The Most Important Games of This Generation

I'm often asked what my favorite game is. Or my favorite movie. Or band. Or book. But "favorite" is a peculiar and archaic term. Opinions change. Tastes mature and adapt. As we get older, things we may have held to higher standards years ago may only be of ancillary importance now. Humans, by nature, are fickle beings. We are not meant to be satiated or content. We are curious. We desire. We need. To claim favorites is to deny your base instincts.

But there is one thing that can be agreed on: Importance. Significance. Relevance. The important things in our lives are the ones that mean the most, for better or worse. And of course, the important things in my life consist largely of video games and other means of entertainment. Despite all of this ethereal and superfluous text, I do have a point to make here. For the last 8 or so years, the gaming landscape has undergone a cataclysmic overhaul. The state of the medium as we once knew it has been transmuted, and if we don't conform to the new standards, we're likely doomed to forever turn our backs on this age-old past time.

I could sit here and run down a list of my favorite games of the year, or even of the last decade. But to do so would be a great disservice to you and to this culture. You don't care about favorites. Because that won't change how you feel. Instead, I'm going to take the time that I've kindly given myself to discuss what I strongly believe to be the most crucial games of this seventh console generation. That is, this list will include games (not just from the console variety, mind you) that I feel have left an indelible mark on this landscape. In decades to come, when we're asked what this ever-growing medium was like when we were younger, these are the games that will exemplify the mid-2000s. These are in no particular order.

BioShock and BioShock Infinite

In 1999, Irrational Games - helmed by Ken Levine - released the critically lauded sequel to 94's System Shock, two games characterized by their expertly crafted environments and incorporation of roleplaying elements into a traditional first-person shooter space. As immensely popular and successful as System Shock 2 was, it wasn't until 2007 when Ken Levine was immortalized in the gaming community. Proclaimed as the spiritual successor to System Shock 2 (in a time when that term was still growing its legs), BioShock threw the conventions of modern gaming out the window, tackling themes of player agency, of social extremism, of individualism and objectivism, and perhaps most importantly, of destiny.

We are who we are because we choose to be. As the line goes, "A man chooses, a slave obeys." The revelations brought upon by BioShock reverberated with an entire culture. The game has since been hailed as a hallmark of the industry, with many going as far as labeling it the greatest game ever. Such high praise is not entirely unjustified, but what BioShock did for the medium was subvert the way we perceive video games. As is often the case in the "Are Video Games Art?" debate (a subject I am not inclined to ever bring up here), BioShock proved one thing: video games can certainly make you think. Sometimes on the level of the greatest books and film, and rarer still, sometimes more.

In 2013, Ken Levine upped the ante with the highly anticipated spiritual successor (there's that word again, and it won't be the last time I mention it in this list!) BioShock Infinite. Taking many of the same themes, Infinite threw issues of race and religion into the ever expanding moral quandary of a crockpot. It wasn't until its stunning ending that Ken Levine once again reminded us why he is one of gaming's most formidable and confident story tellers. Certainly an ending you must experience twice to fully comprehend its magnitude, but what Infinite proposes is a concept so grandiose that there can never truly be an answer to it. Simply put: "What's next?"

Minecraft

Few games have had such a fervor behind them as Minecraft. Everywhere you look, people of any age are indulging in the most mundane tasks of building, surviving, and adventuring. Minecraft is far from a perfect game. In fact, similar games of this archetype have much more merit than it. So why, then, has Minecraft become the global sensation that it is? Who knows. Its creator has been known to be on the outspoken side of modesty. Its engine is primitive and limited. But hell - it has its own convention, for Christ's sake! The game is certainly an entertaining timesink, and for those who simply enjoy playing a game at their own pace, by their own rules, then Minecraft will certainly satisfy their itch.

Check out this recent interview with Markus "Notch" Persson on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Mass Effect Trilogy

The Mass Effect trilogy is perhaps one of the most controversial series of games in recent memory. What started out as a universally acclaimed space RPG by the famously successful games studio BioWare soon turned into the proverbial scapegoat of the industry. A conclusion so overwhelmingly despised, and a company so feverishly hated, one would be reluctant to think any of this was about video games had they known nothing.

Perhaps the blame lies with EA. Perhaps with BioWare. Perhaps us fans expected too much. Or perhaps it was just a perfect storm. We needed a catalyst, a venue to express our frustration with the state of the industry. Our collective disappointment, manifested as betrayal, had a clear and focused objective. Call it the infamous "gamer entitlement," call it what you will. What could have been remembered as a beacon for subjective roleplaying will forever be remembered as the series that ultimately boiled down to the question of whether you want a green ending, a red ending, or a blue ending.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (and others)

Is there any other franchise that has had as much impact on the gaming landscape than Call of Duty? It's for that reason alone that it, as a whole, is included on this list. Modern Warfare is singled out, but not for any other reason than because it started the snowball effect that would become the global phenomenon the series is today. Over 100 million units sold, over 40 million active players online, and over 10 million Call of Duty: Elite members, 2 million of which are annual subscribers. The series is a leviathan by any standard: controversial, yet still extremely profitable for Activision. For good or ill, Call of Duty will remain in the DNA of the industry for many years to come.

Demon's Souls and Dark Souls

Painstakingly crafted to be as ruthless and unforgiving as many classic old-school games, From Software's Demon's Souls was a significant risk, but one that proved to be just the kind of cultural shock an entire generation of gamers needed. So often had we been coddled by games that simply rewarded us for pressing Start, or walking forward. There was rarely any sense of danger or accomplishment; no sense of urgency or necessity. Games were becoming an investment, no longer just a hobby. Why would anyone waste money on something they could finish in just a few hours, and without an ounce of satisfaction?

Enter Demon's Souls, 2009's ball-busting action RPG that raised the bar for what a game could demand from its players. You were no longer simply a bystander, pushing buttons just to progress through a series of scripted cut scenes. You were the knight, or the hunter, or the assassin. Every move you made, every enemy you killed, and every friend you helped - it all culminated in an experience unlike any other. Not only did the game urge its players to die, and die again, but it trained you to be more observant, and to appreciate the subtle things. Demon's Souls was a game for the minimalist at heart. Simple in its design, but with a world and a mythos all its own waiting to be discovered.

In 2011, From Software followed up with a spiritual successor (!), aptly named Dark Souls. Due to the legality surrounding Sony's exclusivity of the Demon's Souls name, From had to change its course of action for this multi-platform entry. Improving on many of its predecessor's core mechanics, Dark Souls further strengthened the notion that players demand a game that demands from its players. It's a cyclical relationship: the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. For what it's worth, the Souls series as it has since been dubbed is perhaps one of the most prolific ugly ducklings of this generation. Two games that, for all of their vacant storytelling, weighty gameplay, and dark, rugged environments, should not have been so well received and so widely popular. And thankfully, they are.

World of Warcraft

 If you've never played World of Warcraft, then you're lying. If you've really never played World of Warcraft, then you know someone who has (or still does). While technically part of "last" generation, as it came out just shy of the release of the Xbox 360, World of Warcraft gets the nod because it has maintained its significance all throughout since its launch in 2004. With four expansions (and the fifth just announced), World of Warcraft is the undisputed king of the MMO market. With over 7 million active subscribers as of July, Blizzard has found a way to capture and maintain its audience for nearly a decade. Naysayers may call this a far cry from their earlier 13 million subscriber base just a few years ago, but consider this: Final Fantasy XI, which has been around for longer than World of Warcraft, has never exceeded 600,000 active subscribers, a feat that SquareEnix's recent release Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn just accomplished. World of Wacraft is and will be the last of a dying breed: the subscription-based model.

League of Legends

Which brings me to my last and final submission of the most important games of the generation. If World of Warcraft is the end of a subscription model, then League of Legends is the birth of the free-to-play model. Riot's free-to-play MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) has ushered in a new age of gaming, one that can no longer be looked down upon as pedestrian or unworthy. Free-to-play is the future. There's nothing else to it. Since its inception into the gaming consciousness, League of Legends has become quite literally a global sensation. According to an article posted by Forbes in 2012, League is the most played PC game in the world. Earlier this year, the US Government officially acknowledged League of Legends as a professional sport, allowing players access to travel visas to take part in tournaments. If this doesn't signify that the times are changing, I don't know what else will. It is by my own decree that I hereby make the following claim: League of Legends is the most important game to have been released during this generation. And I don't even like it.