Games that have effected the gaming industry as a whole.

What games,for better or for worst,have done more critical in change for gaming industry as an whole?

Examples: World of Warcraft and Call of Duty 4

Damn It ! I came specifically to only those two games ! Way to go, Behardy !

How about The Elder's Scroll ?

Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. both were huge for 3D gaming in that they showed you could successfully make a beloved 2D franchise in a great 3D game.

I don't believe there is one game that effected the entire gaming industry as a whole, but there are many games that effect a whole genre. I mean if COD effected RPG's in any way than it would be an extreme disaster(DA2 anyone). Gears of War made a huge impact within Shooters as a whole, but in no way did it effect MMO's, Strategy games, Rpg's, etc.

PS: If anything WOW, and COD4 effected gaming for the worse, at least in my opinion.

there's influencing the industry and influencing the medium. like the movie jaws didn't really do anything innovative (the score is herrmann-styled, the film is cut like a lot of thrillers and monster movies, etc.), but the wide release and focused mass marketing became the blueprint for the industry as far as blockbusters go.

in the same way, i'd point to counter-strike as a game that influenced the gaming industry. steam was initially a platform to get out patches for counter-strike (there were other valve games that it was intended for, but CS was probably the neediest), but it has since become a big part of the blueprint for how we consume games.

It's not so much a single game, but I'd argue that the Ultima series had a pretty significant role to play in the development of the RPG, JRPG, FPS and MMO genres, and that you could directly trace the influences of series like The Elder Scrolls, Bioshock, Thief and Deus Ex to Ultima Underworld in one form or another.

@t1striker: I sorta see whatcha your saying. And now some-what agree that it does only effect genre or parts of the industry.

Also the reason I mention Cod 4 and WOW was exactly because I think they have done more bad than good for the consumers.

Call Of Duty 4 basically guaranteed the direction FPS games were going

Gears Of War is probably the biggest one to stick in my mind, I mean seriously the over the shoulder gun and cover mechanic was here to stay once gears of war perfected it.

I'll throw this one out right now even tho i ain't a fan but Titanfall by the looks of it, is going to be a game changer for the FPS genre. it's about time a game came out and refreshed the genre

Super Mario, Mario 64, Goldeneye, Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid 1, Final Fantasy X, Battlefront 2, Tekken 3, Call of Duty 4, Wii Sports for the most part

Half-Life, Halo, GTA, Goldeneye, Everquest, Runescape

Grand Theft Auto III

DOOM / Wolfenstein 3D.

Half-life.

I know there's an itch within ya'll to raise iconoclastic pitchforks and torches towards these titles, but as far as I know they were cultural milestones.

For what foundations they didn't set for the gaming industry. These games were the biggest ambassadors of the game mechanics used during their time. After GTAIII everyone realized the 'sandbox' was where the money was at. After DOOM, monster-maze scavenging, and smart level design took on new heights of inspiration and challenge. After Half-life (well some of us) realized theres more than one way to tell a story through a video game.

Their greatest contributions however are.....

liberal policies on PC and mod support.

and that last part can't be stressed enough.

On WoW: Not for people who like MMORPGs.... IMO.

E.T. for destroying the American console market, and Halo for rejuvenating the American console market.

It just occurred to me, movies have started to affect the game industry..... In a bad way !

If I had to pick ten video games that had the biggest impact on the gaming industry as a whole, they would probably be:

Pong (1972, Arcade)

Space Invaders (1978, Arcade)

Pac-Man (1980, Arcade)

Super Mario Bros. (1985, NES)

The Legend of Zelda (1986, NES)

Dragon Quest (1986, NES)

Street Fighter II (1991, Arcade)

Virtua Fighter (1993, Arcade)

Doom (1993, PC)

Super Mario 64 (1996, N64)

Grand Theft Auto 3

Odyssey

OXO

Super Mario Bros.

Mortal Kombat

Grand Theft Auto

Call of Duty

Braid

Angry Birds

You mean the Magnavox Odyssey? That was an entire console, not a singular game. Just sayin'.

Yeah the Odyssey was a console, but it only had 11 game cards released for it, all in the same year. Still one of the most influential things to video games whether it was a single game or not.

You could have just listed one or two of the individual games that had the biggest impact. The ones I would pick out of the Odyssey's small library would probably be Tennis (for inspiring Pong) and Shooting Gallery (the first light-gun video game, though I'm not sure if it influenced any arcade light-gun shooters).

@Jag85: I felt the console itself was more important than the games it offered.

Your list make no sense. How have you been by the way?

Fair enough. Come to think of it, all the games on it were more or less just the same game with different accessories.

Well, if it isn't the Tigersuperman... Where've you been, mate?

And by the way, which ones don't make sense?