It is late January 2012 and that means it's that time again. Around this time every year, thousands of bloggers and gaming media outlets sit back, reflect, and put out a list of their favorite games of the past year. Since I'm now a games blogger, I figured I should join in on the fun. However, instead of listing my favorite games of the year, which I might do after I finish a few more games in my backlog, I decided to make a list of the games that made the biggest impact on gaming culture in 2011. You may be asking yourself what qualifies as having an impact on gaming culture. Well, I like to define it as a game that has, or is on its way to becoming, a house-hold name. If you look at past games that have already become house-hold names, such as Final Fantasy and Grand Theft Auto, you'll notice that they all have certain things in common. Those things are: strong sales, critical praise, and love from fans.
Sales: When looking at sales data, there are some common trends that need to be noted:
- Most of the games that are considered to be house-hold names have sold at least six million copies.
- At least 1/4 (roughly) of a game's life-time sales are achieved within the first month of release.
Taking these trends into account, a game must have sold atleast 1.5 million copies in the first four weeks of release to be considered for the list (1/4 of six million is 1.5 million). For sales data, I used
VGchartz
Critical Praise: To be considered for the list, a game must have both a
Metascore and a
Gameranking of 85% or higher.
Consumer Praise: This is by far the most most unreliable metric of the three because user reviews at big sites like Gamespot, Ign, and Metacritic are largely over run by fanboys. However, there are two sites with user rating that are far more reliable than most:
Gamefaqs and
Gamefly. Therefore, to be eligible for the list, a game must have a 8.5 or higher member rating at Gamefly and a 8.5 or higher in at least one of the two user rating categories at Gamefaqs.
Of all the games released in 2011, only five games met the required criteria. It should also be noted that I used data from
Gamestats to help rank the 5 games. So without further ado, here are the five games that had the greatest impact on gaming culture in 2011.
Games of 2011 | The 5 Games That Made the Biggest Cultural Impact in 2011
Top Game - #5 | The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
"Zelda is already a house hold name, I call B.S." While this is true, excluding a game that met all the criteria from the list would compromise its integrity. Some may not like its inclusion, and to be honest I don't really like it either, but the bottom lines is that whenever a new Zelda is released, it effects gaming culture.
Top Game - #4 | Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Uncharted 3 was one of the most anticipated games of the year. It claimed the top spot on Gamestats for much of the year until its release. In fact, it's still listed as one of the most wanted games. So why is it sitting at #4 on the list? It disappointed a lot of people. Don't get me wrong, people still like it or it wouldn't have made the list. However, of the five games to make it, two of them qualified by scoring an 8.5 in only one of the two Gamefaqs user rating categories and Uncharted 3 was one of them (the other being Zelda.)
Top Game - #3 | Gears of War 3
Gears of War is pretty much in the same boat as Zelda; it's already a house-hold name. The reason it's sitting at number 3 is that the next two games beat it in both in user and critical praise.
Top Game - #2 | Batman: Arkham City
Arkham City's popularity has died down in the last few weeks, but out of all the games that qualified to be on this list, it scored the highest among both critics and gamers. In fact, it currently sits at number 11 on Gamerankings under the all-time best category. Despite not selling as much as other games on the list, Arkham City would have easily made number one if not for gamers' inability to shut up about the next title on the list.
Top Game - #1 | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Fus Ro Da bitches! That's right. Out of all of the games that were released in 2011, Skyrim is the one that had the biggest impact on gaming culture. Despite only being out for a couple months, it has already sold 9.85 million copies, which is more the the last two Elder Scrolls games (Oblivion and Morrowind) combined. It was also listed on Gamestats 10 most popular games list almost everyday since it was announced; a place it still resides even months after its release. It also scored the Game of the Year award at the Spike VGA's; awards from that show don't mean much, but still worth noting. Whether it's comments of love, curse words of hate, or asking for help regarding the many game bugs and glitches, if there is a conversation about gaming, you can rest assured that Skyrim's name will eventually pop up. Plus it sired one of gaming's best inside jokes with "arrow to the knee."
