I’m always curious about this, especially in the context of a ‘Decade’ list. Does anyone really want to know why I put something on the list? I’m not a professional reviewer and there are no sob stories relating to my favorite games that I’m aware of :)
I’ve always wondered about the text blurb. I read ResetEra but didn’t vote on their GOTY thread specifically because it required a certain amount of ‘meaningful’ text behind each choice. I would think my list in order of 1-whatever is plain enough to get a peek as to what I think of things.
Edit: BTW if you thought my Quarterlies picks were bad, wait until you see this one. @divedivedive will love it, though.
Definitely wouldn’t allow at 10x multiplier. My initial thoughts are 2x what you’d get with simple ranked as the maximum points allowable. So, since it looks like we’re doing 10 games, 20 points instead of 10 for your #1 would be max, but now you’re taking a lot of points away from the games further down your list.
My thinking is it would be good for those people who feel like there are a few truly standout games that deserve to be recognized. There’s going to be enough votes/points that one or two people aren’t going to be able to mess everything up with point dumping.
I think the text gives flavor to the choices, but might be enough to make it valuable to someone else who dislikes your taste in games. Lord knows most people here aren’t picking the same stuff as me much of the time, so hopefully by explaining why you liked it so much there’s some method to the madness.
I got more interested in Final Fantasy XIV thanks to the text on that game in this year’s voting even though I know I don’t have time for that.
I agree with this. As someone who is prone to writing more than anyone else would care to read, even I would be okay with allowing folks that already spent probably a lot of time creating and then ordering a list to just paste it and be done.
I have no issue with that either, btw. I think the Resetera thing is a little overblown, but I get why they do it. I think it’s as much to keep bots and jerks from ruining it as anything else.
I like it when people write a small blurb about their choice and try to put a sentence or three myself - like Dave mentioned something may catch my eye and make me take a look at a game I’d have glossed over before - but I don’t mind people who want to only post their list either. Whittling down to a top 5 can be hard enough as it is.
This is the only way these kinds of “best of” lists have any meaning. Someone just dropping a bulletpointed list of ten games with zero context just slides right on by me. That’s why I’d like to see a single game nominated by each user. Write as much as you want to tell me what it means to you. Anything else might as well be a list of ingredients on the back of a mac-and-cheese box.
I don’t think I want to force people to write some text to go along with each of their choices, but I certainly do want to encourage it! Especially after reading the text MrTibbs wrote in the voting thread, which Bruce also highlighted in the winner thread:
I loved the world of Revachol the developers created. Encountering the stories of how the trauma of the past has shaped the resilience of the people trying to make it through life was easily the most engaging game experience I had in 2019. Definitely a hall of fame debut game. It’s the closet thing to the city block game Warren Spector used to say was his dream project.
So I totally missed this bit at the end of the 2019 Quarterlies winners post, it was a long night for me.
Bruce will not be running the Game of the Decade poll writing. I’m available for the script and the voting, and I can handle writing the posts if needed but if anyone wants to offer to help out, especially if they have some writing chops, please post about it or message me.
I’ve added this to the second post in the thread with notes as well.
Wow, thanks for the nomination, @robc04 - that’s really something. My 8th grade English teacher would be floored! I’m no Bruce, but I don’t have a problem taking a run at it, if no one more qualified steps up.
The votes in the first post are coming along nicely. It’s pretty clear that 10 games with a 2 week voting period are the favorites there. But with the third poll there’s a little ambiguity. My impression is that the people who prefer assigning points would prefer a simple ranking to a 1 vote = 1 point outcome, and I stupidly did not allow people to vote for multiple options (my bad). If you add up the votes for both then it’s ahead, but by raw numbers the simplest option, 1 vote = 1 point is the winner. So, I want to add a poll here with just the two most popular options. Please answer this one as well.
1 vote = 1 point
Simple Ranked
0voters
The first option, 1 vote = 1 point, means you just list 10 games you loved. The order doesn’t matter, we assign one point for each game in any position. So, 1st place is 1 point, 2nd place is 1 point, 3rd place is 1 point, etc. You get a point, you get a point, you get a point! (oprah.gif)
The second option, simple ranked, means you give a ranked list of your 10 favorite games from the last decade. The order of the list grants the points in the vote. So, 1st place is 10 points, 2nd place is 9 points, 3rd place is 8 points, etc. This is like we do the end of year Quarterlies voting scoring.
Please select an option. None of these polls are “binding” but I’d like to make as many people happy as possible.
Even if they didn’t like my idea of assigning points to games that you love…
