Game devs' favourite is Baldur's Gate

By Robert Purchese Published 8 November, 2011

Says World Gaming Executives network.

A 1000 developers have voted Baldur's Gate as their favourite all-time game, the World Gaming Executives network has announced.

BioWare's seminal RPG beat the Diablo series (second) and the Curse of Monkey Island series (third) to the crown.

Shadow of the Colossus (fourth), the Mass Effect series (fifth), Batman: Arkham Asylum (sixth), StarCraft (seventh), The Legend of Zelda (eighth), EverQuest (ninth) and Devil May Cry (10th) followed.

From 11 to 20, the list read: Tomb Raider series (11th), BioShock (12th), Metal Gear Solid (13th), World of Warcraft (14th), Deus Ex (15th), Super Mario series (16th), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (17th), Silent Hill (18th), Assassin's Creed (19th), Deadspace (20th).

Presumably more than one of those entries refers to a series of games.

The World Gaming Executives network polled its members to produce a top 20 all-time favourites list for its debut issue of the WGE magazine, which is out now and free to read.

The World Gaming Executives network has been around for four years, apparently, and comprises some 30,000 members.

We had a glimpse at the member directory and managed to pick out only Secret World maker Funcom and Alan Wake maker Remedy as household names. Nevertheless, UK dev/pub associations UKIE and Tiga were both present.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (59) Latest comment 7 months ago

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  • Utilero #1 7 months ago

    Great choice game devs. It is my favorite game of all time too. A shining example of an immersive and memorable game.

  • MadCaddy13 #2 7 months ago

    I would of chose the leisure suit Larry series

  • butler` #3 7 months ago

    Certainly a million times better / more high brow than your average consumer study

    fifa 11
    cod
    gta
    fifa 10
    ...

    Good to see Diablo up there.

  • Kanjin #4 7 months ago

    That's pretty interesting. It may have had it's flaws, but it was an immense game and shaped western RPGs for the next decade.

  • SaintDaveUK #5 7 months ago

    "The Curse of Monkey Island" is a series!?

  • Hamhock #6 7 months ago

    errr it's 30,000 "followers" and 3,000 "members".

    Rambunctious twoddle and tripe. May as well be a funking Twitter account.

  • Jolly_Armadillo #7 7 months ago

    Ive played 3 out of the top 10

    Curse of monkey island, starcraft and batman


    Very surprised not to see half life feature at all, surprised (in a good way) that curse of monkey island made it so high aswell. I loved it, but didn't know it was as popular as that!
    Edited by Jolly_Armadillo at 08/11/11 @ 16:03

  • eimhin85 #8 7 months ago

    at last people see sense.

  • drew327 #9 7 months ago

    Well deserved, what a great series. You point, I punch

  • Yeoung #10 7 months ago

    That's a lot of recent stuff in there, sadly no sign of Psychonauts though. Guess it'll have to settle for being just my favourite then. The complete absense of the The Elder Scrolls series is odd, I must say.

    Also loved Pitfall on the Atari, Zelda LTTP on the snes, Tekken 3 on the playstation and Tetris for gameboy. Honestly to put Dead Space in there over say, Tetris is just a crying shame.

  • rob_of_the_robots #11 7 months ago

    I take it these aren't the same 1000 people who voted Apple as the most important influence in the history of gaming.

  • arcam #12 7 months ago

    Why do people always spell Deadspace as one word? It's weird.

  • Ultraman1966 #13 7 months ago

    So they voted for a legendary RPG as a favourite but somehow, with the same people they also voted Steve Jobs as the most influential person on gaming? How exactly??

  • haruvister #14 7 months ago

    "A one thousand developers"??

  • marmaduke #15 7 months ago

    Yes, but who are these people exactly? And how many of them are employed at Bioware?

    I'm not saying it's a bad choice, but the list does seem rather skewed towards the West.

  • Mandiven #16 7 months ago

    Great Choice Baldurs Gate 2 is a legendary game.

  • jeeweej #17 7 months ago

    Great choice by the devs, loved the Baldurs Gate series. Now, it makes me wonder..if they think BG is so great...why not make more games like it?? (yes Bioware, i'm looking at you!)

  • sear #18 7 months ago

    You know, this actually makes a lot of sense.

    Baldur's Gate was a good game and the follow-up was better, but unfortunately it was also the beginning of a lot of negative trends on RPGs - focus on characters, story, graphics and a "cinematic experience" sometimes to the decline of gameplay itself (i.e. focus on fast action and visuals necessitating real-time-with-pause vs. straight turn-based).

    A lot of games took after Baldur's Gate and the modern RPG genre makes a lot more sense when you consider exactly what sort of things they pulled from it - not the deep character building of the D&D system or its tactical combat, but that focus on characters, "romances", celebrity voice actors, "epic" storytelling, and so on. It was the gameplay that made Baldur's Gate (and all its follow-ups like Icewind Dale) a classic, not its tired generic fantasy theme and hackneyed YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE plot, yet that's exactly what many post-Baldur's Gate RPGs reveled in.

  • Utilero #19 7 months ago

    @jeeweej Because games like Baldur's Gate do not make trillions of dollars like CoD or FIFA, and also possibly because they are niche and an acquired taste!! Game devs have to eat too :)

  • UncleLou #20 7 months ago

    I'm not saying it's a bad choice, but the list does seem rather skewed towards the West.

    6 out of the top 20 are Japanese games. Hardly "skewed towards the West".

  • darkmorgado #21 7 months ago

    You must gather your developers before venturing forth.
    You must gather your developers before venturing forth.
    You must gather your developers before venturing forth.
    You must gather your developers before venturing forth.

  • DrStrangelove #22 7 months ago

    But where's Postal 2?

  • Apaar #23 7 months ago

    A haphazard shotgunning of a list. I don't get it.

  • arcam #24 7 months ago

    Anyone who doesn't put Portal or Half-Life in their list has got it wrong.

  • Jolly_Armadillo #25 7 months ago

    @redbarony

    Which 3?

  • Desheep #26 7 months ago

    Yet will this universal praise stop one of them inevitably revamping the game as an beat em up/fps? I think not.

  • JayKwon #27 7 months ago

    What about the classics such as System Shock, Thief, Half-Life (2), Age of Empires 2, Warcraft 3, Morrowind etc. etc.? I'm surprised to see so many modern games in there.

    Nothing wrong with their choices though, they're all great games.
    Edited by JayKwon at 08/11/11 @ 17:38

  • octavedoctor #28 7 months ago

    *game developer wonders what World Gaming Executives Network is*...... guess I not executive enough...

  • octavedoctor #29 7 months ago

    @octavedoctor or capable of writing I'm properly either!

  • fletch273 #30 7 months ago

    A good choice. I'm still playing that today.

  • rottingyoda #31 7 months ago

    Reminded me that I really should finish Neverwinter Nights 2. It's no Baldur's Gate but I fear the days of true D&D based games with great stories are over

    EDIT: I'm surprised Half-Life 1 (or it's 'series' of mods) didn't mkae the cut. Certainly worthy of a top 20 at least?
    Edited by rottingyoda at 08/11/11 @ 18:31

  • Vistrix #32 7 months ago

    I recommend everyone to purchase BG1+2 again at GOG.com and install the patch that merges the two games together.

    I'm currently playing through both games again with this patch - Good memories!

  • Gliocair #33 7 months ago

    Post deleted at 17:49:49 04-01-2012

  • haderach512 #34 7 months ago

    Every time I read something about Baldur's Gate, it makes me reinstall the game and roll a new character. Not many games nowadays with that flavour.

  • bantamenace #35 7 months ago

    @redbarony 'I've seen them at my friends' Oh dear. You have decided not to play Zelda or Silent Hill based on watching someone else play? You have got to be kidding

  • BlinkeredAxis #36 7 months ago

    This is more like it! BG is still my favourite after all these years. This beats that stupid 'Apple influenced gaming' tripe, which I can only believe is a crude hoax.

    Even so, I think Valve are the best dev around, bar none. I'm sure any vote by EG gamers would include them too.

  • epiazk #37 7 months ago

    YES! Awesome choice.

  • Jmog #38 7 months ago

    @myms1ps3

    Highly unlikely. It was PC only and it would be quite difficult to rework the controls properly for a joypad. Not to mention that the geaphics were 2d so a remake with a new engine would be needed for it to look good on ps3.

    Or are you confusing it for Baldurs Gate:Dark Alliance? Fine game but definetely NOT the one at the top of the devs' list.

  • cjones23113 #39 7 months ago

    haha, wow, i remember playing bg I and II...classics!

    http://www.squidoo.com/hvac-certification

  • Dave52 #40 7 months ago

    The Baldurs Gate games are amazing. They need to be released on the PSN...!

  • jyrque #41 7 months ago

    The same guys that titled Steve Jobs as the most influential person in games industry?

    I'm amazed they didn't pick Angry Birds as the best game.

  • WizenWolfBain #42 7 months ago

    I played Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance for over a year on my PS2.. It was my first ever PS2 game, and I played it to destruction. It was amazing!

  • bobfish09 #43 7 months ago

    I think you asked 1,000 gamers in their 30s/40s what their top 20 games were the list would contain numerous older titles as well. Trouble is, they aren't the majority of gamers these days, they, like these developers, are a past generation :(

  • beedyG #44 7 months ago

    Surprised there's no entry for Elite (maybe that's me showing my age) but also where's Half-life?
    Baldur's Gate was amazing though, if the series appeared on Steam I'd definitely play through again.

  • Scimarad #45 7 months ago

    So if devs love BG so much, why the hell do they seem incapable of coming up with a similarly decent game with today's technology?

    @ sear

    Focus on story and characters in an RPG? Dear God NO!!!
    Edited by Scimarad at 09/11/11 @ 08:58

  • Gastrian #46 7 months ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • GuyNoir #47 7 months ago

    Yeh! a list that proves that dev's have the same goldfish memory span as the rest of the population. We are all DOOMed.

  • jonfon #48 7 months ago

    @beedyG
    It's on Good Old Games (www.gog.com) right now for tiny amounts of money. Well worth a punt.

  • jonfon #49 7 months ago

    @redbarony
    Even though I'm a huge AITD fan (AITD1 made me flunk a year of college) I'd never say that it renders Silent Hill redundant. Both are excellent games but I'd still rank Silent Hill ahead, just for the sheer freakiness of it all.

    Silent Hill 2 is a much stronger sequel than Alone in the Dark 2 IMO.

  • easychord #50 7 months ago

    Curse of Monkey Island series doesn't really fill me with much confidence. MI2 was the best MI game anyway by any decent measure of quality. Curse wasn't even in spitting distance.

    But from the games selected I can pretty much just guess the average age of the game devs and assume that PC gamers are more likely to get jobs in the industry. I guess what they say about people burning out at a young age is true.

  • w00t #51 7 months ago

    @jonfon
    I have been replaying it lately :)

    With the resolution mod it still looks pretty.

  • Lateralus2001 #52 7 months ago

    BG2 may well be my favorite game of all time. There is still great games released today, but there just isn't games like the BG series being made anymore. It's a pity.

    Would cost a fortune in development costs for a similar game to be made nowdays. I really hope someone will take the intiative. The success of series like The Witcher shows there is still an audience for deep RPG's.

    I would just like to add to those suggesting if your interested you should seriously consider getting the games from GOG.com. Not a lot of money to pay for 100+ hours of RPG greatness.

    And as another poster mentioned Neverwinter Nights 2 is actually rather good. Like many Obsodion games it was quite buggy when released but is very stable now and tends be reduced on most Steam sales. It's no BG2 but is probably the nearest thing in the modern day.

  • Caimbeul #53 7 months ago

    Roll on Baldurs gate 3! A Isometric fixed perspective game in the vein of BG2 but with all the grphical lovelyness afforded by DX11 and fully voice acted plus 8 party members and an even bigger story. Fcuk trends and make it and old school isometric.

    oh how i wish they would make BG3!

  • Kal-Azmir #54 7 months ago

    I am surprised Civilization is not on there...

  • Sunyavadin #55 7 months ago

    REMEMBER THIS NEXT TIME YOU TRY TO DUMB DOWN YOUR RPGs, BIOWARE.

  • RedSparrows #56 7 months ago

    MW, Assassin's Creed and Dead Space n the top 20 is a load of bollocks. FOR SHAME!!111 etc.
    Edited by RedSparrows at 09/11/11 @ 14:39

  • linea #57 7 months ago

    I do wonder actually. By the look of things (and I'm willing to be contradicted on this) the Baldur's Gate 2 graphics were 3D rendered and then 2D-ised into backgrounds. I wonder if the 3D models still exist?

    Computers these days are powerful enough to render them in real-time I'd have thought. How amazing would that be!

    GO ON BIOWARE

  • mukki #58 7 months ago

    Good picks!!

    Still waiting for a next gen sequel for baldur's gate...

  • darkmorgado #59 7 months ago

    It's rather depressing how many people think they are talking about the PS2 diablo clone and not the utterly excellent D&D RPGs on the PC.