Board 8 > The top 10 "what if" questions in GameFAQs contests history

(+) Yeah! (+)

I have my issues with the contest over the years, but less Mario and Zelda games is fine by me. I felt the same in 2004 with one nom per generation. sure, FF8 and Majora didn't make it, but that's okay. the bigger issue is that they were replaced by games like Adventure and Phantasy Star that had no chance against anyone.

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No, I have always resisted the idea of a series cap, especially once I saw what people were arguing were "snubs." I argued that lesser games wouldn't get in because Zelda fans probably aren't nominating three Zelda games. A B8 pet project that probably got precious few nominations elsewhere is a bad example because that happens all the time. We didn't get an Ace Attorney game in at all, and I wouldn't argue Allen had it out for them. The fanbase just split noms too much.

And we didn't miss out on anything by not having a Mario Maker game in looking at its 2015 showing. It had its chance and it sucked. Give Ori and Hollow Knight a chance to shine. Those two matches were more exciting than what we'd have gotten from Pokemon Sun/Moon in all likelihood.

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The biggest what if in GotD2 is 'what if Link Between Worlds wasn't massively screwed over'.

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transience posted...

I have my issues with the contest over the years, but less Mario and Zelda games is fine by me. I felt the same in 2004 with one nom per generation. sure, FF8 and Majora didn't make it, but that's okay. the bigger issue is that they were replaced by games like Adventure and Phantasy Star that had no chance against anyone.

Yeah well, it was the same this time really.

Leonhart4 posted...

No, I have always resisted the idea of a series cap, especially once I saw what people were arguing were "snubs." I argued that lesser games wouldn't get in because Zelda fans probably aren't nominating three Zelda games. A B8 pet project that probably got precious few nominations elsewhere is a bad example because that happens all the time. We didn't get an Ace Attorney game in at all, and I wouldn't argue Allen had it out for them. The fanbase just split noms too much.

And we didn't miss out on anything by not having a Mario Maker game in looking at its 2015 showing. It had its chance and it sucked. Give Ori and Hollow Knight a chance to shine. Those two matches were more exciting than what we'd have gotten from Pokemon Sun/Moon in all likelihood.

It sure is convenient how that happened to all the series in the same contest which possibly has the weakest field we've ever seen.

Mario Maker went from being Wii U to now also being a Switch game. Certainly people would have argued against you regardng its strength, while would've made for more fun in a dreaful round 1 even if you are right. That there are people on both sides of this makes it a fine what if discussion too. Hollow Knight and Ori gave us two rare exciting round 1 matches. Having lesser games from big franchises in wouldn't have to be place of those at all but in addition to.

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The one time Zelda didn't get a fair shake in 16 years and no one will forget it!

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It is also convenient that people are arguing on the behalf of weak entries to be in a weak field! Why are you nominating three Zelda games or three Mario games when you only have 10 noms? The only "strong" game I'd argue didn't make it was Smash 4, and there was no excuse for that one! After Brawl missed 2015, I figured it would miss this one.

And don't equate FFVIII and Mario 1 missing a contest with Captain Toad missing a contest. Nothing of value was lost.

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I just like the data. I want to see with my own eyes how Skyward Sword does!

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I like data, too, but I'm also good with Groose being our only contest reference point forever...!

I mean, I'd have been fine with Skyward Sword making it because it wouldn't break the contest, but I don't think the contest was damaged by its exclusion either.

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Some people just want to see a weak Zelda game entry under fair conditions.

At this point the weakest Zelda game to ever get a fair shake in a contest is possibly still stronger than FFX!

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Compared to a contest with rallies, it was perfect.

I'm probably more upset by the exclusion of FFXIII, I find it hard to believe it would be THAT much weaker than XV.

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WarThaNemesis2 posted...

At this point the weakest Zelda game to ever get a fair shake in a contest is possibly still stronger than FFX!

I think I might actually be annoyed if FFX lost to Wind Waker.

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pjbasis posted...

I think I might actually be annoyed if FFX lost to Wind Waker.

I was referring to Link's Awakening, but 46% on FFVI vs. 55% on MMX sounds like it *should* favor Wind Waker?

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I think I'd take them both over LBW. It didn't exactly look fantastic against Bayonetta.

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Well, yes, that's why I included the fair shake part. We could have had someone making a dumb argument about how ZELDA is going to run wild on some silly division, instead it was 'oh so it beats Bayonetta and then gets melted by SFF, yawn'.

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Yeah, I guess you'd have the debates about how deep you take it, but I wonder how many divisions it actually could have won.

But again, I'm not shedding tears over a Zelda game losing in round two!

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Leonhart4 posted...

It is also convenient that people are arguing on the behalf of weak entries to be in a weak field! Why are you nominating three Zelda games or three Mario games when you only have 10 noms? The only "strong" game I'd argue didn't make it was Smash 4, and there was no excuse for that one! After Brawl missed 2015, I figured it would miss this one.

And don't equate FFVIII and Mario 1 missing a contest with Captain Toad missing a contest. Nothing of value was lost.

Lots of people overrepresent one series and they would not have to have nominated all three either. What I equated was losing weaker games from top franchises in place of weaker field entries, which happened both times, I don't believe you think the next Zelda, Mario, Pokmon, FF would lost to everything in the bracket at all.

They don't have to be very strong to make the bracket more exciting. If that's all it was about, we might as well have had a field of 64 instead of 128. We'd only have lost a handful of good matches at best too.

Mario Kart 8 was stronger than everyone thought, even the people that had at reaching the point it did. Then it cannot be said with certainty that all these games we're talking about could not at the very least give round 1 better matches if not flat out win them.

It's not some matter of personal preference, I don't even like SS!

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No, I don't think those games would lose to everything that got in over it, but they're also mediocre games in a mediocre field we're never going to see again, so I'm not going to look back on it and think, "Man, imagine if Lightning Returns had made the contest. That would've really elevated that contest." That's the point. Which game's inclusion actually improves that contest? I'd say only Skyward Sword and then only if it loses in embarrassing fashion. You're arguing for games that maybe win a round, maybe two if they get really fortunate with bracket placement. Big deal. I don't think it's worthy of wondering what would've changed because the answer is probably not much.

And most people had Mario Kart winning two rounds, so was it that much of a surprise? We've seen Mario Kart do well before this, too. 40% on Skyrim was seen as more of a knock on Skyrim than being impressed by Mario Kart (and it's also probably partly the difficulty of western games to put up big numbers on mainline Nintendo. Witcher 3 couldn't get much above 60% on Galaxy 2 either).

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To me, the big difference between 2004 and GotD2 is that 2004 was great despite its limitations. I'm sure it could've been improved, but it was still a great contest.

I'm not sure GotD2 really would've been great, no matter what you did, so I don't care much about what wasn't in it and I'm good with lesser known stuff getting a shot at it as a result.

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Well, I mean, I don't think there is much of a what if to gain from that contest compared to many others, but I firmly believe it would have improved the contest, which had one of the most boring round 1's ever, even if there's no long time loss here.

It was generally seen as a knock on Uncharted first, later Skyrim, in the end Skyrim looked just fine and Mario Kart ended up looking a good bit better than anyone gave it credit for while it was in the contest. Mario Kart was a big part of the reason for people switching to Dark Souls in the semis and I'm sure most would have taken Persona 5 to do better on Witcher than Skyrim at that point.

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ctesjbuvf posted...

Well, I mean, I don't think there is much of a what if to gain from that contest compared to many others, but I firmly believe it would have improved the contest, which had one of the most boring round 1's ever, even if there's no long time loss here.

But that's the thing. I don't think it really makes round 1 any better unless you're planning on setting those games up against each other. You're probably just trading out one blowout for another, and you're not guaranteed that it makes round 2 any better. The field is so weak, and just throwing in third tier Nintendo doesn't fix that problem by much.

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They'd need somewhat high seeds to score blowouts, generally, which I don't think many if any of them would get. In most matches, people picked the top option without thinking twice. I just think this would have made people think twice.

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Coming in late -- fun topic. Biggest question in recent years is CT/LoZ:OoT!

I'll add a few of my own that I didn't see asked directly here (some are variations of things mentioned elsehwere though):

**What if GameFAQs continued with high vote totals?

**What if GameFAQs continued doing two contests a year instead of a contest every two years?

**What if CATS was the only joke character ever allowed?

**What if Mass Effect 3 and Undertale had different opponents?

**What if CDPR rallied for Geralt in 2018?

**What if Jay Solano made it into a regular contest match?

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One of those reminded me, what if CDPR had rallied for Witcher 3 in 2015? They specifically said answered someone and said they would've, but should have been notified in better time because the match was on thanksgiving (or at least close to). It might have been a very close call.

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ctesjbuvf posted...

One of those reminded me, what if CDPR had rallied for Witcher 3 in 2015? They specifically said answered someone and said they would've, but should have been notified in better time because the match was on thanksgiving (or at least close to). It might have been a very close call.

Witcher vs. Undertale would have been a hell of a rally battle at least.

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I mixed up my contests and meant Witcher 3 in 2015, my bad -- that would be the more interesting acenario. My main concern for the question was about what that would have done for prediction rates for Witcher 3 in this year's contest.

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HaRRicH posted...

I mixed up my contests and meant Witcher 3 in 2015, my bad -- that would be the more interesting acenario. My main concern for the question was about what that would have done for prediction rates for Witcher 3 in this year's contest.

It means we would have probably been treated to plucky underdog Breath of the Wild!

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I feel like one was enough

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