Poll: The Best (Western) RPG Series of All Time

[AD-Stu]

Too paralysed by indecision to vote. My obvious choice is Mass Effect, but my heart says "the Ultima series was awesome and have you forgotten that back in the day you loved it as much as you love Mass Effect now", then my brain points out that it's never actually had the chance to play Baldur's Gate and maybe I'm missing out on something... *le sigh*

 

[Fishyash]

Pokemon!! no wait... that's not western...
Tales of Symphonia (doh!!)
Xenoblade.... NOOOOOOO
*BLINKS*...
Hey there's a list at the top... ooooooh!
*inserting vote*

Did you vote wizardry? It's pretty much what the first JRPGs were based off.

 

[DarksideFlame]

Voted for KOTOR, because the first game because I think it was so absolutely brilliant that it's my undisputed favorite game of all time, the second game though was lacking but that always seem to be the problem with Obsidian games either rushed or crippled with bugs but I discovered a lot of potential there, so I'll forgive some shortcomings since they only had 1 year to make it

The other candidates I had was Dragon Age and Mass Effect but I'm currently doing a another run of ME1 but then I remembered how shit the gameplay in ME1 was and how all the planets you visited during sidequests had the distinct look of copy-paste and rendered in a different color which I can't remember anyone complaining about it in ME1 as much as Dragon Age 2 got for it

 

[Guffe]

Pokemon!! no wait... that's not western...
Tales of Symphonia (doh!!)
Xenoblade.... NOOOOOOO
*BLINKS*...
Hey there's a list at the top... ooooooh!
*inserting vote*

Did you vote wizardry? It's pretty much what the first JRPGs were based off.

It was a though choice between wizardry and other for a rpg to the gamecube I can't remember the name for -.- after some thought it went to the *other*, trying to find it but can't :,(

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Well since I havent played a lot of the classics, Im gonna have to go with The Elder Scrolls series, its just what comes to mind when I think western RPG, also they're damn good. Fallouts a good contender as well I guess

 

[JesterRaiin]

Baldur's Gate Trilogy forever.

BTW : I see bard's tale, but not this :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Might_and_Magic

???

 

[suitepee7]

gotta say elder scrolls, FOR NOW!

the next installments of fallout and mass effect could swing it their way. elder scrolls has its advantage because skyrim just came out, and the gameplay is better than the other 2 series.

 

[Zhukov]

Mass Effect for me.

Yes yes, I know, the ME games are far from perfect. I can bang on about their flaws with the best of you, but at the end of the day it's the characters that do it for me. I'm not sure how it happened, but I've gotten attached to my assorted crew members to a higher degree than any other RPG has managed.

As for the others...

I'm pretty ambivalent about the Elder Scrolls games, but I can't deny that they're very good at what they do. I've managed to have plenty of fun with Skyrim.

I enjoyed Fallout 1 and the third game had a great setting, but they never quite managed to draw me in.

Knights of the Old Republic is one of those widely beloved games that I just don't get. The first game had an interesting and well executed twist and that one good scene when Bastilla meets her mum. I thought the entire rest of the game was terrible. Never played the second one.

No particular thought on the rest.

 

[lRookiel]

I may direct you all to this

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114127-Game-Devs-Vote-Baldurs-Gate-Best-Game-of-All-Time

Thank you very much, I will accept this /thread gladly

 

[Tayh]

Fallout.
And by that, I mean Fallout and Fallout 2, not the consolized piece of trash called Fallout 3 + expansions.
Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate series are a close second and third place, respectively.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Exile/Avernum...do those count as 2 (now 3) series?

If so, then Exile, the Avernum remakes were good, but not Exile.

 

[babinro]

Dragon Age for me (Other).

One of these years I intend to buy and play through Baldur's Gate at which point my mind may change.

Dragon Age 1 and 2 and the facebook game were all great. The only one that failed to capture the magic in my eyes was Awakening.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

EDIT: The poll results are so predictable... xD

With Baldur's Gate, Fallout, and KOTOR on that list, I am perplexed that Elder Scrolls wins, especially since it really only has one good game imo. Actually, this isn't surprising. People have such hard-ons for Skyrim that they end up forgetting other, superior Western RPGs.

Oh look at that, Elder Scrolls takes number one. Who woulda guessed.

Elder Scrolls running away with it because of the freshness of Skyrim was inevitable, as was the aging classics like Wizardry and Ultima getting very few votes (because very few members of this site will be old enough to have played them), but I'm okay with that. Elder Scrolls is not an unworthy candidate. It's getting close to 20 years old now, has five MASSIVE games had two smaller ones, a richly developed and consistent world thick with lore, and a heavy emphasis on making as much of the world interactive as possible (a great benefit to immersion). In many ways, it's the closest thing to a spiritual successor Ultima has, and in terms of longevity, scope and impact on the genre Ultima is far and away the most significant series in that list.

PS - If it's not completely obvious, I voted for Ultima.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Neverwinter Nights I guess. Since I got NWN on release, and I'm still playing it all these years later via multiplayer. Its the one game series on this list which has actively and successfully encouraged the development and construction of new RPG games within' its world.

Yea, Elder Scrolls and Dragon age encourage fan mods, but they are nowhere even close to Neverwinter Knights level of continued RPG development.

Oh and by the way, its not on your list. Shame on you, put it on your first post but neglected it from your voting list!

Alas, the poll only contained 8 options. I simply could not have everything in there, but if it's in the first post, it was an official nominee. I had to use the available spots for the 7 series I thought were MOST significant of the nominees (and the ones I thought would get me the most shit if excluded), and "Other".

BTW : I see bard's tale, but not this :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Might_and_Magic

???

I know that Bard's Tale and Might and Magic had very similar game play (and Wizardry in turn inspired Bard's Tale), but I also felt that BT was a little more pioneering than Might and Magic. Perhaps unfairly. If any more people vote for it, I'll re-consider adding it to the first post, since it WAS on my short list when I began compiling candidates, but was an 11th hour cut.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

Baldur's Gate, hands down. If the game wasn't giving me such a hard time running on my new laptop, I would still be playing it every 2-3 months.
You realize of course that with Skyrim so hot now, the numbers will be heavily skewed for TES?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

You realize of course that with Skyrim so hot now, the numbers will be heavily skewed for TES?

Yep. As I discussed 3 posts up. I felt like doing a poll, and you can't ever time these things so one series or another isn't running hot. How do I make a poll where Ultima or Wizardry gets fair attention? I humbly submit I cannot. That they even got a couple of votes makes me smile.

And really, as I said just above, ES is not some welter weight series that doesn't deserve the consideration. Another few years and it'll be the longest running Western RPG we've ever had, to say nothing of the acclaim it's gotten. It's not MY #1. It's not even my #2. But it's in my top 5, and I've really got no issues with it winning an informal poll (which it was obviously going to do, thanks to Skyrim).

 

[LilithSlave]

Ultima.

Elder Scrolls doesn't even come close, in my opinion.

Neither does Mass Effect, Fallout, or Dragon Age, compare to the majesty of Ultima.

 

[JesterRaiin]

BTW : I see bard's tale, but not this :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Might_and_Magic

???

I know that Bard's Tale and Might and Magic had very similar game play (and Wizardry in turn inspired Bard's Tale), but I also felt that BT was a little more pioneering than Might and Magic. Perhaps unfairly. If any more people vote for it, I'll re-consider adding it to the first post, since it WAS on my short list when I began compiling candidates, but was an 11th hour cut.

I suppose it's ok, however i'm still unsure how it's possible to chose series consisting of 3 (literally : three) mildly known games over franchise with 9 parts not counting spin-offs, that practically dominated cRPGing during it's "Xeen" phase and inspired numerous followers.

BTW : I may be wrong but (among many other) the concept of acquiring and upgrading private stronghold was introduced by none other than M&M series, so we have a lot to thank it for.

 

[RaeveSpam]

Why is the Witcher not on this list?