Board 8 > What actually made/keeps you interested in official GameFAQs Contests?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've been thinking about this and the answer is tough for me since it's a mix of everything.
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Good question, for me it's also a mix of all these about equally, but top two would probably be

The surprisingly interesting math and analysis of trends and statistics
I just like seeing what the most popular things are at the moment in general


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Rooting for my favorite characters/games to do well
Outside GameFAQs, there's just rarely/never anything like this
The surprisingly interesting math and analysis of trends and statistics
Drama and entertaining by taking part in fanboy wars
The nostalgia and memories when remembering these characters/games as I vote
The way it's structured like a sports bracket except with fiction
The fact that I can win a lot of money or pride/Guru nom by doing correct predictions

In that order.
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I voted for I just like seeing what the most popular things are at the moment in general
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Bump
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I love that it's like a big event on the board it's almost like Board 8 created it's own cultural. Like I can't believe I'm more excited about this contest then I am Halloween.
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The surprisingly interesting math and analysis of trends and statistics
Outside GameFAQs, there's just rarely/never anything like this

These are the top two answers for me.

Something that does exist outside GameFAQS with some math analysis of trends/statistics is Fantasy Football, and the GameFAQS character battle is way better. I say this as someone who has played Fantasy Football for the past decade and won his league last year. There's so much variance in Fantasy Football; imagine if on any given day, there's a small but realistic chance that someone like Knuckles can beat Link, and when it happens everyone is just like "Yeah that happens sometimes" and moves on. The incredibly high amount of variance makes the math and analysis trends really difficult and largely random; the much more consistent results of character battles make the analysis much deeper.
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Stats
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I like all the analysis. Promptly followed by an x-factor that throws it all out the window.
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Nothing I guess since I wouldnt mind if there were no contests ever again. Other than that I just want to see unexpected results which usually come from rallies because otherwise its the same old thing

The inevitable meltdowns when a meme character gets memed into championship
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NowItsAngeTime posted...

I voted for I just like seeing what the most popular things are at the moment in general

Why are you so broken.
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I like the activity spike on the board. Makes the Internets more lively for me.
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i like to make a bracket and see how well i do. my goal is always to get on the leaderboard at least once (which rarely happens).

i like reading all of the contest-related stuff as well (the CSaD topic, bracket analyses, the crew writeups, post-contest analyses), though i don't contribute much to it myself. i'm just an amateur so i don't have much to say about it.
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BetrayedTangy posted...

I love that it's like a big event on the board it's almost like Board 8 created it's own cultural.

Same. I don't really care about stats and predictions but it's fun to see people revved up over a hotly contested or close match.

tbh everyone hates the Draven incident but I thought it was good times. The entire board was galvanized. Extha egged Kan's house, Mooglekupo called Allen fat (and then apologized profusely when Allen called him out), XIII screamed for hours straight during the downtime, Allen's wife came out to perform an acrobatics show, it was just fun all around.
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In hindsight, the Draven nonsense feels a lot more fun than 2015's rallies did.

I think part of it was because we thought there was a chance Draven could lose (and he possibly could have! We'll never know). Once Undertale beat ME3, that contest was over.
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Gatarix posted...

Mooglekupo called Allen fat (and then apologized profusely when Allen called him out),

wait what? i thought i knew all the board 8 anecdotes but i somehow missed this.
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Seeing my childhood idols fighting it out for GLORY.

Way better than some boring as sports where they throw a football and you've seen it a million times already.

Also, witnessing the INCREDIBLE power of the internet. This contest is an embodiment of what the internet can make possible.
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

Gatarix posted...

Mooglekupo called Allen fat (and then apologized profusely when Allen called him out),

wait what? i thought i knew all the board 8 anecdotes but i somehow missed this.

yea I remember hearing about this on the Show in... 2013 I think?

It's not on the Board 8 wiki though.
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UltimaterializerX posted...

First option, plus I've found a lot of good games through these things. Never would have played Symphony of the Night or Chrono Trigger without the 2002 contest, for instance.

I never got into Starcraft until it beat Wind Waker. To this day, Starcraft continues to consume my life, for thousands of hours and counting.
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SuperNiceDog posted...

Mr Lasastryke posted...

Gatarix posted...

Mooglekupo called Allen fat (and then apologized profusely when Allen called him out),

wait what? i thought i knew all the board 8 anecdotes but i somehow missed this.

yea I remember hearing about this on the Show in... 2013 I think?

It's not on the Board 8 wiki though.

yeah it was after Draven beat Link, I kept some of the quotes

"Allen is so fat," said MoogleKupo. "It's disgusting. He's just really fat."

This was just one of the many anti-Allen topics that sprung up like weeds in the wake of the Link/Draven match. Allen was called traitorous, slimy, conniving, immature, incompetent. Yet out of all the insults, it seemed that this one actually stung enough for Allen to personally appear in the topic to set the record straight.

"Wow, what a remarkably childish topic," Allen said. "At any rate, the stress of having our first child and various other things led to me gaining some weight. You'll be happy to know that I've lost 50 pounds this year and I'm currently at a quite healthy 170 pounds (I'm 6'0") and in pretty great shape again."

As soon as he saw Allen's post, Moogle was stumbling over himself to apologize. "I don't actually think you're fat," he said. "The only picture I've ever seen of you is that one where you're dressed like a Sailor Scout and you look pretty thin there. Everyone else was insulting you and I just wanted to be a cool kid too and I was peer pressured and I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you."

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lol

i'm not sure what's more weird about that, allen taking the bait in a seemingly generic troll topic or moogle making that extremely out-of-character post.
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yeah that was such a weird moment all around

it takes a lot to get MK to break character
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Interest in gauging popularity.

Why rallies bore the shit out of me
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VideoboysaysCube posted...

UltimaterializerX posted...

First option, plus I've found a lot of good games through these things. Never would have played Symphony of the Night or Chrono Trigger without the 2002 contest, for instance.

I never got into Starcraft until it beat Wind Waker. To this day, Starcraft continues to consume my life, for thousands of hours and counting.

The amount of games/series I've come to like through GameFAQs/Board 8 is crazy

* Tales series with Symphonia, now one of my all time favs
* Metal Gear series
* Mega Man Classic series
* Mega Man X series
* Street Fighter series, starting from IV
* League of Legends
* Persona 3/4
* Phoenix Wright
* Fate/Stay Night into my now crazy visual novel fandom

And these are just the ones that have been in a contest in some way
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NowItsAngeTime posted...

VideoboysaysCube posted...

UltimaterializerX posted...

First option, plus I've found a lot of good games through these things. Never would have played Symphony of the Night or Chrono Trigger without the 2002 contest, for instance.

I never got into Starcraft until it beat Wind Waker. To this day, Starcraft continues to consume my life, for thousands of hours and counting.

The amount of games/series I've come to like through GameFAQs/Board 8 is crazy

* Tales series with Symphonia, now one of my all time favs

And these are just the ones that have been in a contest in some way

Same, I found out about Tales of Symphonia through GameFaqs back in 2004. What an incredible game that was.

Also, the Undertale rally in 2015 inspired me to play it later in 2016. Great game, just a great game. Also ended up cosplaying Alphys(Undertale) later even lol.
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I still plan on doing Undertale, I'll likely get the Switch version once I work on my crazy big Switch backlog I have now
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Bump
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- This board is always super fun around contest time
- There is nothing like these on other sites

To narrow things down it's those two reasons
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Ranticoot posted...

- This board is always super fun around contest time
- There is nothing like these on other sites

To narrow things down it's those two reasons

Yeah pretty much this
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My favorite thing about the contests is that it's fun to try and predict things when it comes to a subject of interest (video games). But I suppose the math/trends option is another way to put it.
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It's the cinnamon swirls.
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I'm a stats nerd, so all of the mathematical and statistical analysis is fun. Trying to take the raw stats, and applying logic to predict results is great. I think that's part of the reason why I can't stand shitty rallies like Undertale/Draven/L-Block/etc. Honestly my hopes aren't high for this contest, since in this day of brainless zombies tuning into their favourite twitch 'influencer', there is a massive amount of people that can be easily rallied.
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also, because this contest is basically gambling. It's addictive.
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