Guitar Hero – launched at least two huge franchises of cooperative party games

Sorcerer – vanguard of the indie RPG movement, which has influenced every RPG since (including D&D4e)

Lord of the Rings – neither the first nor best co-operative board game, but led to a trend that continues a decade later

Wii Sports – a runner-up maybe, but this is the game even my mother-in-law plays, and that makes it pretty significant
.-= James´s last blog ..Open Game Table =-.

This stuff reminds me of movies and how lame all the new action ones are to me.

This thread made me realize how sad PC gaming had become in the past decade. So many great games in the 90′s, ones that are so good that nothing in the 2000-2009 actually surpassed: games like Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, HL1, Doom, Quake, UT, Tribes, Deus Ex, Thief etc.

2000-2009 had been:
-blind, sad push on graphics
-dumbing down of game mechanics
-rise of console gaming (which contributes to the above stated dumbing down of games)
-appearance of DLC (which also has to do with console gaming)

This is the decade when console gaming killed PC gaming.

(now to get the guy who got me into Magic to play Yu-Gi-Oh)
.-= Lunatyk´s last blog ..Settings =-.

It was supposed to herald in a new era in engine and graphics technology.

Poor Bungie will never get to compete with iD, Epic, and Crytek thanks to Microsoft.

And don’t go trying to run any non-Direct-X (OpenGL) games on any Xboxes, or any Halo Engines on any more modern AMD systems than were available at the time (1.2 TBirds/GForce3′s VS. my Athlon64 2.2 and Radeon X1600 Pro 512).

And you can thank Microsoft for nothing; it was all Bungie.

Oh, and the ever popular game of:
- Get the cat off my lap so I can type on my laptop without a hairy ass backing up into my face.

That’s not so much a game as a sport.
.-= Graham´s last blog ..Wherein CAB Pretends to be a Professional of Sorts =-.

- Dominion
- Rock Band
- Are You The Traitor?
- Drinking Fluxx (ok, it’s not released, but we’ve playtested it a lot!)

Oh, and the ever popular game of:
- Get the cat off my lap so I can type on my laptop without a hairy ass backing up into my face.
.-= E. Foley – Geek’s Dream Girl´s last blog ..Why I’m Not Seeing Avatar =-.

The original Half-Life came out in 1998, and so was beyond the scope of this article. While Half-Life 2 was a great game, it did not have the importance of the original, which is what this article is about. In fact, the Destructoid list you praise has this to say:

The original Half-Life really raised the bar in terms of what a first-person shooter could do — more specifically, how a solid story could be presented from a first-person perspective. Half-Life 2 maintains this stellar presentation and continues the story of never-seen, crowbar-wielding protagonist Gordon Freeman

Emphasis mine- while HL2 was great, it was HL that was the important game.

As for your always entertaining use of the term “fanboi”, I don’t like all the games on this list. I’ve never even played Yu-Gi-Oh. Perhaps you’re confusing “Most Important” with “Best” or “My Favorite” despite it being in the article title.

And while I’m sure the Destructoid list is fine, this article is about games in general, not just video games. That means the scope is wider, and so isn’t as comprehensive about every category of game.

Oh well, at least he got WoW right.

If someone wants to see a truely good list that makes sense, visit Destructoid. Best list I’ve seen yet. Those guys take off their fanboi glasses and look at what titles did for their genre and the industry as a whole (and even pop culture).

Get a clue “The Game”.

shadow: Guitar Hero just barely missed making it. Had I been able to do a little more research to do the writeup it would probably be on the list.

Banana: Clearly, “Win, Lose, or Banana” is just flat out the most important game of all time, period.

Happy New Year!

For instance, I’d argue that Dominion is The Matrix of board games. It brought together several innovations of the past decade and created something better than the sum of its parts. But did it define a genre or refine it.

WoW, while not the first MMORPG, really blew all others out of the water. Eve Online though also presents a persistent business model. Hell that company bought White Wolf!

Oh and happy new year! Great post BTW.
.-= The Chatty DM´s last blog ..Chatty’s Year 2009 and the Importance of the Tribe =-.

M&M may not have sold as many copies as D&D, but I think it had a huge impact on the rpg community. I can’t think of many gamers who don’t claim it is the best of the d20 based games and what the d20 system should have been.

Final Fantasy X because I know quite a few parents that took control of their kids PS2 systems to play this game. Long before the Wii the game caught the attention of a lot of non-gamers. Besides FFVII I think X was probably the best and brightest of the series.

Heroscape brought RPGs, miniature gaming and family game night together better than almost any game I know of. Sure the game pretty much bombed in the mainstream, but I think that it as well as Mage Knight and Heroclix, may have influenced play in 4e. Plus the game was just awesome and you could use the pieces for your next rpg campaign. It was an all purpose gamers game.
.-= Geek Gazette´s last blog ..Hero 5e Sale =-.

Eve Online is another one that deserves recognition. Even if you’ve never played it, reading about all the shit that goes on in there is fascinating, due to the mafia-like cartels formed by players and laissez-faire (sp?) attitude of the developers.

Duke Nukem Forever’s from the last decade, but notable in that it lasted for almost this entire decade as well and only just finally died for good.
.-= Asmor´s last blog ..Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition =-.

Bah! Goldeneye is still the best console FPS!

/me ducks
.-= Graham´s last blog ..Wherein CAB Pretends to be a Professional of Sorts =-.