Game of the Decade: 2010-2019 Contest Analysis Crew - Part 1

Round 1 – Borderlands 2 vs. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Moltar’s Analysis

Former GotY winner Borderlands 2.

It embarrassed itself in 2015 with a Round 1 loss to EarthBound, so we already know not to have high expectations for it here. Bloodstained isn’t the kind of game I’d pick to capitalize on Borderlands 2 weakness, but it’s not going to get blown out here either. It’s fresh in people’s minds and did okay in the 2019 PS4 GotY poll.

This should be a close-ish one, but I think Borderlands 2 is still remembered, liked, and popular enough to be the favorite.

Moltar’s Bracket: Borderlands 2

Moltar’s Prediction: Borderlands 2 – 55%

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transience’s Analysis

I've had bad feelings about this one for a while. Is the 2012 GOTY still liked? It got worked by Earthbound in 2015 in a SNES-friendly environment. It's up against the spiritual successor to a PS1 classic, one that people on this website are really into. Bloodstained didn't do great in its GOTY poll, but hey, at least it made the poll! The much anticipated Borderlands 3 didn't even make it. It's stuck with Kingdom Hearts 3, and let me tell you, I wouldn't want to be on KH3's level.

The more I think about it, the more I feel like Borderlands 2 is just going to wilt when up against any kind of competition. That game has been passed by bigtime. I'm going to go against my bracket and just admit that I have no faith in Borderlands. There's no real evidence either way on this one, but I'd rather have a game that people kinda care about to an old FPS multiplayer classic. I hate to go against the power of double-counted bracket votes, but here we go.

transience's prediction: Bloodstained with 54.61%

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Leonhart’s Analysis

In the previous writeup, I talked about what a weak year 2015 was for gaming here, but 2012 was the low point of the last decade. The fact that Borderlands 2 won at all tells you all you need to know there! Even in the Game of the Generation poll that was held right after it won in 2012, it got crushed by everything except Call of Duty (remember when that was popular here for like 6 months? What a wild time!). It’s our most fraudulent Game of the Year winner ever. It was easily beaten by Earthbound in 2015, and I really want to take it to lose here, too. Bloodstained did pretty well in GOTY voting, although I heard the Switch version was an utter disaster, which may hinder its effectiveness a bit here. I’m still going to take Borderlands 2 to win, but I think it’ll be closer than a lot of people expect.

Leonhart’s Vote: Borderlands 2

Leonhart’s Prediction: Borderlands 2 with 53.15%

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Kleenex’s Analysis

I waffled back and forth on these two for a while when I was making my bracket. Borderlands 2 was our game of the year back in 2012, so clearly it should win this easily, right? Maybe not. The series has been in a few contest matches before, and none of them have been particularly impressive. BL1 struggled with a non-Symphonia Tales game (and we all know how good those are now), and BL2 got convincingly beaten by EarthBound (which is less damning but still not a vote of confidence). And let me tell you, for whatever reason people seem to love Bloodstained. I don’t quite get it myself. I mean, I do get it, but I have a ton of issues with the game, but that’s irrelevant. I think I’m going to stick with my bracket and say Borderlands still takes this home, but I don’t feel very good about it at all and will not be shocked in the slightest if this is our first seeding upset of the contest.

Kleenex’s Prediction: Borderlands 2 with 51.50%

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Guest’s Analysis - Sir Chris

I have had to listen for years as people called Borderlands 2 the weakest Game of the Year winner on GameFAQs. Maybe it is, but I want to go big on it because I have belief that it is going to show that it is a great game. Okay, so actually it is one of my favorite game of the decade and I am biased in favor of it. I actually wanted the Dragon Quest write up but someone took that from me, so here we are.

I am a bit torn, indies have been tearing it up so far but I haven't really heard anything about Bloodstained, so my ignorance is probably going to make me underestimate it a bit. I guess I'll go with something I feel is relatively safe and move on with my day!

Borderlands 2 - 64.50%

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Crew Consensus: Most of us are on the border with Borderlands, but transience is banking on the upset.

I think Bloodstained would be a contender if the Switch port wasn't so sub-par. That stymied a lot of the hype for the game.

Really kinda wishing I took bloodstained here

don’t worry, I averted the crew curse for you all

Big borderlands 2 energy

There are two games in the bracket I knew I would take to lose at the earliest possible opportunity: GTA5, and Borderlands 2. I quite vividly remember in 2015 thinking about Earthbound vs. Borderlands 2 for 5 seconds and picking Earthbound.

Bloodstained's apparently really bad Switch port is not something I took into account when I picked it my bracket for this match, though!

Borderlands really feels like that kind of game you pick by conventional wisdom even though the winds are pointing to the opposite direction, and then it just tanks in the match day. Like TWD.

I changed to Bloodstained in the last minute, let's see if it pays off.

Bloodstained > Borderlands would be one of the sexier upsets. RotN is so good and Borderlands is soooooo boring.

But didn't Borderlands 3 just come out and was well received? That might have reignited people's passion for the series.

Borderlands is awesome wtf boring my ass

For what it's worth direct extrapolation from 2015 has Borderlands 2 threatening 32% on Metal Gear Solid. Borderlands has probably weakened since then (especially if you buy into the idea that Bethesda's woes will cause problems for its games, Gearbox is hardly doing any better), but I would never pick Bloodstained to get anywhere near that.

KamikazePotato posted...

I think Bloodstained would be a contender if the Switch port wasn't so sub-par. That stymied a lot of the hype for the game.

The Switch port has been patched enough to be good now, but it took a long time and that definitely took a huge amount of wind out of its sails.

I took Borderlands to win two matches and am definitely regretting that now

MechanicalWall posted...

But didn't Borderlands 3 just come out and was well received?

I think it was received fine but on the PC side there are people that are still upset about the Epic Games timed exclusivity. And to be honest I... really haven't heard much fanfare about the game after it released. Not sure if that would affect anything.

I feel like our percentages will be all over the place for this last one.

Round 1 – Horizon Zero Dawn vs. Fortnite

Moltar’s Analysis

who ready for fortnite to dance its way to winning the contest just wait for the kiddies

This boomer website ain’t about that Fortnite life. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7146

Plus, I actually expect Horizon to be decent in strength, even though Aloy didn’t perform well in the last Character Battle. The game should win big here.

Moltar’s Bracket: Horizon Zero Dawn

Moltar’s Prediction: Horizon Zero Dawn – 73%

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transience’s Analysis

Horizon should be in this website's wheelhouse. Strong characterization and world, an RPG and a strong PS4 exclusive. Polls would have you believe it is - it beat Nier: Automata in the 2017 PS4 poll. But there's something about it that I just don't trust. I just don't think a lot of people played it. It seemed to come and go. Maybe it's because its main character lost to an Overwatch character.

Its competition is one of the biggest wildcards we have. Fortnite is what the kids play and we hate that shit here. It will almost certainly get killed just based on that alone. Just look at its seeding. Possibly the biggest game in the world could only pull a 14 seed? Not great. Even Minecraft got a 4 seed.

Fortnite could surprise here if people throw some apathy votes while voting for the other matchups, and of course there's the possibility for a rally. (I strongly believe that nobody external to this website cares enough about this contest to bother rallying at this point, but hey, who knows.)

transience's prediction: Horizon:::::::::: Zero Dawn with 65.54%

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Leonhart’s Analysis

Luster has been keeping track of age polls since the first Game of the Decade. It’s an odd obsession of his, but this might be the one match where the age of this site plays a factor. Fortnite is a huge deal with kids and teens, but as of the most recent age poll in 2019, literally only 3% of the site is under the age of 20, which means most of us haven’t played Fortnite and probably get annoyed with these whippersnappers who do those consarned dances everywhere (I just learned “consarned” is a recognized word by Microsoft Word!). I expect it to be pretty weak, and I don’t really worry about a Fortnite rally coming here when most of its players have no clue what GameFAQs is and have no reason to care about our contest.

On the other hand, I think Horizon Zero Dawn will probably do fairly well here. We didn’t get to see much of it, but it did well in the PS4 GOTY poll in 2017, which was probably the most stacked year of the past decade. It held up well to Persona 5 and beat out NieR: Automata. It shouldn’t need too much strength to beat Fortnite regardless though! I’m expecting a beatdown kinda like what we saw happen to Destiny in 2015.

Leonhart’s Vote: Horizon Zero Dawn

Leonhart’s Prediction: Horizon Zero Dawn with 75.14%

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Kleenex’s Analysis

I don’t think there’s much to say here. GameFAQs doesn’t give a shit about Fortnite. It’s not going to do well, Horizon is a fairly well liked game, it’s not completely obscure, it’s going to win. THAT BEING SAID. I think Horizon is also kind of a fraud. I really don’t see the game being that strong - it’s the kind of game that everyone sort of liked, but not many people loved, and I don’t see it have a huge hardcore fanbase. It’ll do well today, but regardless of how high its number may do, I wouldn’t put too much stock into them going forward because I expect Horizon to fold once it runs into some actual competition.

Kleenex’s Prediction: Horizon: Zero Dawn with 65.75%

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Guest’s Analysis - Hbthebattle

Ah, Fortnite. Despite its wider popularity, it has the exact combinations of traits that do not appeal to Gamefaqs. Near-multiplayer exclusive shooter, large but young and fairly annoying fanbase, looking like rallybait, you get the picture. Speaking of rallies, that's the only way Fortnite wins here. HZD isn't that popular- Aloy lost to D. Va, after all, but its less associated with children, which is likely ultimately the deciding factor- its single-player nature will allow it to win here.

As for the percentage, lets look at how other similar games when they got in. Minecraft in 2015 did surprisingly well, with a 43% on Halo CE. I don't think Fortnite will be as popular as Minecraft then- probably significantly less, but HZD is also not as popular as Halo. On the other hand, I don't expect a repeat of OoT's smashing of Hearthstone. The true result is likely somewhere in the middle.

Horizon Zero Dawn with 78%

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Crew Consensus: Horizon Zero Dawn #1 Victory Royale

You guys actually know what a Bloodstained is so I'm chopping 7% off my oracle since it seems like it might look respectable here. I took one look at it getting doubled by Sekiro and assumed this would be a blowout.

Master Moltar posted...

This boomer website ain’t about that Fortnite life. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7146

GameFAQs isn't a boomer website. The average age of the site's users is roughly 33 right now, which places it squarely within the Millennial generation. The primary demographic for this website is the Millennial generation, with Gen X being the second largest generation of people who use this site. The youngest person right now who currently falls into the Boomer generation would currently be 55 years old (turning 56 at some point in 2020). As of the last age poll, only 4.18% of the site is over 46 years old, so that's even lower if you had to narrow that down to those over 55.

Boomer is a state of mind cuz

And 33 is still like triple the age of the average fornite player

I hate my Horizon pick because it feels like this will either be 80%, 55% or the contest is over

We being a millenial generation is very fitting though.

The reason almost all the forums (not just this one) are shrinking is because forums are a millenial thing. GameFAQs is also a millenial thing. Zoomers don't give a damn about those.

Master Moltar posted...

Leonhart’s Analysis

Luster has been keeping track of age polls since the first Game of the Decade. It’s an odd obsession of his, but this might be the one match where the age of this site plays a factor.

I have tracked poll updates for every single age poll going back to 2009. I have partial poll updates for the 2009 age poll, and full poll updates for every single age poll after 2009. Although I have calculated average age for every single age poll run on this site, but that's something which doesn't require tracking poll updates.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

We being a millenial generation is very fitting though.

The reason almost all the forums (not just this one) are shrinking is because forums are a millenial thing. GameFAQs is also a millenial thing. Zoomers don't give a damn about those.

I had to explain to a younger colleague (who plays video games) what forums are/were a few weeks ago. Very much a moment where I realised my era had passed.

just tell them it’s reddit!

VVVVVV was fun there for a couple of minutes

All of my predictions look fairly solid so far...!

that fallout board vote though

Damn. The ps4 board talks so much shit about Aloy and HZD that I decided to go with Fortnite. I regret that decision lol

I felt bad voting for horizon because Fortnite is just a cultural behemoth whether you like it or think that's a good thing. It certainly deserves a deep run at being the game of the decade. That said, that is something I would only be comfortable doing when compiling s list in a group. Not in a situation like this where the longer it sticks around the greater the chance at a rally.

We have to kill Fortnite before it kills us. I don't particularly like it, but it deserves better than the massacre it's going to get from a relative nobody.

I don't even remember what I went with in HZD-Fortnite. I think that was one of the many matches where I was like "one of these things is getting to Round 2 and that is sad".

Okay, good, Guru site says I am not one of the ones who picked Fortnite.

imthestuntman posted...

We have to kill Fortnite before it kills us.

Start the drive-through Fortnite testing.

today is in the running for the most boring day of the entire contest. Any other contenders?

March 29(tomorrow) is also up there, all the matches should be at least 55-45.

imthestuntman posted...

I felt bad voting for horizon because Fortnite is just a cultural behemoth whether you like it or think that's a good thing. It certainly deserves a deep run at being the game of the decade. That said, that is something I would only be comfortable doing when compiling s list in a group. Not in a situation like this where the longer it sticks around the greater the chance at a rally.

We have to kill Fortnite before it kills us. I don't particularly like it, but it deserves better than the massacre it's going to get from a relative nobody.

There us nothing wrong about a site where most users are over 30 not to like a game aimed at 12s.

Different games have different target audiences. We don't have to like Fortnite.

It we're talking purely in terms of recognition and as a cultural phenomenon, Fortnite is the game of the decade by a country mile, yah. Only thing that comes close is GTAV

Edit: wait minecraft is in this bracket too lol nevermind

Fornite had an INCREDIBLE impact on society in 2017 and 2018.

Fortnite losing to HZD is a joke. HZD was good yes, but Fortnite is a phenomenon.

MechanicalWall posted...

It we're talking purely in terms of recognition and as a cultural phenomenon, Fortnite is the game of the decade by a country mile, yah. Only thing that comes close is GTAV

Nah, Candy Crush and Angry Birds were bigger than Fortnite, especially Candy Crush.

Nobody cares

backguard222 posted...

Fortnite losing to HZD is a joke. HZD was good yes, but Fortnite is a phenomenon.

I agree. I picked HZD in my bracket but I hated picking it. Fornite is a legendary game

Previous Results: MonHun and Sekiro put up similar numbers on their opponents, and Bastion surprises with an upset over TWD. It doesn't seem like this is a case of Bastion being much stronger than expected, but TWD just being really weak (which we kinda already knew from before). Dragon Quest predictably crushed its opponent.

Crew Predictions: 7/8

Next Round Thoughts: It has already been mentioned, but whoever you would take in a Bravely Default/Ni no Kuni match probably decides if you think MonHun or Sekiro wins next round. DQ is going to have another easy match in R2.

Crew Prediction Challenge:

Moltar: 7
transience: 7
Kleenex: 7
Leonhart: 6
Guest: 5

Crew Accuracy Challenge: Leonhart gets the point for MH:W, Kleenex gets the point for Sekiro, and Moltar gets the point for DQXI.

Moltar: 2
transience: 1
Kleenex: 2
Guest: 1 (spooky96)
Leonhart: 1

whew didn't want to get shut out two days in a row

Round 1 – Resident Evil 2 vs. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

Moltar’s Analysis

2020 GameFAQs GotY winner Resident Evil 2, nostalgia baybee.

As someone that does know what Danganronpa is, I can safely say it doesn’t have a chance here. It should be good enough showing if it doesn’t get tripled, but it looks like BlowoutFAQs is back in full force. Between having both nostalgia and relevancy on its side, RE2 has too much going for it to not look good here.

A really strong showing could give it a case to win the whole division, especially with ME2 not looking great today.

Moltar’s Bracket: Resident Evil 2

Moltar’s Prediction: Resident Evil 2 – 79%

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transience’s Analysis

We've got four really clear matches today. Maybe someone shines or bombs, but no one but the top four seeds are going to win.

I'm still processing this Mass Effect 2/RE7 result, especially when contrasted with Fallout 4 crushing VVVVVV, and wondering if maybe RE2 has what it takes after all. That's all this match can really be - a measuring stick, and Danganronpa is so "whatever" that it doesn't really matter what the result looks like here.

transience's prediction: Resident Evil 2 with 81.45%

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Leonhart’s Analysis

I’m very interested to see what voters think of something like Resident Evil 2, which is a remake of a ‘90s game, so it technically didn’t originate with this decade. It’s a very extensive remake and was widely well received to the point that it won GOTY here, so it wasn’t just some cheap cash grab. But will people hold against it that it’s a remake? We won’t really get a chance to find out here because Danganronpa 2 should be one of the weakest games in the field. GameFAQs just doesn’t care about visual novels that aren’t Phoenix Wright (and even then, only the first one has shown somewhat decent strength before). I expect this one to be pretty ugly.

Leonhart’s Vote: Danganronpa 2

Leonhart’s Prediction: Resident Evil 2 with 77.77%

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Kleenex’s Analysis

More like Despair: Goodbye Danganronpa 2 am I right?!

I probably could have left the writeup at that, but I suppose I’ll throw a little more in here. I think RE2 is going to light up this division. I still haven’t looked at the Guru or BOP or anything yet, so I don’t know if that’s a hot take or not, but after how well that game did in the Game of the Year polls last year, and how highly everyone spoke of it who played it, I’m expecting it to actually win this division handily. Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.

Kleenex’s Prediction: Resident Evil 2 with 74.75%

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Guest’s Analysis - t_kizzle

Hey Board 8, nice to see you all, it’s good to be back for another contest!

In my initial run-through of draft Oracle predictions for this bracket, I found myself reaching up into the 70-80% range for winners much more than I expected. The first round seems full of major blowouts as the actually strong games breeze past fodder on their way to more interesting matches, and Resident Evil 2 vs Danganronpa 2 will certainly be one of those. There’s a lot of hype for RE2 on the Board after it won Game of the Year for 2019, plus the fact that it’s a remake of a 90’s game from an established franchise. Danganronpa 2 is the sequel to a really niche visual novel originally released on the PSP. The writing is on the wall right there, there’s simply no way this stays below a tripling. And I’m not even sure there’s anything Resident Evil could do here to allow us to accurately gauge its strength going forward, it could put up 90% on DR2 and I’d still be more willing to chalk that up to the latter’s weakness.

On a final note, I actually nominated Danganronpa 2 for the contest and am happy to see it here. The Danganronpa series might be my favorite new franchise I discovered in the 2010’s and I couldn’t help but throw it a nom despite knowing that it would be turbofodder. I was immediately sold when I heard the games described as “Ace Attorney meets Zero Escape,” and played through all 3 in quick succession. There's quite a bit of actual gameplay for a visual novel, too. If that description sounds at all appealing to you, you’ll probably love it, check it out! Still gonna lose pretty badly though lol.

Prediction:
Resident Evil 2 - 76.30%
Danganronpa 2 - 23.70%

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Crew Consensus: Danganronpa gets executed by RE2.

MIA Guest Alert

I don't have a write-up for DOOM/INSIDE yet. If I don't get one by morning, it's not getting posted with the rest of the Crew write-ups.

Master Moltar posted...

MIA Guest Alert

I don't have a write-up for DOOM/INSIDE yet. If I don't get one by morning, it's not getting posted with the rest of the Crew write-ups.

@BlAcK_TuRtLe .

I sent an emergency write up just in case

days like today and tomorrow make me think this should have been a 64 game contest.

Master Moltar posted...

Leonhart’s Analysis

In the previous writeup, I talked about what a weak year 2015 was for gaming here, but 2012 was the low point of the last decade. The fact that Borderlands 2 won at all tells you all you need to know there! Even in the Game of the Generation poll that was held right after it won in 2012, it got crushed by everything except Call of Duty (remember when that was popular here for like 6 months? What a wild time!). It’s our most fraudulent Game of the Year winner ever. It was easily beaten by Earthbound in 2015, and I really want to take it to lose here, too. Bloodstained did pretty well in GOTY voting, although I heard the Switch version was an utter disaster, which may hinder its effectiveness a bit here. I’m still going to take Borderlands 2 to win, but I think it’ll be closer than a lot of people expect.

Guest’s Analysis - Sir Chris

I have had to listen for years as people called Borderlands 2 the weakest Game of the Year winner on GameFAQs. Maybe it is, but I want to go big on it because I have belief that it is going to show that it is a great game. Okay, so actually it is one of my favorite game of the decade and I am biased in favor of it. I actually wanted the Dragon Quest write up but someone took that from me, so here we are.

I am a bit torn, indies have been tearing it up so far but I haven't really heard anything about Bloodstained, so my ignorance is probably going to make me underestimate it a bit. I guess I'll go with something I feel is relatively safe and move on with my day!

Yeah, I was going to say...maybe in a vacuum, Borderlands 2 is our weakest winner, but I feel like in terms of current contest strength, it'd at least still manage to beat out 2009 winner Call of Duty: Who Knows Which Subtitle Because There Are Too Many Games in This Series. (No, seriously, I was just looking over old GotYs a few days ago and I've already forgotten exactly which CoD game was the 2009 champion, I just remember that it was one of them.)

In fairness at least Modern Warfare 2 is often considered one of the highlights of the series.

I had Bloodstained winning the fourpack. There goes my theory of it being a SotN proxy...

Big Bob posted...

I had Bloodstained winning the fourpack. There goes my theory of it being a SotN proxy...

Yeah, don't ever bet on something acting like a proxy. That never happens.