What is the most important game for each decade? -

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

1970: Pong
1980: Some Mario game
1990: Doom
2000: Grand Theft Auto III
2010: Minecraft was technically a 2009 game, but I'm counting it here since it didn't really take shape or have a cultural impact until the 2010s

 

[sasazuka]

Controversial pick for the 1990s: Virtua Racing. It wasn't the first arcade game with 3D polygonal graphics but it was the first with a semi-decent framerate (30fps) and was a harbinger of the oncoming 3D gaming revolution.

 

[Thumb Butler]

1990s has to be Doom. It was the game.

 

[Marco Fucko]

Video games aren't important you nerd.

 

[sasazuka]

I think the 1990s is the most interesting decade to argue.

Another contender is Street Fighter II for having a whole roster of (initially) 8 playable characters with distinctive designs, attacks, and personalities (well, other than Ken who is a palette swap of Ryu with a few small details changed).

 

[Pissmaster]

The most important video game of the 1940's is Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device.

 

[I should be working]

2000's: Should be Alien Resurrection on PS1.
First game to use twin stick controls that are now common in Console FPS's.
GTA 3 was great and one of the first 3D Open World games people were exposed to, but it was kind of a no brainer considering the course 3D action games were taking at the time.
Someone else would have come along with the same idea, I'm pretty sure Driver was around at the same time.

 

[Cedric_Eff]

Controversial pick for the 1990s: Virtua Racing. It wasn't the first arcade game with 3D polygonal graphics but it was the first with a semi-decent framerate (30fps) and was a harbinger of the oncoming 3D gaming revolution.

Don’t forget Daytona USA for taking it even further!

 

[heyilikeyourmom]

90’s was Half-Life. 2000’s was Half Life 2. Nothing important has happened in the 2010’s yet.

 

[Syaoran Li]

I see my post in the Video Game Chat thread is influential.

Pong is the most influential game of the 1970's, simply because it's the originator. There were other primitive video games in the 50's and 60's, but they were only available on massive computers at universities and government facilities. Pong was the first video game to be commercially available to the public.

For the 1980's, I stand by The Legend of Zelda being the most important or influential game of the decade because it was a lot more plot-oriented than other NES games and was one of the first games to make a big deal out of saving your progress and it was a major influence on the open-world and RPG genres of gaming. Super Mario Brothers is also noteworthy, but I'd say Zelda is more important in the grand scheme of things.

The 1990's is the hardest decade to pick a single "most influential game" for, because so many genres and overall aspects of video games as a hobby either started in the 1990's or greatly proliferated then.

I'm going with Doom simply because it codified the FPS genre and was probably the first mainstream video game to have a very active modding and online multiplayer scene, but you could also make the argument for Street Fighter II or Metal Gear Solid being the most influential game of the 90's.

With the 2000's, Grand Theft Auto III is a no-brainer choice. Even if GTA III was simply an evolution of preexisting trends and Rockstar happened to be the first to the punch, it's still the game that made open world games into a full-fledged genre. Open-world games existed before GTA III, but they weren't really a true codified genre. Games like Driver and Body Harvest were like the Wolfenstein 3D to GTA III's Doom.

The 2010's, I'm also going with Minecraft, even if it technically came out in the tail end of 2009.

 

[Dom Cruise]

1980s: Super Mario Brothers
1990s: Metal Gear Solid
2000s: Silent Hill 2
2010: not sure yet

 

[Autumnal Equinox]

70s - Pong, with Space Invaders a close second.

80s - Super Mario Bros. Every 80s kid played this. My fucking grandma played this. Mario is/was the face of Nintendo.

90s - Either Doom or Final Fantasy VII for being the games to really bring the FPS and RPG genres out of their niche audience into the mainstream.

2000s - World of Warcraft. I don't care for the game, but it completely redefined mmorpgs and like Doom and FFVII brought that style into the mainstream.

2010s - dunno. I'm an oldfag so I'm not altogether familiar with the newer stuff.

 

[Spatula]

I'm going with Dark Souls for 2010.
I am not particularly a fan of this game too much, but the term 'it's like Dark Souls of X genre' or 'soulslike' is in the dictionary because of this game.

 

[Dom Cruise]

I'm going with Dark Souls for 2010.
I am not particularly a fan of this game too much, but the term 'it's like Dark Souls of X genre' or 'soulslike' is in the dictionary because of this game.

Dark Souls wouldn't be a bad choice for the 2010s, it arguably saved Japanese gaming, coming out at a time when most Japanese devs were just trying to imitate western games, Dark Souls was doing it's own thing.

It also came out at a time when gaming was becoming more and more riddled with hand holding, easy difficulty and chasing the "casual" market and proved the viability of hardcore difficulty.

So in a way it didn't just save Japanese gaming, it had a positive influence on gaming as a whole.

 

[Oskar Dirlewanger]

1970: Dark Souls 2
1980: Dark Souls 2
1990: Dark Souls 2
2000: Dark Souls 2
2010: Dark Souls 2

 

[maymaymm]

I'n the late 90s early 2000s half life (GoldSrc)
currently have no clue.
future will be Star Citizen.

 

[Ex Cummunicated Sasser HD]

70's - Space Invaders
80's - Pac-Man
90's - Streetfighter 2
00's - Angry Birds
10's - Depression Quest/Revolution 60

 

[Crichax]

90s - Can't decide, but the Gran Turismo series is definitely one of the most important in establishing the conventions for the simcade racing genre (which haven't changed much since the first GT games).
10s - Can't decide, but a lot of the triple-A games released in the 2010s are important, since they've shown consumers how repetitive and exploitative games can be. As for indie games, Undertale, since it showed that a humble American game developer can become popular worldwide and eventually get fan translations to spread his game even further.

 

[Alex Poulos]

10s - Can't decide, but a lot of the triple-A games released in the 2010s are important, since they've shown consumers how repetitive and exploitative games can be.

I love that sentence. That's probably why OP mentioned Minecraft as most important game for the 2010s although it came out in 2009. The set of choices of the current decade is too poor.

 

[HeyYou]

70s: Pong is kiddie shit, Space Invaders was the most influential and important game of the decade, far and away.
80s: Super Mario Bros
90s: Doom
2000s: San Andreas or Grand Theft Auto III, maybe? The Sims?
2010s: Minecraft, definitely.