Bias and its effect on the March Mayhem competitions.

[Jailbird408]

Recently I completed my bracket in March Mayhem and discovered something disenheartening:
The escapist community has an unfair bias.

WAIT! Don't reach for that keyboard telling me I'm some sort of ninty-loving {insert taboo here} but I at first couldn't decipher why Mojang beat Nintendo, Firaxis beat Level 5, and Epic Games beat Team ICO. I can see Yahtzee throwing a very sharp stick through the heart of his monitor in a fit of rage over that last one.

And then I remembered a comment I saw in the MM forums: the majority of Escapist forumites are PC Gamers.

This is a big problem.

You might remember MovieBob controversially declaring that PC Gaming is dead; and even though I disagree to that, the vast majority of Escapist users snub companies that make great games just because they don't make them on a Microsoft console.

Yes, that's probably unfair to say, but someone has to say it.

It's not my intention to start a flame war. It is my intention to draw attention to the many games that would tip the 32 scales in this competition if most of you just pulled some change out of the couch, bought Super Mario Galaxy 2, Professor Layton or Shadow of the Colossus, and enjoyed a gaming experience unlike any other.

I will congratulate Mojang, however, because I'm sure Minecraft is a great game, despite my not playing it, but the day I admit the other two victories are fair is the day I, to quote Yahtzee, "swallow barbed wire, pull the other end out of my *** and floss myself to death."

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

I kinda see your point, but if we go by what you say then the only fair way we can vote is if we shell out cash in order to play at least one game from every company that's participating in March Mayhem, minus whatever company we've already bought a game for. That's not very reasonable. While Shadow of the Colossus and Mario Galaxy are great games, I won't go buy Prof. Layton just for the sake of this competition. It seems an interesting game, but I just can't do it.

Is it really so bad if the majority of this site is made of PC gamers? It's fine if they vote for whatever they know they like, right? It's not really anyone's fault if the scales are a bit heavy on one side because the site's demographic is largely one group over the other.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Mojang won because Notch Tweeted about it. Firaxis beat Level 5 because more people played and enjoyed Civilization than Professor Layton or White Knight Chronicles. And more console gamers play Epic's games than their PC games (and because Epic has actually made a couple of games since 2005). Of course there's going to be a bias. Don't take this so seriously. Last year, Zynga almost beat Valve. If that means FarmVille is a better game than Half Life 2, then I'm done with video games. This competition means nothing, it's just for fun.

 

[DefunctTheory]

The Escapist is giving away Alienware PCs, not consoles.

This bias is expected and acceptable. Its just a popularity pole... it's not going to short Nintendo's stock or anything.

Though, yah, Majangs win is utter crap. They haven't even finished MineCraft for Christ sake.

As for the other upsets you point out... I don;t agree. But that's what popularity contest are all about.

EDIT: You had HAL going almost all the way up?

What do you smoke?

 

[D Moness]

It is a popularity contest pure and simple. The fact that this forum has a lot of pc players doesn't really say much. The minecraft fanbase just got up and voted for mojang (in a more honest way then Zynga from last year).

Plus if it was because there are a lot of pc players here then Treyarch (creator of black ops and a few other shooters) wouldn't be losing to squarenix(a console game develepor)

BTW not surprised epic won from team ico (did the same for my own bracket with that one)

 

[Catalyst6]

You have to take into account the popularity of the games as well. Really, how many people have played ICO? People vote for what they know.

As for the Mojang/Nintendo thing, do realize that Nintendo has been pretty stagnant for a very long time. I'm not surprised that a developer with some innovation beat it at all.

 

[Mr Thin]

You have a point, but this is about favourite developers, not 'best' developers, and even if it was, bias is just part of the process - for example, I am both a PC gamer and console gamer, I spend lots of time on both, and I voted for Epic Games & Firaxis because - in my opinion - they make better games.

As for Nintendo vs Mojang, I think that was a joke. That Mojang got any votes at all is a testament to how shortsighted people are.

But that's my bias. If you can't tolerate this sort of thing, don't participate in March Mayhem.

 

[Vault101]

so what? I could say that nintendo are pandering to nostalga and focus only on their core franshises which arnt even the greatest thing ever

ohh right but the should win because? they are nintendo? thats not an excuse, what is so great about nintendo?

 

[Jimmy_Mac]

I chose the ones that I liked which is exactly what I was supposed to do. If it was a choice between two I liked I picked the one which I thought had the most future potential.

 

[Daveman]

Yeah, I was surprised by Nintendo being knocked out. But not as much as I was about Turbine and Zynga. I mean I know everyone hates Zynga but seriously? It got so far last year. And Turbine are former winners.

Ah well, 26 score ain't bad.

However Epic definitely deserve to beat ICO... because they actually release games. What's more they made Bulletstorm and Gears 3 is out soon isn't it?

Fun fact: I put Epic to win it... yeah I can't remember why I did that.

 

[Ishadus]

You can't take this so seriously; it really doesn't mean that much. Of course there's a bias as you're only polling escapist users and they don't evenly represent the gaming community. You have to go into this thing with that mindset and take it with a grain of salt.

I mean come on...I expect for Valve to go far again because a lot of escapists love them. But come on...how much have they released lately?

Just have some fun with the contests and don't stress.

 

[Jailbird408]

Oh dear, I look like a drooling idiot now.

 

[octafish]

Oh no a popularity contest is skewed by someone's popularity? You don't see me complaining when Shodan is outvoted by Glados in villain lists just because kids these days have no idea what good games are do you? Oh that's right, I do do that... Carry on!

 

[NotSoNimble]

Oh dear, I look like a drooling idiot now.

It's okay, this is the internet, we can't see you.

Or can we? DUN DUN DUUUUUN!

 

[Who Dares Wins]

I've been an exclusive PC gamer for a long time and I voted for Nintendo. Me not playing (a lot) of their games doesn't mean they're bad.

 

[Tanis]

It's the whole 'Bungie beating Lucas Arts' that raised my eye.

Halo while a decent series is NOTHING compared to the stuff LA has done.

Everything from Battlefront 2 to X-wing vs Tie Fighter to Treasure Island to...

I think that kind of messes with your whole 'bias' thing.

If people here were REALLY more PC-centric then Bungie would have lost - and how!

 

[lacktheknack]

Mojang won because Notch Tweeted about it.

My... less... angry rebuttal to this slander:

<quote=lacktheknack, paraphrased>
<spoiler=Average votes per match-up: 12262>
Blizzard/Team Meat: 16629 (Outlier, not counted in average)
Mojang/Nintendo: 14247 (Outlier, not counted in average)
Bioware/TellTale: 13028
Bethesda/CCP: 12758
Insomniac/Guerilla: 12711
Valve/Double Fine: 12679
Treyarch/Popcap: 12647
Bungie/Lucasarts: 12635
Squeenix/Rovio: 12596
Irrational/Creative Assembly: 12580
Konami/Criterion: 12512
DICE/Silicon Knights: 12488
Turbine/Visceral: 12372
Zynga/Cryptic: 12370
Naughty Dog/devCAT: 12340
Ubisoft Montreal/ HAL Laboratory: 12259
Gearbox/Volition: 12248
Epic/ICO: 12247
Lionhead/Platinum: 12198
Quantic Dream/Namco Bandai: 12144
Rockstar North/Behemoth: 12143
Obsidian/Media Molecule: 12118
Rocksteady/Polyphony Digital: 12117
Santa Monica/Crytek: 12006
Relic/SOE: 11998
Capcom/Rare: 11951
Disney/Remedy: 11854
EA Tiburon/Neversoft: 11828
Game Freak/CD Projekt: 11799
Harmonix/EA Canada: 11777
2K Marin/Rockstar San Diego: 11754
Firaxis/Level-5: 11703

Total votes (no outliers): 367855

Total Matchups (no outliers): 30

Average Total per Matchup (no outliers): ~12262

Now, let's assume that every person above the average vote that was alerted by the Facebook alert/forum posts voted Mojang (<link=http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=225116>It's not true.)

Mojang beat Nintendo by 2095 votes. Now, let's remove the excess votes (theoretically all for Mojang):

14247 - 12262 = 1985

Huh!

2095 - 1985 = 110

So even IF all the extra votes were for Mojang, Mojang still won by 110 votes.

So no, Mojang did not win via Zynga Tactics.

(Times I've posted this: Three)

Not only that, I checked Notch's twitter feed. He did NOT tweet about it. The only alert people got was a low-profile mention on the Facebook page.

Anyways, it's a popularity contest. User bias is REQUIRED.

 

[Bon_Clay]

While it is a popularity contest and is subjective by definition, Nintendo losing was the major problem for me. Granted partly because I had them in the quarter finals, but they have both a library of amazing older games, and still some good new ones in recent times.

But I guess I can see how it went that way, Minecraft has a lot of attention and interest right now, and Nintendo doesn't have a major game still in people's mind. Most people already finished the new Donkey Kong Country game by now, and the new Zelda is still a ways away.

 

[DazZ.]

the vast majority of Escapist users snub companies that make great games just because they don't make them on a Microsoft console

Please don't say that you're calling the PC a Microsoft console...