Board 8 > Contest Stats and Discussion - Part 1373

(+) Yeah! (+)

Thanks for the years of contests @SBAllen. GotD2 was a great one to end on.

Thanks for keeping the contests alive after taking over the reins Allen.

Thanks, everyone! I have mentioned contests to anyone who would listen, and I'm sure that those still actively working on the site like Dev and Zoop will keep fighting the good fight. I'll still be around, and I'll keep on suggesting a contest to people still at the company.

SBAllen posted...

Thanks, everyone! I have mentioned contests to anyone who would listen, and I'm sure that those still actively working on the site like Dev and Zoop will keep fighting the good fight. I'll still be around, and I'll keep on suggesting a contest to people still at the company.

Thank you. I get that the site changing ownership twice made it hard to have any contests. It's good to hear that you're at least trying.

Yeah, thanks for keeping contests going for as long as possible. Nothing like them anywhere else on the internet.

OrangeCrush980 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/6-gamefaqs-announcements/80595955

SBAllen is no longer an admin. This likely means the end of contests...

contests ended years ago its not like anyone higher up cared enough

SBAllen posted...

Thanks, everyone! I have mentioned contests to anyone who would listen, and I'm sure that those still actively working on the site like Dev and Zoop will keep fighting the good fight. I'll still be around, and I'll keep on suggesting a contest to people still at the company.

Thanks, it's great to hear that. You've done amazing work here for the last couple decades.

Thank you so much @SBAllen !

Thank you for everything, SBAllen, and best of luck in your future!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3274-division-8-round-1-nana-ratchet-sephiroth-tifa

Remember when Sephiroth used to be able to beat Tifa?

Nana is definitely one of the more out there choices from Smash that made a contest.

The only reasons I can think of for Tifa to overcome that big of an SFF gap against Sephiroth with no major games for Tifa is either people got hot over the idea of seeing HD Tifa in FF7R-trailers or Sephiroth got #MeToo'd.

I've not bothered to look closely, but I have a theory #MeToo had an impact that benefitted female characters. Our biggest examples are Zelda, Samus, and Tifa -- not only did they have great runs, but they all had significant increases in how well they held up in their SFF rematches (Mario/Samus, Mario/Zelda, Sephiroth/Tifa). Zelda's reason to boost is the clearest..but Samus and Tifa too? The site's biggest female names in gaming had impressive matches. I don't know how well this carries over from #MeToo in that way from the year before and how much of it is for other reasons...but these three at the top can make a case for it.

I doubt it's as much to do with politics directly as the site's userbase getting much older and therefore our collective opinion of good female characters changing for the better.

_SecretSquirrel posted...

Nana is definitely one of the more out there choices from Smash that made a contest.

Pretty sure that was a B8 joke rally to get her in just to see if literally any Smash character could do well

UltimaterializerX posted...

They don't have to have money attached. We just like to see them.

While true, there are still costs associated with them. Code has to be updated, all the images made, analysis done to watch for cheating, etc. This costs more than the prize, honestly.

UltimaterializerX posted...

I cant speak to the other stuff but you have a bunch of people making your images for free >_>

Yeah that's called "cost savings". Helps with the pitch, and keeps people here happy cause they get to participate. Pretty smart, yeah? I'm something of a people pleaser, after all!

I doubt I would be on that episode. You don't need a second guest if you have Allen.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3275-division-8-round-1-heavy-jill-kratos-ocelot

One of the more low key mind-boggling results, where Ocelot loses to Jill despite beating her the year prior, and having MGS4 release between the contests.

Somehow Liquid Snake got the MGS4 boost and Ocelot did not

Ocelot always finds himself in inexplicably close results

Also we got a Favorite 2-D Mario poll, and the results haven't really changed much from last time.

how did we become so old and yet not old enough for Mario 3 to reign supreme anymore

I think 3 is maybe a tiny bit too old for the largest core of the site's users (speaking as someone on the older end of that "core"). Not a game they won't have gone back to, played, and enjoyed but World is more likely to be their first Mario game, and that come with a lot of nostalgic weight.

On a different level, it's easy to see why World > 3 is the usual consensus. It's an easier game, it's nicer looking, Yoshi, the secret exits, Star Road, etc. It also controls just a bit better.

All that said, I voted for 3, because I love how wacky and weird it is. ...Also, that's the one I played the shit out of as a kid on the NES, years before I played World.

Just looking it up now, man, I didn't realize how close together the release dates for those were in the U.S.A. at only 18 months:

• Mario 3 - 2/12/1990
• World - 8/23/1991

I know games came out much quicker back then but it feels like it would have been longer?

World has the grates you climb on and punch to knock Koopas off

clearly superior game

Don't need flutes when you got Koopas on your grates.

Shut it down boys its ogre

couldnt get a contest for years with allen now we have hope for one without
last topix how bittersweet

Don't worry, next year we'll remember the 20th anniversary of the first games contest and the 15th anniversary of the second!

Oh and SC2K4 too I guess

Seanchan posted...

I know games came out much quicker back then but it feels like it would have been longer?

People were playing SNES games, even older ones, long after the NES was put away. I assume a lot of kids would have waited a bit before getting a SNES too, whereas getting a new game is less of a commitment.

Huh, Mario 1 has gained about a percent and a half from the last poll two years ago, mostly at Mario 3's expense. It's beating Yoshi's Island now for the first time in this poll series.

The gap widens! Somehow the even older game is getting stronger!

think 3 is maybe a tiny bit too old for the largest core of the site's users (speaking as someone on the older end of that "core"). Not a game they won't have gone back to, played, and enjoyed but World is more likely to be their first Mario game, and that come with a lot of nostalgic weight.

I just remembered, I went a really long time, (maybe even up until Mario Maker came out?? that sounds crazy, I dunno) before I really knew what SMB3 looked like originally

my first time playing it was Mario All-Stars on SNES, and then later I had the GBA version. I was only ever seeing it in its 16 bit look

Oh no Mario 1 has fallen back behind Yoshi's Island

Leonhart4 posted...

Oh no Mario 1 has fallen back behind Yoshi's Island

Yoshi's Island is the best game in the poll, though.

_SecretSquirrel posted...

Yoshi's Island is the best game in the poll, though.

It's 4th at best, maybe 5th.

You mean 3rd? And only because 3 and World are also peak tier gaming? Yes, youre correct.

I replayed Yoshi's Island in 2021 and pretty disappointed in it after loving it originally. The controls feel much worse than 3 or World's, or even the NSMB games.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3276-division-1-round-2-zack-wario-link-zidane

Round 2 begins with ZackFAQs.

Seanchan posted...

You mean 3rd? And only because 3 and World are also peak tier gaming? Yes, youre correct.

Behind 3, World, 1, and maybe even 2.

_SecretSquirrel posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3276-division-1-round-2-zack-wario-link-zidane

Round 2 begins with ZackFAQs.

I feel like the order stays the same but I wonder how much higher Link's percentage goes now.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3277-division-1-round-2-marth-duke-nukem-altair-lucario

Oh boy, how does this match go now? Could Duke possibly win now post-DNF? Would Altair still have enough in the tank to pull it off? Maybe Marth wins despite Lucario now? Does Lucario still finish last?

I think Marth somehow wins that poll. Duke isn't funny anymore, and everything related to AssCreed fell off a cliff.

Lucario still finishes last.

It'd probably be Marth>Duke. Altair is one of those flavour of the moment characters that falls off a cliff the further you move away from their games release. Duke at least has age behind him which probably gets him over the line.

I would say Duke isn't riding on joke strength anymore after DNF came out and it sucked. He had meme trends before that.

If Mirage isn't about Altair it's Marth's match.

Actually no one has played an Assassin's Creed game since III so it doesn't matter.

I think that match could still almost go any way today as well. Marth would be my favorite though

Duke > Marth

A scenario where two low-card characters split the Nintendo vote and still take both top spots is very much on the table here given that the non-Nintendo entrants aren't killers row, but I think Duke should be strong enough to rise above them. AC/Altair has completely fallen off here, so his best hope is that one of the Nintendo characters gets cannibalized by the other and gets third.

honestly I feel like if anyone has faded, it's Duke

LeonhartFour posted...

honestly I feel like if anyone has faded, it's Duke

I'd rather be irrelevant, but in the nostalgia zone like Duke than be irrelevant and well away from the nostalgia zone like Altair is.