Originally Posted by 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".

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Originally Posted by Zaleukos
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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Originally Posted by 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.

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

Nah, just expansion paks. Not games by themselves.

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

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?

Originally Posted by zakhal
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) 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.

Gothic

Baldur's Gate is the close second.

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.

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.