Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition continues to embarrass real gamers

Bobby Miller 10 Feb, 2012 at 6:34pm ET Article published in Gaming

The Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition is back for its 2012 edition, and once again they’re creating controversy. The organization has released their list of the “Top 50 Video Game Endings“, once more showing us that the world doesn’t actually know anything about video games other than what tops the sales charts.

Guinness polled 13,000 gamers on their favorite game endings to create the list. The results of this poll are exactly as you’d expect—at the top of the list, the video game with the greatest ending of all time is none other than Call of Duty: Black Ops. Falling in at second place is Halo: Reach. Rounding off the top three is, perhaps surprisingly, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Based on the world’s love for brown-colored ‘OMG SO REAL’ first person shooters, these results are pretty typical. Crowning them with a world record, however, is bound to spark the ire of passionate gamers everywhere.

Almost every game in the top 10 represents the typical high-budget action game status quo that has plagued the industry for the last half decade. In fact, seven of the top ten listed games are action-centric shooters or 3rd person combo-mashers. Eight of the top 10 listed titles have release dates of 2007 or newer (and only one game, Portal, came out in 07, with the rest being released in 2010-2011). Almost comically, role playing games—the genre most known for intricate storytelling—only have one representative in the top 10, and that entry is Final Fantasy 7. The entire thing is a stark indication that Guinness doesn’t actually know what they’re talking about, but we already knew that.

Adding insult to injury, Guinness World Records claim to offer “a definitive list of the greatest videogame endings of all time”. How exactly does one quantify the ending of a video game to call it definitive? You can’t have a small sample of gamers vote on what, in their opinion, are the greatest video game endings of all time (which shockingly relate directly to top sales figures), and then slap a seal on it and call it definitive. The entire process is embarrassing to anyone who really cares about the industry.

When Call of Duty titles appear on the top 50 four times, and three different Halo titles make the cut, it’s pretty frustrating to consider that there are hardly any classic games on that list, let alone story-driven games that actually deserve the title of best video game ending. On top of that, there are two embarrassing typos in the list: Half-Life 2: Episode Tow [sic] and Sonic Adventures 2 (there is no ‘s’ in Adventure). So while the list may be infuriating to most gamers, we can rest assured thanks to these telltale signs that this list, like the rest of the records in the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition book, don’t actually mean anything. Regardless, the full list can be seen below:

THE TOP 50 IN FULL
50. Resident Evil 4
49. Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic
48. Ratchet & Clank: a Crack in Time
47. Crysis 2
46. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
45. Call of Duty: World at War
44. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
43. Half-Life 2: Episode Tow
42. Super Metroid
41. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
40. New Super Mario Bros. Wii
39. inFamous
38. Fallout 3
37. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
36. Gears of War 2
35. Bioshock
34. Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
33. Sonic Adventures 2
32. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
31. Kingdom Hearts II
30. Mass Effect
29. Super Mario Galaxy
28. Sonic the Hedgehog
27. Metal Gear Solid
26. Assassin’s Creed II
25. Assassin’s Creed
24. Shadow of the Colossus
23. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
22. Kingdom Hearts
21. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
20. Super Mario Galaxy 2
19. Mass Effect 2
18. Grand Theft Auto IV
17. Portal 2
16. Assassins Creed: Brotherhood
15. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
14. Halo: Combat Evolved
13. Halo 3
12. Pokemon Black and White
11. Super Mario Bros
10. Heavy Rain
9. Final Fantasy VII
8. Metal Gear Solid 4
7. Portal
6. Red Dead Redemption
5. God of War
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Halo: Reach
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops

Comments

10 Feb 2012 ~ 6:51pm ardichoke Do we expect anything less from Guinness? When it comes to quantifiable things (like the worlds biggest snowball fight), Guinness tends to be spot-on. As soon as you move away from the realm of the quantifiable, however, I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.
10 Feb 2012 ~ 6:54pm Canti Metal Gear Solid 3 ranked (far) lower than Super Mario Bros. A game whose ending consists of nothing more than this screen.

Beat out this
by a lot.

yesiveryfuckingmad.jpg
10 Feb 2012 ~ 7:01pm oni_dels I not only puked a little, i died inside... well what was still alive in me died...
you want a list? here:
any mario or megaman from Nes and Snes
any final fantasy from 1 to 8
i'm glad shadow of the colossus was in the list...
final fantasy tactics
ogre tactics
sonic 1 through 3 and sonic and knuckles
pretty much any game released before 1999...
10 Feb 2012 ~ 7:51pm MiracleManS I'm not sure how this works. I've played like...4 of the top 25.

And on what planet is Starcraft II a bigger deal than the original Starcraft/SC:BW?
10 Feb 2012 ~ 7:57pm ardichoke Damnit Canti, you just reminded me that I need to get a PS3 so I can play Guns of the Patriots.

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU
10 Feb 2012 ~ 8:03pm Gameblade DAMN U CORPORATE GREED BULLSHIT
10 Feb 2012 ~ 8:36pm Bandrik
(everything Canti said)
Canti, you said exactly (and I mean that literally) what I was about to type in this little box. I saw MGS3 and Super Mario Bros. And I made that exact same comparison, with a nice blob of "WTF" slathered on top.

The entire Metal Gear series hits hard. I will boldly admit, without any trace of shame, that I cried manly tears during Metal Gear Solid 4's ending. Manly. Tears.

In contrast, I can barely even remember there being and ending on most of the other games on that list, let alone a good one. Even Ocarina of Time, in all its nostalgia glory, had a pretty ho-hum ending.

This list can go eat a dick (clown).
10 Feb 2012 ~ 9:19pm UPSLynx MGS4 is pretty much exactly where it should be, if not a little higher. I hold it in very, very high regard.

I thought it was dumb they included Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog. I love those games to death, but the only reason they made that list is out of nostalgia. Nothing about them makes them definitive game endings/stories.
11 Feb 2012 ~ 12:21am Cliff_Forster My personal favorite game ending.

Another one that I always thought was nice.
11 Feb 2012 ~ 12:41am Tim Starcraft 2 and Halo 2 should both be in the top 10.
11 Feb 2012 ~ 1:40am Cliff_Forster
11 Feb 2012 ~ 4:47am Chooch I never played Half-Life 2: Episode Tow ...
This list made me sad....I cried...
11 Feb 2012 ~ 8:35am Harudath 13,000 gamers is difinitive? Steam has no less than two million gamers online at any given time. Yuck.
11 Feb 2012 ~ 11:43am Ilriyas This is a joke it has to be, any list that doesn't include Deus Ex, (Rated one of the greatest PC games ever made) Thief The Metal Age, Duke Nukem 3d, Doom, Goldeneye, (64 version not that reloaded bs) and Age of Empires 2 has got to be a massive joke.

(I could list more games but these stand out in the forefront of my mind of games that I've played. [note Half-Life isn't there because I've never played any of the games, something I should get around to])
11 Feb 2012 ~ 12:38pm chrisWhite While in most regards Halo is way, way, way overrated Reach did have a particularly evocative and balsy ending. Mass Effect 2 had a badass end right up until the dumb boss fight, Mass Effect 1's was better, and significantly better than Amy of the Assassin's Creed endings.
11 Feb 2012 ~ 3:23pm cola Brilliant, Cliff.
11 Feb 2012 ~ 3:31pm UPSLynx
While in most regards Halo is way, way, way overrated Reach did have a particularly evocative and balsy ending. Mass Effect 2 had a badass end right up until the dumb boss fight, Mass Effect 1's was better, and significantly better than Amy of the Assassin's Creed endings.
Yeah, I felt that boss fight kind of ruined ME2's ending for me. I mean, it didn't totally ruin it, I still think it was spectacular, but that fight was pretty dumb.
11 Feb 2012 ~ 4:25pm Winfrey I can't believe Borderlands didn't make the list. I mean who could forget that epic final boss battle?
11 Feb 2012 ~ 4:28pm Koreish I don't know if Guiness knows this but people don't play Starcraft, Halo, Gears of War, or CoD for their stories. If you can even call them that... :/
11 Feb 2012 ~ 8:47pm MiracleManS
I don't know if Guiness knows this but people don't play Starcraft, Halo, Gears of War, or CoD for their stories. If you can even call them that... :/
I absolutely played the original Starcraft and expansion for the story. Starcraft II I played for the story until it ripped my heart out.
11 Feb 2012 ~ 10:08pm Winfrey Believe it or not people most definitely do play Halo for the story. They read all the books and stuff and study the lore and have posters of the cheap knock off of Shodan from System Shock 2.
12 Feb 2012 ~ 7:16am GOW Guinness have conducted a poll and have announced the results - it seems dumb to castigate them for this!?

Surely the problem, if there is one, is the casual gamers that voted.

Personally who cares; does it effect your favourite ernding wasn't chosen?
12 Feb 2012 ~ 11:17am branmyson So, you are upset that your opinions are not represented in a survey of a fairly large group? I do wonder if you can be sure that those of us here are representative of an "average" gamer. When you are dealing with a subjective term like "best" the process should be to poll a large number of people in order to achieve some level of average “best”

“You can’t have a small sample of gamers vote on what, in their opinion, are the greatest video game endings of all time (which shockingly relate directly to top sales figures), and then slap a seal on it and call it definitive.”

Which is probably exactly what should be done. Additionally, the reason it relates to sales figures is due to the fact that sales represent the number of units purchased which would correlate to the # of games people actually played. I think part of your issue is that you do not feel that you are represented, but are not you and many of this site at the forefront of gaming and less hobbyists? Perhaps you main issue is in how you define Gamer and how you rate subjective terms. Perhaps what should be polled instead are 500 video game reviewers. Would that be more definitive? Or would a better poll be one that is limited to those who can demonstrate 15+ years of gaming as a hobby with 20+ games played and purchased each of those years.

How would you make a “definitive” list?
12 Feb 2012 ~ 1:16pm Cliff_Forster Guinness also utilizes the services of those amateurs over at http://www.twingalaxies.com/ to monitor the high arcade scores.
12 Feb 2012 ~ 2:39pm Gameblade They should have checked for experience, a new gamer or an casual gamer would obviously pick the flashest game out there, a veteran gamer or a career gamer would judge on content.
13 Feb 2012 ~ 12:31am MiracleManS
How would you make a “definitive” list?
I wouldn't. Unless, of course, I wanted to enrage and entire market of people and drive them to read (and subsequently post/bitch) about my list.

Worked well for Rolling Stone's 100 greatest guitarists list.
13 Feb 2012 ~ 5:14pm MrKerfuffle What about Half-Life? With these games on the list, you'd expect PONG to be on the list!
14 Feb 2012 ~ 12:21pm Koreish I just noticed that Star Wars The Force Unleashed was on the list. The game we paid 60USD for and beat on the hardest difficulty within 6hrs 100%? The game that not only shit on the original trilogy but the already craptastic prequel trilogy?

Even the casual gamer should know better than this.