Required Playing List

[GENOSAD]

Suppose you're a professor and you're leading some sort of class relating to video games and its effects on contemporary culture, in a similar fashion to a film history course. Or, suppose someone wants to get into gaming, but doesn't know where to start. Assuming the class/person had access to any console to exist, what would you consider the "required playing list" for this sort of thing?

1. Super Mario Bros. (for obvious reasons)
2. DOOM 1993 (Wolfenstein 3D also works, but it seems to me that DOOM had a bigger impact since it was a lot more popular)
3. Silent Hill 2 (An early example of effective storytelling in games)
4. Undertale (An example of how indie games changed the scene and basically created 2 different markets in gaming)
5. Team Fortress 2 (Responsible for roughly 38% of all internet memes)
6. Metal Gear Solid 1 and/or 2 (There are hundreds of games with MGS references in them to the point where I would actually consider this somewhat fundamental)
7. Mineycrafta (Penny told me she was playing it on her computer book)
8. ET (Even if we ignore the legend of thousands of copies buried in the desert, this game is still a symbol of the gaming crash of the 80s)
9. Tetris (games being able to cross over cultural and political boundaries; such was the case with Tetris breaking through the iron curtain)
10. Final Fantasy VI (Arguably the most emblematic of Final Fantasy as a series, but of course there's no perfect answer to that question. Either way, FF shares the spot with Pokemon as being the most influential RPG series)

Obviously it's not a perfect list and it isn't without bias, but I'd like to restrict it to 10 at most. What do you guise think?

 

[remember_summer_days]

12. Five Nights at Freddie's (kickstarted the children's horror videogame craze)

13. Some visual novel. I'll say Phoenix Wright lol.

14. Pong.

15. Super Mario 64

16. Ocarina of time/majoras mask.

17. Some Pokemon game, probably gen 2/3.

18. Sonic the Hedgehog.

19. Paper Please.

20. Sims 2 or 3.

This might be way too many vidya for a Uni class, but maybe if we expand the concept to something like, 100 most influential games of all time...

 

[GENOSAD]

This might be way too many vidya for a Uni class, but maybe if we expand the concept to something like, 100 most influential games of all time...

I mean hey, every thread is bound to turn into some other kind of discussion, anyway...

 

[vulonkaaz]

on the theme of using video games to teach stuff to kids at school my list would be

• Fallout New Vegas : to teach the kids about geopolitics and stuff
• Papers Please : to illustrate what life is in a totalitarian state (make them play at the same time that they learn about USSR and stuff)
• Assetto Corsa (on a real simulator with VR and force feedback wheel) : so they can learn how to really drive a car
• any tycoon game to make them learn about money management or something
• Minecraft (or minetest-c55) : make them learn to live and build stuff together, i would also teach them how to make mods for the game
• Kerbal Space Program
• Mortis Ghost's Off : my favorite rpg maker game it is a great example of the kind of bizarre world you can find in this genre of game, then i will learn them how to actually use rpg maker

 

[IsaiahQuinn54]

Metal Gear Solid 1 and/or 2 (There are hundreds of games with MGS references in them to the point where I would actually consider this somewhat fundamental)

Honestly playing MGS2 without 1 is a bad idea generally. It relies so heavily on your knowledge of the first game that, if you play it as a standalone game, you're not at all getting the same experience. So if you had to pick one, I'd say go with MGS1, but doing both would be the best. (Then again, MGS3 is the most accessible MGS game story-wise.)

 

[赤い男]

Metal Gear Solid 1 and/or 2 (There are hundreds of games with MGS references in them to the point where I would actually consider this somewhat fundamental)

3, 4 and Peace Walker are better.

 

[MySpace Tom]

Deus Ex predicted 9/11 and Covid. I'd just teach a class on that game

 

[MindControlBoxer]

Planescape:Torment
KODP
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments

 

[imnotdeadyet]

The Max Payne series - it made bullet time a thing

Soldier of Fortune (2000) - old school gore-y FPS doesn't get better then SOF

Disco Elysium - Planescape Torment's younger depressed alcoholic brother

LSD dream emulator & Yume Nikki/2kki - the quintessential in the dream exploration genre

Deus Ex

Yep, but I'd say only the OG. The newer ones are decent games but you won't miss much not playing them.


I think we should make one of those list image things kinda like how /v/ makes. Fill them up with suggestions from this thread, maybe limit it to 30 or something like that.

 

[GENOSAD]

I think we should make one of those list image things kinda like how /v/ makes. Fill them up with suggestions from this thread, maybe limit it to 30 or something like that.

A poll for each suggestion would work In terms of determining what stays on and what doesn't, but I'm not exactly sure how to do that without starting a poll thread for each game.

3, 4 and Peace Walker are better.

I mean, sure, but required readings/viewings are most often decided in terms of influence; not in terms of quality. Uncle Tom's Cabin isn't very well-written (so I'm told) and Birth of a Nation isn't very well-made, but the reason we still look at them is because of their historical influence.

 

[imnotdeadyet]

A poll for each suggestion would work In terms of determining what stays on and what doesn't, but I'm not exactly sure how to do that without starting a poll thread for each game.

an external poll provider like strawpoll could work maybe, there's a small chance of someone outside of agora voting but why would anyone bother

 

[MySpace Tom]

Yep, but I'd say only the OG. The newer ones are decent games but you won't miss much not playing them.

You give way too much credit to Invisible War

 

[Xmariokiler]

If that persone knew what fnaf is or just watched the movie I would make them play "Dayshift at freddy's" so that they would become a true fucking gamer

 

[赤い男]

The newer ones are decent games but you won't miss much not playing them.

Human Revolution is a great game, but is an okayish deus ex, invisible war, mankind divided are not really that good at all, you are ok skipping them, and the less we talk about project snowblind the better.

Anyways you should definetly try the deus ex mods, 2027 is fucking kino

 

[赤い男]

• Fallout New Vegas : to teach the kids about geopolitics and stuff

The geopolitics in question:

 

[turntableToothache]

Any GTA game, preferably 3, Vice City and San Andreas. They are a great introduction to open-world games.

Half Life and Portal for a good introduction to videogame storytelling.

Worms.

Age of Empires and others, for RTS class.

If I had to choose an indie title I would pick Cave Story.

invisible war,

I'm still amazed some executive at Microsoft thought "lets make Deus Ex but ignoring everything that made it work" was a good idea.