THE MOST IMPORTANT GAMES EVER

[DStriemer]

The list is about the most important games, and their impact on the industry. What I don't understand is how you guys can say this - maybe you made a point of not reading the article? If you had, I would suspect nobody would still be saying this nonsense. ET remains by far one of the most important games ever in that it showed how putting out poor product will catch up with you in the end.

Actually, I for one do read. On top of that, I think the articles reasoning that the mass-production of ET had anything to do with Atari's troubles(no matter how minute), or the videogame crash seems contrived. I mean, this is hardly a lesson that had never been learned before in any other part of the entertainment/pop culture industry.

Don't dismiss people as ignorant of something just because they do not agree with you.

Thanks.

[Daria]

Did the game have any real impact on the industry? No.

Uh, yeah, it had MAJOR impact on the industry...bit of a bad choice of words here. "Video gaming history" means absolutely nothing without an industry of some sort to back it up, yes? Unless everybody made them in their spare time, that is...in which case there never would've been an E.T. in the first place

This topic is now

Actually no it didn't have a major impact. As the article said ET didn't kill the Atari with it's bad sales, but it didn't help them either. But it's certainly a memerable event.

I'm tired, and I'm not arguing with you. I didn't exactly say anything that was untrue but you insisted on picking apart my post anyway. I hope it was fun.

Edit: Actually after rereading your post you seem to be under the impression I was somehow disagreeing with you. When actually I didn't even read your post in the first place. So yeah... yes releasing shit did bite Atari in the ass. And it was important and shit happened. Hurrah! You win a cookie!

[Ed Oscuro]

Actually, I for one do read. On top of that, I think the articles reasoning that the mass-production of ET had anything to do with Atari's troubles(no matter how minute), or the videogame crash seems contrived.

Then I'm sure you'd be able to explain how the significant impact landfilling those millions of E.T. cartridges seems less than solid. I'm sure Atari claimed a tax writeoff, but how far will that take you? What's more, the bad rep Atari garned as a direct result of E.T. is less than "contrived." It haunts the industry to this day, really, though the suits aren't always aware of it. However - as the article itself states with the line "E.T. certainly wasn't solely responsible for Atari's downfall; the company's demise was a gradual implosion" - it's true the game is merely a "symbol" of what's wrong in the "status quo," and the article does state that

The simple fact is that no other game more effectively represents everything wrong with the early American gaming industry than E.T. It's less of an influence [emphasis in the original, and still ignored by readers] than an indicator of an unfortunate status quo.

So really you're against the article for all the wrong reasons.

In conclusion, I <3 being a bastard.

[LAGO]

Don't forget about the 2600 version of Pac-Man. That game has got to have a spot in every gamer's library ... probably at the bottom of a tradebox or used to steady the table/desk your Atari might be sitting on but it still has a place damn it!

err ... yeah I mean that game didn't help Atari's image either ... a little off-topic but I was feeling sorry for E.T.

[DStriemer]

And so it was written on the sacred tablets......
What exactly is the impact of putting a few million carts in a landfill...sure soccer moms might have rolled their eyes as they heard of yet another way video games are "bad", but other than that....I'm sure nobody really cared, the money was already lost and videogames were already a multi-billion dollar industry. An inventory dust-off like this is hardly a backbreaker.

As far as bad rep....how often does 1 bad game, or even a series of bad games by any company stop you from buying the next great one they put out. Every entertainment company in the world would be bankrupt, if "bad rep" had this much weight. Even corporately bad rep would not have mattered. All of the videogame companies that had a chance at all of making it had enough money to weather the storm and those that didn't weren't looking for loans and handouts, they just wanted out with whatever profits they could carry with them. Ie. Mattel.

One bad marketing move, and the collapse of a whole industry(and the most successful company in that industry), is a coincidence. Any impact this one game or marketing move made is most likely negligable in the final consequences. Every new industry enjoys a huge tidal wave of success followed by a massive failure.(take automobiles and computers for example) A few million carts, worth no more than a few million dollars is worth about 10 people in upper management. They were a large company and could have cut back and still easily survived. The only thing significant about his game or it's involvement in anything remotely important is that they couldn't find anything better to do with these things than put them in a dump. If that makes it worthy of any top whatever list other than one by green peace....I'm amazed.

Anyways......I agree with a lot of the other games on there....

[Avatard]

Dune 2 should be on there without a doubt. The first RTS game like Warcraft and Starcraft, and it was really fun. I don't know how many hours of my young life I spent playing that game and yelling "WORM SIGN!".

Maybe I missed Wolfenstein on that list, but it should be there also.