PAX East 2010: Kotaku’s Cannon Fodder

Stephen Titilo and N’Gai Croal — who make up the gaming duo extraordinaire of “Kotaku and Croal” — held a fascinating panel about their “scientific” method for determining the top 10 games of all time, starting with a metacritic list, and passing it through the hands of many of the industry’s well-knowns to: 1) do nothing to the list, 2) swap two existing items in the list, or 3) replace any item with a more deserving game.

Here is the starting list:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Super Mario Galaxy
3. Grand Theft Auto IV
4. Super Mario World
5. Metroid Prime
6. Soul Calibur
7. Orange Box
8. Uncharted 2
9. Super Metroid
10. Metal Gear Solid (Game Boy Color)

Follow us to find out where it ended up, and what you can do to continue it!

The panel was fantastically entertaining, only made better by the reactions of the crowd to each decision made. I don’t want to say that “you had to be there”, but — in order to get the full effect of the process — you kind of had to be there. (However, if you want to check out each move in detail, they were fully chronicled by Kotaku.)

In the end, after nine “moves” we were left with the following:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Super Mario 64
3. Metal Gear Solid
4. Wizardry
5. Half-Life
6. World of Warcraft
7. Portal
8. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
9. Super Metroid
10. Tetris

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the process was that each person who made a move was unaware of previous moves. Every single one of those nine moves used the “replace” option, but interestingly no one inadvertently re-instated a game that had already been removed. (Is the process foolproof, or are more moves simply needed before there’s a lot of useless back-and-forth?) Questionable choices were quickly removed. Apparent redundancies were reduced. (Super Metroid AND Metroid Prime?) Sequels were often replaced by their originators.

Three more moves were made by other panelists, but the sample was tainted given the rules of the experiment. First, they were able to gauge crowd reactions to the first nine moves, including what we thought should have happened, rather than what did. Then, they would poll the audience for an opinion of the choice they were about to make. The result? The crowd approved of each move that was made. The final list:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Super Mario 64
3. Metal Gear Solid
4. Chrono Trigger
5. Portal
6. Half-Life
7. World of Warcraft
8. StarCraft
9. Super Metroid
10. Tetris

(During the process, Powet.TV’s own Zac Shipley wondered why there were no racing games — such as Super Mario Kart — prominent on the list. His pleas fell on deaf ears.)

Interesting result, but is it valuable? Moreover, is it viable?

Embracing the first question, but completely ignoring the second, we want you to participate! Post a comment moving this list along to the next step. Here’s how:

• Start with the list from the immediately preceding comment (or from the starting list below, if you’re making the first move)
• Swap any two games on the list, or replace one with another game not on the list. (If you’re going to do nothing, then don’t reply!)
• Only make ONE move
• Explain what you are doing (and why) so everyone understands the reasoning
• Post only once! Any more will be removed from consideration.
• Check back in a week to see where we ended up!

The starting list:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Super Mario 64
3. Metal Gear Solid
4. Chrono Trigger
5. Portal
6. Half-Life
7. World of Warcraft
8. StarCraft
9. Super Metroid
10. Tetris

Go!