March Mayhem 2012 Is Over, Valve Wins!

[s0osleepie]

March Mayhem 2012 Is Over, Valve Wins!

[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tournaments/standings/6]

March Mayhem: Developers' Showdown 2012 is over and the winner is none other than the creators of Portal 2, Valve Software.

At the beginning of this year's March Mayhem, industry heavy hitters Bioware and Bethesda were projected by most community members to make it to the final showdown, but Mojang was still on the tip of everyone's tongue. Last year, the indie sensation Mojang was voted into March Mayhem by members of The Escapist Publisher's Club for one of four wildcard spots going up against the number 1 seeds. Little did fans suspect that the Minecraft community was strong enough to send a powerhouse like Nintendo home in the first round. Mojang continued its Cinderella journey as it bulldozed through veteran developers Namco Bandai, Epic Games, and Obsidian before finally crushing last year's champion, Valve.

2012 was a different story. The first few rounds led to surprising upsets, including Double Fine's stunning defeat of D.I.C.E. in Round 2 and Lucas Art coming out on top against Atlus in Round 1. Double Fine seemed poised to win March Mayhem with their huge margins of victory and seemingly unstoppable momentum, but as the dust settled and the competition became fiercer, it became apparent this year's title would not be awarded to a wildcard.

After a 3 day battle during the Final Showdown between Bioware and Valve, with community pushes made by both companies and raging debates on the forums touting the undeniable merits of both developers, Valve emerged victorious. Not only has Valve been selected as the winner of March Mayhem 2012, but they also won a paid advertising contract with The Escapist! In addition, Bioware, Mojang and Bethesda received advertising contracts for winning their divisions or being part of the Final Showdown.

As for the community, many participants voted for their favorites over the six rounds of battle and each time they did, they were entered into a random drawing for the Grand Prize, a fully loaded desktop computer by ORIGIN PC. One other winner was also chosen at random to receive an iPad 2. The amount for all of the prizes together totaled almost $4,000, thanks to their Facebook page HERE [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tournaments/prizes/6]. Congratulations to our March Mayhem 2012 community winners:

Grand Prize Winner: James Bednarz
Second Prize Winner: QuinQuan


As a side bonus to those participants who filled out Publisher's Club [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tournaments/leaderboard/6] members. They now get to enjoy high quality video along with video podcasts and mobile access, exciting bonus features, discounts from online retailers, and an even better user experience without the hassle of advertisements! Congrats to the following winners:

Aidinthel
QuinQuan
Mad Hamish
Frank Silva
Eruanno
Arthkan
cpt blackamar
SlayerN
C2Ultima
Varitel


Congratulations to all the winners and a big thank you to everyone who participated in this event. A special thanks to Jamash, NeoAC, KefkaCultist and SrBryghtside for being our Escapist Ambassadors and helping answer questions from new members as well as fielding questions regarding the tournament.

March Mayhem: Developers' Showdown 2012 is over, thank you once again and see you next year!


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[Qitz]

Valve wins! FATALITY!

Grats to all the winners, especially the lucky sod who won a free computer.

Though on this forums, is it any surprise Valve won?

 

[CJ1145]

Valve wins! FATALITY!

Grats to all the winners, especially the lucky sod who won a free computer.

Though on this forums, is it any surprise Valve won?

Not a surprise, but it pisses me off. The company has made one good game, specifically a sequel and rehash of another in the last year. I loved Portal 2, but it is not the foundation for a winning company in this sort of contest in my eyes. Especially since they still utterly fail for the flaccid attempt at "episodic content".

Team Fortress 2 is their only game I have played consistently.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Valve wins! FATALITY!

Grats to all the winners, especially the lucky sod who won a free computer.

Though on this forums, is it any surprise Valve won?

Yes. I was shocked Bethesda didn't. Then again, we have gotten over Skyrim now and can go back to being normal gamers. Nothing wrong with Skyrim, except of course the crippling bugs and horrid optimisation for PS3 gamers, but it wasn't the best game last year.

I am saddened Eidos Montreal didn't win, as I thought Deus Ex: Human Revolution was the best game of last year, even with it's lame endings and stinking boss fights.

Speaking of bad endings, I am utterly shocked that Bioware made it to the final bracket, even after all the shit that is piled on them for Mass Effect. I'm glad most of the community can live and let live and appreciate Mass Effect 3 for the fantastic game that falls apart completely at the end.

Calumon: ...I would've been a better final boss.

 

[Azuaron]

It's okay, Bioware, you're still number 1 in my heart.

(Bethesda, you're number two. ;-) )

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Can't say I'm surprised.

Apparently all you need to actually need to do to win these things is to treat your customers with respect.

It doesn't matter if you haven't released a game in forever ;D

 

[The.Bard]

So for all the Bioware hated spewed on the forums, they still made it to the final round?

Huh. Either it truly is a vocal minority bashing on them all the time, or the hate spewed is a twisted form of love. Either way, Zeel must be greatly upset, wherever he is...


"No no no no no no no, not listening! They do not see what lies ahead, when Day 1 DLC kills us dead!!"

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Valve wins! FATALITY!

Grats to all the winners, especially the lucky sod who won a free computer.

Though on this forums, is it any surprise Valve won?

Yes. I was shocked Bethesda didn't. Then again, we have gotten over Skyrim now and can go back to being normal gamers. Nothing wrong with Skyrim, except of course the crippling bugs and horrid optimisation for PS3 gamers, but it wasn't the best game last year.

I am saddened Eidos Montreal didn't win, as I thought Deus Ex: Human Revolution was the best game of last year, even with it's lame endings and stinking boss fights.

Speaking of bad endings, I am utterly shocked that Bioware made it to the final bracket, even after all the shit that is piled on them for Mass Effect. I'm glad most of the community can live and let live and appreciate Mass Effect 3 for the fantastic game that falls apart completely at the end.

Calumon: ...I would've been a better final boss.

Why do you do the whole double personality thing?

OT I agree with what you said about DE:HR but I don't think it was one of the best games. It's focus on stealth and cover systems made it too flawed in my eyes.

Personally I found the stealth to be a wonderful focus (though I do love stealth) and the cover system wonderfully complimented this.

As for Calumon, well, there are a lot of reasons why I still do it now (because I and others enjoy it, users seem to smile about Calumon (Which is great because this place can become a sea of despair sometimes) and it encourages me to think from another perspective), the reason I started doing it is explained in this thread here, which could do with being re-written with my current style of writing. The explanation seems a bit rush and I appear to be a bit forward in it.

Been a while since I've had to link that thread.

Calumon: People just seem to accept that there's a monster on their forums.


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[Anthony Wells]

Valve wins! FATALITY!

Grats to all the winners, especially the lucky sod who won a free computer.

Though on this forums, is it any surprise Valve won?

Not a surprise, but it pisses me off. The company has made one good game, specifically a sequel and rehash of another in the last year. I loved Portal 2, but it is not the foundation for a winning company in this sort of contest in my eyes. Especially since they still utterly fail for the flaccid attempt at "episodic content".

Team Fortress 2 is their only game I have played consistently.

Why should you only judge companies on their recent releases though? I judged Valve from the amount of enjoyment i get out of playing their games..if they can release a game (tf2) in 2007 and have it still be one of the best games i have ever played and consistently play it on a daily basis while others games shrivel and become less interesting.. then they did something right. Portal 2 was fantastic and left 4 dead 2 is barrels of fun for co-op. Plus their Steam service continues to be top notch for me. I dont see a reason why they SHOULDNT win.

 

[Kapol]

Why should you only judge companies on their recent releases though? I judged Valve from the amount of enjoyment i get out of playing their games..if they can release a game (tf2) in 2007 and have it still be one of the best games i have ever played and consistently play it on a daily basis while others games shrivel and become less interesting.. then they did something right. Portal 2 was fantastic and left 4 dead 2 is barrels of fun for co-op. Plus their Steam service continues to be top notch for me. I dont see a reason why they SHOULDNT win.

Some people only judge the companies based on that year's releases for the MM, while some look at the company as a whole. I go more by the last year myself. But that's just me.

There's only one thing about your comment I really disagree with, and that's considering Steam in your decision. I like Steam myself, but March Mayhem is supposed to be about Valve as a video game developer. Of course trying to seperate the two is a problem I think many have and that wins them a lot of points for many. I don't really care for Valve as a dev myself. They've only release one series I really like (Portal). But they've never released a really bad game that I've played. Then again, I've never played Ricochet. And it's up to their fans in the end and Valve has a LOT of fans on this site. So oh well.

 

[Anthony Wells]

Why should you only judge companies on their recent releases though? I judged Valve from the amount of enjoyment i get out of playing their games..if they can release a game (tf2) in 2007 and have it still be one of the best games i have ever played and consistently play it on a daily basis while others games shrivel and become less interesting.. then they did something right. Portal 2 was fantastic and left 4 dead 2 is barrels of fun for co-op. Plus their Steam service continues to be top notch for me. I dont see a reason why they SHOULDNT win.

Some people only judge the companies based on that year's releases for the MM, while some look at the company as a whole. I go more by the last year myself. But that's just me.

There's only one thing about your comment I really disagree with, and that's considering Steam in your decision. I like Steam myself, but March Mayhem is supposed to be about Valve as a video game developer. Of course trying to seperate the two is a problem I think many have and that wins them a lot of points for many. I don't really care for Valve as a dev myself. They've only release one series I really like (Portal). But they've never released a really bad game that I've played. Then again, I've never played Ricochet. And it's up to their fans in the end and Valve has a LOT of fans on this site. So oh well.

I didnt consider Steam in my decision. I only considered the games i have played from them. and Marked them down severely for half life 2. Still Portal 2, left 4 dead 2 and tf2 all easily made up for half life 2's failure (because of fans constantly hyping it i was completely underwhelmed by the experience) I know some people will judge actions outside of their games and so why should Valve be an exception to that?

 

[Balobo]

Valve wins! FATALITY!

Grats to all the winners, especially the lucky sod who won a free computer.

Though on this forums, is it any surprise Valve won?

Not a surprise, but it pisses me off. The company has made one good game, specifically a sequel and rehash of another in the last year. I loved Portal 2, but it is not the foundation for a winning company in this sort of contest in my eyes. Especially since they still utterly fail for the flaccid attempt at "episodic content".

Team Fortress 2 is their only game I have played consistently.

Lol if Portal 2 is a rehash then all sequels must be rehashes.

Doing barely anything is better than making shit all year (BioWare). Valve deserved to win against BioWare, although I'm not sure if they deserved to win the entire thing.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It should have been Bethesda. Valve really didn't deserve to win this year. They won't deserve to win until they release Half Life 3. Because let's face it. There won't be Half Life 2 Episode 3.

 

[omega 616]

Why does my tactic never work? I always vote for the guy on the left ....

On topic. To the person who won the comp, congrats you lucky (mumbles).

Valve winning is like Tuesday following Monday, everybody knew it was going to happen

 

[blackdwarf]

although not surprised i'm not happy with the results. i preferred that CD Projekt, but that is my opinion. i think i'm more annoyed with the fact that Valve won, when there last game was Portal 2. a good game, but nothing really special imo.

 

[roushutsu]

really guys, valve? You all do realize atlus exists, right?

Atlus got knocked out in the first round to LucasArts.

OP: Congrats to the winners and I hope you enjoy your prizes. As for Valve beating Bioware, normally I would be inclined to say it was probably a tough call cause both companies have made great games. But then ME3 happened, and the fans...yeah. 'Nuf said.