The Sims Tops Wired’s List of Best Games of the Decade
The Sims Tops Wired’s List of Best Games of the Decade
Posted 12/28/2009 at 3:04pm
| by Bart Salisbury
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Why settle for ranking within a calendar year when you’ve got a whole (depending on where you start counting) decade available? Wired has cobbled together it’s 15 “most influential games of the decade,” and, it may be safe to conclude from the list, it wasn’t much of a decade for gaming.
There are some iconic games on the list: World of Warcraft (4), Halo (6), Silent Hill 2 (11), and Half-Life 2 (12). But there’s also a few that are more time-filler than influential: Brain Age (5), Bejeweled (7), Wii Sports (8), Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (9), and Happy Farm (14). (Okay, you had fun with them, but in what profound way did they impact gaming? What legacy did each leave behind that shapes gaming now or in the future?)
Still, in all fairness, Wired seems to acknowledge that its list is a bit dodgy. While expecting great things at the start of the decade, Wired concludes “it went down like this: A whole bunch of companies dumped a whole lot of money down the next-gen sinkhole, and the number of publishers that could be counted on to deliver bleeding-edge entertainment without going broke in the process dwindled to just a few.” In other words, the industry took a big gamble on the high-end and lost, leaving behind a lot of unrealized potential.
As for The Sims, Wired notes that while 100 million copies were sold, “many people don’t even consider The Sims to be a game at all.” Perhaps that about sums it up for gaming over the past ten years.
Image Credit: Electronic Arts
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_Jono_
December 29, 2009 at 12:49am
It's like a car magazine commenting on what they think is the best quad/motorized scooter/segway of the decade... It kinda relates.. but really, an opinion that is as good as any bum's off the street. High five WIRED!. Doh! Too slow.
Vahn16
December 28, 2009 at 7:36pm
Sims, Brain Age, Bejewled, and Wii Sports were perhaps more influential than anything else on the list -- but not in our little , frequently short-sighted hardcore gaming sphere. All four of those games made major waves in opening up videogames to wider audiences, and regardless of how you may feel about that, it's certainly a huge form of influence.
And Happy Farm is basically Farmville's direct predecessor, which means it's indirectly the most played game of the century.
jwalch.hawk
December 28, 2009 at 7:03pm
I'm normally a fan of Wired magazine, but this list is pretty damn terrible. The thing is, Wired is good for a lot of things. This is not one of them. They need to remember to play their strengths.
It sort of reminds me of when Popular Mechanics attempted to do a Mac v/s PC comparison and did a terrible job of it. Is Popular Mechanics a good magazine? Its history at least would suggest it's alright. Would I trust it to do a computer review? Not on my life.
bikerbub
December 28, 2009 at 4:25pm
portal had everything. facial models that most games still can't rival. flawless physics. amazing graphics, and low system requirements, even for today's standards.
don't even get me started on why bejeweled is on there, especially because it's a flash game. along with happy farm, these have to be some of the worst choices. refrencing farmville made it worse. I'm sure that they are going to get a lot of crap for publishing such a blasphemous list.
they had a few good games out of the 15, like halo, GTA III, WOW, and Guitar hero, and they could have just used the Wii in general, instead of one of the most bland games ever published for it.
Peanut Fox
December 28, 2009 at 7:20pm
The reason for Portal being last makes sense. I really can't say that Portal should be on the list. Don't get me wrong, I love Portal and have zero interest in the Sims. But the list has to do with the most influential games. Portal while an amazing experience, hasn't really had a huge impact on gaming. That might just be because Portal is way ahead of it's time.
BizSAR
December 28, 2009 at 3:45pm
I think it just goes to show how out of touch Wired has become (some would say they've always been that way). I'm never re-subbing again...talk about useless drivel the past two years. :p
As they said in MAD magazine: "a magazine good enough to line my birdcage with"
~BizSAR
Neufeldt2002
December 28, 2009 at 3:36pm
You know, I tried the sims back when it was just the sims. I never understood the desire that some have for this "game". As a father of three, this is my life. Why, would I want to play or control something that is my life? I play games to escape reality, I don't need nor want something to remind me of it.
Funny thing though, everyone I talk to about the sims, feels the same way. Unless they are single, with no children. So going by that, there are alot of single childrenless people out there fantasizing about controlling people.
I wanted a signature, but all I got was this ________
lunchbox73
December 28, 2009 at 3:42pm
I only played the Sims to build houses and fill them with junk via cheat codes that gave you money. After that I got bored.
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