The RPS Advent Calendar Guessing Game - 2017 Edition

[Aerothorn]

Still, I think now a mathematical certainty that the winning (and likely group) score will be the lowest in record.

Technically, if either Vinraith or Vexing Vision gets ALL of the remaining picks correct, they will beat 2015’s high score (which was 15 out of 23, due to Endless Legend being picked twice). But yes, that’s not going to happen and we’re going to have a new low.

Also, Prey was my original optimistic GOTY pick (as Alec notes, it’s kind of a boring pick but at the same time it absolutely deserves it) so I’m glad I switched that up, since for the first time in the history of the competition the GOTY tiebreaker will almost certainly come into play.

[MiniMatt]

And here’s me picking both the correct, actual GOTY, and picking last year’s GOTY correctly too!

I’m a winner!

In my head I’m a winner.

[Vexing_Vision]

I actually only picked games I liked myself. I absolutely hated my time with Edith Finch (which is weird because I quite liked Gone Home and Ethan Carter).

I am very certain Doki Doki is going to make the list though. It would be a criminal omission otherwise, and most uncharacteristic, even in this year’s bizarre selection of games. And I’m the only one who picked it.

It’ll be an exciting finish either way!

[Aerothorn]

I will frankly be shocked if Doki Doki Literature Club is chosen, given that A. No one on staff (except apparently Katherine) is into visual novels and otherwise deserving VNs regularl get skipped over (VA-11-Hall-A), and B. Proper RPS staff showed no indication of actually playing it.

Which, of course, didn’t stop similar games from getting picked, so it’s not impossible, but this late in the calendar I just don’t see it happening

I do appreciate being reminded it exists so I can put it on my overstuffed wishlist, though.

[MiniMatt]

Christ, yeah Doki Doki, I can’t say as I know the slightest thing about it.

My eyes tend to glaze over and skip any article whose title screenshot is anime style teenage japanese girls in school uniform. This prejudgment has undoubtedly seen me miss many gems of which I’m quite prepared to admit Doki Doki may be one. It’s a prejudice which has sure saved me from a lot of weird dross though.

edit: my, how my prejudices have blinded me - I just read the one RPS article on Doki Doki, resplendent with its bouncy anime, disturbingly childlike young women, and whoah, hmmm, ok, clearly something far deeper going on in that game.

[LTK]

I will be immensely, vehemently angry if Doki Doki Literature Club gets put on the calendar. OneShot is already there for the meta. Getting Over It is already there for the sadism. No Doki.

[Sarfrin]

I do appreciate being reminded it exists so I can put it on my overstuffed wishlist, though.

It’s free, so you can just add it straight to your overstuffed backlog if you prefer.

[Aerothorn]

I will be immensely, vehemently angry if Doki Doki Literature Club gets put on the calendar.

I think generating those emotions is the whole point of this year’s calendar!

But let us keep things in perspective: whatever gets picked for GOTY, it will be more deserving than Far Cry 3

[Vexing_Vision]

I will be immensely, vehemently angry if Doki Doki Literature Club gets put on the calendar. OneShot is already there for the meta. Getting Over It is already there for the sadism. No Doki.

It’s also a very, very clever story and it works with our understanding of what a game is.

It’s a VN that works if you’re a gamer, if you’re not a gamer, if you’re into deconstruction, horror, clever game mechanics, interested in psychology.

It’s not only about the meta, it’s also pretty good without it.

[Tikey]

Absolutely. I picked a heck of a year to try competing at this for the first time.

#TeamVinraith

//20char

[DeekyFun]

I’ve been wondering about Doki Doki as well, having played it and having it on my own personal best of the year. I just couldn’t decide whether to go for it, and in the end decided that I hadn’t read enough about it on this site to pick it over the WITs.

Since I decided not to put it on, I’m now in the weird position of both wanting it to come up for the recognition, but not wanting on there so I don’t lose the point!

[Aerothorn]

Well, as much as I would have liked the Everybody Gets A Point posts to be more spread around this year, it is a nice little end-of-calendar reward. Look at the global group guess percentage rise to something less embarassing!

[Aerothorn]

(Also, when counting points, I think it’s safe to safe Vanderlay meant Nier: Automata and not a 2010 game that never came out on PC)

Deeky, however, is clearly disqualified for writing “Neir Automata”

[DeekyFun]

The i before e ‘rule’ is our equivalent of a doping scandal. I face an immediate ban!

[Kiril]

I had Nier but dropped it for Nioh thinking that Adam would only get 1 stylish fighter on the list and I also dropped Nier because some of the RPS people were annoyed at the 40 minutes intro with no save but I should have stuck to my guns.

[DeekyFun]

So, I had been assuming (probably incorrectly, based on what’s happened so far) that Divinity OS2, PUBG, and What remains… were sure things, but I’m starting to lose confidence.

[MiniMatt]

Quick maths interlude: 35% of the 17 entrants are currently in 1st or 2nd place!

edit: further - Everyone currently in 2nd place on 9 points picked Stories Untold, everyone currently in 1st place on 10 points didn’t. So if Stories is picked tomorrow over a third of the entrants will be in first place

[Aerothorn]

So, I had been assuming (probably incorrectly, based on what’s happened so far) that Divinity OS2, PUBG, and What remains… were sure things, but I’m starting to lose confidence.

Oh, they absolutely are sure things. There are four picks left, and those will be three of them.

And yes, I am hoping for Stories Untold just to see the hilarity of an ultra-tie.

Speaking as the person who is capping the pot at $40 for ties: there will be an alternate option where you get to pick Steam keys from my Big Bag O’ Extra Keys that are worth more than the steam/gog/itchbuck equivalent, if people are interested in anything I have.

As for Nier: Automata vs. Nioh; my understand is that the former is a game that transcends genre and expectations to become something singulary interesting and distinct, while Nioh is merely a really good implementation of its genre. Which I thought was enough to get it on the list, but I knew if it had to be one, it would be Nier: Automata, even with Alec’s refusal to play past the intro (because I knew Katherine, Alice, and Adam would all vote for it, at least).

[Vandelay]

The i before e ‘rule’ is our equivalent of a doping scandal. I face an immediate ban!

The “i before e, except after c” rule is too weird and insufficient to follow all the time.

[Kiril]

As for Nier: Automata vs. Nioh; my understand is that the former is a game that transcends genre and expectations to become something singulary interesting and distinct, while Nioh is merely a really good implementation of its genre. Which I thought was enough to get it on the list, but I knew if it had to be one, it would be Nier: Automata, even with Alec’s refusal to play past the intro (because I knew Katherine, Alice, and Adam would all vote for it, at least).

Fine help making me realise all that now! I call a fix! Also I think what made me change was Nioh review came after I put in the list, so was fresh to me