LogFAQs > #939683877

Reflection and Final Thoughts:

I'm pretty happy with how this project turned out, as a whole. Maybe the 'Headliner-Bust' system didn't entirely work out as intended; the whole point of it was to be able to zoom in on the more interesting games and matches in bracket and avoid having to do a PCA for every single match. Considering how weak or strong some years were, though, it often meant slapping those labels onto games that didn't wholly deserve them and talking about games that weren't actually very interesting. Still, at the end of the day, it forced me to be creative and generated some conversation.

The main point of the project was to examine what each year provided us and how they performed in bracket, and I think that aspect of it came together pretty well. Interestingly, over the course of these write-ups you can easily identify the 'boom and bust' cycle of the games industry: outside 2017 and 2018, you won't see an excellent year followed up with another excellent year. It's often one big blowout every couple of years, and that's your lot. It's not surprising, I suppose, as games get more and more expensive and time consuming to make. Gone are the days of companies like Rockstar and Capcom being able to pump out high quality games year in year out. If I were to do an equivalent analysis of Game of the Decade 1, I don't think the peaks and troughs would be as stark as they are in this one. Of course, as the snubs sections illustrate, there were a couple of years that would have been decently boosted had they swapped some games in and out, but you gotta compete with what you have.

Even if you strip away most of my commentary, you have a decent little reference tool. When I move these write-ups to the wiki I'm considering beefing up the value of this analysis by including the adjusted x-stat of each game alongside how far it got in bracket; while KP's stats aren't the end all be all and can be debated somewhat, no one's provided numbers as robust as his, and for that they are greatly appreciated.

But let's put together a couple of more lists before we're done here!

Here's how I believe each year performed within the contest in relation to each other, ranked from best to worst:

1) 2017
2) 2018
3) 2011
4) 2015
5) 2013
6) 2010
7) 2019
8) 2012
9) 2016
10) 2014

Yes, after some thought, I ultimately decided on 2014 being the worse of the 'F' years. Only two games made it past Round 1, and Shovel Knight only by the skin of its teeth despite being in a pretty weak fourpack. It was THE most upset year as well. In retrospect, it was a pretty obvious choice.

Every other choice was pretty straight forward; I wavered a bit at 2nd place, but 2018 really did come through with a LOT of strong games that made decent runs in bracket, along with the biggest round 1 upset courtesy of Octopath. You don't really see a notable drop in quality until 2019, which is when things really got rickety.

And just for funsies, here's my PERSONAL ranking of each year, completely divorced from the contest and based purely off my own opinion of their full libraries:

1) 2017
2) 2015
3) 2019
4) 2010
5) 2013
6) 2011
7) 2018
8) 2014
9) 2016
10) 2012

Crazy how 2017 has the most entrants in bracket by far, and it was STILL underrepresented. I didn't even include some of my personal favorites on the snubs list that year like Wolfenstein II, Life is Strange Before the Storm, and The Evil Within 2, on top of shit like Gravity Rush 2, Senua's Sacrifice, and A Hat in Time not making the cut. I won't go on huge gushing lecture about every single year's best games; maybe I will in another post, but I'll keep this outro concise.

I'm pretty happy that I started this project; it rejuvenated my love for writing, and gave me some inspiration for further projects. Not even board projects, just gaming topics that I've wanted to explore for a while. When I finally get my hands on some editing software I can put my Journalism and Screen Studies degree to use and start putting some videos out, which is what I REALLY want to do.

Anyhow, I think that's a wrap. I'm going to start the process of further proofreading and fact-checking and moving these analyses to the Wiki soon, where hopefully, sometime in the future, they might help someone put together their next Games bracket. It was only through the use of x-stats and Ulti's PCAs that I managed to get 5th place in this contest, and I hope to help people in the same way. I'm keeping this thread bumped in the meantime so it doesn't disappear into the void.

Thank you all for reading! I hope you got SOMETHING out of all the ranting and raving!

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If you're only on this board to whine about "SJWs", please redirect whatever you type on to the nearest trash can. And hop in after it.