The Official Based System Wars Meta-Game

Click HERE to access the Official Based System Wars Spreadsheet

Hello friends, and welcome to the ancient tradition that is the system wars meta-game. If you've heard some crazy person referring to one of the best games in recent memory as a 'flop' or find yourself confused by an intense debate regarding official hype-readings, this might just be the thread for you.

Let's take some questions, shall we? First, the short tl;dr version. Longer reading may be found at the bottom of the thread.

• The System Wars Meta-Game is a long-held tradition of keeping score on which system has the highest number of top-rated games, with special preference for exclusives.
• ONLY GAMESPOT SCORES COUNT
• But Metacritic....
• ONLY GAMESPOT SCORES COUNT
• But yesterday on Eurogamer....
  ONLY GAMESPOT SCORES COUNT
• A game is AAA, AA or A if it scores a 9, 8 or a 7 respectively. Or AAAA for a rare 10. E denotes an exclusive.
• As a system owner/fan, you want as many top-rated games as possible, which involves 'hyping' upcoming and newly announced games which you think are going to be excellent entries in your game library
• If a game is hyped up to be amazing, and it fails to meet that hype, it's officially a flop
• A flop is not a bad game. It can be a great game. It can be one of the best games of the year. But if it failed to meet expectations and its followers over-did it with pre-release hype, it's a flop. Accept it and move on.
  Supplementary notes:
• You are allowed to talk about metacritic/any other review as much as you like. It just doesn't count towards the meta-game.
• You do not *have* to play the system wars meta-game by any means if you'd rather just talk about games (but keep in mind it's been here as long as this board has, and trying to reject it likely wont get you very far)
• There is no such thing as 'official hype' and 'official hype poll' threads or similar are irrelevant. The extent to which a game was 'hyped' will always be debatable/open to individual interpretation
• But.... hype threads or polls are perfectly fine to use to throw a last-minute prediction out there, or to look back on for a source of ownage if individuals predict a certain score and the review crushes their dreams
  That's all there is to it! There are no 'rules'. You aren't going to be punished for not playing along. But join in and you'll find system wars to be one of the more enjoyable pits of silliness on the internets.
  Take your flops like a champ.

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Read on for a little more depth, should you so desire:

1. I'm new. What the heck is the system wars meta-game?

The meta-game has evolved since the very earliest days of system wars and endured through thick and thin. In its simplest terms, the meta-game is a loose set of rules that the board uses to track how many top-rated games each new system accumulates during its lifetime. At the end of yet another generation of gaming, whichever system has the most top-rated games - with bonus emphasis on exclusives - is said to have 'won' the generation, regardless of sales or how filthy stinking rich it may have made its manufacturers.

2. What is the obsession with the letter A around this place?

AAA refers to a game which scores a 9. AA refers to a game which scores an 8, and A a game which scores a 7. Very rarely a AAAA game will grace us with its godliness, scoring a 10. Add the letter E to any of those categories to denote that it is exclusive to one system. Easy!

3. But my favorite game of all time scored a 6!

That's great 'n all, but for meta-game purposes we are only concerned with games scoring A and above.

4.

Joke's on you, it got 99% on metacritic!

First rule of the meta-game:- only Gamespot scores count. It doesn't matter what Eurogamer says. It doesn't matter that you much prefer the prose of IGN. It doesn't matter that metacritic is giving a very different score on average. Only Gamespot scores count. This does not, in any way, mean that you aren't allowed to talk about metacritic or use metacritic as evidence of how good or bad a game is. The meta-game isn't here to stifle discussion. But for the purposes of determining the definitive score of a game, for purely meta-game purposes....

ONLY GAMESPOT SCORES COUNT, JABRONI.

5. Ok, Only Gamespot scores count. What is 'hype' and how does it work?

Hype simply refers to how much attention a game is getting. Is it getting threads all the time every time a new tidbit of information comes out praising it as the greatest thing to ever grace gaming? Is it hotly anticipated? Are you seeing wild predictions about how it will change gaming as we know it? You've just found yourself a hyped game!

Hype can also be expressed in 'official hype threads', however system wars hasn't been too fond of this approach in the past and rejected the notion of 'official hype' when put to a vote. This does nothing to stop you making an 'official hype thread' should you so choose, but there is never really such thing as 'official hype'. The extent to which a game was hyped is always going to be open to debate and interpretation.

6.

So why do you hate all games? I'm seeing great scores and you're saying everything is a flop!

A flop is not a bad game. A flop can be an EXCELLENT game, even. A flop is simply a game which failed to meet its hype. So if something is hyped to be incredible, and it only gets an 8, it's a flop. A great game, surely, but a flop. It didn't meet the expectations of the good people of system wars.

7.

I see that all top games are tracked on the totally Based System Wars Spreadsheet. I want to update it. What's the password?

The password to the Based System Wars Spreadsheet is classified information, and its maintenance entrusted only to the most venerable of system wars participants.

8.

Why is there no Xbox 360/PS3/Sega megadrive on the spreadsheet?

The spreadsheet will track a particular generation of new systems which are in competition with each other, not every system in history. The slate is wiped clean with each new generation.

Thank You Ninja-Hippo!

As nice as this is. This will not end well.

thanks, alot of noobs flip flop sites depending on which makes their system look good, especially which uses massive padding like MC

If you don't want to count all the PC games, I'm sure Jankar will do it since he loves to throw those statistics in people's faces

Finally we have a new one, thanks.

it stopped being updated

If someone wants to take responsibility for tracking PC review they are more than welcome to PM me for an invite to the Based Spreadsheet Team.

The only reason I'm not tracking PC reviews is because Gamespot are actually doing a really great job of reviewing download/indie titles and there's just way too many to keep on top of, and they all usually get decent scores. A lot of them later get ported to PSN/XBL/iOS as well without much of an announcement so keeping tabs on exclusives is very hard too.

It's not a slight against the PC, it has every game in history more or less. It wins by default.

Good stuff.

No 3DS/Vita though?

HD remakes = now exclusive?

And idiots will still flipfloping sites, bu..bu..but TLOU got ninety-something on metacritics.

There seem to be a lot of multiplats missing from X1

I'm updating as we speak. It'll be updated weekly so games might be missing for a few days, but they'll always get on there.

Nice, hopefully this will get more people to do more and better hype threads, don't get me wrong, there are still great hype threads bur far less than what we had in the past gens.

LOL Why do I feel like this metagame is just a game who breaks the rule first? We all know what's going to happen as soon as McShea does his trick again and gives a game a 5 when the game is a 10 on Metacritic. You're an idiot if you think cows, lemmings, or any other faction will sit back and take it in stride. it's not going to happen.

Welcome to the last ten years, friend.

About time someone created another one of these.

If it's a release that can only be played on one system, yes it's exclusive.

Does anyone else feel we need 3DS/Vita? We probably could, but it would be a lot of legwork that I don't want to stick on anyone not willing to do it themselves.

lol, my thoughts exactly...

I see this is a start up enterprise that skipped over everyone that had anything to do with the original spreadsheet.

In my humble opinion, you should have gathered those, if not most of those, users that updated and maintained the last spreadsheet. There is wisdom and experience to impart....involving something longstanding it's nice to see a passing of the torch if you will. That is a colossal amount of hours and effort provided for the SW community enjoyment last generation. Those unsung heroes spent many a year maintaining in what ended up being an incredibly long gaming generation.

Then GS tossed users aside with this new forum and we saw a great exodus from GS and SW alike.

Also, a friendly heads up, counting HD remakes as exclusive wasn't done in SW. Had you come to the original spreadsheet guys, they would have told you that is going to cause a big fuss.

There should be a quorum, if not the majority SW community, to decide on a radical change. Perhaps a timed poll if longstanding rules are going to be altered.

I wonder what other changes are in store if the approach is so cavalier. I don't have any issues other than the use of tradition in the OP while some tradition is set aside by a new person wrangling the Meta Game.

Personally, I don't mind HD remakes were counted in the past or future if it was consistent, but I would worry that making a decision solo on that issue without discussion could be an issue and perhaps void this start up attempt if a majority speak up against this effort. Why not just maintain the status quo and not count them? Other new changes include not counting PC...

This wasn't posted out of anger, so if I manage to conjure anger simply by posting my concerns due to your older issues with me, please disregard this entire post.

Without the PC in there most people on SW won´t give a crap about this "metagame",when you exclude the biggest faction in sheer numbers on SW that´s what will happen so no one will take this seriously.

Leaving it out with the pathetic excuse that "it wins everytime anyway" is the saddest reason tbh.

To be honest, its Cows who are the most vocal. They cried and complained when the Sheep tried to pull that MC shit yet when TLOU flopped here on GS it was Cows that ran to MC and refused to accept the flop.

Quick sticky while people digest this delicious piece of SW history. Yes, this is quite the historical practice and one that makes any console generation more interesting, especially at the outset.

I'm afraid nothing here is accurate.

Nice, sticky.

Too bad all the good users who took their flops like champs are gone.

Oh, so HD collections count now.

Okay.

Now all we're left with is idiots and their alts.

That user you quoted above that is answering questions in this thread, he wasn't involved with the maintenance of the last generation spreadsheet.

There is a new set of people wanting to do this spreadsheet identified so far as both musicmac and ninjahippo, neither of who were apart of the last spreadsheet maintenance.

The answer being, "new people behind this new spreadsheet, new rules"? Is that right or fair to disregard tradition of a community meta game? I couldn't say, but I thought your observation deserved a response.

I don't particularly think there is any major problem with new rules, but I do wonder who's deciding on the new rules and why only them. Then again, it's only a meta game, whatevs right?...hahaha. Peace be with you.

It's a shame because console launches would be the perfect time to have had the old (my old at least) SW community back for fun discussions in the lounge.

I have a solution for all of this, but I want to put in the time and work for it.

windwaker is exclusive?

That wasn't the case with last gen HD collections. If it is this gen, cool. Just curious.

Yes? Maybe?

It really depends? Or it doesn't? For now?

It's been identified so far that two-new-to-the-spreadsheet-peeps are commandeering this Classic Meta-game Vessel w/new rules for the proletariat.

Best get in line or you'll walk the plank! lol. I think they mean well and GS is having an issue with losing users so this idea is probably to get the post and views up for Gamespot.com. Maybe it's for $4!t$ and giggles. Time will tell. :)

Regarding WindWaker.... it was a good Gamecube game. It wasn't my favorite Zelda title, but I enjoyed it other than the sailing got to be a chore after a while. I still remember buying WW at launch day waiting for my reserved copy to roll in and drop my $50 bones. It was a very sizable line. It had stealth elements and sweet Celda! :P I think I still have my strategy guide! I didn't buy it because I needed it, it was 30% off and it came with a poster. The guide just looked collectible.:P

TLOU is 11 on badosh.com.

AAAAAXE.

Yeah, let's not dive into that whole Last of Us charade again?

you guys are stripping the fun off SW... No wonder nobody comes around here anymore. The fun was seeing people trying to argue the flop but now with such strict rules all you'll see are people in a thread either celebrating the flop or celebrating the hype when is met and that is not fun. What about the meltdown? That was SW in its purest form. SW is not a place to be fair.

3DS, PS Vita, and PC really SHOULD be included

Kinda stupid that there are fans of each of those systems, but they won't get to participate in the meta game.

And HD "remakes" should not be counted.

If being in higher definition constitutes exclusivity then I vote that every multiplat on the PC is exclusive.

This has been part of SW for the better part of a decade. This is more of a reminder for new users than anything else.

So HD collections/HD remakes are exclusives now? And will XBLA/PSN releases be counted in the full list as well?

Then can we count all the older PC games that we can now play in higher resolutions?

You can´t because the PC isn´t included in this "metagame" because it apparently wins everytime.

So officially PC wins system wars?

No PC on the spreadsheet makes no sense IMO, but everything else is great.

Apparently.

It´s almost like if the Formula 1 officials said that since Vettel has won the last 4 world championships in a row he doesn´t count for the 2014 season,let him win while we only count the ones coming behind him lol.

Well PC Officially won system wars. Time to shut it down

@musicalmac: im confused by your phrasing, we can't possibly be accepting remakes as exclusive right? That just sounds crazy.

@Ninja-Hippo: Good stuff. I'm glad to see this back again

No PC on the metagame? lol sure.

@Gue1: I'd actually argue that what you described makes system wars a sess pool... The lack of a definitiveoutcome to hype makes system wars a waste of time. Learn to embrace the idea that you wwon't always get what u want and you can't talk your way out of it and enjoy the system wars like a man. Watching sniveling fanboys foam about scores that mean absolutely nothing to our fun little game is mad tired. Embrace your flops and move on.