Currently, it's down to the last 8. Usually, I wouldn't make a topic, but there's something pretty weird going on. I'll let you take a look at the table and work out the odd-one-out among the chart. I can wait, don't worry. No, please, look before carrying on, this is important.

Looked and spotted the odd-one-out? You will have noticed that seven of the developers are well known and pretty well liked: Nintendo, Blizzard, Bioware, Relic, Valve, Bethesda Softworks and Square Enix. The eighth one, you'll look at with some confusion. You'll wonder "who is this...Zynga and what did they make?". You'll run your cursor over it in mystery like putting a hand to a window to try to see through the dust. Farmville? Mafia Wars? Vampire Wars? They're not real games but rather exploitation of time, effort and currency with no real video-game development in it. You'll then look back at who they won in the contest of popularity to get to where they are now. You'll first shrug your shoulders wondering who NCSoft is, only to find out they made game series most people will not of heard of. However, you'll then discover they then not only beat Infinity Ward and Rockstar North. This, is when I can't help but wonder if there's foul play about here.

This isn't the first time Zynga has used foul tactics to their own ends. Mark Pincus admitted that they used every dirty trick in the book to get money in. So, could this be a real reflection of March Madness and the fan base of The Escapist? Could this simply be Zynga urging all their fans and users of their products to vote? After all, all three games they made are browser games so it's easier for Zynga to ask for their support. However, considering their past, I wouldn't be surprised if Zynga was rigging it.

Zynga must be stopped, lest gaming as we know it collapses.

The bastards.

Sadly, i do play FarmVille from time to time. But they shouldn't be up there. Their games aren't worth the honor that this would give them.

Same thing happens whenever you give people the right to vote for something. They ruin it. How else do you explain Gordon Freeman winning the Gamespot contest?

At 3/30/10 01:32 PM, Salnax wrote: Same thing happens whenever you give people the right to vote for something. They ruin it. How else do you explain Gordon Freeman winning the Gamespot contest?

You mean, a character contest and they voted Gordon Freeman as the best character of all time, the iconic character from the well known Half Life series? No, it's not similar, not by miles.

This isn't a case of "I hate this developer and they should die!" or even fan-boy hate. It's how Zynga isn't liked or isn't known but yet they've beaten both Infinity Ward and Rockstar North, both pretty much loved by people who play computer games.

At 3/30/10 01:39 PM, Lost-Chances wrote:

At 3/30/10 01:32 PM, Salnax wrote: Same thing happens whenever you give people the right to vote for something. They ruin it. How else do you explain Gordon Freeman winning the Gamespot contest?

You mean, a character contest and they voted Gordon Freeman as the best character of all time, the iconic character from the well known Half Life series? No, it's not similar, not by miles.

This isn't a case of "I hate this developer and they should die!" or even fan-boy hate. It's how Zynga isn't liked or isn't known but yet they've beaten both Infinity Ward and Rockstar North, both pretty much loved by people who play computer games.

Gordon Freeman is something of a closed book to console gamers, who, like it or not, make up the majority of the gaming population. When you mention FPSs to a console gamer, they're more likely to talk about CoD, Halo, Goldeneye, and Bioshock than Half Life. Do you really think that Gordon had more support than Snake, the honorary mascot for Playstation, or Link and Mario, who have an insane fanbase and are often credited with the bet games of all time? In both the Escapist and Gamespot competitions, some smaller party is breaking the rules in order to win.

At 3/31/10 12:34 AM, Salnax wrote: Gordon Freeman is something of a closed book to console gamers, who, like it or not, make up the majority of the gaming population. When you mention FPSs to a console gamer, they're more likely to talk about CoD, Halo, Goldeneye, and Bioshock than Half Life. Do you really think that Gordon had more support than Snake, the honorary mascot for Playstation, or Link and Mario, who have an insane fanbase and are often credited with the bet games of all time? In both the Escapist and Gamespot competitions, some smaller party is breaking the rules in order to win.

While you're right Half Life has a smaller fan-base than Halo or Bioshock, Gordon Freeman is more memorable. You mention Jack from Bioshock and no one will know, nor will they care. James Bond from Goldeneye? Even mentioning any character outside the Modern Warfare series will often end with blank stares. Mention Gordon Freeman though, he's well known as hell. He's almost the symbol of PC gaming. So, to be honest, it doesn't really have much do to with this. Gordon Freeman has a chance of winning, which he apparently did, compared to the other characters. He's not really unknown. To assume that all people who go on Gamespot or The Escapist are full out console gamers is silly. Plus, come on. what is the average gamer going to prefer to choose? Master Chief, from a game that has become unpopular among non-Halo fans (which, believe me, there is a lot), Gordon Freeman, Jack from Bioshock or James Bond from Goldeneye (which, considering we're focusing on CHARACTER and not game, it's not a good plan). It'll be Gordon Freeman, every time, assuming the person voting isn't a huge fan of any of the series.

Sure there's always Link, Mario and Snake as well to contend with, but I'm just saying that Gordon Freeman isn't that bad of a character where you must assume some secret dark organisation pre-determined the winner and mass-voted to reflect it if he won best character. When it comes to the non-fan boy computer game players, I'd say Gordon Freeman may win in that area just because he isn't a loaded symbol of a console or even of an elitist group of idiots.

We're down to the last four. Zynga beat Square-Enix.

I think it's safe to say this competition has been rigged.

At 4/2/10 02:29 PM, Im-A-Pirate wrote: Zynga is ahead by nearly 2000 votes, it's over for valve.

Fuck yuppies and housewives. They were up by 10, 000 last I checked. >=(

You can tell by my sig, i'm voting for valve.

Fucking vote for Valve, guys. Don't let Farmville win.

At 4/2/10 09:52 PM, Rig wrote: Fucking vote for Valve, guys. Don't let Farmville win.

No, Valve are ahead by 200 votes! They need more! More!

At 4/2/10 09:55 PM, Madnath75 wrote:

At 4/2/10 09:52 PM, Rig wrote: Fucking vote for Valve, guys. Don't let Farmville win.

No, Valve are ahead by 200 votes! They need more! More!

Cool your jets, they were behind by a good 2,000 a few hours ago.

At 4/2/10 09:56 PM, Oliver wrote: Cool your jets, they were behind by a good 2,000 a few hours ago.

Thimk about it. Zynga know that if they make an ad, they will be easily ahead in a hour. They haven't said you can vote on twitter. Add it up. We are screwed

At 4/2/10 10:09 PM, Madnath75 wrote: We are screwed

We have 4chan on our side yo.

At 4/2/10 10:14 PM, Oliver wrote:

At 4/2/10 10:09 PM, Madnath75 wrote: We are screwed

We have 4chan on our side yo.

We might still be srcewed. this is facebook who are on Zynga's side. But as long as we have steam...

True we have 4chan on our side, but they have facebook dumb asses.

Believe me, all of my friends are spamming me with their farmville bs

This is fucking bullshit.
How can I get Valve more votes

Gosh darnit, Valve is losing :(

http://soundcloud.com/rig/vote-for-valve

At 4/3/10 02:50 AM, ShortMonkey wrote:

At 4/3/10 02:40 AM, Rig wrote: http://soundcloud.com/rig/vote-for-valve

If Sesame Street made a business agreement with Valve, they'd use that song to promote Valve... maybe with vocals from the other characters for more harmony though.

Yeah, I couldn't be arsed to do any harmony tracks :P

At 4/3/10 03:03 AM, ShortMonkey wrote:

At 4/3/10 02:53 AM, Rig wrote: Yeah, I couldn't be arsed to do any harmony tracks :P

What I'm saying is your singing voice sounds like a character from Sesame Street, lol

WELL FINE THEN
I can't sing as well as I used to, but at least I can carry a tune. haha

At 4/3/10 03:07 AM, Rig wrote: but at least I can carry a tune. haha

U can haz bukit. <3

At 4/3/10 03:09 AM, AllMightyBruce wrote:

At 4/3/10 03:07 AM, Rig wrote: but at least I can carry a tune. haha

U can haz bukit. <3

You're too kind, Mister Bruce.

Wasn't Zynga that spam site when you went to mature games on Ng pre07. Then it gave you spyware?

I hope Bioware will win!
Vote for Bioware!

This is not fucking possible, they beat Rockstar AND Square Enix??!?!
UNITE BROTHERS, VALVE IS THE LAST STRONGHOLD, KEEP UP THE VOTES!!!

Damn, down by over 3k :(

At 4/3/10 01:24 PM, Im-A-Pirate wrote: This isn't about a contest anymore, this is the first large scale internet war between gamers.

The Turbine thing last year was bad, this time it's war!

Also, 3500 to Zynga