I was just thinking about how games have changed over the years and started making a short sequential list of games that changed gaming. I wanted to see if there is anything that I could add to it or if anything should be subtracted. The ones in bold I think are the most influential. I haven't included much after 2004 since it is tough to judge what will withstand the test of time.

*Suggested by posters.

1972 Pong- The first video game

1980 Space Invaders- Flag bearer of the first golden age of arcade gaming
*1980 Pac-Man- The Pizza inspired game loved by men and women.
1980 Flight Simulator- The closest most people ever came to being a pilot.
1981 Ultima- Perhaps the first CRPG
1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - The game that nearly destroyed gaming
1985 Super Mario Brothers- The face of console gaming
*1986 Legend of Zelda- She'll never kiss you Link
1984/1989 Tetris- Video gaming's puzzle game.
*1989 Sim City- Inspired by a deposed tyrant.

1991 Street Fighter II- The definition of 2d fighting games.
1992 Wolfenstein 3D- The grandfather of 3d shooters
*1992 Alone in the Dark- Forefather of Survival Horror
1993 Mortal Kombat- Brought bloody violence into mainstream gaming
*1993 Virtua Fighter- Pioneer of 3D Gaming
1995 Command & Conquer - The most enduring name in the RTS genre.
1996 Pokemon- The first game to find success outside of gaming
*1996 Diablo- Point and click RPG standard
*1996 Quake- "Iä! Shub-Niggurath!"
1996 Tomb Raider- The female representative of the industry
1997 Final Fantasy VII- The game that sold the PlayStation
*1998 Starcraft- Its fans could overpower a zerg rush.
1998 Metal Gear Solid- Brought stealth gaming to the forefront
*1998 Baldur's Gate- Popularized the pausable realtime rpg.
*1999 Everquest- Evercrack
*2000 The Sims- It's a life simulator. Not a death simulator

2001 GTA 3- Because evil is fun.
2001 Halo: Combat Evolved- The Xbox's flagship
2004 World of Warcraft- The never ending addiction
2004 GTA: San Andreas- Because hot coffee has never been the same since

Last edited by drunkguy at 11:55 pm, Dec 6 2011

You're forgetting the cRPG genre, namely Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate 2, and Diablo (2)... And to a lesser degree Planescape Torment.
Especially ID, BG2 and Diablo2 have been mayor cornerstones, though I wouldn't know exactly which has been most popular/influential.

Also, StarCraft... It may not have been "the first", but it has definitely been one of the mayor cornerstones of RTS gaming, more so than C&C in my opinion.

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Erm, what about the Legend of Zelda series? If I recall correctly, it pretty much started the whole "open world exploration" idea, as opposed to side-scrolling. From the wide open map of the first Zelda to the huge 3D Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time, that series has been pretty influential overall.

That's not even mentioning the fanbase. Pretty much every gamer I talk to (under a certain age limit) cites Ocarina of Time or another Zelda game of that period as one of their first major video games.

(And call me old fashioned, but I like to think Everquest was at least just as influential as World of Warcraft in regards to MMOs.)

Edit:
Actually, I'm forgetting a lot of other stuff too. Myst, Doom, The Sims, and since Diablo's already been mentioned, you really can't forget Rogue either. Ugh, this list could go on and on and on.

Also, I won't argue that Pokemon doesn't belong on this list. It certainly does. But I think more for bringing the Gameboy, and thus, the handheld gaming console to life. Anime/manga was already in the U.S. by then, what with Sailor Moon and Robotech and such. I mean, it certainly contributed, but...

Last edited by imp4ever at 3:05 am, Dec 5 2011

One word: Pacman

Counter Strike?



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Ah yes, you can't forget Rogue. Though I'm not sure how popular it was amongst the masses (never really paid attention to that)... Nearly everyone played Pong or Pacman, but Rogue (and later NetHack and Angband) was more for the "geeks/nerds" (because of the bigger learning curve and the initial threshold you'd have to get over).

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Perhaps Heroes of might and magic ?

@Joentjuh: I didn't include most of those games because I couldn't pin down the most influential. I was actually debating whether to add Baldur's Gate but then I started to debate whether it was more important than Neverwinter Nights or Knights of the Old Republic or The Elder Scrolls Daggerfall.

I picked C&C over Starcraft though because it pretty much defined the genre. I was actually going to put down Dune 2 as the archtypical RTS but I believed it didn't have the same name recognition. I also personally couldn't decide if it was more important than the original warcraft. The original C&C was the best fit from my vantage.


& imp4ever: I debated adding Legend of Zelda, Sonic Adventures, Metroid, Castlevania, Megaman and a slew of others. I finally decided to use my simplest test, ask if my grandmother knew who the character was. If she could name the character or knew the game, it made the list. Pinning down the most important in the series was also impossible for me.

I was actually waiting to see if someone would list Everquest and give their opinions on the game. I revile MMOs so I knew this list would need editingto account for it. One question though, what makes it more worthy than Ultima Online?

Sailor Moon, Go Lion, Macross, Speed Racer and etc raised awareness but I always felt Pokemon was what opened the floodgates.


@cronto: I am so embarassed I didn't remember Pac-Man.


@rheinxvv: That one raises the question for me: Is the game more influential than its predecessor. More specifically, is Counterstrike more important than Half life to gaming history? Love to hear arguments on this topic.

@kainord: That was a great series but it didn't have the same reach as Ultima did. It is also tough to point out which one in the series was the most influential.

Last edited by drunkguy at 11:52 am, Dec 5 2011

Heroes of might and magic 2-3 the tactical turn based strategy game with a little rpg touch. I don't remeber a strategy game before with leveling monsters and heroes with spells and equipments.
I play with the Heroes 3 until now. The fourth and fifth of the series i didn't liked and the first one what i didn't tryed. But the Heroes 3 is a must on your list, i think.

And if we are talking about games there are the Sims and tycoon series.

1986 - Arkanoid

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Well, you have to keep in mind that Half Life and Counterstrike both are build using the same engine, and have roughly the same gameplay.
The big difference is that Half Life is a primarily single-player game, and Counterstrike multi-player.

Putting Counterstrike as the trendsetter for FPS gaming would imo be wrong, both for single and multi-player.
Don't forget that there also was Unreal (Tournament) and it's many mods. While Unreal came out roughly at the same time as HL, Unreal Tournament was by far the most popular FPS game for many years (others came and went, Unreal/Tactical Ops stayed), at least where I lived.

There are/were fanboys for both sides, and those that liked CS disliked UT (and vice versa)... Everyone liked HL though

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The area I'm living in, since each series inception, has given a lot of voice to both the Halo and Call of Duty franchises.

I consider every Elder Scrolls game to be pretty ground-breaking, at least in terms of world-building, idk if that is what you're looking for though

I'm pretty ignorant when it comes strategy, both TBS and RTS, so correct my if I'm wrong but I thought Civilization casts a fairly large net as far as fan base and influence

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Point taken. Honestly, I haven't thought much about turn based games since they aren't as dominant as they used to be. That said, I am a bit torn over whether Might & Magic II or Civilization represents the genre best.

The Sims was definitely an oversight also.


That along with Centipede and Defender were on my list but those really are too generation specific.

@joentjuh: Guess I'll just include half life then.
@Skinny Kazoo: Call of Duty is great but it is tough to establish what it changed in gaming. Halo is Xboxes flagship so that was a nobrainer. I wanted to include TES but once again, I find myself grappling with which was the most important of that series to gaming and how.


Last edited by drunkguy at 2:28 pm, Dec 5 2011

TES doesn't come up in my lists, sure they are all great games, but it doesn't really excel in anything nor do they bring anything new to the fold... Kind of like Apple, just a showcase for the current technologies.
There are many more sandbox (open world) games out there that have been around longer and/or are better at it (Including most MMOs into the genre).
TES games always had many issues (though fans don't complain about it), the earlier games were void of life and immersion, and even though Skyrim improved this by a bit, anything you do outside of the (often very short) main-quest simply doesn't count or only has a few minor changes that often even go unnoticed, so it's not really a great game for roleplaying either.
Yes it's a big title, but that doesn't make it good per se.

Sid Meier's Civilization did become great because of their implementation of hex based tiles (which became widely used because of them if I'm not mistaken).

Ah yes, and almost forgot: Sim City, spawned a long line of descendants and imitations, ultimately leading to The Sims.

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How about the Need For Speed (NFS) series, weren't those the first with "street racing"?

If I get this correctly this is about games who set trends or was the first with things, if so,
the quesiton that came to me; which game was the first "Horror" game?

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