The 2007 Gaming Club

Slate has put together a great feature looking back at the entire year in gaming; Slate's Chris Suellentrop chatted with Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, the New York Times' Seth Schiesel, and MTV's Stephen Totilo (all MVPs of game discussion) about the best games of the year, big and small: "Some people have agreed with me that Desktop Tower Defense is wonderful, intoxicating, and addictive in its gameplay. But many have been flummoxed because I did not pick as my GOTY a truly grand, big-budget game. Lots of people seem to think that year-end lists should be reserved for epics like Halo or Grand Theft Auto. But that's not what 'Game of the Year' means to me."

Comments

Yeh right.....

[madhatter256]

Slate's Chris Suellentrop chatted with Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, the New York Times' Seth Schiesel, and MTV's Stephen Totilo (all MVPs of game discussion)

Heh. Yeh, right......

I didn't know slate and nytimes had the top gaming gurus.....

Re:Yeh right.....

[nschubach]

I've always had a problem with the title of MVP. If you are the MVP, your the only one. You can't be "Moster" Valuable Player.

Re:Yeh right.....

[MMaestro]

I can't comment on Stephen Totilo (I don't watch MTV for gaming information) but Chris Suellentrop and N'Gai Croal but extensively cover the business aspect of video gaming.

If they talk about Halo, its about the marketing and the franchise development. If they talk about GTA, its about the possible political impact it could have on business decisions regarding a game's development. If they talk about Sony('s PS3), its about how the video game division is bleeding the company badly and that no one can out bleed Microsoft('s Xbox 360).

Course, if you're a serious gamer and you read up on discussion forums and video game websites, nothing they talk about is new.

Club Policy

[Philotic]

No girls allowed!

Updates to existing games

[KingSkippus]

I think it's a shame that updates to existing subscription games always get left out of these lists.

I play City of Heroes/Villains myself, and this year saw three HUGE updates to the game. In Issue 9, we had a new villain zone released, as well as a new invention system that provides a ton of end-game stuff to do, and an in-game auction house. In Issue 10, we got a major world event and a new hero/villain cooperative zone. In Issue 11 (just released a couple of weeks ago), we have another zone, Ouroboros, that allows heros and villains to complete "flashback" mission for even more end-game action, two new power sets, and a ton of new costume options. And those are just the main features, there have been lots of other little tweaks and new surprises.

The game is a LOT better today than it was when it was released around three and half years ago, and it was really a lot of fun back then. The best part of it is that unlike most other games, all of those expansions were released for no addition cost to the regular subscription fee, and the developers under the new NCsoft banner are busy working as I write this on the next expansion, Issue 12, probably to be released around the end of March or so.

Sorry if I sound like an ad, but they've really done a bang-up job on the game. Don't get me wrong, I love Halo 3 and playing with the Wii, but those tend to be merely diversions from the game I've been going back to for years now. It may not be the uber-hyped behemoth that other "Games of the Year" are, but personally, I'd rather stick with one that's been consistently interesting and good year after year.

Maybe it will make the list of "Games of the Decade."

Re:Updates to existing games

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, CoH/CoV isn't even worth mentioning. It barely even qualifies as a game, just a boring and pointless waste of time. Game of the decade, what kind of crack are you smoking?

Re:Updates to existing games

[KingSkippus]

Well, I will admit that CoH/V tends to not appeal to two types of players.

First, those who are all about min/maxxing their characters and power-leveling through to the end. There's really not much point, since the game isn't focused so much on end-game content and pwning other people, though as mentioned, we did get a nice invention system for those level 50's out there to participate in.

Second, the griefers. There are exceptions of course, but most of the folks in CoH/V are generally nice, helpful folks who are thrilled to be part of the community. Griefers generally have a hard time, because the developers have designed it so that there's just not much they can do to disrupt the game for other people, and the community is pretty quick to react and report the people who do.

So yeah, I guess it might be a pointless waste of time to some people, but the general absence of those people in the game and the tendency of those people to quickly leave the game is one of the things that I really like about it. You have your opinion, but from the tone of your post, I think I'm pretty safe in saying that we're pretty happy that you don't like it.

Re:Updates to existing games

[azuredrake]

As a fellow CoH/CoV player, I wholeheartedly endorse both your posts. :) Been playing since launch, and the game has gotten better and better... I'm the Games staff writer for the Tufts Daily and I really wanted to review Issue 11 - it's a damn shame that such issues are not accounted for in the traditional "Game of the Year" competitions.

Re:Updates to existing games

[Anonymous Coward]

I couldn't agree more with this post. I went back to CoH after about 2 years of not playing it. They had a free weekend, so I decided to check out my characters. My first reaction was pure amazement at how great the graphics were. You actually forgot to mention that.

The client for the game renders 10x prettier than it did at launch! Also, they have non-default multi-core support now (look up how to add the switch to your shortcut). The framerate and animation is just wonderful now. It's like playing a brand new game.

And, here's the big part for me. The *actual* game is *fun*. After a year or two of WoW frustration over farming for gear only to have it become obsoleted, it's so refreshing to play something that is just fun in and of itself.

My character isn't even max-level in CoH, and guess what? I don't care! Because, my friends and I play, and we laugh and have so much fun fighting super-villains or Giant Monsters! Can you remember any other MMO that really provides that? For me, there is NO grinding, no meta-game. The game is just fun!!

As Stephen himself points out in the last posting

[WillAffleckUW]

They were shortchanging the Wii in favor of the other consoles, while obsessing over their latest free web download for the PC.

Sure, they included Mario Galaxy, but they didn't spend much time talking about it.

And while I appreciated a different take on BioShock, I still feel like they just don't get how casual gaming has totally changed the market and the value system.

Wow

[roadkill_cr]

Totilo gets +10 respect points from me. I hate how GOTY always revolves around big name titles.

What really frustrated me was a GOTY thread that was started about a month and a half ago on a forum I frequent. People kept listing games that hadn't even been released yet. Assassin's Creed, Rock Band, Mass Effect... these all had yet to be released and the masses were all ready to give it the GOY award!

When I argued that hype does not a game make, they replied, "Well, most of the time the big games are good." To that I laughed - had they never heard of the gigantic flop that was Daikatana? I remember being crushed by how awful Black and White was, one of the most hyped games that year.

It sickens me, because this sort of mentality is exactly what marketers are going for... a blind, consumerist society that buys what they are told, rather than considering the pros and cons of any item before getting it.

Re:Wow

[hansamurai]

Well, in argument for people touting Assassin's Creed, Rock Band, and Mass Effect as GOTY before they were released, they were all games from respected developers with good history (Ubisoft, Harmonix, and Bioware respectively), and early previews were saying that the games were good. I would personally never name a game GOTY before it was released but there are fanboys, PR reps, and just excited fans that do. Daikatana didn't really have that great of momentum before release (remember the infamous PC Gamer ad?) and Black and White... well, that was hyped up beyond belief and it definitely failed to deliver, and it was from Peter Molyneux of Populus fame, so I'll give you that one.

Re:Wow

[hansamurai]

And if anyone is wondering what I would name my Game of the Year games as it would be:

Totally new 2007 game: Portal
Totally new game for me: Psychonauts

Re:Wow

[Blakey Rat]

Yeah, but Desktop Tower Defense was a tapped-out concept when it was a Starcraft MOD. All this guy's done is taken the Starcraft map, adapted it to Flash with some cute hand-drawn graphics, and that's game of the year?

I'm not saying game of the year has to be a huge budget hit, but it at least should be somewhat original.

Re:Wow

[roadkill_cr]

This is exactly the sort of thinking Totilo is arguing against, though. The idea that a game has to be X, Y, or Z before it can be considered for GOTY.

I say, if it was the game that brought you the most fun this year, stood out the most as excellent, inspired you the most - that's your GOTY.

Regardless, by your argument, none of the typical GOTY candidates come even close to being original. Halo 3, while being quite polished, is definitely just a standard FPS. Same with The Orange Box (besides Portal), and Call of Duty 4. God of War 2 is a sequel, so we have to write off the originality right there (as well as new Legend of Zelda/Ace of Combat games). Rock Band builds on a decade of music games (and directly lifts gameplay out of GuitarFreaks/GuitarHero/KaroakeRevolution), so that's not eligible. Mass Effect is an RPG - let's not even go there. Super Mario Galaxy is a platformer, one of the oldest themes out there, and even its "small planet" concept is unoriginal (see Ratchet & Clank). Care for me to go on?

Re:Wow

[Blakey Rat]

I say, if it was the game that brought you the most fun this year, stood out the most as excellent, inspired you the most - that's your GOTY.

I guess I can respect his choice, although I do hope that he didn't choose Desktop Tower Defense because he was simply ignorant of the super-popular Starcraft MOD that's been around since 1999 or so.

Regardless, by your argument, [long paragraph clipped] Care for me to go on?

Hell, I didn't even ask for you to reply in the first place. ;)

Re:Wow

[ShakaUVM]

Ditto. They made a stripped down version of what people have been playing on Starcraft or Warcraft III for nigh-on a decade now, and it's GotY? Pfft. What's going to be GotY for 2008? Desktop sheep tag?

IMO, 2007 was an awesome year of gaming. My own (biased) ordering would go:
Portal
Bioshock
Civ IV: Beyond the Sword
Puzzle Quest
Team Fortress II
All Wii Games, as a gestalt
Call of Duty IV? Yeah, I guess.

Re:Wow

[tbannist]

Frankly, i don't think it's worth trying to name a GotY for 2007 until it's January 1st, 2008. That's why people would suggest games that haven't been released yet, because they're predicting what will be the best game of the year once it's over. December isn't over yet.

Re:As Stephen himself points out in the last posti

[hansamurai]

Well, I really don't feel like the Wii had a lot going for it this year. Besides Mario there was Metroid and Zack and Wiki, and that's really about it. The Wii is still popular because of its momentum from last holiday season and it's appeal to casual gamers. But besides the licensed crap that appears on every system, what has really stood out (this year) to the casual gamer besides what I named?

Re:As Stephen himself points out in the last posti

[WillAffleckUW]

As the multiple postings in the article said, this was more due to Nintendo not cranking out as many games, not that the games weren't good.

And some of that was the focus on Addictive Games, as they mentioned.

DTD? C'mon...

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I like how the guy justifies his selection of DTD by saying that picking "game of the year" is like picking "favorite thing you've seen on your TV set," because I'd argue that picking DTD for the former is like picking Jerry Springer or American Idol for the latter because you "just can't stop watching."

For that matter, I probably spend more time reading crappy fantasy novels than literary masterpieces, but I'm not gonna nominate "Dragonfyre Chronicles Part 7: The Soul-Blackening" as Book of the Year. These are the same guys who won't shut up about games being legitimate art, and they can't make this kind of distinction?

Re:DTD? C'mon...

[Roger Wilcox]

What makes DTD so appealing, to me, is that it reverts to a pure, gameplay-oriented style.

DTD has laughable graphics. The sound is limited to 5 or 6 cheap effects. The story is nonexistent. The important thing here, however, is that the game is playable for hours on end despite all of this.

Glitz just doesn't do it for me. At the end of the day, when I sit down to play a game, I've come to play a game. I can't count the number of times I've been desperately wooed with dazzling graphics and immersive storylines that concealed such terrible control and gameplay elements that I had to leave them behind in frustration and disgust. If there's a bad game hidden underneath all of your fancy BS, I'll find out, and I won't want to play anymore.

I applaud DTD for its simplicity and elegance, and I applaud Sullentrop for unabashedly pointing out that it succeeds marvelously in an area where many large-budget games fail.

Re:DTD? C'mon...

[ClamIAm]

Art is subjective.

Re:DTD? C'mon...

[owlman17]

They may call it what they want, but I just lost a whole freakin' day because of that. Thanks /.

Re:As Stephen himself points out in the last posti

[imasu]

And while I appreciated a different take on BioShock, I still feel like they just don't get how casual gaming has totally changed the market and the value system. Well, one of them DID pick a flash game (DTD) as his GOTY, after all. Not picking a Wii game != dissing casual games.

Rule number 1

[psychicsword]

Rule number 1 of the 2007 Gaming club don't talk about the gaming Club.

Re:As Stephen himself points out in the last posti

[7Prime]

- For me, there were two "slam dunk" titles this year: BioShock, and Mario Galaxy
- There were 3 "close to slam dunk" titles: Metroid Prime 3, Mass Effect, and Super Paper Mario

I have yet to play Assassin's Creed, however.

But all in all, My gaming experiences on the Wii and the 360 this year have been similarly spectacular.

Omission

[wart]

For the 26th year in a row, rogue has been passed over as GOTY!

The emu hit you
You die