Community Game of the Year: The First 10 Years - Results!

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Update: The bestest game of our bests of 2006-2015!

If you can believe it (and even if you can't), 2015 marked a decade of Community Game of the Year votes at GWJ. While we're working on our lists to start the next ten years, I thought it would be interesting to have a sort of runoff vote of 2006-2015's Community GOTYs. What do you think was the bestest game of our bests from the last decade? Was it Orta? Ass Fect? Walk EA? Oh sorry, I was reading the hero image.

The Rules:

  • Rank any or all of the following ten games from best to least-best.
  • Define "best" however you please.
  • That's it!

And here are our GOTYs, the first decade:

2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
2007: Portal (USA, Valve Corporation)
2008: Fallout 3 (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
2009: Dragon Age: Origins (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2010: Mass Effect 2 (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2011: Portal 2 (USA, Valve Corporation)
2012: The Walking Dead (USA, Telltale Games)
2013: BioShock Infinite (USA, Irrational Games/2K Games)
2014: Dragon Age: Inquisition (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2015: Rocket League (USA, Psyonix)

Voting is open from now until December 31 or later, and the result will be posted soon thereafter or sometime after that.

WoW.

It's interesting how RPGs are so loved here. They've really dominated that list.

My ranking:

  1. Dragon Age: Origins (CAN, BioWare/EA)
  2. Fallout 3 (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
  3. Mass Effect 2 (CAN, BioWare/EA) (although ME3 put a torpedo through my love of ME2)
  4. Portal (USA, Valve Corporation)
  5. Portal 2 (USA, Valve Corporation)
  6. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
  7. The Walking Dead (USA, Telltale Games)
  8. Rocket League (USA, Psyonix)
  9. Dragon Age: Inquisition (CAN, BioWare/EA)
  10. BioShock Infinite (USA, Irrational Games/2K Games)

Of that list, B:Inf and DA:I would never have made a top-game list for me. I strongly disliked Infinite's solipsism, and thought DA:I was really bland, uninspired, and just a bad overall experience. Great graphics, great NPCs, boring combat, zero interest in the backbone story.

I replayed Origins this year, when it released DRM-free on GOG, and it is freaking amazing. By any reasonable measure, it was one of the best RPGs ever created. If I had to pick between Origins and Witcher 3, I'd be hard-pressed. I think maybe I'd give the edge to Origins, as amazing an experience as W3 is.

I'm also surprised that W3 didn't make the list, that Rocket League beat it. I'd forgotten about that. I didn't hate RL or anything, but it didn't do much for me.

This reads to me like our GOTY is a lock if there's a Bioware or Bethesda game out in a given year.

Still, VOTING!!!

BEST:
2010: Mass Effect 2 (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2007: Portal (USA, Valve Corporation)
2008: Fallout 3 (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
2012: The Walking Dead (USA, Telltale Games)
2011: Portal 2 (USA, Valve Corporation)
2013: BioShock Infinite (USA, Irrational Games/2K Games)
2009: Dragon Age: Origins (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2015: Rocket League (USA, Psyonix)
WORST

Malor wrote:

It's interesting how RPGs are so loved here. They've really dominated that list.

With the notable exception of Portal and The Walking Dead the games up there are long-ass games (I'm calling Portal 2's fan-made levels and co-op mode potential for it to be long-ass), with tens/hundreds of hours playable. RPGs are the genre that skews long-ass-est, so that makes obvious sense to me.

And the selection of long-ass games makes a lot of sense. Which is the game that stands out in your mind at the end of the year if not the one that you spent the most time with?

Any and all Dark Souls missing obviously makes the list wrong! And Ill casually bring up that Bioshock won against the better game.

With that out of the way

1. Dragon Age: Origins (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2. Portal (USA, Valve Corporation)
3. Mass Effect 2 (CAN, BioWare/EA)
4. Rocket League (USA, Psyonix)
5. The Walking Dead (USA, Telltale Games)
6. Fallout 3 (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
7. Portal 2 (USA, Valve Corporation)
8. Dragon Age: Inquisition (CAN, BioWare/EA)
9. BioShock Infinite (USA, Irrational Games/2K Games)
10. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)

Dragon Age was a revival of good old RPGs when everyone was dragging in other directions. And amazing in its own right. Deserves a top spot.
Portal is one of the most brilliant games ever.
Mass Effect 2. I love Mass Effect, even playing 2 right now, but since Mass Effect 1 was better, it will have to make due with a third place. ME1 would have been top spot.
Rocket League. Really not my 'type' of game. But dear lord it is so awesome. (although, yeah, Witcher 3 should have won that year)
The Walking Dead. Fantastic, and reignited a genre.
Fallout 3. Arguably the weakest Fallout game. Still, it was a good first attempt of Bethesdifying Fallout.
Portal 2. More Portal. It was good, but just not the same as the first time.
Dragon Age Inquisition. Another weaker entry in a series. The world, companions etc was just fine, I love me some Dragon Age, but the gameplay was often fairly bad.
Bioshock Infinite. Great game, but having a hard time among these other games. Beside, it shouldn't have been here at all!
Oblivion was by far the weakest Elders Scroll game and one of my biggest gaming disappointments ever. Some day I really want to give it a try in a heavily modded state. I do believe there is a gem deep inside of it.

Oh good! I needed something to focus on overthinking while still playing games so I could overthink the other thing.

Will be following and researching and posting within hopefully a few days.

Wow, this community has horrible taste.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Wow, this community has horrible taste.

This community has fantastic taste. You're the weirdo, not us.

Best to worst:

2007: Portal (USA, Valve Corporation)
2009: Dragon Age: Origins (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2010: Mass Effect 2 (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2011: Portal 2 (USA, Valve Corporation)
2012: The Walking Dead (USA, Telltale Games)
2013: BioShock Infinite (USA, Irrational Games/2K Games)
2008: Fallout 3 (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
2015: Rocket League (USA, Psyonix)
2014: Dragon Age: Inquisition (CAN, BioWare/EA)

Some decent choices mostly, but no game that I would have chosen as my personal game of their respective year (though some would be close). I probably like the upper half of these. Terrible outcomes the last two years! :p

'tis a silly place.

1. Mass Effect 2 (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2. Portal (USA, Valve Corporation)
3. Dragon Age: Origins (CAN, BioWare/EA)
4. Portal 2 (USA, Valve Corporation)
5. The Walking Dead (USA, Telltale Games)
6. Fallout 3 (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
7. BioShock Infinite (USA, Irrational Games/2K Games)
8. Dragon Age: Inquisition (CAN, BioWare/EA)
9. Rocket League (USA, Psyonix)
10. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)

I'll say this for the list - of the 9 games that have an ending, I've seen credits on 7, and nearly got there on an 8th before I ran out of interest.

Best to less best:

2007: Portal (USA, Valve Corporation)
2010: Mass Effect 2 (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2015: Rocket League (USA, Psyonix)
2011: Portal 2 (USA, Valve Corporation)
2013: BioShock Infinite (USA, Irrational Games/2K Games)
2012: The Walking Dead (USA, Telltale Games)

Don't know, never played, blasphemy:

2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
2008: Fallout 3 (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
2009: Dragon Age: Origins (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2014: Dragon Age: Inquisition (CAN, BioWare/EA)

I never did average in 2015's results, but it's interesting to compare the list of the last ten Community Game of the Year winners with the aggregated scores of 2011-2014. Of the ten winners, only Portal 2 and The Walking Dead remain in the aggregated top ten.

1. Portal
2. Mass Effect 2

I don't care enough about the rest of the games to vote on them.

1. Mass Effect 2 (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2. Dragon Age: Inquisition (CAN, BioWare/EA)
3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
4. Portal (USA, Valve Corporation)
5. Dragon Age: Origins (CAN, BioWare/EA)
6. Portal 2 (USA, Valve Corporation)
7. Fallout 3 (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
8. BioShock Infinite (USA, Irrational Games/2K Games)
9. The Walking Dead (USA, Telltale Games)

Haven't played Rocket League , so I cannot rank it. Sorry! But, it's cool to see 9 of the 10 as games I've played and loved.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Wow, this community has horrible taste.

Yep. History will not be kind to us. Especially the aforementioned lack of Dark Souls. Anyway...

BEST:
2015: Rocket League (USA, Psyonix)
2010: Mass Effect 2 (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2007: Portal (USA, Valve Corporation)
2011: Portal 2 (USA, Valve Corporation)
2013: BioShock Infinite (USA, Irrational Games/2K Games)
2009: Dragon Age: Origins (CAN, BioWare/EA)
2008: Fallout 3 (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (USA, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
2012: The Walking Dead (USA, Telltale Games)
WORST

I loved Oblivion for a long time, the graphics were a huge leap forward from Morrowind. But I can't give it a high score against these heavyweights because of its horrible leveling system. The only game I haven't played on this list is BioShock Infinite, because I'm waiting til I complete BioShock 2. That said, this list has held up very well over the years, they're all highly playable.

1) Dragon Age: Origins. I think people will be discussing this in another 8 years. It's a masterpiece!
2) Portal. This game is fun on so many levels, in 20 years it'll still be called an all time great.
3) Fallout 3. Bethesda had a lot riding on this, and they knocked it out of the park, mostly.
4) The Walking Dead. This is the hit that took Telltale in an interesting direction for storytelling. The story really stays with you. I still miss the main guy, what's-his-name.
5) Dragon Age: Inquisition. A much larger game than Origins, but somehow less memorable. BioWare's first "open world" attempt, if you can call it that. Here's hoping the next installment actually will be.
6) Mass Effect 2. I'm not done with it yet, but such a great balance between action and rpg.
7) Portal 2. Didn't finish this one either, it was good but somehow didn't grab me like the original.
8) Rocket League. The fact that I suck at arcadey games now shouldn't count against RL.
9) BioShock Infinite. I haven't played it yet, so can't really say much.
10) Elder Scrolls: Oblivious Leveling System. I won't go into it.

Alright here's mine:

1. Rocket League (2015)
2. Portal (2007)
3. The Walking Dead (2012)
4. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)
5. Portal 2 (2011)
6. BioShock Infinite (2013)
7. Fallout 3 (2007)
8. Mass Effect 2 (2010)
9. Dragon Age: Origins (2009
10. Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014)

I've only played 3 of the options so here's my vote:

1. Portal 2 Co-op
2. Portal
3. Portal 2
.
..
...
7. I assume BioShock 2: Minerva's Den goes here once I play it
8. BioShock 2 (still not done with it)
9. BioShock
10. BioShock Infinite: Burial At Sea
11. BioShock Infinite: Clash in the Clouds
12. BioShock Infinite

Do what you will with this information

1. The Walking Dead
2. Mass Effect 2
3. Portal
4. Portal 2
5. Dragon Age: Origins
6. Rocket League
7. Dragon Age: Inquisition*
8. BioShock Infinite
9. Fallout 3
10. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

*Haven't had time to go back and finish Inquisition so I might rate it higher if I ever did.

1. Portal (2007)
2. Portal 2 (2011)
3. Rocket League (2015)
4. Bioshock Infinite (2013)
...
10. The Walking Dead (2012)

The rest I wouldn't ever say I could even enjoy, much less put them on a best of list. I've tried Dragon Age Origins and noped out of it in about an hour. I've tried watching some LP's of Mass Effect 2 and Fallout 3 and noped out of those hard. I just do not get Western RPG's.

I still can't believe an indie darling won last year.

I'm still a bit bitter Bioshock Infinite won the other year and it's super high on the list of Metacritic. Bleh.

Oh I missed that we're ranking the community's GOTY best. I thought we were deciding our personal bests from the past ten years.

Well that's gonna be a lot more difficult.

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/N8OXS6RFwnBkI/giphy.gif)
Ranking the rankings!

My votes - though please keep in mind some of these games I never finished.

1. Dragon Age: Origins
2. Mass Effect 2
3. Fallout 3
4. Dragon Age: Inquisition
5. The Walking Dead
6. Portal 2
7. Bioshock Infinite
8. Portal
9. Rocket League - seems like a cool game I just never got into it
10. Oblivion

shoptroll wrote:

Do what you will with this information

IMAGE(http://content.presentermedia.com/files/animsp/00011000/11853/waste_paper_shot_miss_md_wm.gif)

Just kidding! You are the first person to rank Binfinite in their top 3.

ccesarano wrote:

Oh I missed that we're ranking the community's GOTY best. I thought we were deciding our personal bests from the past ten years.

Well that's gonna be a lot more difficult.

I figured this would be easier: everyone has the same ten games (that we collectively decided on), drop the ones you didn't play, and rank the rest. I'd be down for something like Community Best of the Seventh Generation of Video Games 2005-2013, but I'd imagine reaching a consensus or widely-accepted top pick would be a quandary. Or it would just be a BioWare/Valve game.

Spoiler:

I don't like these choices. But my top ten rarely make it into the community's, so that's to be expected.

That said, here's my ranking of the ones I've played:

  1. Mass Effect 2*
  2. Portal 2**
  3. Portal
  4. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion***
  5. The Walking Dead
  6. Rocket League
  7. BioShock Infinite****

*except they took my favorite alien away until the DLC, the monsters!
**more staying power in my mind than original - sorry purists!
***mostly for the Thieves Guild questline!
****meh!

My Top 5. I loved all these games and have finished all of them more than once:
1. Fallout 3
2. Portal
3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
4. Portal 2
5. Dragon Age: Origins

Unranked:
Mass Effect 2 - I never made it through Mass Effect 1. I keep meaning to get through these games someday.
The Walking Dead - I avoided this because I think I'd get too much anxiety about the choices I'd have to make in it.
BioShock Infinite - I played a bit, maybe half(?), of this. Had a hard time getting into it despite liking the previous games.
Dragon Age: Inquisition -I think the second DA turned me off of this series even though I loved the first one. So I didn't follow if this was worth getting, though I guess if it was GOTY here, I maybe should look into it.
Rocket League -haven't played.

I've played all the games on that list, but there is only one bona fide classic, that I've replayed several times:

Portal (USA, Valve Corporation)

It was a triumph. I'm making a note here, huge success.

Gravey wrote:

I figured this would be easier: everyone has the same ten games (that we collectively decided on), drop the ones you didn't play, and rank the rest. I'd be down for something like Community Best of the Seventh Generation of Video Games 2005-2013, but I'd imagine reaching a consensus or widely-accepted top pick would be a quandary. Or it would just be a BioWare/Valve game.

Oh no doubt! But I'm no stranger to going back and naval-gazing. Back around I think 2010 I did a series of ten posts looking back on 2000-2010 to suss out what, to me, were big games and industry events (hint: I don't pay overly much to industry stuff unless it's related to a specific game so not so much of that). So going back to research, examine and compare, I was totally prepped to make a new list.

In fact, I was going to do two! One with just my top ten games in general, and one of what I considered the most notable game of that year!

But you've saved everyone from that horror. So I shall instead post my list of GWJer's top picks.

Malor wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Wow, this community has horrible taste.

This community has fantastic taste. You're the weirdo, not us.

Not the weirdo. No weirdo.

You're the weirdo.

Gravey wrote:

Just kidding! You are the first person to rank Binfinite in their top 3.

IMAGE(http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/011/767/35nksf.jpg)

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