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What is the most influential game of every decade?

M

mazpratim

Member
My choices:

1970s: Pong - First mainstream/commercially successful video game, had a ton of clones, helped establish the video game industry and arcade machines

1980s: Super Mario Bros - Revived console market in NA, popularized side-scrollers, popularized main characters having more personality/background

1990s: Doom - Popularized the FPS genre, kickstarted the modding community, helped grow online multiplayer and K&B controls

2000s: Grand Theft Auto III - Popularized the open world sandbox, licensed music/radio, geared gaming more towards adults

2010s: Minecraft - Influenced a lot of crafting/survival games, helped gaming videos and streaming really take off, helped indie games grow even further

Let me know if you disagree with these choices or if any facts are wrong because I'm not really too knowledgeable about video game history. Also tell me some influential games before the 70s because I don't know much about those.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
2000s would have to be World of Warcraft, I think. MMOs and MMO-like aspects have seeped into every orifice of gaming ("games as a service," etc). GTA (and DotA) would have to be there somewhere close, though.

Otherwise I'd call it good.
 
R

Raylan Targaryen

Member
2000's - Grand Theft Auto. Runner up would be Call of Duty but since that only started with CoD4, and GTA III released earlier in the decade it gets the nod.

2010's - Minecraft. As a PC gamer I would say Day Z is a close second. Bunch of survival games started popping up and I might be wrong but feel that also helped lead into the Battle Royale genre of games like H1Z1, Battlegrounds, The Culling, etc.
 
M

Mr.Fletcher

Member
Modern Warfare, Gears of War, Uncharted, Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time all have some claim to fame in their respective decades.

The last two games basically created a blueprint for 3D movement and action that every game since has followed.
 
B

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
80s - Super Mario Bros

90s - Final Fantasy VII

00s - Call of Duty Modern Warfare

10s - GTAV

Contemplated replacing MW with Resident Evil 4 but the lasting effects of MW are still felt to this day.
 
B

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
90s feels hard to pin down as it was a very progressive decade, the excess amount of mascot platformers as a result of Mario and Sonic, the rise of 3D gaming (so maybe Mario 64 for its controls) to Counter-Strike right at the end in 1999 for online play (though this was the mod, the Valve release was 2000). There's even Pokémon, which pushed the whole collecting craze which companies are still chasing to this day (as well as releasing two version of one game). In fact I'd even make a case for Nokia's version of Snake, which basically help start the mobile gaming industry.
 
J

jonjonaug

Member
Some decades it's hard to just pick one game.

70s: Pong brings video games into the home
80s: Super Mario Bros launches with the Nintendo Entertainment System in the USA, revitalizes failing industry
90s: Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time basically invent how to do third-person games in 3D good, inventing camera/lock-on/proper movement/level design/lots of other gameplay design paradigms that a ton of games since have taken from in some way. Doom and Quake take graphical and gameplay design for first person games to the next level.
00s: Grand Theft Auto 3 popularizes open world design and elements of it have been seen elsewhere, for good and ill, ever since. World of Warcraft takes MMOs to the next level.
10s: Uh...dunno yet, decade's still not over. Let's see if BOTW changes up how designers think about properly interacting systems in video games or if everyone goes "that's too hard". Otherwise Minecraft or Skyrim. I've seen quite a few developers cite Skyrim in thinking about design for their own games.
 
M

MetroidPrimeRib

Banned
00s is the one extremely difficult one. The others are fairly cut and dry. for the 90s the argument could be made for Mario 64 and Ocarina but I'd still give it to Doom. 10s is Minecraft and it's not even close.

The 00s are split between WoW, Grand Theft Auto 3, WarCraft 3 cuz of Dota and Call of Duty 4
 
C

cryptosporidium

Member
the 90s seems the hardest, you got Doom, SM64, OOT, MGS1, SSF2, and then a bunch of SNES games as well


actually for the 90s Id probably say Super Street Fighter 2 or whichever one added combos to fighting games.
 
R

RootCause

Member
The jury is out on 2010. So far I'd give the Nodge to Minecraft, lots of games have been influenced that game.

2000 Belongs to RE4 , in my opinion.
 
V

Visualante2

Member
-tetsuo- said:
Modern Warfare has some claim to the 2000s
Click to expand...
Modern Warfare's campaign leaned heavily on Valve's success in story telling and Halo's success in console FPS. I don't think much of the XP elements either. Not to diminish its success but I feel like it is going out of fashion slowly.
 
N

NinjaCoachZ

Member
Boiling it down to just one is insanely tough. Top three could be done but just one...

Especially for the 90s. Like you mention Doom for FPSes, but that was influenced by Wolfenstein, and they paved the way for Half-Life and things like that... In 3D, it's no contest that Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, and FFVII are up there. If you put a gun to my head I'd say Mario, but it can't be overstated the impact the latter two had either.

With this gen in particular what's the most influential is going to depend on criteria too. Open-world as the big trend this gen was probably kicked off by Skyrim, but Minecraft is huge for really codifying the trend of massive-scale indie games that can go toe-to-toe with the "AAA", and showed the strength of streaming games as a platform. (EDIT: Plus Minecraft is no slouch when it comes to making a big, free world either.)

And then something like League of Legends (though that's 2009) and DOTA 2 and stuff like that are massive in making eSports and Twitch mainstream in this decade too. Though even that can be traced back to Warcraft and Starcraft.

I do feel like having a top three or something would be the way to go. I think it's probably impossible to choose just one per decade.
 
M

Metalgus

Banned
80ies: Super Mario Bros
90ies: Super Mario 64
00ies: GTA III? Call of Duty?
10ies: Minecraft? Angry Birds?

Edit : Angry Birds came out in 2009 but I think it shaped the mobile games environment for the coming decade.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
I think something to keep in mind for 2010s is that while League and DotA had a big effect, Minecraft has been meteoric. I've never played it, and yet I can't help but respect how it beat Lego to the digital punch. (And yeah, I know both the former games originated in the 2000s category, but they didn't really ascend until later.)

Like, Minecraft has been everywhere, ports everywhere, merch, unofficial merch, a thousand derivates, and has been the gateway to gaming for a generation or two of folks. It also played (I would imagine) a huge part in popularising in-development/Early Access business models. And it was a tiny indie game to begin with. It has moved veritable mountains to get where it is.
 
J

jdstorm

Banned
2010s Little Big Planet

Its Play Create and Share philosophy can largely make it seem a precursor to the Minecraft craze that hit this decade as well as numerous sharing features now being standard across the industry

2000s WOW

Changed MMOs into the themepark style that currently exists. Did a lot to establish the games as a service model that many publishers target today. Was also responsible for the creation of the MOBA genre

1990s. Umm... so much change happened its hard to place it down to one game

1980s and Earlier. No Idea
Edit: Super Mario Bros and Pong seem like good choices.
 
M

Mandoric

Banned
'90s - Final Fantasy VII. Not for its visual cues, not for its game design cues, but for being the first AAA game. First $50m+ budget, first $100m+ ad budget, first (postcrash?) western marketing of a game on mass-market consumer products rather than rebranding-friendly children's products; before Dewritos, Cloud was on Pepsi bottles. It proved the development and marketing metaphor that reigned supreme for the following 20 years across all genres, so as much as I think Doom was the better game... yeah.

jdstorm said:
2000s WOW

Changed MMOs into the themepark style that currently exists. Did a lot to establish the games as a service model that many publishers target today. Was also responsible for the creation of the MOBA genre
Click to expand...

I'd agree WoW was really influential even beyond its genre, and the best choice for the '00s, but it also launched a year after DotA released (itself building on Aeon of Strife) so we can't really give it credit for MOBAs.
 
K

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
Doing this by full decades served no practical purpose, outside of adding difficulty.

The 90s in particular saw massively influential games, across every genre.

Doom, Street Fighter 2, Metal Gear Solid, Zelda OoT, Final Fantasy VII
 
B

Breads

Banned
80s: Super Mario Bros
90s: Quake
00s: Counter Strike
10s: Dota (retroactively influential as it first came out in early 00s but didn't have massive mindshare until almost a decade later)
 
S

SatoAilDarko

Member
00's: Wii Sports

Sold over 100 million of a console and may have saved Nintendo.

Both Microsoft and Sony followed with their own motion controllers. With Microsoft's being very successful.

Which directly lead to Microsoft bundling Kinect with Xbox One with the system and having a more general entertainment focus. All of which cost them deal against the PS4 and is why the console race is the way it is today.
 
J

jdstorm

Banned
Mandoric said:
'90s - Final Fantasy VII. Not for its visual cues, not for its game design cues, but for being the first AAA game. First $50m+ budget, first $100m+ ad budget, first (postcrash?) western marketing of a game on mass-market consumer products rather than rebranding-friendly children's products; before Dewritos, Cloud was on Pepsi bottles. It proved the development and marketing metaphor that reigned supreme for the following 20 years across all genres, so as much as I think Doom was the better game... yeah.



I'd agree WoW was really influential even beyond its genre, and the best choice for the '00s, but it also launched a year after DotA released (itself building on Aeon of Strife) so we can't really give it credit for MOBAs.
Click to expand...

Didnt know that. Might have to change that to whatever Warcraft game led to both WOW and MOBAs
 
M

mazpratim

Member
After reading some posts, I think I agree that WoW is more influential than GTA3
K.Jack said:
Doing this by full decades served no practical purpose, outside of adding difficulty.

The 90s in particular saw massively influential games, across every genre.

Doom, Street Fighter 2, Metal Gear Solid, Zelda OoT, Final Fantasy VII
Click to expand...

I was originally thinking of doing it per genre but there's way too many genres or subgenres to do that.
 
M

Madness

Member
Mr.Fletcher said:
Modern Warfare, Gears of War, Uncharted, Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time all have some claim to fame in their respective decades.

The last two games basically created a blueprint for 3D movement and action that every game since has followed.
Click to expand...

Halo 2 over Gears. Think about how influential it was with Live and their matchmaking when you play games like Overwatch, CoD, TitanFall today.
 
S

Sword Of Doom

Member
I think GTA III is the one for the 2000's. At least for me I was blown away by that game and vice city and that same formula is still present in games.
 
M

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
The 2000s absolutely belong to GTA3 in this instance. WoW wasn't particularly influential outside of its genre in comparison to the open world explosion that just about everything has been touched by.
 
W

watershed

Banned
SatoAilDarko said:
00's: Wii Sports

Sold over 100 million of a console and may have saved Nintendo.

Both Microsoft and Sony followed with their own motion controllers. With Microsoft's being very successful.

Which directly lead to Microsoft bundling Kinect with Xbox One with the system and having a more general entertainment focus. All of which cost them deal against the PS4 and is why the console race is the way it is today.
Click to expand...
This makes pretty good sense.
 
T

True Fire

Member
I'd split this by 5 year increments.

The Witcher 3 has a tight grasp over 2015-2020. I imagine Cyberpunk will be the benchmark from 2020-2025.
 
C

CaviarMeths

Member
I might give the 90s to Mario 64, but Doom or Quake are good answers too. It's absolutely one of those though. Ocarina of Time is the only thing that comes close, but even that was derivative of Mario.

2000s is harder to pin down due to several landmark games in different genres. I'd say GTA3 and Halo: CE were both colossally influential in their respective fields.
 
socksfelloff

socksfelloff

Member
70s goes to pong

80s is either Pacman or Mario Bros

90s is the tough one. For me the most influential game was DOOM but I feel like its a toss up between doom,mario 64,zelda oot,street fighter 2 and maybe sonic. Sonic, and sega, made gaming cool. Hell even Mortal Kombat left its mark on the gaming industry forever.

2000's goes to WoW, counterstrike and DOTA.

2010s goes to minecraft for putting indies on the map
 
R

red720

Member
I like the OP's list. Hard to argue with Pong, but alternatives for the 70s could be Space Invaders or Colossal Cave or Zork.
 
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