Last year the war ended up against Bioware and Valve. Valve and the Steam community ended up pulling together and won the whole thing but Bioware almost got booted from the competition by Zynga. Seriously...ZYNGA?!?! This year the gaming market is different because Valve hasn't release anything new however, with the highly anticipation of Portal 2 they surely deserve something. The bracket has your typical big name gaming brands such as Blizzard, Capcom, Nintendo, Bungie, Crytek and Popcap as well as indie developers Mojang which developed "Minecraft" as well as Team Meat for "Super Meat Boy" and Rovio for "Angry Birds and Angry Bird Seasons".
I've decided not to bore everyone with my whole analysis of my bracket decision instead I will go over my "elite eight" and work my way to who I think will win the competition.
Also, to check out my bracket please visit:
My 2011 March Mayhem Developer's Showdown Bracket at The Escapist
North Division
Blizzard - Do I really need to say much about this? It's obvious that Blizzard has an awesome community with World of Warcraft and since Blizzard did put out WoW: Cataclysm back in December it's attracting even more players to the World of Warcraft. Although I do not like the fact that you must play 8-20 hours of WoW a day to get anywhere in the game and people have lost lives this way. It's not about what I like it's about what the fans like and clearly the fans like WoW.
Zynga- As much as I like some of Zynga's games and Facebook applications I am disappointed with the fact that you have to have "x" amount of friends to do certain things within the game. However, recently it seems they have changed it by letting you unlock certain aspects of the game without having "x" amount of friends by allowing you to exchange you "cash" that you receive with each level up or you have opt to buy some with a credit card or PayPal account but sometimes the exchange rate seems outrageous. Ratios such as: Either "Gain two new neighbors or cash in for 50 cash" I'm sorry but I'm not going to buy 50 cash and I certainly am not going to save my cash by leveling up 50 times. Anyways, although many people are addicted and play Zynga games I believe that developers are marketing the people who are not true gamers but just want to kill sometime at work or school.
West Division
Mojang AB- Wow is all I can say about Minecraft. When my brother first showed me this game I was like "uhhh really? So you just go around collecting stuff, building stuff and then protecting it so those monster things don't destroy it....right..." One night however, I was watching "Dogs of the Internet" stream their game play on Livestream Procaster and began to watch one of their members play this game. I became very much intrigued. and wanted to know what I could build and develop on my own. This wasn't enough for me to go out and buy the game. It wasn't until one of my friends came over and let me use his account that I was sold on this game. I was even more sold on the muliplayer mode and went into multiple servers and saw other people's art work.
Neversoft- Oh Neversoft. Although you put out an impressive line of Guitar Hero's it's sad that you couldn't get your act together to pull through. I guess you had to have seen it coming because there was only so much more they could have done with the line of Guitar Hero's to make it profitable. Also with Neversoft going down at the beginning of this year I believe that it will no longer an active competitor in competitions in the future.
East Division
Bungie- Bungie has had an impressive lineup of Halo games. However, I am disappointed that what they've basically done is remake Halo 3 two times over again with Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. The Halo community obviously has a high rated fan base and I'm quite sure fans would like to see more Halo or even another game series.
Ubisoft Montreal- Ubisoft has continued to market and develop creative game playing idea with Assassin's Creed series. I have liked the unique ideas that you can do in these games as well and the creative storyline. What really makes Ubisoft stand out is that Assassin's Creed is not the only game they continue to work on. They've also developed:
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Tom Clancey's Splinter Cell Series
Far Cry 2
This is a pretty impressive lineup for Ubisoft and each game series is unique from the other. I can say that Ubisoft has successfully made quite an impact on the gaming industry.
South Division
Valve- Although Valve didn't release anything in 2010 they continue to develop and update Steam. I know Steam has it's kinks but they've really done a great deal with it. Also fans knew that Valve was working ferociously on Portal 2 which looks amazing! If you haven't looked at the upcoming trailers, take a look at them.
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I am a little disappointed however that Valve has yet to work on Half Life 2: Episode 3. I will be further disappointed with Valve if HL2:E3 is a total waste. I want it to be epic. Then again, Valve has yet to let me down.
Capcom- Although Marvel vs Capcom 3 didn't come out until this year, it was highly anticipated and I know a handful of people who have been waiting for it for 10 years. Capcom has released pretty epic games including Street Fighter series, Mega Man, additions to Resident Evil and Devil May Cry as well as Lost Planet 2. I can say that the Resident Evil stories are starting to get old and I think Capcom needs to cut ties with it before they end up losing tons of money. With Lost Planet 2, Capcom took some vital hits because there were some developmental mishaps but the game play was rated pretty fairly.
Elite Eight Stacking
Blizzard vs Zynga- Do I need to say much with this one? If Zynga wins then we might as well say goodbye to gaming as we know it.
Winner: Blizzard
Mojang AB vs. Neversoft- I believe that Minecraft has such a great concept and it's fresh and new that gamers are eating it up. Also it's basically a no brainer here since Neversoft went dead.
Winner: Mojang AB
Bungie vs Ubisoft Montreal- This one was a little more difficult but still, Bungie has yet to develop another Halo game besides the twice done over Halo 3. I will give it more credit though because Halo 3 was received great reviews and that is basically all that the Xbox Live community is based around. However, with that said, I believe that Ubisoft has the upper hand because they did more with Assassin's Creed and they also made more games besides just Assassin's Creed and they weren't epic fails.
Winner: Ubisoft Montreal
Valve vs Capcom: UGH, this is a tough one considering Valve didn't so much in 2010. I do believe that the Steam Community is going to pull through on this one though and vote for Valve. Next year's bracket will be more interesting with Marvel vs Capcom 3 on the docket representing Capcom.
Winner: Valve
Final Four
Blizzard vs Ubisoft Montreal- This is where we start getting into the tougher decisions because even though the only thing that is really going for Blizzard is the WoW community it's a strong community and as said before with Cataclysm it's attracting even more fans. With Ubisoft I believe that even though they have a strong lineup of games that Blizzard will easily steal this one.
Winner: Blizzard
Mojang AB vs Valve- Ah, my babies. Now I may sound contradictory by saying I don't understand games that you must play 8-20 hours a day to get anywhere with but with Minecraft you can make as little or as much as you want. Your imagination determines the game. The only reason Valve made it so far in my list is because they have the Steam Community and that community is huge.
Winner: Mojang AB
Championship Match
Blizzard vs Mojang- Since Mojang is relatively new I must say it has made quite the impression of gamers and a high standard for indie game developers. The creative and unique idea of harvesting your own materials and basically making it whatever your want is a great idea. With both Mojang and Blizzard it seems you would have to find hours, days and weeks in your schedule to play the games however, with Blizzard if you decided to take a break everyone is moving on without you. With Minecraft, there is no real objective which makes the game awesome because who cares if you take a break for a week. Your materials and objects that you've made are still going to be there. If you're in multiplayer mode and you decide to take a break, oh well. Your friends have just showed you what life they don't have by making a town along with a giant castle while you were away. Therefore, I believe that Mojang has the upperhand and will be the winner
Overall Winner: Mojang AB
As much as I would like to take all the credit for coming up with the winner all by myself, I cannot take full credit. After many discussions between my friend's and such I would like to say thanks to my buddies Alex and Charles. :-)
Also, if you have a developer that you believe should have made it further in my bracket or want my perspective of why I dropped a certain developer let me know! I would love to share and talk to you!
Check back later when the tournament is actually happening and I'll give you my comments of the real bracket analysis.
Also, to check the current standings of the bracket visit:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/global/tournaments/standings/5
To view the leadership boards visit:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/global/tournaments/leaderboard/5
And again, if you want to check out my bracket click below.
My 2011 March Mayhem Developer's Showdown Bracket at The Escapist
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Wow Rachel, this was amazing. I hope to see alot more.
ReplyDelete~Rob
Thanks Rob!
ReplyDeletegtfo out Tron lol
ReplyDelete