Assuming the equipment was also saved so you could still play the games, and every game in existence you don’t mention gets permanently destroyed, and no new games are ever to be made.
Inspired by a video by OutsideXbox from a few years ago, I thought it would be a fun idea to see what this community would choose. You can choose to be selfish and pick games you personally want to always play, or try to figure out what games would be best chosen for humanity to save for whatever reason. I’d also love to hear why you chose your games. Do they have a special meaning to you? I want to hear your stories.
This might be cheating but I’m assuming mods/DLCs to a game count as part of the game.
- Factorio. Pretty much endless amount of stuff you can do with mods on top of a top-tier base game.
- Minecraft, also for the mods.
- Geometry Dash. So many user created levels and the highest skill ceiling of pretty much any game.
- Asetto Corsa, or whatever the most realistic, moddable car racing sim there is. I don’t play this game but I don’t want that genre to die.
Really struggling to think of anything else so I’m just gonna go with another fun, replayable, moddable game: Balatro.Edit: After reading other responses and me forgetting some games I think Skyrim would be a better choice here.
Damn… I gotta try and be diverse… as much as my narrow taste allows anyway:
- The Wonderful 101: my choice for a PlatinumGames ambassador.
- God Hand: beat’em representation.
- Ninja Gaiden 2: nonstop action and my favorite Team Ninja game.
- Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R: my favorite fighting game.
- Hellsinker: infinitely replayable shmup.
- Minecraft (It’s a sandbox)
- Garry’s Mod (It’s a sandbox)
- Roblox (It’s a sandbox)
- Skyrim (It’s a heavily mod-able medieval RPG)
- Portal 2 (It’s literally anything at this point: a web server, a game engine, a fucking computer, a lot is possible when the right people crack it open)
I clearly don’t know enough about Portal 2, care to explain more? I’m definitely out of the loop.
I got you. It’s an entry in the Portal franchise, with the “2” indicating that it is the second in the series.
Oh shit I had no idea, thanks for clearing things up.
The testing elements in Portal 2’s maps are technically Turing-complete, and people have made very simple “computers” with them. Here’s a video from 2012 of someone building logic gates.
There’s also VScript which PortalRunner on YouTube used to port an NES emulator and make a web server. Their channel is really good if you like this type of silly hacky fun.
I think this is the winning move, going for the big sandbox games with strong modding scenes. Personally, I’d pick Neverwinter Nights 2 and GZDoom over Roblox and Portal 2.
Portal 2 (It’s literally anything at this point: a web server, a game engine, a fucking computer, a lot is possible when the right people crack it open)
Has it’s modding scene opened this much? I thought people were mostly making test chambers.
Does NWN2 have a strong modding scene?
I played a shitload of NWN and that would have been my pick, but from my recollection NWN2 multiplayer custom servers died when Obsidian put in the (insane) requirement to download terrain meshes outside of the game.
I haven’t circled back to the NWN2 enhanced edition to see if that was ever reworked.
Honestly, no idea, lol. I never went beyond NWN 2’s original campaign. I just figured it would have more potential than NWN 1, in a world with only 5 games.
Nothing personal but what if we save either GTA V (or VI), TF2, Arma 3 or Foxhole and let Roblox be destroyed?
Gta 5 would be fine. Its got some unique gamemodes with FiveM, and like 992526737373773 empty RP servers.
Factorio. Not sure I’d need anything else
I really want to try it out but I’m worried it’ll ruin my life. It looks fun but I really don’t have a ton of time these days for gaming and I don’t want to get super hooked on a game I know I’ll spend way too much time on.
It is 3am, and after ~60 hours over the last two weeks I have launched my first rocket and gotten the game complete screen. I smile and slowly blink dry, crusty, tired eyes. Finally, I can rest. I have to be to the airport in four hours.
I couldn’t get past the browness of the graphics. Satisfactory on the other hand…
I recently started it with the caveat that I’m not allowed to pay without my brother. So he comes by once or twice per month and we go crazy for a few hours.
If I did it myself I’d lose my job.
You can play Factorio in coop? Is it good? This games looks like very personnal.
Yeah you can. For us it worked because we focus on different parts and then meet up, discuss and give feedback or help.
But you need to do it with someone you get along well with.
I think you may have made a typo of “pay” instead of “play” :) Either that or I’m mistaken about what kinda game factorio is…
Oops!
Hope you have a lovely day! ☺️
Yeah watch out for this one then. Especially if you get into the mods that turn a 30-50 hour campaign into 500+ hours with 20x more complexity.
Currently 6 months into a full pyanodons run. I hope to complete it within 2000 hours.
That’s insane. I’ve beaten Bob’s+Angel’s (with a limp to the finish line) in 123 hours. There are many hundred items and thousands of total recipes, many with byproducts in B+A. How is Pyanodons that much longer?
I’ve done about 6 or 7 bobs and angels runs (all mods) over the years. It’s elementary school compared to pyanodons.
It’s that much longer due to the complexity and depth of the supply chains. And there is very often many different ways to make the same thing, all with different byproducts to deal with.
6 or 7 runs of Bob’s and Angel’s? That’s crazy, why did you play it so many times? I gotta get back to attempting to build a mega base in my save :)
Oh the why is probably autism. I enjoy complex simulations. At the time I thought angels and bobs was the most complex. Actually it often wasn’t enough for me and I’d include some other overhaul mods like yuokai at the same time.
I’ve also been playing since before factorio was on steam, so my plays are spread out
I’m assuming there’d be no online multiplayer or modding, as they’d be outside the realm of the game - it’s content made by other people (and it’s more interesting if you exclude them anyway), and I’m assuming there’d be no more updates (so only current or previous patches)
So we’d be looking for replayable single player games
- Minecraft. If that’s not on your list then you’re joking
- Terraria. Sandbox like minecraft, but the more legacy-focused scope of the game would be a nice change
- Factorio. This game is called cracktorio for a reason
- Monster Hunter world. Very replayable when you want to hit big monsters with big swords
- Maimai. Bet you didn’t expect a rhythm game to be here, bitch! With all other video games gone, maimai would explode in popularity, and I’d finally be able to play maimai locally instead of only in the city on the occasional day off. Yes, this list is just a place holder for the real number 1
- Garry’s Mod
- Starcraft
- Team Fortress 2
- Minecraft
- Skyrim
that’s already five - which one of these shouldn’t be saved?
maybe Age of Empires 2, Stellaris, or Civ V instead of Starcraft?
maybe Oblivion, Morrowind, or Fallout 3 instead of Skyrim?
maybe Terraria, Stardew Valley, or Factorio instead of Minecraft?
maybe Counter-Strike, Half-Life 2, or Insurgency instead of Team Fortress 2?
This is an awful choice, a committee would have to decide this …
we’re really going to let all these games die?
not to mention games like:
- noita
- Rimworld
- Stanley’s Parable
- Soma
- Alien: Isolation
- BioShock
- Silent Hill
- Amnesia
- Disco Elysium
- Grim Fandango
- Thief
- Beginner’s Guide
- Cuphead
- Hotline Miami
- Celeste
- Command & Conquer
- tetris
- Super Mario Brothers
- Mario Kart
- The Legend of Zelda
- Pokemon
- Animal Crossing
- The Sims
- Halo
- Battlefield games
- Call of Duty games
- Grand Theft Auto
- World of Warcraft
- Doom
- Quake
- Mortal Kombat
- Street Fighter
- Dark Souls
You can find more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_considered_the_best
this question is evil, and I hate everyone’s answers.
If the whole world was on Garry’s mod the content would be insane
which makes me think you could use Garry’s Mod to recreate TF2, so maybe that would open up a slot …
maybe the committee would actually look to preserve game engines first and foremost, and then count on recreating other games from that
if I had to pick I would at least try to preserve Source, Unity, and Unreal … HPL Engine (Amnesia, Soma, etc.) is pretty unique, but it might not have enough cultural relevance - depends on whether we are prioritizing diversity in our top 5 picks, or just going based on commercial success & popularity …
dammit, Disco Elysim! I’d be so sad if that was gone
right!? it’s a terrible question, I wouldn’t want to choose, and I would hate whatever anyone came up with
(I hate what I came up with!)
-
Minecraft (A comfortable home away from home).
-
Wii Sports (The one video game literally made for everyone).
-
Bioshock (I may not play it again myself, but everyone should experience “Would you kindly” at least once in their lives).
-
PlayStation Dreams (This one is kinda like wishing for infinite wishes).
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Bomberman Ultra (A stupidly fun couch-play game that my entire family has played together for more than 10+ years now. I have never NOT smiled when booting up this silly game).
And then the games I’d forever regret not saving for myself: SuperGlob (Arcade), Tempest (Arcade), Uncharted 4, Bayonetta, StarCraft, Resident Evil 4, Portal and Heavy Rain (A brutal punch in the gut that I loved dearly but never want to play again).
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If I could choose, then I’d choose for humanity, games that most reasonable people would go “yeah, fair enough”.
(Note, if it were just for me, I wouldn’t pick any of these lol)
- Portal + 2
- Stardew Valley
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Elden Ring
- Final Fantasy VII (or X)
Yeah, fair enough
Roblox, Fifa 19, Chinese malware mobile game, Fifa 23, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600.
Pure evil in human form
Too many fans of Roblox would be happy with this. Replace Roblox with Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days and the list is perfect
Replace either Roblox or FIFA with ‘Takeshi’s Challenge’.
- Chrono Trigger
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
- Pokémon Red
- Stardew Valley
Think I’m good with those 4.
Throw in Math Blaster so I can pretend to value humanity or something.
deleted by creator
Bad Rats five times.
First place has to be Kerbal space program. I can’t think of another game as profoundly educational as this. If you can land a craft on the Mün, then you have a better understanding of orbital mechanics than the average NASA engineer.
Second place goes to Nier: Automata. It’s a selfish pick, but I struggle to think of a more flawless game.
I want at least one multiplayer PVE game and one PVP game, so third and fourth places go to Minecraft (version 1.18) and Team Fortress 2.
Lastly, for fear that it will count as a video game and otherwise be deleted, I save Lichess.org from annihilation
Minecraft and then just build games inside of it?
Fair enough. I haven’t played Minecraft in a while so I sort of forgot it existed when I wrote my comment but it’s definitely a great pick for here.
I’ll start the ball rolling. For me, I’d probably have to go with:
Skyrim - first off, it’s my most played game ever, and also my most purchased game too. Is it the best game ever made? No, I don’t even think it’s the best Elder Scrolls game. But there’s something so captivating about it for some reason and I can’t help but always go back to replay it all these years later. If mods are allowed to survive the video game apocalypse then it makes it a very easy choice but I’d still choose it even if it had to stay vanilla.
Pokemon Soul Silver - something for kids to play, but also my favourite Pokemon game and one of my most replayed games ever. Between having your Pokemon follow you around, the Johto region plus Kanto, and also the music, I think it’s the best Pokemon game ever made, and a game I can’t go without playing the rest of my life.
Elden Ring - I was torn between this or Dark Souls III, but I went with ER because (1) it’s more accessible, and again remember every other game is permanently destroyed so this does affect everyone, and I’d like to be at least a little nice in my choices, and (2) I find myself able to replay it a bit more, especially with the DLC. I’ve mentioned it many times before but I truly believe SotE is the best content FromSoft has ever put out, so it would be a shame to have it destroyed.
Hitman: World of Assassination - it’s sort of cheating as this was originally three separate games, but they’re all bundled together now and Steam recognizes it all as a single game in my library, so I’m including it. Plus it’s my list and my post so I say it counts. Anyway, I don’t see Hitman posted a lot on Lemmy, but it’s my second most played game ever and I really do think if you can get over the admittedly high cost to get all the content it really is a masterpiece of a game. It’s also got way more replayability than you’d initially think just looking at it, so it’s a great contender for this post. This is another Skyrim situation where I don’t think it’s a top pick for greatest game of all time but it’s just so easy to replay that I couldn’t omit it from here.
Dishonored - I really didn’t know what to put for my last choice. I was tempted to do another massive open world game like Red Dead Redemption 2 or cheat again and do another bundle game like Mass Effect Legendary Edition or Halo Master Chief Collection, but I decided to go with a game that is a bit less intensive to complete but is still really fun to jump back into and try a new style with. I feel like it’s a bit of an underrated game these days. I know it was very well received and sold well but I don’t hear about it enough when talking about modern-ish classics. This is probably my favourite game that’s not a sandbox or open world, aside from the FromSoft games. The art style is gorgeous, the story is engaging, the DLC is a great add-on, the gameplay is diverse and super fun, it’s just such a great game all around.
My list is probably going to be very different from everyone else’s, but that’s part of the fun.
It’s impossible to pick out just five of the most important games ever, but I’d try to pick games that have important historical significance, have some degree of genre diversity, all while still being fun and thought-provoking games you’ll always want to pick back up.
- Ultima IV.
spoiler
The first RPG that wasn’t a giant dungeon-crawling grindfest where you slay a wizard at the end. It has a big open world, fun NPC interactions, and fun tactical RPG gameplay for the time. Has a really good philosophical storyline that is integrated with the game mechanics, and it shows how creativity can form under constraints. Another good option would have skipped to the SNES era with Final Fantasy VI, which is slightly less retro but is more approachable and has an equally compelling story with stronger replay value and tons of mods/romhacks.
- Resident Evil 2.
spoiler
One of the problems with choosing only five of the most important games is that the horror genre and the point-and-click adventure genre both are important in the history of gaming, but there isn’t room for both. Resident Evil 2 blends both genres exquisitely in a really compelling, but also endearing B-movie story with lovable characters. The Walking Dead would have been another option, but it doesn’t really have gameplay and it strays far enough away from the adventure genre that it doesn’t serve as a good example.
- Flower.
spoiler
The Indie Revolution was an important era of gaming history, and motion controls were really big back then. Beautiful, subtle story about overcoming depression. Roger Ebert was wrong and video games could be art. Any indie game during the Indie Revolution golden era (August 2008-September 2015) would fit here, but I picked Flower because, at the time, it challenged what people’s expectations of what a video game was supposed to be. Games don’t have to be challenging or about fighting to be legitimate. Doesn’t have a ton of replay value, but it’s the sort of game you’ll always come back to during hard times. Barely beat out Stardew Valley, which is longer and has more replay value but isn’t an “art game,” which was very much the zeitgeist of the era, and Celeste which, in addition to having a beautiful ludonarrative story like Flower, would have also been a good mascot for speedrunning communities, but was created post-indiepocalypse and therefore isn’t a good example of the era.
- Nier Automata.
spoiler
A really engaging action-focused game with a good story and tons of replay value. Bloodborne and Bayonetta would have also been good choices, but I ultimately went this one because you’ll spend more time on it, and there’s a co-op mod. It does make this list RPG-heavy, but it’s hard to find a pure action game with as much replay value and attention to the plot. It’s still a skills-based game and none of the RPG mechanics will save you on the hardest difficulty.
- Baldur’s Gate III.
spoiler
I would put an open-world, choice-based game here. Even though BG3 is not a true open-world game, it has many the sandbox features open-world players like short of a fun physics system. It’s the third entry in the series, but the game doesn’t expect you to have played the first two games. Great mod support. I didn’t choose other popular open-world/open-zone games because many have paper-thin quests that lack player agency (Daggerfall, half of Oblivion, Skyrim, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Breath of the Wild), don’t work as a standalone experience (any of the Mass Effect Trilogy, the Witcher 3), are amazing but too small in scale to be good representatives (KOTOR, Dragon Age: Origins, Deus Ex), are too controversial (Grand Theft Auto, which railroads you into being a bad guy) or have a strong open world and player choices but terrible gameplay (Morrowind). I gave BG3 the edge over Cyberpunk and Fallout: New Vegas due to built-in co-op and endless replay value that would last a lifetime.
If this were a top 10 list, I would add Fallout: New Vegas (for a purer open-world sandbox experience), Super Mario Galaxy (a 3D platformer in a well-known franchise with a strong story), Celeste(the pinnacle of 2D platformers and speedrunners love it), Minecraft(an important social game with constructive cooperative mechanics), and Stardew Valley (best cozy game representative).
