Our Completely Unscientific Top 10 Decision Process

Thanks to Junk Loen‘s excellent reply to episode eight of our podcast, I figured it might be worth our while to explain our completely unscientific Top 10 decision process. Those of you who tuned in to the live stream before the episode got a little sneak-peak at it, but for the rest of you, here goes…!

Well before recording, I ask each individual host and guest to bring their own well-thought-out Top 10 list to the table. The games on the list are to be placed in order of preference. I may request that people bring more than just ten on a list, especially in the case of the first list we ever did (since the eligible games were ridiculously numerous). Number 1 gets ten points, number 2 gets nine points, and so on. Each of us reads the list while someone tallies up the titles and the points. Once every game and point is accounted for, we count them all up and order them based on the cumulative totals.

This is how a game like the first arcade version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can make the number three slot on our mutual list without necessarily being in any individual person’s top ten, and how Virtua Tennis can end up as our number one Dreamcast game without it necessarily being everyone’s number one Dreamcast game. The Top 10 lists represent the groups as a whole, rather than the single viewpoint of any particular host. Sure, it’s a completely unscientific method (and we make it entirely un-open to debate and shifting around after the numbers are totaled), but it’s more about the fun and collaboration than anything else.

Get the bunch of us together, put both Virtua Tennis and Rez in front of us… and it would appear that we’re collectively more likely to play Virtua Tennis.

Also, it’s really fun making you all squirm in your seats and type up responses.

Look for some more regular blog posts coming soon…!