Favourite RPG Series?

[Dhruin]

Your favourite RPG series? Bear in mind polls can only have 10 options but feel free to post others!

[titus]

I have to admit, most of them I haven't played, but even so I doubt that one of them can knock gothic from it sockel

[dteowner]

Go, M&M, go!

It was hard not to vote for Wiz8 all by itself, but I couldn't begin to count the hours I've invested in M&M over the years. Why is nobody making games like that any more?

[crpgnut]

This was a tough call for me. I absolutely love TES and M&M, but M&M won out in the end because it's 9 games vs. 4. I replay all the games from both series, though I haven't played MM1-2 in years.

[Zaleukos]

Gothic before BG and RoA. I've not played enough of Fallout, Ultima, and Wizardry to rate them. All the listed series have some redeeming games though:)

[Arhu]

I voted for RoA, mostly because I played them more often than the others and still have the fondest memories of it (read: nostalgia).

Unfortunately I have never really played Ultima. Tried but the games were already too old for me to enjoy them. Could never get into Elder Scrolls. And from Wizardry I only know part 8. Great list though!

[narpet]

I really enjoyed all of those series of games... and I replay most of them when I get the chance... but for me, it had to be the Gold Box games. I played them when they originally came out... I was in my early 20's and I was heavily into tabletop D&D (still am), so those games captured my imagination. Transferring characters from one game to the next was a blast, and those games just gave me that D&D "feel".

So, that's a hard list to choose from, but Gold Box for me.

[Stanza]

I had to go with TES, and rather dislike having to make that choice.

ROA, Ultima, M&M, and Gold Box I haven't played. NWN, FO, and Gothic I detest to various levels. BG rates as just tolerable. And while I really like Wizardry, I only consider the last three entries to be RPGs -- the first five are dungeon crawlers that slowly picked up RPG elements. So it's hard to rate Wizardry high as an "RPG Series" Fun, yes, but overall lacking in elements I consider essential for the "RPG" tag.

That leaves TES as the one series I can credit as an entire series. (Yeah yeah, I know, <insert random rude oblivion comments>.)

If we were rating individual games from the different series, my response would be vastly different.

I did finally get a copy of the Ultima collection (sadly, no Worlds of Ultima included), and I've been trying M&M on and off. In both cases, I'm planning to go through them in order. Now if only I could find a reasonably priced copy of the RoA series. I don't like/trust downloading games.

[Maylander]

Gothic, BG, M&M.. a very tough choice! I voted for Gothic, though, since it's the only one post-2000. The others are too obvious. :)

[blatantninja]

Despite the massive distaste left in my mouth from Ultima IX, and the massive enjoyment I have found in the BG series, I'd have to still go with Ultima. Without it, I may never have gotten into the RPG genre!

[Prime Junta]

This is a tough one, since there are several ways of looking at it.

For example, I thought Fallout rocked, but Fallout 2 (on balance kinda) sucked. IMO this means that I can't really rate Fallout as my favorite RPG series. Similarly: I thought Gothic mostly rocked, Gothic 2 really rocked, and Gothic 3 mostly sucked.


Also, I've only played isolated games from some of the other, older series -- and many of these are so long ago that I really don't remember them well enough to be able to say anything much about them. IOW, I have played Wizardry, Ultima III, and Might & Magic III, and they all rocked... but since I haven't played any of the other games in the series, I can't really say anything about the series.

I'm quite enjoying BG2 now that I'm over my initial frustrations about it (largely but not entirely caused by my misguided choice of "Hard" difficulty -- I assumed that "Normal" would have the nerfed fireballs etc. of NWN and NWN2) -- but I haven't played BG, TotSC, nor ToB (yet), so once again I can't speak for the series.

OTOH, I thought NWN OC and NWN SoU sucked hard, but NWN: HotU rocked, DoD rocked, WCoC rocked, that pirate premium mod rocked, NWN2 OC mostly rocked although the ending kinda sucked, and NWN2 MotB rocked all the way. IOW, although none of the NWN series games/premium modules actually reach the real summits of, e.g., Fallout or The Witcher, the NWN series has more cRPG's that I quite like than any of the others mentioned.

IOW, despite my mixed feelings for it, because the question was about game series rather than individual games, my vote went to... NWN.

[zakhal]

RoA? That game was an excelsheet-experiment gone horribly wrong. The pixeled mess with unusable ui that they called combat was dated during release allready. Not to mention other things the whole series got nothing but bad reviews.

Only germans seemed to like it but thats most likely because they were fans of the pen&paper game which it was based on.

Wizardry I-V were perhaps good during release but the whole series has dated poorly. Wiz6-7 especially 7 is just maschocism. Wiz8 is superb though.

AD&D gold box has also dated quite badly. Rest of them are more or less okay.

My choice would be krondor series which is still very much playable even today but since its not in the list I choose fallout.

[Arhu]

Jeez, PJ, I wouldn't want to have your fragmented mind right now. ;) And so many acronyms, too. I guess NWN is to blame.

I'd just go with my gut and feeling about the titles listed. Mostly good vibes or fond memories *) of a series? Vote!

*) I guess all series as such are old enough by now to warrant nostalgia.

RoA? That game was an excelsheet-experiment gone horribly wrong. The pixeled mess with unusable ui that they called combat was dated during release allready. Not to mention other things the whole series got nothing but bad reviews.
Ah, well, and Gothic had horrible controls according to various reviewers. It was still a better game than Morrowind. ;) RoA had, in my opinion, a fantastic atmosphere, which more than made up for any shortcomings in other areas. (And I never played any P&P, so that's not an argument as far as I'm concerned)

[20mithrandir]

Ah, well, and Gothic had horrible controls according to various reviewers. It was still a better game than Morrowind. ;) RoA had, in my opinion, a fantastic atmosphere, which more than made up for any shortcomings in other areas. (And I never played any P&P, so that's not an argument as far as I'm concerned)

I agree. I'm currently playing my yearly visit to The Dark Eye (I already found four map pieces in "Blade of Destiny"). People who argue with the graphics are hard to discuss with. I think that a great visual presentation is by far the less important thing a good crpg must have.

Back to the vote: It was hard for me to decide, because I played most of the games. So I stick with the ones I have the fondest memories of ; - ) Btw. runners-up were Gothic and M&M ...

[Amasius]

Unfortunately most of my favorite RPGs (Planescape Torment, Arcanum, Darklands) never made it into series production. So I had to go with either Fallout or Realms of Arkania and voted for the epic saga of the Vault Dweller. Not sure if I would still choose Fallout once Bethesda has contributed their part to the series... We'll see.

[zakhal]

Ah, well, and Gothic had horrible controls according to various reviewers. It was still a better game than Morrowind. ;) RoA had, in my opinion, a fantastic atmosphere, which more than made up for any shortcomings in other areas. (And I never played any P&P, so that's not an argument as far as I'm concerned)

Gothic controls (originally designed for consoles) were good once you got used to them. RoA controls were just unusable. I.E in combat you had one big list of options what to do. It was cramped with useless options and slow to use.

Heres few reviews from 90s:

Blade of Destiny 1994 65%
-million different selection lists -> cramped ui with huge amount of useless options
-discussion with ncps is mostly i like you/i dont like you
-magic is joke and mostly useless
-the combat option list is too crambed i.e why do you need two different options to choose which hand you put an item to?
-frustratingly hard and gets harder all the time
-weapons brake and you cant see their condition
-smith can fix only one weapon at a time and it takes ages to do it
-you cant attack diagonally with close combat weapons (even ultima3 had that option 10 years before)
-you can sleep but only 9 hours at a time. So if you need you can sleep even 300 hours but then you need to put the group to sleep 34 times.
-Magic points come back extremely slow and wizards easily become totally useless in battle
-if you want to move south from town you must find sign from southern part of town..sign on the north only guides to north..ridiculous waste of time
-you get only little xp from battle
-if you save anywhere else except temple you loose xp
-amatourish design overall the game is like add gold box except worse

Realms of Arkania 2: Star Trail 1995 75%
-few unlogical problems
-battles are ridiculous long
-badly digidized speech
-huge amount of skills (som of them have no use at all)
-when in combat characters get too close to each other its hard to see which is which - it all becames one pixelated mess. 2D combat would have been much better than this 3D mess.

It was never anything like gothic. Gothic was actually well designed game with good production values. RoA had nothing of that imho. Million different skills and options that have no use does not good crpg make.

[Arhu]

Woah there. I'm actually speechless.

Those points are probably all valid from today's point of view. Thing is, you could probably apply them or similar points to other old gamest too, because they all had flaws. Games were simply different back then. Imagine the old Lucas Arts UI in todays adventures (of what little there are). I'm seeing the reviews already: "you have to click way too often for even the simplest task". ;)

And things like "combat takes too long" in a game with tactical, turn-based combat is just backwards. I guess some reviewers were totally sold on real time even in those olden times.

Thank goodness for differences of opinion, it was still my favorite series. ^^

[Gallifrey]

Had to go with NWN on this, but not because the boxed campaigns were good. For me, NWN gets the vote because of the sheer number of hours I enjoyed with that game playing in RP persistant worlds. That game provided the PnP campaigning that I had so missed over the years. And not only that, but playing NWN in that way was the very first time a computer RPG allowed me to create and develop my characters as I wanted to - I could give them full personalities, goals, motives, quirks and so on, and really act on them.
The boxed campaigns I never finished, and I haven't really spent much time with NWN2 yet so I'm only counting NWN, SoU and HoTU here along with the tons of user mods, haks, scripts etc. But for those alone it's worth a vote.

I have fond memories of the Gold Box games, as that was the first time I could play D&D on the computer in full, orchestrated campaigns, which was a far cry from the ramshackle ad-hoc super-casual tabletop games I always had. Those games gave the full-on D&D experience at the time. But the greater flexibility that NWN provided is why I give that the nod over the Gold Box series.

[zakhal]

Woah there. I'm actually speechless.

Those points are probably all valid from today's point of view. Thing is, you could probably apply them or similar points to other old gamest too, because they all had flaws.

Those reviews are from 1994-1995. Point is they were bad/mediocre games then allready.

And things like "combat takes too long" in a game with tactical, turn-based combat is just backwards. I guess some reviewers were totally sold on real time even in those olden times. ;)

Not at all. I.E other turn based games like might and magic, magic candle and krondor got high scores back then. RoA simply had bad production values and design errors imho.


Thank goodness for differences of opinion, it was still my favorite series. ^^

Naturally the game sold well (in germany?) so som surely liked it. I would compare it to games that really divide opinnions (actually mentioned in the RoA reviews) like i.e two worlds today. Som like it som really hate it.

The point is I would never consider two worlds or RoA a classic. Even though I like the former.

People who argue with the graphics are hard to discuss with. I think that a great visual presentation is by far the less important thing a good crpg must have.

Actually I play lots of retro games with poor graphics like FF2 NES, might magic NES and pool of radiance, curse of azure bonds, etc. I dont mind the graphics as long as the gameplay and UI is good. With RoA its about the UI not graphics.

I kind of like retro gfx but I cant stand handbreaking user interfaces.

[drum]

Voted Fallout mostly not for the love for it but for being Arcanum's predecessor. Remember the talk "RPGs are about choice", yeah? Ultima is also great. And, shame on me, not only I never played Realms of Arkania but actually don't even know anything about it. As for the other series in the list, they seemed good once, but later gameplay experience has spoilt me. Gold Box, Wizardry and M&M have really tedious and rather unspectacular battles - and not much to do besides battles, come to think of it. Daggerfall and Morrowind looked fine at the time, but having played Gothic the world seems dead and the combat dumbed down. Gothic itself has a living world and great action elements, but character development is too simplified and combat-centered, leaving no place to thief or diplomatic types. Having played later Bioware games like KOTOR and Mass Effect, BG and NWN seem to have much less of plot, much more of filler combat.

So, of all the games I know that are on the list, Fallouts and Ultimas are the only ones I can replay and still have fun.

As for the ones that didn't make it here, I must notice Spiderweb's Avernum & Geneforge. They're marvelous! I'm currently 10 hours into Avernum 5 and it's great, great fun.

[Zaleukos]

Woah there. I'm actually speechless.

Those points are probably all valid from today's point of view. Thing is, you could probably apply them or similar points to other old gamest too, because they all had flaws. Games were simply different back then. Imagine the old Lucas Arts UI in todays adventures (of what little there are). I'm seeing the reviews already: "you have to click way too often for even the simplest task". ;)

I like the series a lot (mainly due to a much cooler atmosphere than most AD&D rpgs), and I only got around to playing it in the 21st century (and I also lack connection to Germany), but some of the flaws must have been obvious from the start. The amount of superfluous skills (and the skills/spells that only were used once and still needed considerable point investment), the breaking weapons (worse in the second title since towns were far away), and an interface where identified magical items didnt stay identified were serious issues that werent in ANY other games at the time of the RoA release. The combat in the first one also had some very idiotic restrictions (the lack of diagonal melee and the ease of blocking friendly ranged weapons).

[Foss]

I voted Fallout. No real question there for me.
Loved many of those games on the list, but I regard the Fallout games as some of the greatest games I have played. Those and PS:T are problably my top 3 of all time.

The BG games were really good too and they would be close 2nd.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Had to decide between the Realms of Arcania and Gothic.
I chose the first one.

I must admit, though, that I haven't played some of these series, for example Gold Box and Fallout.

[Zaleukos]

IMHO the goldbox games have aged reasonably well. The interface is clean and not very clunky (but the two oldest titles Champions of Krynn and Pool of Radiance have some minor issues like having to re-memorise spells). Their main drawback is that they are extremely linear and very lacking in actual roleplaying. In a way they are like Icewind dale, tonnes of tactical combat in an ADD setting.

The best SSI rpgs I played in the DOS era were the Darksun games, but they arent in the poll.

[Turjan]

My answer to the poll is necessarily skewed by my limited exposure to older RPGs. I never got to know any Ultima games in their heyday (except Ultima Online), and I haven't played through any of them yet. I still intend to do this with U7 Black Gate with Exult. One day. Maybe ;). I know that neither Wizardry 7 or 8 grabbed me enough to play them further than a few minutes in. Might & Magic is a serious contender, but I only know VI (which I loved), VII (which I quite liked, but less than VI) and VIII (which I dropped after the first 10 minutes). I think it finalizes as my personal number 3 series. I never played any Realms of Arkania game, although I once started Shadows over Riva, and I didn't like the antics of the game. I've never even seen a Gold Box game. I only know TES: Morrowind (which I loved) and Oblivion (which bored me), which would still make it my personal number 2 series. I probably lose my geek license by admitting to never having seen any Fallout game. I absolutely loved both Baldur's Gate games. This makes this series my personal winner by default, I guess ;).
Gothic. Don't beat me, but I hated the controls. That's probably my loss, but it still means that I have never played any of the games more than a few minutes. They are still on the list of my "have to play this one day" list (which might mean that they will never get touched.) NWN? The first one was not that cool as a game (I'm not counting the editor). The expansions were better, and they brought me to finish the main game :). The second single player campaign was slightly more engaging, and I got pretty near to the end with this one. Which still means that I didn't finish it ;). So no vote for this one.

That leaves the BG series for me. And I notice that I'm a notorious "never finish anything" gamer. OK, that's not true, but I haven't finished quite a few titles.

[rooroosta]

I went for NWN because of the wealth of mods available.

[dteowner]

Since 2 games doesn't really consistute a series, let's just dump all those misguided votes for BG into M&M where they belong.

[zakhal]

Their main drawback is that they are extremely linear and very lacking in actual roleplaying. In a way they are like Icewind dale, tonnes of tactical combat in an ADD setting.

That is the main problem. The whole game is just nothing but combat after combat. Characters are just spaceholders for ubergear, for without it they are useless.

Combat is still fun but whether that alone can keep the interest alive while playing through the whole series (9+1 hillsfar) is another question. The main fallback of the series back then allready was that they just copied it again and again. There was even a saying for the series back then called "SSDD" which meant "same shit, different dungeon".

Also one fairly dated feature of the series imho is the conversations. The text of the discussion isnt present in the game but in book/pdf/txt-file. During discussion you get a number and then you have to alt-tab to txt-file / pdf / book and try find that number from there to read what the npc is saying.

Nowadays I can find only two full cd copies of ad&d series from internet on sale. First one is incomplete and costs around 70$. Another is complete but price is double ~ 150€. Those golden boxes sure are pretty though.


The best SSI rpgs I played in the DOS era were the Darksun games, but they arent in the poll.

I never played those two, but apart from the bugs I heard they were good in som ways.

[GhanBuriGhan]

Close call between Gothic and TES for me. I'd probably rate the Gothics a little higher on an individual basis at the moment, and Oblivion, well... But as a series, TES still gets my vote.

[magerette]

Like Amasius, I have to say many of my favorite RPGs are single outings like PS:T. Troika's titles or The Witcher or else games followed by less compelling sequels.

But I really have no trouble voting for a series; had to go with Might and Magic. I have no doubt that a lot of it's nostalgia, but when I think of all the hours of exploration, char dev and combat, it's unequaled in keeping me playing.

Of the other series, I can honestly say either I haven't played them-(too late for the party on the Ultimas, etc)-only played one to completion(Gothic, BG1, NWN;Sou and NWN2 OC))- or haven't played enough to judge. And while I've played all the Bioware games, I just can't say they are my favorites, even though they've been quite fun at times. After awhile they just wear out for me. Not M&M, though. :)

[Zakhary]

Might & Magic III rocks.
Might & Magic IV rocks.
Might & Magic V rocks.
Might & Magic VI rocks.
Might & Magic VII rocks.

Thus - Might & Magic rocks as a series no matter how I'm gonna like VIII or IX.
I'm propably sick enough to actually play I and II sometime soon, too.
Sure, fallouts and baldur's gates are nice... but as a series they are kinda short.
M&M gets my vote!

[Jaz]

Out of the choices available I picked Elder Scrolls... I enjoyed all 6 games (haven't played the mobile games, though) as opposed to two out of three (Gothic series)., and I probably replayed some of the ES games a lot more than I played any of the others on the poll if added together. The other poll options had perhaps one games/series I really liked (or two in the case of Underworld - the UU games, of course), so that's it. But in the real world (i.e., in a world with more poll options ;) ) I would have picked either Lands of Lore or Final Fantasy, depending on my mood.

[Prime Junta]

Since 2 games doesn't really consistute a series, let's just dump all those misguided votes for BG into M&M where they belong.

Depends on what you count. If you count TotSC and ToB, that's four games.

[Zakhary]

Nah, just expansion paks. Not games by themselves.

[dteowner]

Then I need another way to stuff the ballot box for M&M...

[woges]

Difficult to say really, I voted TES for the lore but there are some great games in that selection. Whatever happened to The Theoretical Whirling School Of Vivec?

[Zaleukos]

That is the main problem. The whole game is just nothing but combat after combat. Characters are just spaceholders for ubergear, for without it they are useless.

The bolded part is 2nd edition AD&D in a nutshell (BG characters are also more often than not defined by their gear:p) I agree that the Goldbox 9 are pretty insignificant as RPGs, which is why I compared them to IWD. The adventure journal thingy was a copy protection scheme that I actually didnt mind too much. My point on the interface was that it is fairly clean and doesnt require a lot of clicking through menus and such (compared to say the combat interface of Realms of Arkania).

I got the full collection for about 15 euros in the late 90s, a great deal. Getting them was compulsory as PoR and the first two Krynn games were old favourites from my teenage years.

The Darksun games have a lot more dialogue, some puzzles, and an isometric view. And the first one (I had some frame rate issues with the second one and didnt get very far into it) was roughly as open ended as the BG games.

[Grumpi]

Gothic

Baldur's Gate is the close second.

[purpleblob]

Obviously my vote goes for BG series... NWN series is the distant 2nd.. ;)

I've never played Wizardry, Might & Magic, Realms of Arkania, Gold box, Fallout, nor Gothic series.

I did play Ultima and Elder scrolls series... but didn't really like them much.

[txa1265]

Definitely a hard choice ... I've been tooling around in Krondor, Wizardry Colection, Might & Magic Millenium Collection, Ultima series and other stuff this year ...

Gothic 2 is perhaps my fave RPG, but the series as a whole just doen't grab the ring for me.

[Guhndahb]

I'd be content with choosing most of those. But I cut my teeth on cRPGs with the Ultima series on the Apple ][. And I was a passionate fan of the Ultimas and Origin in general back then. I know a lot of the reason for it holding the greatest nostalgia factor is because of my age when I played them, but it's undeniable. I look back so fondly on them that they earn my vote flat out. And it's not just fond memories, either. I've replayed most of the Ultimas multiple times, most recently replaying U4 with the xu4 engine.

[HiddenX]

Favourite RPG Series? -> Wizardry !

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Characters are just spaceholders for ubergear, for without it they are useless.

Interesting sentence. I'll keep this in mind. :)

Which reminds me of my second remark here:
http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4314

[dteowner]

Might and Magic isn't winning? Void the poll before we lose all credibility here! ;)

[Fenris]

For me it's Realms of Arkania ... the only series where characters build for wilderness-survival or social skills are really useful :)

[Zakhary]

Might and Magic isn't winning? Void the poll before we lose all credibility here! ;)

Don't worry! It's just the heretics that haven't played anything pre-BG! ;)

[Naked Ninja]

Baldurs Gate for the win! ;)

[Jabberwocky]

I'm surprised that Balder's Gate is completely running away with this.

I voted Gothic.

[Corwin]

I think the votes have been inflated!!

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Mainstream. Nothing else.

Everybody KNOWS BG ...

[Remus]

It's what i expected. I liked BG, and Fallout certainly as good if not better.

[zakhal]

Mainstream. Nothing else.

Everybody KNOWS BG ...

And everyone has played it. Nothing new or interesting about it. Those with the least votes are the actual winners imho.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

So no reason to be surprised. Mr. Livingstone, I presume ?

[zakhal]

So no reason to be surprised. Mr. Livingstone, I presume ?

Umm what I meant was that those with least votes are the only games in the list that people propably havent played much if at all yet. So surely they are more interesting than som baldurs gate which everyone has played through x times.

[dteowner]

Actually, I'm curious if we have 825 visitors. I guess we get a significant number of guests that are allowed to vote in polls, but I'm getting the faint sense of poll-hacking.

Besides, M&M isn't even in the top 4 now, so clearly we have to invalidate the poll.

[magerette]

Yeah, I know visitors can vote in the polls, but the rate of several hundred new votes a day seems a little steep--still, it does seem logical that BG and Fallout be up at the top. Ultima having quintuple the votes of Gothic, M&M, Wizardry and TES seems a bit unusual, though.

[Zakhary]

There is no way to make polls members only?
Kinda takes the fun and interest from them...
having them like it is now.

[dteowner]

It's been discussed by the site's powers-that-be and the decision was made that it would turn into an unending battle of blocks and hacks, which would be a tremendous drain on the two people that do all of our site coding in their spare time. The numbnuts hacking our polls obviously have nothing better to do with their time, while our folks do.

I think we just declare M&M the clear and obvious winner and move forward.

[Dajjer]

The fact that we're talking series says that there are a lot of great RPG's. I had to go with Might & Magic because it has given me RPG goodness for the most years. It's true that the later games took a dip in quality but even the mediocre games were still playable to the end. If Gothic can come out with a couple more good efforts then they will replace M&M because Gothic 2 is my favorite RPG / all time and Gothic 1 is somewhere in the top 25. And while the bugginess of G3, perhaps makes it the most frustrating game of all time - its still a fascinating game to play.

One series not mentioned was Land of Lore. For me it started out the best of all the RPG series but the two sequels were very disappointing sequels

[Jaz]

I also loved the sequels. Both of them. So LoL is one of my favorite series.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Maybe we should make a second poll with all of the seriesses (so to say) not listed in THIS poll ?

[Turjan]

Yeah, I know visitors can vote in the polls, but the rate of several hundred new votes a day seems a little steep--still, it does seem logical that BG and Fallout be up at the top. Ultima having quintuple the votes of Gothic, M&M, Wizardry and TES seems a bit unusual, though.
I think that the polls look pretty much like I would have expected it. Yes, I don't know quite a few of the games involved: I never tried a Gold Box game, I didn't play Fallout, and I don't know much about the old Ultima titles. But I can see how those titles with low votes got low votes.

Ultima is simply a legend and will always get many votes in polls like this. I guess that some people even vote for the series without knowing the games because they want to be part of the cool kids (typical voter dynamics). Ultima IX is mostly forgotten, because there is still Ultima Online with many fans.

I think the Baldur's Gate games are simply good. I've played both of them numerous times, and I still like them. And a result of 30% of the votes is not that overwhelming.

[Guhndahb]

I know this is all in good fun, but I wish folks wouldn't discount the views of anyone who didn't vote the same as them. Although, I guess the only real reason for a poll like this is to engender discussion and reminiscing, which it's doing very well.

I've played at least one game, usually all, in every one of the series in the poll except Realms of Arkania, and that one I intend to rectify someday. I still chose Ultima for the reasons I explained in my post. That doesn't mean I didn't love the others, I loved all of them.

M&M was a great series (I only played the earlier ones), although when I was playing them was not too long after the Bard's Tale series, which I tended to prefer (the original series, obviously not the remake). The Gold Box games are of the few I have never replayed, but they were great games as well. And they were the first RPGs I played with 256-color graphics, which was a significant jump for me coming from Apple ][e monochrome green/black even if I usually consider graphics a trivial element of RPGs. Fallout would have had a chance but it wasn't nearly as long lived as many of these series, so I personally disqualified it from my voting process despite my love for the two games. Ultima gave me significant pleasure from 1983 to 1993. Eleven years of consistently good RPGing from one series is really something. The post-'93 disappointments of U8 and U9 can't tarnish that history for me.

Newer series get a lesser chance with me, as they were after my childhood and lack the same magic for just that reason. But even amongst them are some of my favorite games.

I don't expect others to agree with me, but I do expect them not to discount my opinion based in false assumptions. Then again, maybe I'm just taking it all too seriously, something I'm prone to do. :D

[dteowner]

If you're referring to my campaign for M&M, I'm just playing around. I fully respect your right to be wrong. ;)

[Guhndahb]

*laugh!* Nah, just a general sentiment not aimed at anyone. I felt the intended lightheartedness from your posts more than any other. :)

[Lucky Day]

--still, it does seem logical that BG and Fallout be up at the top. Ultima having quintuple the votes of Gothic, M&M, Wizardry and TES seems a bit unusual, though.

I have to disagree there considering the older timers here on these boards. Heck, Corwin was calling Gygax "that poor boy" at his funeral. Remember the Dot had its own Ultima pages and the series gained a lot of new fans with UO.

Personally, I've barely heard of Realms of Arcania. I think that should be replaced with Bard's Tale.

[magerette]

Yes, I suppose age is definitely a factor. I just thought it weird since some of the other series, like The Elder Scrolls and NWN, have so much more exposure--but I'm pretty ignorant on the old games and I am willing to take your word, Lucky, and Turjan's as well since I'm betting even though you're younger in age, you've both played way more pre-1999 stuff than I ever will. :)

I kind of glanced back through the polls of the last year and this one has the highest participation figures ever--most of the older ones came in at under 400 votes--for all of you voting without a post, welcome to the boards. I'm kind of dismissing the hacking thing now because the vote spread is fairly even, and it seems to be varying randomly day to day.

[Cm]

I think the let down most of us felt with the last product from Gothic and NWN may have swayed a few votes toward BG as well. The poll is for favourite series and several are still disappointed in those last installments from Gothic and NWN2, not counting recent additions of course.

[gaboru93]

Well even though everyone says they are disappointed with the last part of the Gothic series (well we were all a bit disappointed) I will still vote for it because it is supposed to be "Your favourite RPG Series" not "The best RPG Series". Also I don't have that much experience in these "best RPGs" so my vote goes to Gothic! Gothic is the game that has change my gaming experience for ever!

[Lucky Day]

The last few Ultimas were just as bad. I suspect someone might have tipped off a UO diehard community out there. I guess that's a difference between forum polls and general polls is that people from outside are able to vote.

I wonder how many people have registered since this poll started? I remember I found the dot by following an attempt to skew the votes for favourite RPG to Fallout from NMA or Duck and Cover.

[Relayer]

I voted for the BG series on account of the BG expansion (I though BG was just good, the expansion made it more fun) and BG2 (can you say "epic quest"?).

But that's still not too definitive for me since aside from Fallout, I haven't played the other series completely. Loved Wizardry 8, one of my faves but only played that and Wizardry 3 which didnt leave an impression.

Played the first 3 Ultimas but wow....so long ago. Sadly missed out on 7 which everyone is always raving about.

Played Pool of Radiance and Secret Of The Silver Blades when they came out and had a lot of fun with both but I'm sure replaying those GB games wouldn't be the same today - and didn't play the other games in the series.

Never played any of the M&M games or ROA.

NWN was terrible, NWN2 was just solid.

Fallout 1 was awesome, Fallout 2 never played to completion, couldn't keep my interest.

Gothic 2 was pretty good but didn't play the first or 3rd.

Really liked Morrowind, hated Oblivion (who didn't?), stayed away from Daggerfall after hearing about the bugfest it was, only tried recently to play Arena but couldn't get it to run properly.

So the BG series gets my vote by default.

That being said, Planescape: Torment rocked :)

[bjon045]

Ultima got my vote, it just edged out the gold box games. RoA would have been a contender also if it wasn't for the 3rd in the series.

[Dajjer]

If you're referring to my campaign for M&M, I'm just playing around. I fully respect your right to be wrong. ;)


My name is Dajjer and I fully support this postion.

[Konjad]

Baldur's Gate.

Why?

1. "Baldur's Gate" was my first game I bought.
2. That was first cRPG I played.
3. I played first BG more times than any game (I completed main story dozens times)
4. Well, just my favorite series ;)
5. This is only one series that at the end of it I... cried because it's the end ^^ I was around 13 years old ^^