Games that changed the world

[Bellator Pius Gratus]

I am a horrible person for not mentioning System Shock. I shall proceed to finish it again as atonement. I've already finished Black Mesa 5 times so I'm a bit burned out on HL. Funny how these two games are spiritual successors to Doom...more so than even Doom 2...but that's another story.

The lack of Duke Nukem 3D is also disappointing. It one of the first truly immersive shooters out there and it came even before Half Life. For a number of reasons I consider this to be the real Doom 2. Episode 2 is pretty much a homage to Knee Deep in the Dead.

Do my eyes deceive me or is Deus Ex missing too? What has this world come up to?!

Yeah, Baldur's Gate, Deus Ex, Doom, GTA, and of course Duke Nukem should be on this list.

 

[Cheylus]

TLoU brought nothing to video games in general, even if it's considered to be a good game on its own.

Pokemon and Sonic are missing.

I don't know why Shadow of Colossus is mentionned - it didn't change the world nor the industry, far from it.

I would have added The Walking Dead, which is the climax of "episodic" video games ; TellTale definitely made a solid bridge between TV shows and games, when most games focused on copying movies' aspects before that. I won't say that TWD "changed the world" though (yet), but I think it announces what's next for video games.

Skyrim did change the industry for some time ; I haven't seen a video game generating so much hype on the Internet. Everybody and their mothers want to make "open worlds" now, and the trend is even reenforced by new gen consoles.

Half Life 2 changed the industry (and, therefore, the world) with Steam. Without Steam, I think PC gaming would be dead - and they're not even done with innovations.

I would add Resident Evil for some reasons.

I don't understand why so many people want some - confidential - games on that list. This doesn't look like a list of video games important for gamers, nor a list of gamers' favorite video games. Lara Croft was in movies, on magazine covers, in your daily news. "Everybody" knows who Lara Croft is. It's not "good" or "bad".

Deus Ex, System Shock, Baldur's Gate or Planescape Torment have nothing to do on that list. Those games were far from being influential and far from being something else than obscure video games for most people.

 

[volsung]

There's a difference between a game that is influential to other game developers and designers and one that becomes a pop culture icon. For instance, I'd say Rogue is the former, Pokemon the latter and Mario Bros both.

I agree with Guy about Maniac Mansion, but since the list includes Monkey Island instead I assume it refers to the pop culture kind of influence.

If it were a game development and design kind of list then it shouldn't miss games like Baldur's Gate, which we all know is the measuring stick for all computer RPG's.

I'd also add another game for tech and popularity reasons: Terminal Velocity. It rewired an entire generation of players' brains to press/move forward to look down.

 

[soldiergeralt]

for the better;
rainbow six
ghost recon
wolfenstein 3d
operation flashpoint
system shocks
deus ex
terminator
janes longbow
flight simulator
free spaces

for the worse:
counter strikes
quakes
dooms
grand theft autos
duke nukem 3d
unreals
ghost recon 2
world of warcraft
everquest

 

[GuyNwah]

There's a difference between a game that is influential to other game developers and designers and one that becomes a pop culture icon. For instance, I'd say Rogue is the former, Pokemon the latter and Mario Bros both.

I agree with Guy about Maniac Mansion, but since the list includes Monkey Island instead I assume it refers to the pop culture kind of influence.

If it were a game development and design kind of list then it shouldn't miss games like Baldur's Gate, which we all know is the measuring stick for all computer RPG's.

I'd also add another game for tech and popularity reasons: Terminal Velocity. It rewired an entire generation of players' brains to press/move forward to look down.

I brought up Maniac Mansion because it was the first game to use SCUMM. This made Monkey Island and subsequent LucasArts games possible. Grim Fandango, also not mentioned, was the first game to use Lua, which is now pervasive in game scripting. Yeah, the list is a lot more about pop culture impact than game technology.

 

[Aditya]

Geez as some ppl already said, what a crappy list overall.
TLOU is so dam hyped. It's good but nothing extraordinary or the 'drama/citizen kane' of video games which is just plain bs.

Many of them which have actually made into pop culture (regardless of their quality as that's not the point) today are not even mentioned.

And seriously, what is twitter doing there?

 

[duskey]

It seems like a list that completely ignores RPG's.

Well WoW is on there. I get the difference between a singleplayer RPG experience and an MMO, but it was WoW that made it mainstream and started affecting people who weren't themselves gamers.

 

[Geralt_and_Ciri]

Baldur Gates and Fallout 1 should be here

 

[Demut]

Tomb Raider - female protagonist

lol wut

Metroid featured a female protagonist a decade earlier.

 

[dragonbird]

lol wut

Metroid featured a female protagonist a decade earlier.

Yes, I think Metroid would have been a better choice.

 

[daddy300]

One word Nintendo. if not for thier early days games like Mario, original Final Fantasy and 3 billion others I am scared to think how games would evolved to this point. So many copy+paste games these days.

 

[Senteria]

One word Nintendo. if not for thier early days games like Mario, original Final Fantasy and 3 billion others I am scared to think how games would evolved to this point. So many copy+paste games these days.

Don't forget about Chrono Trigger

 

[volsung]

I am inclined to believe PC gaming would have flourished regardless. It has its own history and motivations.

If anything, the popularity of consoles has had an arguably negative impact on computer gaming, at least for some types of games.

 

[dragonbird]

Regarding "first female protagonist:", this came up in the front page at reddit today. Had to share, some of the comments are hilarious....
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1xwwad/the_first_game_to_have_a_female_as_the_leading/

 

[Blothulfur]

It's good to be the Queen.

 

[Seboist]

There's some odd exclusions on that list like Virtua Fighter (the first 3D fighter which paved the way for Tekken,Soul Calibur,DOA,etc) ,Final Fantasy 7 (helped popularize JRPGs in the west) and Killswitch(introduced the cover system and blind fire to the TPS genre that would later become standard with the genre with Gears of War).

 

[CostinRaz]

I think Deus Ex and Mass Effect 2 should be on that list.

Deus Ex for being the first game to really combine shooting with RPG mechanics in a good way. Mass Effect 2 for taking that concept and although it had no alternative forms of gameplay like Deus Ex it did provide great shooting mechanics, with RPG elements in a heavy story focused game with an emotional roller coaster and fast paced action.

Essentially Mass Effect 2 was the very first game to combine the idea of an amazing cinematic experience with rich storytelling in a vast game universe filled with interesting characters and locations with more traditional RPG mechanics.

 

[Garrison72]

I think Deus Ex and Mass Effect 2 should be on that list.

Deus Ex for being the first game to really combine shooting with RPG mechanics in a good way. Mass Effect 2 for taking that concept and although it had no alternative forms of gameplay like Deus Ex it did provide great shooting mechanics, with RPG elements in a heavy story focused game with an emotional roller coaster and fast paced action.

Essentially Mass Effect 2 was the very first game to combine the idea of an amazing cinematic experience with rich storytelling in a vast game universe filled with interesting characters and locations with more traditional RPG mechanics.

Despite the story it tells amounting to nothing, I have to agree. As a stand alone adventure, ME2 was huge.

 

[luc0s]

I am inclined to believe PC gaming would have flourished regardless. It has its own history and motivations.

If anything, the popularity of consoles has had an arguably negative impact on computer gaming, at least for some types of games.

Fun fact: For a while, PC gaming was actually a direct competition for the consoles, and many console manufacturers were worried that the PC would put the console out of business.

I do believe however that the video-game industry would have looked completely different today without Nintendo, a lot worse probably, and that goes for both console gaming and PC gaming.

 

[volsung]

Fun fact: For a while, PC gaming was actually a direct competition for the consoles, and many console manufacturers were worried that the PC would put the console out of business.

Ever since computer gaming became little more than a few guys making hacks on a mainframe, and something similar to PC's became available, it would appear as if home computers were a direct competitor to gaming consoles, but it seems to me that games played on each system were strikingly different.

Eventually PCs and consoles started sharing games, but I believe that was rare. While Nintendo players struggled with Castlevania (which was released for MS DOS three years later, in 1990) PC gamers were engaged in other genres, like adventure or strategy. But consider the cost of a home computer back then (thousands of dollars vs. $300 MSRP for the NES), and I don't see how it could really put home consoles out of business. Maybe later when the cost of home computers lowered down, but by then I believe most remaining consoles were pretty well established with their own in house franchises.

I do believe however that the video-game industry would have looked completely different today without Nintendo, a lot worse probably, and that goes for both console gaming and PC gaming.

In general, yeah, I think so too. Nintendo shaped and defined many genres and common modern practices. But PC gaming, at least as far as original PC game genres, would have persisted regardless. I don't see how Nintendo influenced, for instance, Maniac Mansion, Betrayal at Krondor, Baldur's Gate, Master of Orion or Civilization.