Games that changed the (gaming) world

from JoeUser Forums

I just received the latest Game Informer magazine in yesterday's mail and it had a cover story on what the editors there are feeling will be one of the next big games.  Now, for the life of me, I couldn't tell you what the name of the game that they were hyping is or will be, but I can tell you for sure that they likened the game to being a cross between a couple of games, and one game that I'll talk about specifically here: Diablo, the {gaming} world changing game that was released nigh on 10 years ago.

No, it's not the anniversary of the release of the game, or even the follow-up expansion pack that came out for it, at least not that I know of, or that I could find documented over on Wikipedia.  Just the mention of the game, nearly 11 years old at this point, as being the type of game that some new game would be reminded me of just what a ground breaking game the original Diablo, and it's spawn (if you'll pardon the pun) was.

Blizzard, the creators of the Diablo game series, are also the creators/publishers of the Starcraft gaming series, and it too is another ground-breaking series which still draws comparisons and seems to be a standard bearer for the type of game that it was.  Of course there was the not too long ago major announcement that Starcraft II was finally under development, so that game is perhaps more fresh than Diablo is at this point, but the point that I would make here is that both of these games were ground breaking and are now -- wait for it -- Legen-dairy! (Bonus points for readers if you get the reference there).

Diablo was a great game.  Actually not just great, but awesome.  As I said above, legendary.  I still have incredibly fond memories of Diablo and it's successor.  There were things I hated about the game (player killing among them), but there was sooooo much to like about the games too and so many hours of pure gaming enjoyment derived from same.

Of course Blizzard is also known as the creators of the Warcraft and World of Warcraft (MMORPG) series, and they continue to enthrall gamers with those creations, as well as Diablo II, and Starcraft.  Some people have never stopped playing those games, and others continue to pick the games up as new players to help replace people like myself that grew bored with those games over time.  Much like players of Galactic Civ, and it's successor, and even some of the games that GalCiv II is compared to,  there's a continuing allure to gamers that like to play these games that have helped them become the best sellers that we still see held up as standards for comparison today.

Perhaps you have some other suggestions of games you think think were standard setters.  Games you still see new games being compared to.  There are obvious choices like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and the like and the many spawn that followed them including games like Duke Nukem 3D and later the Halo series, as well as Quake and Unreal.  Some of those later games have become the new standards of measure (especially Unreal with the Unreal engine that is the power behind games like Bioshock).

Anyway, if you have some thoughts on games that fit the description here, please add those thoughts in reply below.

gaming
6,796 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Definitely Doom, like you said.

Also, MUD. That spawned the whole MMORPG genre. Or, to go back even further, Zork and "Adventure". Those spawned MUD.

Warcraft. That spawned RTS.

There's Bolo and MazeWars, which enlightened the gaming community just how wildly fun network games are.

Close Combat. That took Advanced Squad Leader (a board game), computerized it, took away the hexes, and made it RTS. Now games like Medal of Honor borrow heavily from it (and from Doom).

Last, but not least, Civilization. That spawned Galactic Civilizations. Sorry, it did.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Is that Barney? I thought it was:

Legen- wait for it...

dary.

Sim City spawned so many Sim games it's impossible to count.

Metal Gear Solid is still the standard of environmental interaction, AFAIK.

There may be some before it, but Dance Dance Revolution really got the music/rhythm game genre going.

I don't actually know really good examples, besides the ones mentioned.
Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Going to have to disagree with Warcraft, while it was an early popular part of the genre, Dune II I think deserve more credit than Warcraft.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
I still think as far as immersion goes, the first Half-Life was revolutionary. You never, never, never left first-person. No cutscenes, no nonsense.

That, and I loved it.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Actually, I believe Castle Wolfenstein preceded Doom back around '92 or so. In fact, I think it was the ray tracing concept presented in Wolfenstein that led Carmack to produce Doom.

These, of course, led to all FPSs.

Edit: Never mind. I was confusing Wolfenstein 3D with the later release of return to Castle Wolfenstein (which was also cool )
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
Sneak & Peak, the two player game of hide and seek. It's due for a remake soon. As is ET.
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top

I just pulled out my MOO II game the other day and started playing it!

MOO II was wicked good And ZORK!
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Reach for the Stars and the original Master of Orion I think were early influential titles for the galactic conquest games.

SimCity definitely had a heavy influence, and put Will Wright and Maxis on the map.

Sid Meier's original Civilization and Railroad Tycoon games spawned dozens of knockoffs.

Doom definitely belongs on the list, and got thousands of players interested in designing their own levels through third party software.

SSI gets credit with scoring a major coup by obtaining the D&D license for computer rpg with their Gold Box labels, but the influence of Richard Garriott's Ultima series can't be overlooked.

And I'm sure Pac-Man should be on the list there somewhere.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
For me, Shogun Total War is a game that always sticks out. It wasn't the first title to combine turn-based empire-building with a real-time combat element, but it was probably the first to do it *well*, and in a way that was both fun & meaningful. One only has to look at how the Total War franchise is doing today to see the kind of success it's had.

Even more remarkable than being one of the first successful hybrid TBS/RTS games, however, was how combat in Shogun was modeled. For the first time on a PC game, players had to factor in things such as terrain, weather, fatigue, and morale into their battle plans. No more could a person win simply by fielding the larger army and rushing the enemy -- now one had to use actual strategy & tactics in order to be victorious. Shogun helped spur a revolution -- or perhaps evolution -- in strategy gaming.