chance bracket, this one was as good as they come, except that the slide bar you made picks on was a bit confusing and it caused a surprisingly high amount of people to pick the winner they didn’t intended. I mean, you should always look more carefully than that, so it’s the smallest complaint possible if it is one. People knew that the most important aspect of the bracket was picking the Breath of the Wild matches correctly. The rest of the matches were all thought to be reasonably close, so if you just picked 55% for your winner in all of those, you’d be really good. Breath of the Wild was different though, people’s opinions often had more than 10% between them in those, sometimes more than 15%.
Whether or not we should have had a second chance bracket at all is another discussion though. People liked the format, but a lot of people also found it unnecessary because it would damage contest flow and votals just to give us an extra challenge. It made more sense in 2018. The promotion was also quite terrible. Casual voters really had no idea of knowing what happened. After the division 8 matches ended, there was simply no poll on the front page and initially no way to enter the second chance bracket, this would come a day later. That created a lot of confusion if you missed the part about the second chance bracket beforehand. Votals are higher than number of brackets, so a lot of people did. Considering the amount of second chance brackets weren’t much higher than the number of voters we seemed to initially lose, I believe the concept was unnecessary. Because Allen insists on having multiple matches each day until the semi-finals, we only had nine days left of matches. The break itself was almost that long as it was eight days.
I hope this is the last time we had such a break, I appreciate the idea of a second chance bracket and it was fun, but if it can’t be worked without taking that much time off, I fully believe we’re better off without it. Promotion could help. A shorter break could help. Bonus matches could help. Ultimately though, I don’t think even the combination of those would make me prefer this. The Losers Bracket made it seem more reasonable, but that part had issues of its own. I believe it was fun for change but has no real reason to come back.
In any case, we had an exciting last part of the contest ahead of us. A top 16 that’s a lot closer to the general opinion than GameFAQs usually is, division 4 being the biggest outlier, but the remakes in general also looking weird. The bracket was made to be quite diverse and respect the whole decade, it shows in our final bracket where likely top 16 games such as Super Mario Galaxy 2 and A Link Between Worlds were fed to top games early. It had not always made for a better bracket, but there was at least some excitement to almost all remaining matches now that the Breath of the Wild matches looked to decide the second chance bracket.
Ctes's Post-Contest Analysis[]
It’s been another fun ride that’s as always over before we know it despite how impatient we can get with getting matches rolling at times. The contest began right as the whole world was in lockdown and it was perfect timing. It has been very enjoyable to have a contest on GameFAQs to follow while being at home as much, I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling that.
The first Game of the Decade was probably the best contest we have had, at least it’s up there. This one was good for a lot of the same reasons. Most of the games being untested and leaving our usual big games out for more interesting matches. This time, our winner was a whole lot more obvious and contests are so far in between that it’s not as necessary to remove our usual big games, but it still made a fun contest. I don’t think it made for as good a contest as the first one though.
The bracket was very diverse and very chalky. It makes for “better results” to not have a low tier Nintendo game beat over-seeded games of little strength, but it doesn’t make for a better contest. Despite having four matches a day for the first two rounds, a lot of the days had no exciting matches at all. It’s one thing to not have close matches, they just went as everyone expected most of the time and that’s not just because we’ve been doing these things for a long time. It’s been suggested this should have had 64 entries instead of 128, but I don’t think that’s the main problem. I just think we should have had slightly less diversity and maybe not created so many Nintendo SFF matches. I know the series cap isn’t confirmed and not everyone believes in it, but there’s just no way I can imagine some of the lower seeded games receiving more nominations than some of the snubbed games. It’s also possible Metacritic is having a bit too much of a say in this.
The amount of matches a day is also up for debate. In general, multiple matches is a much better solution than the day and night matches we had a decade ago and I like that we’re getting through the contests at a quicker pace, but sometimes it feels too quick. It was a good step in the right direction to only have two matches per day in round 3, but we need to switch to one match sooner than we do. Forcing us to vote in all matches doesn’t help in this regard. In general, despite the impatience, I don’t mind the contest lasting a bit longer than it does. We used to have a good bit longer contests than this and it was fine. The mid-contest break is a huge part of that problem. I know what the purpose of it is, but it does more damage. It felt so weird to have a break that long and then rush through the remaining part of the contest.
The big problem is of course our votals. Theoretically, that shouldn’t influence how fun the contest is, but it does without a doubt. Trends disappearing is partly because of smartphones allowing everyone to vote wherever, but it’s also due to a lack of new and younger users and in general less people voting overall. I appreciate all our anti-rally measures for their intent, though I don’t agree that they’re all nice. The registered user bonus is fine even without these votals, but it’s crazy to me that we did that to help votals before many other more obvious things.
The average GameFAQs user is not old because we’re on some old site, it’s because we doesn’t move with the times and thus most of the people here and the ones that were here when it wasn’t as outdated. The votals had become a major issue between 2010 and 2013, but Allen assured us site traffic was good, but that it was simply down for the frontpage. I believe that, but if it mostly comes from answer pages and such don’t we need to attract users here to keep having the info they need. Video guides should have become a thing here forever ago. There are lots of improvements than can be done and/or should have been long ago.
In regard to our contests though, I don’t understand why we haven’t taken better measures to improve votals and participation. The promotion is very minimal. That’s one thing on other sides due to rallies, but even here it’s very easy to miss. It’s up on the front page for a surprisingly short amount of time and your window for noticing on any page is smaller and it doesn’t look attractive.
Then as soon the contest gets going, it’s only visible on the front page. Why? I don’t understand why it’s not visible on every page. When someone googles something and is directed to GameFAQs, they should be able to see the match pictures and vote in the poll regardless of what part of the page they were directed to. I realize not everyone here cares for the contests as much as us, that’s obvious, but it doesn’t really change the experience of being here in any way that there’s a poll at the side of page. There’s plenty of unused room there. Not on mobile, but then put it at top or bottom or whatever, it can still easily be done without annoying anyone. This was a Game of the Decade contest in place of yet another Character Battle, it would have been the perfect time to try it out.
Our six-digit votals are long gone, but our five-digit votals are even in danger at times now if not for the registered bonus. I know all this is not first site priority, it just seems like it would take relatively little effort and I’m sure that a bunch of users would help with it for free. I honestly don’t see why not.
It sounds like a lot of negativity. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun this contest, I just think there’s a simple way to make things better. It has been enjoyable though and I’m glad Allen gave us the contest we hoped we would get every since last time. I’m excited for next time too, and speaking of next time, it’s fun to think of what would be. On the day of the bonus match, we also had this fun poll:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/8091-what-would-you-like-the-next-gamefaqs-bracket-battle-to-be
It’s pretty clear from the results that the more times we’ve seen something, the less interesting in it we appear to be, though at least everyone correctly recalls Rivalry Rumble is bad. I’m open to something completely different, but only if someone actually has a good idea. I doubt it’s that people actually want something different as much as it’s just the stand-in for the usual “I don’t care about them” option. Character Battle is the obvious next one, but it’s not highly requested. Villains doing that well is a bit sad. If we really wanted another Villains contest, couldn’t we just do Character Battle by villainous level or something stupid like that. I don’t think it’d be much fun, even though the winner would be less obvious. Series contest would not be that great either. It’s a shame Best Game Ever has so few votes when the bonus match hyped that, but there’s another option probably stealing its votes.
Game of the Decade 1990s is a great idea. It’s a very GameFAQs idea, by why not? It would be a good contest, lots of our strongest games are from that era and it will give us most of the matches we didn’t get in 2015 but hoped we would. Ocarina of Time is an obvious winner there, but I’m sure some people will buy bite and pick Chrono Trigger. I’ll have fun with regular Character Battles and Best Game Evers too, but if we’re to try something new, let’s do this one.
Safer777's Pre-Contest Analysis[]
I am back baby! Time to do another analysis for a contest! You know the thing that I have done only 1 time before? And everyone loved it? Yeah I am jesting and you all know it. So obviously I am not an expert even though I am here since the 2nd contest but I will try my best because well I just like the contest season. I don't know why, I just like seeing all these familiar names and their passion for the contest even after all these years. You feel like you are in a community of sorts. The contest season is just nice for me. Or something like that. Read the Crew analysis and the Ulti's post contest analysis to find good analysis from the experts. They are much better than me.
Something to notice too. Since these analysis will go on as the contest is happening they will not be entirely accurate since we will not have the big picture yet. For example in the previous contest in Round 1 we had Zelda beating Ezio and people saying it was a bad result for Ezio. BUT since we have the big picture we know that it was a good result for Ezio since well Zelda reached the final match! So there you go.
Anyway for this contest. It is GOTD one, so games that came out from 2010 to 2019 are fair game. Now in the previous decade we had only ONE games contest strangely enough (I am excluding the first GOTD contest) and few games from that contest are here too now so that makes things exciting since we don't have much info on what will happen. The general consensus is that BOTW will win easily since it is a Zelda game and it is open world too and these 2 things together are perfect. Now IF we have rallies anything can happen BUT I will tell you something. We will not have since nobody cares for these things anymore. Sure in the previous decade we had a few rallies but it will not happen again. Because nobody cares for this site anymore. Sad but that is the truth. We have Reddit to discuss things and Youtube to find help for a game. So in this site we only have old people now. Like me.
So what other contenders we have with a chance to win? We have Fortnite which is THE most popular game in the world right now but unless a big streamer is a member of gamefaqs and cares for this contest nothing will happen. Another legitimate contender is Smash Ultimate. Seriously that game has so many characters that everyone has at least 1 character that they like. But since the LAW and Hierarchy exist it will not win too.
Also the Guru pick for this contest is Super Meat Boy. Strange pick but fine. We have 24 hour matches and this is good since not all of use are living in USA you know and it gives people more time to vote. Oh my pick to win? I would like either Witcher 3 or Skyrim. After these Smash Ultimate since it has Joker and Sans(okay as a costume but still). So I don't think I want to say anything more right now. I am sure I forget something but eh. Time to write these analysis stuff. Feel free to post anything if you like I guess? I will try to update this topic after every day.
Another thing I noticed in this bracket is that we have so many Indie games. I know that with Steam, Xbox Store and PSN developers could publish their games much more easily but still. I don't have anything against Indie games but nothing deserved GOTD. Maybe Minecraft and that is really. Also notable absents were PUBG and Pokemon Go. We do have Fortnite but for a while PUBG was THE biggest game on the planet and is still popular but yeah it has lost it's throne. As for Pokemon Go say whatever you want but for a few months the whole planet was into it. There wasn't a single day wihout hearing some crazy story and it is still popular now, but not as big of course. Still earns a ton of money too.
And a final thing. We are currently(27/03/2020) in a pandemic which is going on for around 3 months and around 1/3 of the population is in a lockdown which hasn't ever happened before. What a time to be alive! So why I write this? Not sure. Maybe we will get more votes since people are just sitting on their homes?
Bracket[]
| Contest Bracket | |||||||
| Division 1 | Zelda: Breath of the Wild Dragon Quest XI |
Zelda: Breath of the Wild Mass Effect 2 |
Zelda: Breath of the Wild Smash Bros. Ultimate |
ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD The Witcher 3 | |||
| (1) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (16) The Outer Worlds |
Zelda: Breath of the Wild Halo: Reach |
Zelda: Breath of the Wild Final Fantasy XV | |||||
| (8) Halo: Reach (9) Life is Strange | |||||||
| (5) Final Fantasy XV (12) What Remains of Edith Finch |
Final Fantasy XV Hollow Knight | ||||||
| (4) Hollow Knight (13) Tales of Berseria | |||||||
| (3) Monster Hunter: World (14) Bravely Default: Flying Fairy |
Monster Hunter: World Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice |
Monster Hunter: World Dragon Quest XI | |||||
| (6) Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (11) Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch | |||||||
| (7) The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series (10) Bastion |
Bastion Dragon Quest XI | ||||||
| (2) Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (15) The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC | |||||||
| Division 2 | Mass Effect 2 Resident Evil 2 | ||||||
| (1) Mass Effect 2 (16) Resident Evil 7: biohazard |
Mass Effect 2 Fallout 4 |
Mass Effect 2 Horizon Zero Dawn | |||||
| (8) Fallout 4 (9) VVVVVV | |||||||
| (5) Borderlands 2 (12) Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night |
Borderlands 2 Horizon Zero Dawn | ||||||
| (4) Horizon Zero Dawn (13) Fortnite | |||||||
| (3) Resident Evil 2 (14) Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair |
Resident Evil 2 DOOM |
Resident Evil 2 Bloodborne | |||||
| (6) DOOM (11) INSIDE | |||||||
| (7) Fire Emblem: Awakening (10) Deus Ex: Human Revolution |
Fire Emblem: Awakening Bloodborne | ||||||
| (2) Bloodborne (15) Call of Duty: Black Ops | |||||||
| Division 3 | Smash Bros. Ultimate Super Mario Odyssey |
Smash Bros. Ultimate Xenoblade Chronicles | |||||
| (1) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (16) Tekken 7 |
Smash Bros. Ultimate Zelda: A Link Between Worlds |
Smash Bros. Ultimate Spider-Man | |||||
| (8) The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (9) Bayonetta | |||||||
| (5) Marvel's Spider-Man (12) Dead Space 2 |
Spider-Man Minecraft | ||||||
| (4) Minecraft (13) Dota 2 | |||||||
| (3) Undertale (14) Octopath Traveler |
Octopath Traveler Shovel Knight |
Shovel Knight Super Mario Odyssey | |||||
| (6) Shovel Knight (11) Dragon's Dogma | |||||||
| (7) Devil May Cry 5 (10) Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze |
Devil May Cry 5 Super Mario Odyssey | ||||||
| (2) Super Mario Odyssey (15) Mortal Kombat 11 | |||||||
| Division 4 | Persona 4 Golden Xenoblade Chronicles | ||||||
| (1) Grand Theft Auto V (16) Baba Is You |
Grand Theft Auto V Cuphead |
Grand Theft Auto V Persona 4 Golden | |||||
| (8) Cuphead (9) XCOM 2 | |||||||
| (5) Persona 4 Golden (12) FTL: Faster Than Light |
Persona 4 Golden Red Dead Redemption | ||||||
| (4) Red Dead Redemption (13) Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective | |||||||
| (3) Xenoblade Chronicles (14) Splatoon 2 |
Xenoblade Chronicles Overwatch |
Xenoblade Chronicles Fire Emblem: Three Houses | |||||
| (6) Overwatch (11) Death Stranding | |||||||
| (7) Dragon Age: Inquisition (10) Ori and the Blind Forest |
Ori and the Blind Forest Fire Emblem: Three Houses | ||||||
| (2) Fire Emblem: Three Houses (15) South Park: The Stick of Truth | |||||||
| Division 5 | The Witcher 3 God of War |
The Witcher 3 Persona 5 |
The Witcher 3 Skyrim | ||||
| (1) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (16) Assassin's Creed Odyssey |
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Mass Effect 3 |
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Super Mario Galaxy 2 | |||||
| (8) Mass Effect 3 (9) Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty | |||||||
| (5) Stardew Valley (12) Destiny |
Stardew Valley Super Mario Galaxy 2 | ||||||
| (4) Super Mario Galaxy 2 (13) Return of the Obra Dinn | |||||||
| (3) Fallout: New Vegas (14) The Stanley Parable |
Fallout: New Vegas Dark Souls III |
Fallout: New Vegas God of War | |||||
| (6) Dark Souls III (11) Dishonored | |||||||
| (7) The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (10) Nioh |
Nioh God of War | ||||||
| (2) God of War (15) The Talos Principle | |||||||
| Division 6 | Persona 5 Portal 2 | ||||||
| (1) Persona 5 (16) Heavy Rain |
Persona 5 Assassin's Creed IV |
Persona 5 Sonic Mania | |||||
| (8) Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (9) Sid Meier's Civilization V | |||||||
| (5) Sonic Mania (12) Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA |
Sonic Mania Super Meat Boy | ||||||
| (4) Super Meat Boy (13) Slay the Spire | |||||||
| (3) Portal 2 (14) Tomb Raider |
Portal 2 Kingdom Hearts III |
Portal 2 Red Dead Redemption 2 | |||||
| (6) Kingdom Hearts III (11) Disco Elysium | |||||||
| (7) Animal Crossing: New Leaf (10) Street Fighter V |
Animal Crossing: New Leaf Red Dead Redemption 2 | ||||||
| (2) Red Dead Redemption 2 (15) Dying Light | |||||||
| Division 7 | Dark Souls The Last of Us |
Dark Souls Skyrim | |||||
| (1) Dark Souls (16) Hotline Miami |
Dark Souls Rocket League |
Dark Souls Metal Gear Solid V | |||||
| (8) Rocket League (9) Dragon Ball FighterZ | |||||||
| (5) Yakuza 0 (12) The Witness |
Yakuza 0 Metal Gear Solid V | ||||||
| (4) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (13) Dead Cells | |||||||
| (3) Batman: Arkham City (14) Xenoblade Chronicles 2 |
Batman: Arkham City BioShock Infinite |
Batman: Arkham City The Last of Us | |||||
| (6) BioShock Infinite (11) Terraria | |||||||
| (7) Diablo III (10) Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward |
Diablo III The Last of Us | ||||||
| (2) The Last of Us (15) Crusader Kings II | |||||||
| Division 8 | Skyrim Pokémon HGSS | ||||||
| (1) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (16) Subnautica |
Skyrim Journey |
Skyrim Mario Kart 8 | |||||
| (8) Fate / Grand Order (9) Journey | |||||||
| (5) Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn (12) Crypt of the NecroDancer |
Final Fantasy XIV Mario Kart 8 | ||||||
| (4) Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (13) Mario Kart 8 | |||||||
| (3) Pokémon HeartGold / SoulSilver Version (14) Night in the Woods |
Pokémon HGSS Rayman Legends |
Pokémon HGSS NieR: Automata | |||||
| (6) Celeste (11) Rayman Legends | |||||||
| (7) Divinity: Original Sin II (10) Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft |
Divinity: Original Sin II NieR: Automata | ||||||
| (2) NieR: Automata (15) Bayonetta 2 | |||||||
Snubs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14VeTf4Po-9bCVUQB4wSYMfi0SJ02Lf-TwYmpLCHeJgQ/edit
See Also[]
- GotD 2 Bracket and Standings
- GotD 2 Stats (slightly outdated by necessity)
- Board 8's 2020 Nominations