A Game of the Year 2011 poll: Results

So if you saw the Game of the Year poll I was posting about last week, the results are in! Here are the winners, plus the winners if I run poll results for only those voters who came in through tigsource.com:

CLICK HERE FOR PRETTY COLOR-CODED FULL RESULTS-- FULL POLL (670 voters)

1. Portal 2 (6571) *** GAME OF THE YEAR ***
2. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (6253)
3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (4234)
4. Batman: Arkham City (4134)
5. Bastion (4094)
6. Saints Row: The Third (2547)
7. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2126)
8. Battlefield 3 (2071)
9. Dark Souls (2034)
10. Dead Space 2 (1681)
11. L.A. Noire (1639)
12. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (1515)
13. Star Wars: The Old Republic (1505)
14. Gears of War 3 (1447)
15. Terraria (1421)
16. Dragon Age II (1411)
17. Super Mario 3D Land (1261)
18. Pokemon Black & White (1255)
19. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (1170)
20. The Binding of Isaac (1164)

CLICK HERE FOR PRETTY COLOR-CODED FULL RESULTS-- TIGSOURCE.COM USERS ONLY (42 voters)

1. Portal 2
2. Dark Souls
3. The Binding of Isaac
4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
5. Bastion
6. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
7. Terraria
8. Escape from Puppy Death Factory
9. Jamestown
10. Frozen Synapse
11. Magicka
12. Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP
13. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
14. Dungeons of Dredmor
15. Hyper Princess Pitch
16. Treasure Adventure Game
17. Batman: Arkham City
18. SuteF
19. Inside a Star-Filled Sky
20. Don’t Take it Personally, Babe, it Just Ain’t Your Story

(The results for Tigsource are of course pretty similar to Paul Eres' official forum poll.)

The numbers in parentheses are the final scores each game got under the poll’s ranking system. Thanks if you voted, and some more elaborate analysis of the results and scores (maybe more elaborate than you really wanted) can be found below.

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NOTEWORTHY WINNERS

GOTY 2011:

#1, Portal 2 Top-ranked Wii Exclusive:

#7, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Top-ranked PC Exclusive:

#12, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Top-ranked 360 Exclusive:

#14, Gears of War 3 Top-ranked 3DS Exclusive:

#17, Super Mario 3D Land Top-ranked DS Exclusive:

#18, Pokemon Black & White Top-ranked PS3 Exclusive:

#21, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Top-ranked smartphone game:

#24, SpaceChem Top-ranked smartphone exclusive:

#48, Jetpack Joyride Top-ranked PSP Exclusive:

#45, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
Best FPS:

#1, Portal 2 Best RPG:

#2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Best "Indie" Game:

#5, Bastion Best Game Available Through A Console Download Service:

#5, Bastion "Cult" Award (see below):

#42, Dungeon Siege 3 Best Browser Game:

#103, Escape from Puppy Death Factory

NOTEWORTHY LOSERS

   Best game of 2011 which somehow nobody considered to be their #1 pick: #23, Magicka
   Worst game of 2011 that at least one person considered their #1 pick: #215, Stronghold 3
   Worst game of 2011: An incredible three-way tie between #251, Rugby Challenge; #252, "Leedmees" (??) and #253, Fishing Resort for Wii. (Each of these games scored only one vote each, each from someone who considered it their 19th best game of the year.)

There were 22 games on the nominations list no one voted for at all.

ALTERNATE SCORING METHODS

The rankings listed above are based on a version of the Borda count voting method. Each vote cast for a game gives that game a certain number of points. If someone ranks a game #1, that game gets 20 points. If they rank it #2, the game gets 19 points. If they rank it #3 the game gets 18 points... and so on. I have a script that checks a couple of alternate ways of ranking the same data, though.

For example, if we rank games only by the number of first place votes they got, we get a wildly different list, with a different first place winner and lots of games listing that weren't anywhere near the top 20:

First Past the Post

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (141)
2. Portal 2 (92)
3. Batman: Arkham City (50)
4. Dark Souls (41)
5. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (31)
6. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (29)
7. Saints Row: The Third (25)
8. Bastion (24)
9. Battlefield 3 (17)
10. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (16)
11. Star Wars: The Old Republic (16)
12. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (11)
13. Gears of War 3 (10)
14. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (10)
15. Terraria (9)
16. Dead Space 2 ( Cool

17. Dungeon Siege 3 (6)
18. The Binding of Isaac (6)
19. Bulletstorm (5)
20. Pokemon Black & White (5)

Most years when I look at the first-past-the-post list a "cult" game emerges that received very few overall votes, but where an overwhelming percentage of those votes were #1 votes (I think of this as the "Persona award"); this year actually didn't have an incredible standout in this category, but I think the award fairly goes to Dungeon Siege 3, which scored a relatively poor #42 in the overall rankings but made it all the way to #17 counting first place votes only.

I also did two more ways of sorting the rankings: an "approval" vote, where nothing is counted except the number of votes a game received (i.e. a first-place and a twentieth-place ranking count the same-- all the matters is if the game was on someone's list); and an instant runoff vote. Your eyes are probably starting to glaze over at this point, so I bolded the places where these two votes differ from the official rank. A small observation: Although these counts usually don't differ much from the "main" count, this year the IRV list actually looks pretty different to me, I think mostly due to the number of near ties in the official count. Witcher 2 and Star Wars TOR were only within a couple points of each other on the official list; as were Pokemon and Mario 3D Land; as were Ghost Trick, Binding of Isaac, and Uncharted 3 (barely off the list at #21). One more or fewer ballots for any of these games would have changed the rank order. Another small observation: 670 people voted this year. Not only did more than half place some sort of vote for Portal 2, independently counted more than half placed some sort of vote for Skyrim.

APPROVAL

1. Portal 2 (379)
2. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (345)
3. Bastion (267)
4. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (264)
5. Batman: Arkham City (247)
6. Saints Row: The Third (155)
7. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (134)
8. Battlefield 3 (133)
9. L.A. Noire (132)
10. Dark Souls (120)
11. Dead Space 2 (114)
12. Dragon Age II (107)
13. Terraria (106)
14. Gears of War 3 (101)
15. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (96)
16. Star Wars: The Old Republic (94)
17. Bulletstorm (90)
18. Pokemon Black & White (90)
19. Magicka (90)
20. Super Mario 3D Land (85)

IRV

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2. Portal 2
3. Batman: Arkham City
4. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
5. Bastion
6. Saints Row: The Third
7. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
8. Battlefield 3
9. Dark Souls
10. L.A. Noire
11. Dead Space 2
12. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
13. Gears of War 3
14. Terraria
15. Star Wars: The Old Republic
16. Dragon Age II
17. The Binding of Isaac
18. Pokemon Black & White
19. Magicka
20. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

That's it. Thanks again to all.