That question is so broad it cannot be answered.
There’s a myriad of games which are or have been wildly popular (e.g. Mario, CS, GTA, WoW, Minecraft, Fortnite)
There’s games which pushed the borders to new limits (e.g. Tetris, Doom, WoW, VR Chat)
And there’s games which warped the industry or their players (e.g. mobile games, micro transactions, loot boxes)
Agreed. Up next: what’s the best song ever?
Darude - Sandstorm
Pong
DOOM 1993
I’m going to be a little left-field with this one. Yes you could pick some boring obvious answer like Pong, Doom or Minecraft and that’s perfectly valid. I’m not saying those are incorrect.
I’m going to go with FarmVille though. It’s really hard to overstate the impact it has had on the gaming landscape (for the worst, if it needed spelling out). It popularised an all new approach to monetisation and retention systems in games, it heralded the proliferation of microtransactions, Games-As-A-Service models and manipulative skinner boxes designed to extract the most money and attention out of you. It opened the door - by being a “social game not just for gamers” - to an entirely new market whose wallets were previously unavailable. It created this malicious new insight that the best way to make money is not to just make a good game and sell it - it is to create an addiction through psychologically manipulative means, then slowly leech their users’ wallets over time.
FarmVille really fucked us over.
Farmville also got a ton of middle-aged women into games at a time when gaming was primary seen as an industry for teenage boys
With the same reasoning, Candy Crush. The single game that killed the entire genre of mobile gaming. It validated the idea that mobile games should be casual and it proved there’s way more money in addictive mechanics than there ever will be in quality games.
Which was first farmville, clash of clans or candy crush?
I agree with you that one of those manipulative mobile games deserves to be on the list.
Candy Crush and Clash of Clans were both released in 2012. FarmVille was 2009, years earlier. You could call those two the first wave maybe after the genie was out of the bottle, but FarmVille was the great progenitor.
Minecraft
Since it is BAFTA I will limit myself to a UK game. Tomb Raider with special mention for Elite. My main memories of my 3dfx card was low poly Lara, not Quake. The mix of story, setting, problem, solving and combat lives on in a lot of popular titles. And I can’t look at space sims like NMS today without thinking of Elite miraculously shoe horned into an 8bit micro.
Might be biased but not only does the FF7 story hold up close to three decades later but it was also the catalyst for introducing Japanese RPGs into a western market.
Chrono Trigger predates FF7 by two whole years, and is, objectively, one of the best Video Game RPGs of all times, while also being a JRPG in itself.
Bad rats.
The intersectional apex of interactivity and storytelling
… and why it’s World of Warcraft.
Do I want that to be the answer? No.
Sadly, that’s actually a decent choice, as much as I hate to admit it.
Oh, it’s a “type your pick”, not a list of choice. Interesting
Gamey McGameyface it is then
Minesweeper.
BattleBorn, Lawbreakers, Skull&Bones and Concord; the biggest f* to AAA (and “AAAA”) industry. You crash, so the Indie rise.
can someone help me describe ‘most influential’ for me here?
pardon my english
I suppose it means the game that had the largest impact on the gaming industry and/or society in general. For example, almost all games have red represent health and blue represent mana/magic because diablo was super popular and everyone copied it.
ooo i see.
okay thanks for explained that to me… very appreciated it.
and maybe if i have to answer that question i pick, metal gear for stealth games… just my opinion correct me if im wrong
cheers
I see a lot of downvotes from people. Listen, it’s okay to disagree and we can have discussions about it. None of the comments so far are offensive or anything. Tell these people why you disagree.
I’m saying pokemon. It’s still a dominant franchise today. It’s inspired countless spin offs and copy cats. It made gaming social and the connector for Gameboys a required accessory. Pokemon Go was a covid time revolution. The series is likely responsible for a sizable growth in the gaming market in the late 90s and early 2000s. People who never played a video game can identify Pikachu, and might even have a plushie. We are closing in on 30 years of pokemon being a dominant franchise.
