GamesRadar is supported by the audience. When you make a purchase through a link on our website, we may receive an affiliate commission. learn more

How we created a voting list of 20 games out of 1.1 million games released in the past 50 years

In November 2021, the video game industry celebrated its 50th birthday. To celebrate this landmark moment in the history of the game, the Golden Joystick Award-the world's longest lasting public voting game awards ceremony-invites you to vote for the ultimate game in your history.

To put it mildly, by its very nature, trying to choose a game that exceeds 1.1 million games released in the past 50 years is full of complexity. We suspect that everyone will agree with our shortlist of 20 titles, let alone the winner of the world vote.

In view of the extremely subjective nature of choosing the "best" game, we strive to make the selection process of the shortlist as rigorous and scientific as possible. We outline this process below and explain the judging criteria in more detail. It will not necessarily make everyone agree on the shortlist... but it will at least explain the rationale.

The world's first commercial video game: Computer Space, was released in November 1971. As the first coin-operated arcade machine, it represented the first time that video games were exchanged for money: the birth of video games as a commercial industry.

On November 23, 2021, the Golden Rocker Awards will jointly host a special show with our iconic brands and experts and the most popular creators in the game industry to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of our industry to celebrate this important Game milestones. The show will culminate by announcing the winner of the ultimate game of all time voted by the public.

The process first narrowed the 1.1 million or so games released since 1971 to a long list of about 150 manageable games that are generally considered to be one of the best games of all time. Since its launch in 1983, the Golden Joystick Award has been awarded to the game for 39 consecutive years, and can use its previous winners and well-known nominees. These previous winners of our coveted Ultimate Game of the Year award are combined with the top 100 lists of Edge Magazine (a respected industry bible launched in 1993) and Retro Gamer (the world's leading retro game magazine). Duplicate entries were eliminated to create a long list from the following sources. 

This long list was then shared with our jury-as described below-they were asked to come up with their personal list of the top 20 games, arranged in order of preference.

The Golden Rocker Awards gathered a jury composed of industry experts and celebrities, including Katsuhiro Harada (Tekken series, general manager), Debbie Bestwick MBE (Team17), Gary Penn (DMA design, Grand Theft Auto), Keith Stuart, Keza MacDonald (The Guardian), Shahid Ahmad (former head of Sony's strategic content department) and reporters from gaming brands including Edge Magazine, Retro Gamer, GamesRadar and more Future games.

The top 20 finalists of each judge are tabulated, and the final list of 20 competitions is generated according to their personal rankings in each competition.

The judges need to consider many key factors when evaluating the list of the first 20 games in history:

Therefore, the shortlist represents a variety of game choices across eras and genres. These games have X-Factor, a little magic, which means they have withstood the test of time. Some of the shortlisted games are not even technically excellent games, at least not from a design point of view, but go beyond their limitations and burn in memory.

Why 20 games? The same problem can be applied to 25, 30...50 games. With so many great games, by definition, the shortlist will almost certainly exclude some historical classics and personal favorites. The purpose of limiting the shortlist to 20 titles is to stimulate dialogue about the difficulty of the task and to re-examine the factors that have elevated the game from excellent to more eternal. classic work. Or a fulcrum, which changed the shape of game history. Games can be art, but games are—at the risk of sounding glib—games...it's a unique, evolving interactive medium. What is the stepping stone that brought us to today?

Perhaps more transparent, some might argue that a more democratic way of evaluating the ultimate game of all time voting is the bracket system, which is like a football knockout game, inviting the public to vote in a series of knockout matches to determine the winner. This method It has its advantages, but it will almost always become a popular competition affected by recent biases ("This great game I played last week is almost certainly the best game ever!"), and its voting audience features, such as If voters tend to be younger, old games will often lose.

Our approach tried a hybrid system based on a diverse panel of experts and their unique views, and the democratic transparency of public voting to curate the shortlist. There is a lot to say: We really, really thought about the best way to do this, but many people will almost certainly be dissatisfied with the results.

The judges have repeatedly faced this challenge: how many titles from a particular franchise should we include? How do you evaluate which game in a particular series is worth upgrading? These decisions have been debated for a long time-to the depth you may not believe-but by leaning toward the judgment criteria listed above. In many cases, the chosen game is not even *technically* the best of its kind. For example, how do you choose the "best" Metal Gear Solid game? Well, it is "Metal Gear Solid 3"...Based on rave reviews, as far as its design is concerned... But "Metal Gear Solid" on PSone invented the stealth type, heralding a new era of movie, and breaking The fourth wall has redefined our relationship with video-games. Metal Gear Solid 2 is a non-sequel, a provocative FU for fans who are looking forward to more Solid Snake. This is a political commentary 15 years in advance. MGSV is not bad. Mechanically, this is the pinnacle of the series. You can feel the difficulty. Same as Pokemon (no one considers Pokemon Go as a design masterpiece, but in terms of its cultural influence and personal significance to its player community...). Don't even let us start using Mario Kart (of course SMK8 is the best, but it is a sublimation of the previous product). Super Mario is a 40-year-old idol, and his game spans genres, if there is no defined genre. Portal 2 is better than Portal. But before Valve's breakthrough classics, how many games featured portal guns—or put the puzzling front end and center in FPS?

We can continue, but the judges rejected all these conversations to showcase their personal first 20 games, which we have included in the shortlist you see today. Watch the Golden Joystick Awards on November 23 to see which game wins your vote for the ultimate game in history and the best game hardware in history

Content Director of GamesRadar. Former GamesRadar EIC, GTAVoclock host and PSM3 editor; with-*Count on fingers and toes*-18 years of editing experience. Like: spreadsheets, Hideo Kojima, and GTA. 

The cheapest Nintendo Switch Lite sets, prices and offers in November 2021

Cheap Nintendo Switch Bundle-All the best deals, prices and sales in November 2021

The best microphone for streaming and gaming: improve your clarity this year

Get the best game deals, reviews, product recommendations, competitions, game news not to be missed, and more!

Thank you for registering GamesRadar. You will receive a verification email shortly.

has a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.

GamesRadar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our company website.

© Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10036.