Board 8 > Game of the Decade: 2010-2019 Contest Analysis Crew - Part 1

(+) Yeah! (+)

ROUND 1 DOOM vs. INSIDE

MOLTARS ANALYSIS

CAPS LOCK MARCH MATCH

DOOM ISNT A WORLDBEATER BUT INSIDE IS JUST AN INDIE GAME FROM FOUR YEARS AGO THATS NOT ON THE LEVEL OF HOLLOW KNIGHT OR BASTION.

DOOMS NAME RECOGNITION ALONE SHOULD BE ENOUGH FOR IT TO WIN THIS MATCH.

MOLTARS BRACKET: DOOM

MOLTARS PREDICTION: DOOM 70%

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TRANSIENCE'S ANALYSIS

Hey, it's a CAPS BATTLE. One thing I've been wondering: will any voters mistake this for 1993 Doom? The cover has doom guy and just a big DOOM up in your face. It doesn't matter either way but it's fun to think about.

As the resident Indie Guy on the crew, I can say that while Inside is great, it's not a game that should have widespread appeal. If we're ranking indies so far, the underdog ones, we'd probably go Hollow Knight > VVVVVV > Bastion > Inside. VVVVVV might be below Bastion but it'd be close. I'm really impressed by this Fallout 4 result...

<b>TRANSIENCE'S PREDICTION: DOOM WITH 73.55%</B>

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LEONHARTS ANALYSIS

This is the cruise control for cool match! Doom has made a resurgence over the last few years, and with a highly anticipated sequel being released right around the start of the contest, it might have the ability to make a deep run here. I dont think I have the guts to pull the trigger on it, but I wouldnt be surprised to see it happen. I dont think this match will tell us too much about its chances against RE2 next round though unless it outdoes it or undershoots it by a sizable margin. Either way, it shouldnt have too much trouble here.

Leonharts Vote: DOOM

Leonharts Prediction: DOOM with 72.27%

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KLEENEXS ANALYSIS

A NEW DOOM GAME JUST CAME OUT A WEEK AGO. DOOM WAS ALREADY GOING TO WIN THIS MATCH REGARDLESS, BUT NOT ITS DEFINITELY GOING TO WIN. THIS IS NOT TO SAY I THINK DOOM IS GOING TO BE ALL THAT STRONG IN THE LONG RUN. ITS NOT. BUT IT WILL CERTAINLY BE GOOD ENOUGH TO BEAT OUT INSIDE, A GAME THAT GAMEFAQS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT. IT GOT QUADRUPLED BY STARDEW VALLEY IN THE 2016 INDIE POLL. CONGRATULATIONS DOOM.

KLEENEXS PREDICTION: DOOM WITH 68%

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GUESTS ANALYSIS DR FOOTBALL

When I first looked at the bracket I thought DOOM got unlucky placement with a pretty obvious win 1 then lose to a potential division winner in RE2. Then I looked at its performance in the 2016 GOTY polls and remembered it lost to Overwatch 2 out of 3 polls. Thats a pretty low ceiling at this point and if there hadnt been a new DOOM release this month it would have been prime for an upset IMO.

INSIDE is not the game to do this though as it extrapolates pretty poorly in those same 2016 GOTY polls, getting pounded by Stardew Valley. I think the percentage range could be pretty large here. Im gonna go with a little bit above a doubling but dont feel good about it.

DOOM with 67.89%

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CREW CONSENSUS: INSIDE IS DOOMED


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Im glad most of us were on the same page here

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yeah we really drove this joke into the ground

I guess the bold tags ive been doing for 10 years dont work anymore huh? Ill stop including them

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ZeldaTPLink posted...

There us nothing wrong about a site where most users are over 30 not to like a game aimed at 12s.

Different games have different target audiences. We don't have to like Fortnite.

Very true, you are allowed to like what you like. My point is fortnite doing so poorly demonstrates that this is the game of the decade according to gamefaqs, rather than an attempt to determine the actual game of the decade. I would have trouble putting it below the top 5 in any honest attempt even though I don't actually like it.

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Shit, I literally just sent my writeup for DOOM/Inside

I guess here it is for posterity's sake:

Pretty easy match here, in one corner, we have DOOM 2016, probably the best FPS released in the last 15 years, and also hot off the release of DOOM Eternal last week. In the other corner, an indie game that I personally have never heard of, which means it will be more on the VVVVV level than the Hollow Knight level.

If DOOM can impress enough, it will certainly raise questions about who will win the second round matchup against REmake 2. A lot of people wrote off DOOM, but I think it has a very real shot against RE2.

BT's Prediction: DOOM with 77.25%
BT's Bracket: DOOM
BT's Vote: RIP AND TEAR


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Mac Arrowny posted...

except in Shadow vs. Mario <_<

I don't even know that it happened then! Mario just sucked in 2003! And Shadow was surprisingly good!

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it's cool it still counts BT since you posted it here before the match starts

transcience posted...

yeah we really drove this joke into the ground

I guess the bold tags ive been doing for 10 years dont work anymore huh? Ill stop including them

oh yeah I've been fixing them manually but forgot to that time whoops

but yeah just a heads up to anyone else that might send in write-ups using bold or italics tags

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transcience posted...

yeah we really drove this joke into the ground

I guess the bold tags ive been doing for 10 years dont work anymore huh? Ill stop including them

Well, they don't work with the new posting engine. You can use them still with the old one.

And yeah, I didn't include them this time!

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Borderlands 2 so good

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looks like you can just copy and paste bold? I'll try that for tomorrow, let me know if it doesn't work

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transience posted...

looks like you can just copy and paste bold? I'll try that for tomorrow, let me know if it doesn't work

Yeah, it automatically formats it now with the new posting engine. That's what I've been doing.

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Leonhart4 posted...

Yeah, don't ever bet on something acting like a proxy. That never happens.

Well as I've said in the stats thread, Bloodstained seems to be greatly overperforming in South America, where PS1 action games such as Castlevania tend to be strong too (Alucard actually beat Cloud here in 2018).

I think the proxy theory makes sense here, it's just that people shouldn't expect it to be as strong as SotN, just take some strength from it.

I think it's more that South America enjoys that style of game. I don't think it's that people are treating it like a Castlevania game.

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RotN was never going to come with SotN's prestige. As someone who loves both games, I'd say the quality is comparable but SotN is legendary in a way RotN never can be, if only due to circumstance.

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this ME2 performance is pretty gross. it's feeling like those with ME2 winning the division will have to cheer for RE2's remake status holding it back, or for people to just franchise vote for RE no matter the game.

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Leonhart4 posted...

I think it's more that South America enjoys that style of game. I don't think it's that people are treating it like a Castlevania game.

But South America-faqs is also locked in the past. It's just that it's a different version of the past. They got addicted to PS1 actions games rather than JRPGs (which is why this analysis was so fascinating, it's like an alternate reality version of GameFAQs). Heck, going from 2018 results, we are even more addicted to the 90s than average gameFAQs, with new characters doing even worse.

Granted everything in this bracket is new so it's hard to measure, but at least Bloodstained is a new franchise, and it is associated to a franchise that is probably top 3 in South America-faqs. I think the correlation is very possible.

This will be Mass Effect's worst performance of the first three rounds. RE7 would easily 60-40 VVVVVV.

transience posted...

this ME2 performance is pretty gross. it's feeling like those with ME2 winning the division will have to cheer for RE2's remake status holding it back, or for people to just franchise vote for RE no matter the game.

I mean, I do think RE2make won't be as strong as the original, and it's not like the original was a world beater. I think people are overestimating its potential a bit.

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It already has a great 1v1 result though:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7840-best-of-2019-game-of-the-year-final-vote

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Yeah, Majora's Mask was definitely not an OoT proxy in the last decade contest.

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Big Bob posted...

Yeah, Majora's Mask was definitely not an OoT proxy in the last decade contest.

*looks at MM's 2015 contest run*

You're right. It wasn't.

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Leonhart4 posted...

*looks at MM's 2015 contest run*

You're right. It wasn't.

...Because Ocarina of Time was in the 2015 contest, and therefore people weren't using Majora's Mask as a proxy? I'm not really sure what your argument is.

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Big Bob posted...

...Because Ocarina of Time was in the 2015 contest, and therefore people weren't using Majora's Mask as a proxy? I'm not really sure what your argument is.

It means what MM did in 2010 was legit, not because it was a fill-in for OoT, because it wasn't any weaker in 2015 than it was in 2010. Majora 2010 is a terrible argument for proxy voting.

Which seems pretty obvious here, so I'm not sure how this is hard to follow.

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Round 1 Fire Emblem: Awakening vs. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Moltars Analysis

Fire Emblem has been on the up and up over time, and even GameFAQs is riding the wave. In 2015, Awakening would have no problem winning this match, and I believe it has held up since then, especially with Three Houses being very much in right now.

Deus Ex, even the original, hasnt ever looked good, so I wouldnt bank on Human Revolution being worth much. In fact, Im going to bet on a bit of an over-performance here for FE.

Moltars Bracket: Fire Emblem: Awakening

Moltars Prediction: Fire Emblem: Awakening 69%

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transiences Analysis

Ehhh I dunno about Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's probably not total trash? It was kinda well liked when it came out but then they made one or two more and that series feels mega dead now. I'm going to have to admit at some point though that oldish games that don't really feel like they play today, might still play with this audience.

It ultimately doesn't matter when it comes to this match, since FE Awakening's floor is higher than Deus Ex's ceiling. There's no world where Deus Ex could beat Xenoblade. But Bloodborne is waiting...

transience's prediction: Fire Emblem: Awakening with 64.56%

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Leonharts Analysis

Awakening proved to be fairly decent in 2015, putting up a similar performance in losing to Donkey Kong Country 2 as Xenoblade. I think the Fire Emblem brand has only grown since then, especially with the recent success of Three Houses, so it might be even stronger now. I dont expect it to have much trouble in dispatching Deus Ex here. The original game has never been anything special in its contest appearances, and I imagine Human Revolution is no different. Ill be curious to see how it stacks up against Bloodborne in preparation for round 2.

Leonharts Vote: Fire Emblem: Awakening

Leonharts Prediction: Fire Emblem: Awakening with 62.66%

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Kleenexs Analysis

I still have no idea which Deus Ex game is which, between Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. I think this is the first one (well, first Adam Jensen one). Anyway, the actual original Deus Ex is hot garbage. It barely beat Rock Band 2, lost easily to FF4, and I cant really imagine Human Revolution is that far removed, strength-wise. In fact, there is a very real possibility that its even weaker than the original game.

Awakening is...well...I think Awakening should be a lot stronger than it is. Its *the* Fire Emblem game that really kick-started the series popularity in the states, and it was a lot of peoples first entry into Fire Emblem. And yet, looking back on its 2015 run, I find myself less than impressed. Losing to DKC2 isnt a great look. Itll still crush Deus Ex, and might end up looking like a monster, but maybe keep your expectations in check a little for future rounds.

Kleenexs Prediction: Fire Emblem Awakening with 70.25%

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Guests Analysis - TsunamiXXVIII

Lets see, what do we have hereDeus Ex: Human Revolution is a contest newcomer, but sequels rarely do better than the originals, and the baseline for Deus Ex ishonestly not terribly high. It made its debut in the fourway contest of 2009 and finished a distant fourth to Metal Gear Solid, Pokmon Gold/Silver, and Final Fantasy Tactics. A strong trio to be sure, but nearly getting tripled by the third-place game and getting quadrupled by the second place game is a bad look. It then managed to pull off the first upset of the first Game of the Decade, squeaking out a victory over 8th-seeded Rock Band 2 in the second match of the contest, but then almost got tripled in Round 2 against Fallout 3. It then managed to get into another 8-9 match in 2015, this time as the 8-seed, and proceeded to barely break 30% against Final Fantasy IV. Though maybe we should be looking at Human Revolution as stronger than the original. After all, JC Denton, protagonist of the original, has never not finished in last place in a poll in Character Battles. Adam Jensen, protagonist of Human Revolution, has in fact finished second in a match in 2013, though it was still a far cry from winning and also the character he beat was from Touhou. So yeah this is pretty weak.

Fire Emblem is not weak. It will still fold to most other Nintendo, perhaps a bit surprising given how this site loves RPGs but then again they love nostalgia more and Fire Emblem was Japan-exclusive until 2003. And Awakening in particular proved quite strong, actually upending the usual Nintendo hierarchy in 2015 by taking down Super Mario Maker and then bowing out in a roughly 52-48 round 2 match against Donkey Kong Country 2. I mean granted the DKC games have generally disappointed in character battles but almost 48% on a first-party SNES game, especially for a handheld game that was fairly new at the time, is really good. It has even made some noise in character battles, getting three characters into CBIX and even getting a win out of one of them (in a rather fodder threepack, but still) while the other two both at least exited in second place, one of them even managing to, uh, quintuple someone. A very weak someone, but thanks to a bonus match, we have conclusive proof that there were significantly weaker characters out there. One of these characters returned in CBX and avoided a doubling against the eventual division winner. So theres success there, too. In fact, lets swing back out to the series as a whole for a moment: the only winless entrants associated with the series are characters. The series as a whole made it to Round 2 in the Spring 2006 series contest, defeating Silent Hill before avoiding a doubling against Metal Gear of all things, while Blazing Blade (known simply as Fire Emblem in the US due to it being the first game released here) and Path of Radiance both made round 2 in Game of the Decade and Awakening reached Round 2 in 2015. I guess if you really want to quibble, Radiant Dawn was in the vote-ins for GotD and failed to make the bracket, andokay yeah that actually does look pretty awful in hindsight. The only other Nintendo in that poll was Mario Kart DS and Pikmin 2, and the RPGs that were supposedly splitting votes all over the placehonestly, the only other ones there from major franchises, it did beat. But thats not important. Point is, Fire Emblem has reasonable strength, easily above the fodder line. Deus Exs only victories in character battles

I'm okay with the low percentage, I think...? I have no idea.

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Round 1 Bloodborne vs. Call of Duty: Black Ops

Moltars Analysis

At the start of the decade, GameFAQs was kind of into shooters like Halo and Call of Duty. Now? lol

Bloodborne has decent strength, and I expect it to either hold up or have gotten stronger since 2015 since it has remained in the public eye since then. With the decline of CoD on this website (I mean Halo: Reach is around Life is Strange in strength if you want some sort of comparison), Bloodborne should win this match handily.

Moltars Bracket: Bloodborne

Moltars Prediction: Bloodborne 70%

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transiences Analysis

Man, talk about a nice way for Bloodborne to shine going into a big match. This is like the Horizon/Fortnite matchup. Bloodborne is probably somewhere near Horizon's level, maybe a little higher. People who love this game, really love it. It's got that whole game of the decade thing going for it just from the incessant fanbase around it.

But going up against a Call of Duty, even the one that's aged the best, is going to be nice. I always wonder if we hit this weird bit of nostalgia for Call of Duty, where people remember the good old days before battle royales and free to plays and games as a service. But then I remember that this audience is all in their 30s and that when we talk about nostalgia, we talk about the 90s, not 2007+.

transience's prediction: Bloodborne with 72.56%

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Leonharts Analysis

Weve got to be one of the few gaming sites out there where something like CoD: BlOps would be a 15 seed in a Game of the Decade contest and a heavy underdog to Bloodborne, but here we are! Bloodborne put up a decent showing on Final Fantasy XII in 2015. It was recently a free PS+ game, too, so that might have helped extend its reach recently. I got it through there and even tried playing it for 30 minutes before quitting!

also CoD: BlOps is fun to say

Leonharts Vote: Bloodborne

Leonharts Prediction: Bloodborne with 59.99%

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Kleenexs Analysis

I sort of wish I waited to see how Sekiro did before I wrote this one, but oh well. Not that Im worried about Bloodborne losing to Codblops, but I really dont have a great judge of where the non-Dark Souls Souls sames stand. Losing to Final Fantasy XII back in 2015 doesnt make it look very strong, thats for sure. And that was the year the game came out. Im not sure how well it has aged. Again, its not in much danger of losing this match, and certainly not against a non-Modern Warfare CoD game, but I think Bloodborne should be feeling lucky it got enough nominations for a 2 seed. If you start dropping it down a few more, it gets a lot of potentially dangerous matchups (perhaps like the one its going to have next round!)

Kleenexs Prediction: Bloodborne with 63%

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Guests Analysis - ctes

This a match where we all picked Bloodborne right away and never looked back. Call of Duty is way past its prime, with it declining in a similar fashion to Assassin's Creed. It's basically just a question of how much it loses by. Call of Duty's best entry went from looking alright against Smash games to be blown to pieces by Super Metroid. I don't think it'll be destroyed quite as badly here despite it being Black Ops and not Modern Warfare, but I think Bloodborne has enough recognition to make it look really bad. In any case, Call of Duty is probably too unknown a quantity at this point to say much about Bloodborne's chances of getting past Fire Emblem the following round.

Bloodborne - 73.46%
Call of Duty: Black Ops - 26.54%

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Crew Consensus: CoD cant beat this Bloodborne boss fight.


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Huh, people have high expectations for a game that lost to FFXII.

Or we just think so little of Call of Duty now, I guess.

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Master Moltar posted...

Round 1 Bloodborne vs. Call of Duty: Black Ops

Moltars Analysis

At the start of the decade, GameFAQs was kind of into shooters like Halo and Call of Duty. Now? lol

Bloodborne has decent strength, and I expect it to either hold up or have gotten stronger since 2015 since it has remained in the public eye since then. With the decline of CoD on this website (I mean Halo: Reach is around Life is Strange in strength if you want some sort of comparison), Bloodborne should win this match handily.

Multiplayer gaming has gone up in smoke on this site. This is supported by the following polls:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3332-
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5280-

In the first poll, "None, I prefer playing alone" went from 22.02% in 2008 to 57.05% in 2019 by looking at the overall history of that poll.

In the second poll, "Single player, I rarely if ever play with others" went from 30.96% in 2013 to 46.38% in 2020. At the same time, "It's around half of each" went from 21.73% in 2013 to 14.02% in 2020.

Call of Duty's fall from grace on this site is directly tied to multiplayer gaming going up in smoke, since the appeal of CoD is the multiplayer gaming. People play CoD for the multiplayer.

As for why multiplayer gaming went up in smoke on this site - I think this is a product of the increasing average age of this site's users. When much of this site's users is now over 30 and have full time jobs or are now focusing on raising kids, it's much harder to find time to play games online with other people. A combination of full time jobs, raising kids, or doing outdoor activities has made it difficult to arrange an optimal time for playing games with other people. Like, if you tried to set a specific date/time to play a specific game online, you'll find some people who can play at that time, but lots of others who will be busy doing other things.
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Call of Duty's fall from grace on this site is directly tied to multiplayer gaming going up in smoke, since the appeal of CoD is the multiplayer gaming. People play CoD for the multiplayer.

I love this so much

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And that was the year the game came out. Im not sure how well it has aged.

I feel like you have to be pretty out of the loop for Bloodborne to be the game you're worried about not having aged gracefully here. As others have said, Bloodborne continued selling at a clip, acquiring more and more players, and garnering more and more GotD respect, as the decade went on.

And Leon, even assuming Bloodborne hasn't budged since 2015, would you really take FF12 to not even double CoD BlOps on GameFAQs of all sites?

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I mean, if I think CoD BlOps is bad fodder now, I guess!

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I want Danganronpa 2 to beat Resident Evil 2 but that won't happen lol

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Wow INSIDE is really bad

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this result doesnt surprise me, especially with doom eternal recently out. maybe doom can give re2 a run for its money? theyll probably both finish about the same.

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Can you extrapolate a rough percentage for DOOM/INSIDE based on 2016 GOTY polls against Stardew Valley?

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you know, I'd be interested to see people rank the four winners today

we might get weird results

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how could I have had such a blind spot on multiplayer gaming going up in smoke

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The Mana Sword posted...

how could I have had such a blind spot on multiplayer gaming going up in smoke

Would you think the fact the guru favorite to win the next division is a multiplayer game has some relevance now?

Asking for a friend.

transcience posted...

this result doesnt surprise me, especially with doom eternal recently out. maybe doom can give re2 a run for its money? theyll probably both finish about the same.

I think I take Inside over Danganropa

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Multiplayer gaming going up in smoke on this site affects more than just Call of Duty. It means that Overwatch was dead on arrival on this site. Overwatch had no chance to become popular here since so many people weren't willing to try it out because they quit multiplayer gaming or play multiplayer very sparingly these days.
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Hear, hear. I was very interested in Overwatch because it's the spiritual successor to TF2, which I've spent a lot of time playing in college. But I just can't waste time in a game such as Overwatch now.

Overwatch could still win its match against Death Stranding just because it would be a casual bracket favorite, and thus get a lot of free votes from registered users who don't care about either game but have to vote for one of these games due to the forced voting in all matches.
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Wow, DOOM going for blowout of the round.

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This match day has more results over 80% than the entirety of the 2018 contest.

I'd be interested to see what the weakest entrant that reached 87% in contest history is. in my memory, it's just the noble nine and their games.

edit: I guess there's that Resident Evil/Shadow Hearts series match, too.

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transience posted...

I'd be interested to see what the weakest entrant that reached 87% in contest history is. in my memory, it's just the noble nine and their games.

Amaterasu vs Draven

transience posted...

I'd be interested to see what the weakest entrant that reached 87% in contest history is. in my memory, it's just the noble nine and their games.

edit: I guess there's that Resident Evil/Shadow Hearts series match, too.

Amaterasu vs. Draven

I think Zelda got close to 90% on Carmen Sandiego in 2006, too.

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Shame the guest today wasn't soom Doom fanatic who just went for it with 90%!

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Draven's a special case as you know. Zelda's a good call, though I consider her right there in terms of blowout potential.

Doom, I didn't think was in that class, but maybe Inside is just that bad.

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This DOOM result is blowing my mind. INSIDE may not be top-tier indie, but I remember it being pretty well-liked when it first came out.

The fact that Eternal just came out and the Pandemic is keeping everybody inside playing it probably explains this result.

CVF.

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