Required gaming.

[Zhukov]

You realise you're just going to get people listing their favourite games, right?

Also, Tetris.

 

[BanicRhys]

The art form is too young to have classics already, you don't see too many film connoisseurs talking about films from 1910 and earlier, which is basically where gaming is at the moment.

Even the really old classics like Citizen Kane and the Wizard of Oz came out over 50 years after the birth of film (well technically the most primitive form of film was invented hundreds of years ago, but I'll ignore that)

 

[lord.jeff]

I also disagree that they age terribly. The games themselves don't age badly, the graphics become "outdated". A great game can still be great with bad graphics, for the same reason we have black and white movie masterpieces.

Gameplay has evolved over the years just as much as graphics have. Trying to play a game like Deus Ex, MDK, Tomb Raider, or Resident Evil today (as just a few examples I can think of) when you don't have something like nostalgia to fall back on is painful and clunky as all hell, because their respective genres have changed and been refined so much in only a decade (or a bit more). Since I am lucky enough to have no sense of nostalgia (and think its stupid and detrimental to gaming in all ways) I imagine i'll feel very much the same about today's games in another 10 years.

Movies or music however, are examples of mediums that don't age badly, because they dont have "mechanics" that you are personally involved in, they are simply entertainment you enjoy with no input into the final product. Movies age very well in the sense that movies from 30-40 years ago can still hold up to today's movies in standards (sometimes they are better in fact). The reason is because very little has changed in our standards for movies even after all that time, except for improved visual effects and other aesthetic qualities. You can't say the same about games at all.

and music doesn't age at all because its entirely subjective.

Try watching a few silent films, technique have developed a lot, gaming is going to take a while to get to it's peak but once it does older games will hold up better.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well...how many do you need? One or two definative examples of each genre? I mean, Starcraft was rather like the Warcraft games, you don't really need two or more of those, do you? Also, the C&C games were more different, but still similar enough to those that you don't need one of them and Warcraft or Starcraft, IMHO.

For FPS, I think you'd need one mindless shooer like DOOM, and one much more realistic one with lots of pedantic mucking about like SWAT4. Not a half-arsed big name fauz-realistic one that appeals to people to believe advertising about how realistic things are, though.

 

[Anaklusmos]

I would have to say

Platformer/Old School: Sonic the Hedgehog, or Mario
First Person Shooter: Deus Ex or BioShock
First Person Shooter (Again): Painkiller, Serious Sam
First Person Shooter (Again... again): Duke Nukem Forever (you just have to get it to see the best and worst of video games)
Stealth: Hitman or Thief
Real Time Strategy: Starcraft 2
RPG: Mass Effect or Dragonage
MMO: World of Warcraft

 

[NotSoLoneWanderer]

Fallout 3
Half-Life 2
Any Call of Duty
Final Fantasy (pretty much any)
Final Fantasy Tactics (different...thing)
Tekken/Street Fighter/Dead or Alive
The Legend Of Zelda (pretty much anyone)
Tetris
Any 2D Mario Title and a 3D Mario Title
Portal
GTA (any)
Anything like Metroid (shadow Complex)
Starcraft
Anything like civilization
Kingdom Hearts
uhhh im pretty young but i think you could understand gaming with at least a few of those under your belt.
And i guess fallout 1 for some more classic stuff..and the text based The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and any MMO WOW and such

 

[Virgil]

Now that gaming is officially considered an art form, what are some games you should have played to be a "fully versed" gamer?

I'd say that these are some older PC titles that really represent either the pinnacle of their genre, or a significant point in game development. It's slanted towards RPGs, sims, and adventure games, but mostly because those were the genres of the time.

Zork
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Baldur's Gate
TIE Fighter
King's Quest V
Grim Fandango
Ultima IV
Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Earthsiege
Myst
Fallout
Diablo II

The reason is because very little has changed in our standards for movies even after all that time, except for improved visual effects and other aesthetic qualities.

I'm going to have to disagree. I've been watching through the AFA's Top 100 movies this year, and even among the movies that are selected to be "the best" you can see that modern film-making has changed a lot over the past 80-ish years. Frankly, it's hard to get through some of them, in the same way it's hard to play a game with vastly outdated aesthetics/interface.

The only real difference for games is that it's a lot harder, or occasionally impossible, to get an older game to function on modern systems. The real classics make you forget their limitations though.

 

[Cheesus333]

If you want yourself to be considered well-read, there are certain books you are expected to have read; Shakespeare, Dickens, etc. If you want to be a movie connoisseur, there are certain movies you should have seen, Citizen Kane and what not.

So are we all just accepting this statement as a given, then?

What if - and bear with me here - someone had read a million books but never touched anything written by Shakespeare or any other famous writers that I'll assume 'etc.' implies. Even if they were well-educated when it came to literature, would this get in the way at all?

Personally, I don't think so. And I also don't think there are games that you can say are 'essential' before you consider yourself well-gamed[footnote]Again, roll with it please[/footnote].

Maybe a certain amount of games or a certain amount of classic games specifically, but not so much any particular titles.

 

[NoNameMcgee]

I'm going to have to disagree. I've been watching through the AFA's Top 100 movies this year, and even among the movies that are selected to be "the best" you can see that modern film-making has changed a lot over the past 80-ish years. Frankly, it's hard to get through some of them, in the same way it's hard to play a game with vastly outdated aesthetics/interface.

That's why I said in the past 30-40 years rather than the past 80 years. Most movies from the 30s, 40s, 50s, and even a lot of the 60s and some of the 70s are difficult for me to watch now. For exactly the reasons you stated. My point was that movies have much more longevity than games in terms of their age, and unless the advancement of gaming technology significantly slows it will remain that way.

Most games people hail as "classics" are in no way competant compared to anything modern, and I think pretending they are still great just because they were a turning point or a revolution for their particular genre is a ridiculous attitude. Nostalgia is the reason that "hardcore" gamers all went out and bought Duke Nukem Forever, supporting that worthless piece of junk of a game.

Games there were important to our industry should be remembered, but dont pretend for a second that if you took almost any game from the 90s, made the graphics modern, and changed history to have it released today instead of all those years ago, it would be anything other than a complete joke. It's not just graphics that age.

 

[Cranyx]

That's the point, we're not discussing which games you think are the most fun, but which ones were turning points for gaming in general.

For example, CoD is more fun to play than say, DOOM, but the former had a larger impact on the FPS genre.

 

[Artina89]

Here's mine:

Deadly premonition
Persona 4
Persona 3:FES
Okami
Shadows of the colossus
Rule of rose
Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 3
Legend of Zelda: a Link to the past, Ocarina of time and Majoras mask
Batman: Arkham asylum
Super Mario galaxy
Pokemon: Red, blue and yellow
Tetris
Phoenix Wright: Ace attorney
Super Mario bros. and Super Mario bros. 3
Portal

There you go, that's my two penny's worth

 

[BoredDragon]

Total Annihilation.

Command & Conquer and Red Alert.

Doom and Wolf 3D.

Quake.

Descent.

Battlefield 2

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Crysis.

Company of Heroes.

Dues Ex.

Star Craft.

Mass Effect series.

Half Life and its sequel.

Star Wars: Tie Fighter.

Gosh, I can think of lots of games that are important, ambitious and bring something new and/or innovative to the medium.

That's a pretty good list, to it I would add:
X-Com
Civilization (uhh... #4 I guess)
Minecraft
And, of course, TF2
Maybe Morrowind too.

to that I would add Bioshock, Modern Warfare, Shadow of the Colossus, and the first 2 (maybe 3) Halo games

 

[lord.jeff]

This is a hard question to answer because like with other forms of entertainment you have genres and you cant recommend a bunch of comedies to a horror fan, plus games have even more genres of games because you can divide them by RPG, FPS, and so forth,, giving you horror shooters and fun shooter, and realistic shooter. If your going to suggest required gaming just pick the most universally liked of each genre, so something like Halo, Silent Hill 2 and Final Fantasy 7.

 

[SammiYin]

I could consider myself well versed in the arts of appreciative gaming, or I could pull my head out of my own pretentious snobby arse and just play games I enjoy.

But so it looks like I'm contributing...Stronghold

 

[Tjacu]

Without reading to many of the games here, I will go onto the movies/book topic instead, and say the resaon they are classic and good to read/watch, are because of eaither:

1, Techonally advanced for their time.
2, Made the person think
3, Broke the rules of what was considerd normal.

and probably many more, and thus I can't think of that many games that have done this, to my mind there comes:

Postal/Duke Nukem (anyone of these that crossed the border of normal shooters to the more extreme)

Dune, one of the first RTS's with an intressting way to do the campain.

SMB 1, because platforming is hard when the levels are fair, (not like 8-3)

Dungeon Siege 1 (for the character development)

WoW, Atleast try it out, even if WoW is like crack, it's still one of most successful MMO's there is.

Hitman 47, or any other good stealher game.

And I've seen CoD, and I would agree if they would be good realistic games, instead I would say Operation Flashpoint.

Of these games, I have played all, and I would say that neither is my favorite, but they aren't on my hate list eaither (except that I avoid WoW atm)

 

[viranimus]

Ive been playing games for well over 30 years, and the weird thing to me is that I am shocked at how many of these titles I have not played, and really have never been compelled to play.

Total annihilation, The persona series, Pokemon, Multiple entries from the same franchise, These are rarely games I would envision when I think of what would be consider Magnum Opus level entries. Now with that said, let me remind that this is just an opinion, nothing more.

Anyway, When I think Magnum Opus level work I think of entries that they transcended for whatever reason the state of being just a video game and in most cases had some sort of cultural impact, but still were required to be good. (so No manhunt, just for its cultural impact)


I would go with the following.

Pac Man - Widespread mainstream acceptance milestone

Contra - Defining expectation of challenge from games and the cultural impact of the Konami Code.

Super mario bros 3 - Perhaps the first notable film tie in to the culture. Also mainstream milestone


Legend of Zelda: Link to the past - The culmination of both before it and the epitome of every entry since. One of gamings most truly revered series.

Final fantasy 7 - Mainstream cultural sucess milestone(though I would really rather list FF3-Snes)

Xenogears- Notable as it had to be censored based on religious controversy for ENG audiences.

World of Warcraft - widespread mainstream appeal milestone. More importantly the way it refined the MMO experience.

Halo 2 - Mainstream acceptance milestone. Online matchmaking incorporated with accessibility of gaming consoles.

Bioshock - New depth of narrative quality and emphasis.

And just to round it out I will pick a wildcard..

Deus Ex- The combination of elemental styles of different genres of games. RPG, Shooter, Adventure, Plot driven. Perhaps the single most ambitious game ever.