1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die

[AppleQueso]

Seems to me like the author just picked an arbitrary number that sounded impressive and struggled to fill the list out once he exhausted is personal favorites and areas of expertise.

the "author" is like 10 people.

oh okay then, in that case:

Seems to me like the authors just picked an arbitrary number that sounded impressive and struggled to fill the list out once they exhausted their personal favorites and areas of expertise.

[MrEco]

As others have pointed out, some of the entries in that book baffle me for a few reasons.


However, I'm addicted to game lists. Would anyone hate me if I started a thread where Racketboy members could sort of vote on our own top 1000?

[cha cha]

I don't think anyone has the time to really deliberate over ONE THOUSAND games on a list man...

It'd just end up being a bias and odd looking list, like the one we are picking apart now. People will get burnt out too easily debating and conjuring hundreds of their favorite games... When we are talking hundreds of games, how is it even possible to keep down a method for selection? We'd create criteria and constantly have to change it to fit all the thousands of variables into the scope of a sensible list. It'd be a fool's task for sure.

Why not make like 101 games you need to play before you die or even 250 (and that is a boatload of trouble)? But not 1001, c'mon man.

I am almost certain the guys who made that list did it just for the attention they'd get compiling such a list and having it look even quasi-respectable. I think, like others have said in this very thread, they ran out of material 1/8 of the way through and filled the rest with names from a bunch of classic gaming articles and some VGprice charts system lists lol.

[MrEco]

Yeah, something like 100 or 200 would be far more reasonable, and help avoid random "pretty good" type of games that might get put in for the sake of filling space.

And I was thinking something like everyone can only pick one game per post, maybe you can only make one post per hour or something, and you'd -have- to give a detailed reason for the game being added.

[AppleQueso]

We've done tons of those "top 100 ___" threads before, and even with asking people to provide reasons and descriptions they still end up being mostly pretty aimless.

[noiseredux]

We've done tons of those "top 100 ___" threads before, and even with asking people to provide reasons and descriptions they still end up being mostly pretty aimless.

Galaga.

[Ack]

We've done tons of those "top 100 ___" threads before, and even with asking people to provide reasons and descriptions they still end up being mostly pretty aimless.

You know, you could instead ask a couple of established and respected members of the community to give their personal thoughts on what games people should experience. In fact, several members have already attempted to approach such a task.

The thing about this is that it is a book trying to lift success from 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, which is wonderful but also pulls material from a century's worth of films. If this book were to cap off at 2010, it would have only ~40 years worth of games in which to do the same thing. A proper proportional ratio would actually be about 400 titles which, while still daunting, is considerably easier.

[AppleQueso]

I think a really good 1001 list is doable, even at the current age of the medium. You'd just need a really broad team with complimentary areas of expertise I think.

[Ack]

In that case, you could organize a group made up of individuals with diverse interests in various genres and give them a quota, say 25-50 titles in any particular genre over the course of its history, with representations of various sub-genres but also historically and culturally significant titles. Once compiled, let the other members of a group consider each person's genre list and make suggestions or criticisms, along with explanations as to their thoughts.

But that's if you really want to try an organized group approach.

[Gamerforlife]

I understand some of the negative feedback in this thread(the fact that Resident Evil 5 is on that list is a joke), but man I can't hate on this list because I just really appreciate the way it goes outside the box with some of its picks. Any list can have games like Uncharted 2, Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Mario, etc, etc, etc.

But seeing games like The Dishwasher Dead Samurai, Crush, Chibi Robo, Metal Arms, Freedom Fighters, Subterrania, or FREAKING STRETCH PANIC...

That's pretty shocking. I just like seeing a list that seems compiled by people who actually know something about gaming, because your average joe gamer hasn't even heard of those titles. And as someone whose tastes generally gravitate towards niche, obscure or indie titles, I can get behind that.

And yet, seeing something like WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010 on there shows that these guys aren't too snobby either. It's a nice balanced list in its representation of different genres and both well known and more obscure titles. But yeah, I don't agree with every entry on it but no list is going make everyone happy