The GWJ CRPG Club - Part 1 - Old Thread

My list is:

1. Baldur’s Gate 2
2. Expeditions: Vikings
3. Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire
4. Dragon Age 2

I’ll compile the first checklist later on this evening after work.

Baldur's Gate 2
Skyrim
Pillar of Eternity II: Deadfire
Dragon Age 2

Baldur's Gate 2
Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Pillar of Eternity II: Deadfire
Dragon Age 2

Game 18: Ranked Choice Voting

So, 24 hours in and we have a clear early favourite, with "Greatest cRPG ever!" taking an early lead. Still plenty of time for more, every game has at least 1 top placed vote.

Baldur's Gate 2 - 4 Votes
Skyrim - 2 Votes
Torchlight - 2 Votes
Expeditions: Vikings: 1 Vote
Dragon Age 2 - 1 Vote
Shadowrun: Hong Kong - 1 Vote
Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire - 1 Vote

Candidate List for ease of voting

Spoiler:

Baldurs Gate 2
Skyrim
Expeditions: Vikings
Dragon Age 2
Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire

Candidate Information

How to Vote

Spoiler:

1. Please rank the candidates in your order of preference of play, with the game you want to play the most at the top of your list.

2. You may rank as many games as you’d like. You do not need to rank all the games. However, keep in mind that a game in the bottom half of your ranking could win. Ranking at least all the games you would play is a good idea.

3. If you do not want to rank a particular game, please make sure to delete/omit it from your list. (Don’t simply leave the unranked games at the bottom of your list.)

How We’ll Determine a Winner - Elimination Style

Basically, we’ll keep running through the rankings, eliminating the game with the lowest number of top-preference votes, until we have one game that has gotten a majority of the votes. I could write a bazillion words to explain details, but this one-minute video does it better than that:

*For elimination rounds, if we have ties at the bottom of the voting pile, I'll break them by looking at second place votes, so we only eliminate one game each elimination round.

I've just noticed that the Epic Games Store is currently having a Spring Sale.

Baldurs Gate 2: Enhanced Edition is available for 80% off
Torchlight is available for 50% off
Expeditions: Viking is available for 75% off

None of the other games are either available on the Epic Game Store, or are not included in the sale. The sale ends on 7th April.

24 Hours to go!

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/1Zbeweu52ZaQE/giphy.gif)

Here are my votes Sorbicol!

Skyrim
Baldur's Gate 2
PoE Deadfire
Expedition: Vikings

So, 4 and a bit hour siren warning. After jdzappa’s votes the standings are now:

Baldur's Gate 2 - 4 Votes
Skyrim - 3 Votes
Torchlight - 2 Votes
Expeditions: Vikings: 1 Vote
Dragon Age 2 - 1 Vote
Shadowrun: Hong Kong - 1 Vote
Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire - 1 Vote

Will some last minute voting lead to Skyrim taking the lead? Will one of the 1 Vote no hopers suddenly surge ahead? Or will Baldur’s Gate 2 resist all comers and ride off into the Sunset and the cRPG Club game 18 title?

Come back some time after 7pm (GMT) to find out……

One hour warning. I repeat, one hour warning.

I’ll try and make it more fun than the World Cup draw currently taking place.

Edit: Times Up. I’ll do the voting later once I’ve finish my evening chores.

Game 18 Ranked Choice Voting - Results

Round 1
Voters: 13

Candidates

Baldur's Gate 2 - 4 Votes
Skyrim - 3 Votes
Torchlight - 2 Votes
Expeditions: Vikings: 1 Vote
Dragon Age 2 - 1 Vote
Shadowrun: Hong Kong - 1 Vote
Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire - 1 Vote

Total Votes: 13
Leader Has Majority: No

Notes:

With 4 games all with one first choice vote, we look to the second choice votes to decide who to eliminate:

2nd Choice Votes:

Expeditions: Vikings: 3 Votes
Dragon Age 2: 2 Votes
Shadowrun: Hong Kong - 1 Vote
Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire - 0 Votes

Therefore Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire bites the dust. It had plenty of 3rd choice votes but not enough to save the game.

Game 18 Ranked Choice Voting - Results

Round 2
Candidates

Baldur's Gate 2 - 5 Votes
Skyrim - 3 Votes
Torchlight - 2 Votes
Expeditions: Vikings: 1 Vote
Dragon Age 2 - 1 Vote
Shadowrun: Hong Kong - 1 Vote

Total Votes: 13
Leader Has Majority: No

Notes:

The vote from PoE II is rolled up to Baldur's Gate 2, resulting in a slight stretch of it's lead. Still not enough for a majority, so we go back to the remaining 1 vote games and look at who to eliminate next.

2nd Choice Votes:

Expeditions: Vikings: 3 Votes
Dragon Age 2: 2 Votes
Shadowrun: Hong Kong - 1 Vote

With just the single vote, Shadowrun: Hong Kong is the next game to bite the dust - you may note a certain theme here. I'm not complaining, it makes the whole process easier!

Game 18 Ranked Choice Voting - Results

Round 3
Candidates

Baldur's Gate 2 - 5 Votes
Skyrim - 3 Votes
Torchlight - 2 Votes
Expeditions: Vikings: 2 Vote
Dragon Age 2 - 1 Vote

Total Votes: 13
Leader Has Majority: No

Notes:

This time, with Shadowrun eliminated, it's vote is rolled up to Expeditions: Viking. A Surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. With Dragon Age 2 now being the single remaining game with a single 1st choice vote, it is now also eliminated from the results.

Game 18 Ranked Choice Voting - Results

Round 4
Candidates

Baldur's Gate 2 - 5 Votes
Skyrim - 4 Votes
Torchlight - 2 Votes
Expeditions: Vikings: 2 Votes

Total Votes: 13
Leader Has Majority: No

Notes:

Now we get down into the nitty-gritty of the elimination stages. Finger Nails are chewed, strong people turn pale, sweat can be seen leaking from brows. The DA2 vote is rolled up to Skyrim, hanging on to the coat tails of BG2 with grim determination.

With Torchlight and Expeditions: Viking equal on 2 votes each, we go back to the second choice votes to determine who will stay and who will go......

2nd Choice Votes:

Expeditions: Vikings: 3 Votes
Torchlight: 1 Vote

Expeditions: Viking hangs on with deathly finality, but the writing appears to be on the wall. Torchlight has been extinguished.

Game 18 Ranked Choice Voting - Results

Round 5
Candidates

Baldur's Gate 2 - 7 Votes
Skyrim - 4 Votes
Expeditions: Vikings - 2 Votes

Total Votes: 13
Leader Has Majority: YES

Notes:

With Dragon Age 2 having already been eliminated, both of Torchlights remaining votes are rolled up and leave Skyrim reeling. The masses have spoken (well, at least 13 have.)

The next game for the Gamers With Jobs cRPG club will be the game widely acknowledged as one of the Greatest Of All Time, the GOAT of cRPGs, Baldur's Gate 2

Speaking as someone who has already sunk over 150 hours into the Baldur's gate 3 Early Access, it probably really is about time I got around to playing this and actually finishing it.

I'll get the game thread up in a moment. For now, more beer.

Thank you, Sorbicol!

Nice work Sorbicol. Let's get this party started!

Sorbicol wrote:

Game Thread is up

Thanks so much for taking this and running with it while I vanished again, Sorbicol! I was so happy to see that this has continued. My apologies - again - for the disappearance. I've reached out via DM.

I've been pretty heavily focused on some different gaming adventures (tabletop wargaming, YouTube) for the past year or more and have obviously not done a good job of supporting the GWJ CRPG Club over this time. I kept convincing myself that I'd be able to do all the things, but it's clear that I can't.

With that in mind, Sorbicol and I have been chatting a bit and he has graciously agreed to take leadership of the GWJ CRPG Club. I'm very excited that the club will be moving forward and that he'll be taking on the role!

It's been a ton of fun to do this, and thank you to everyone who has participated, offered ideas, voted and played over the past four years. It's been a great pleasure to get to know everyone in this club and to play these games together.

I do hope to continue to play the games as time allows, and to be around more than I have in the past year.

Over the next few days, Sorbicol and I will be transitioning this thread into a new thread so that he'll have control over a first post. At 100+ pages, it's probably a good idea to start a new thread anyway.

Thank you again for all the fun!

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Thank you again for all the fun!

It's been an honor and a privilege, yadda yadda.

In other CRPG news, 7 bucks gets you three amazing (old) games on Steam. I assume everyone here already has these, but I'm posting just in the off chance that someone reading this somehow doesn't have Neverwinter Nights, Planescape Torment, or Icewind Dale (Enhanced Editions for each of those).

Thanks for all the work you've put in over the years, Godzilla Blitz.

Thanks, merphle and Math! It's been great fun to do. Pleasure's all mine.

Hi All - New thread will be up over the weekend, I'm slightly unexpectedly heading out for some beers this evening.

This club is off to a flying start under new management!

Sorbicol wrote:

Hi All - New thread will be up over the weekend, I'm slightly unexpectedly heading out for some beers this evening.

This club is off to a flying start under new management!

I can say that beer was an integral part of the first four years of this club, so this is bright news indeed.

I only occasionally participated, and sometimes never even really got to the games I voted for (Wasteland 2 - which I still intend to get to, and Arcanum...sorry about the latter), but also wanted to say thank you to GB for all the work you put in over the years.
Because of this club, I finished some games that had been on my pile forever (Jade Empire - hadn't even started it, and Vampire: Bloodlines - finished a 15 year old save!), and discovered two I probably would never have played otherwise (Shadowrun: Dragonfall, and The Banner Saga).

So enjoy your well deserved retirement, and I look forward to seeing where Sorbicol takes the club! Will we finally see Alpha Protocol?

Thanks AUs_TBirD!

I finished so many games I wouldn't have gotten through as well. It's great to hear that a good number of us here had the same thing happen.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Thanks AUs_TBirD!

I finished so many games I wouldn't have gotten through as well. It's great to hear that a good number of us here had the same thing happen.

Some great replays (Baldur’s Gate, Dragon Age)
Some games I wanted to play but hadn’t got around to (Pillars, Tyranny, Witcher 3)
A few I hadn’t even though to try that turned out amazing (Dragonfall and the Divinity games)
The only one I couldn’t connect with at all was Wasteland 2.

Thanks for everything GB and thanks Sorbicol for picking up the reins.

Also someone level me up for finishing Deus Ex

As we wrap up GWJ CRPG Club, verson 1.0, here's my unsolicited tier ranking of the games I played with the club:

S- Disco Elysium
A- Torment: Tides of Numenera, Divinity Original Sin 2
B- Banner Saga, Tyranny
C- The Outer Worlds, Wasteland 2
D- Pillars of Eternity

If I were to retroactively plug in games I've won previously, Witcher 3, Dragon Age: Origins and maybe Shadowrun: Dragonfall would all be S tier as well. I'd still give the top crown to Disco Elysium though.

Deus Ex and Vampire would firmly be an A. Divinity OS1 probably a B. I couldn't fairly rank the Baldur's Gate games or Jade Empire- too long ago.

Thanks for running it, Godzilla Blitz!

Redherring wrote:

Thanks for everything GB and thanks Sorbicol for picking up the reins.

Also someone level me up for finishing Deus Ex :P

gewy wrote:

Thanks for running it, Godzilla Blitz!

It's been nothing but fun for me.

And we got you, Redherring! Sorbicol and I were talking on Friday about carryover finishers who weren't updated, and your name is on the list.

Main Thread, Part 2 is Up.

May I humbly request you post anything new there otherwise it will get terribly messy. Once we're settled I'll ask Amoebic to lock this thread.

Thanks!