They sent out emails to members playing their games. I haven't played Mafia Wars or Farm Town in ages but got two emails encouraging me to vote. :shrug:

Ah! That would explain why I couldn't find anything. Given the number of Zynga people hammering the polls I knew there had to be something alerting people about this but I figured it was a grass roots thing; the email makes more sense.

Valve vs Bethesda. Dun Dun Dun...

Blizzard makes a lot more than WoW...

Their biggest hits:
Warcraft 2: Battle.net Edition (Probably the earliest good online RTS with a lobby, etc.)
Warcraft 3 (DotA anyone?)
Starcraft (Korean national sport, lolz)
Starcraft 2 (upcoming)
Diablo 2 (People still buy this game)
Diablo 3 (upcoming)

And a couple of their older games:
Blackthorne
The Lost Vikings
(which were both awesome)
---
And what has Bungie made that can compete with all that? One franchise spanning two console generations?

I knew this day would come but I didn't want to believe it :nope:

I will be floored if Bethesda wins this... though I'll be happy, at least until they face Zynga....

Diablo series
Warcraft series
World of Warcraft
StarCraft

Blizzard is a stellar game company with multiple game franchises that end up defining a genre. I wouldn't put Bungie in the same category as Blizzard, and I certainly wouldn't put Bungie above Blizzard.

StarCraft tournaments are broadcast on Korean TV, and not their version of "g4" either.

So, two of my three favorite developers agaisnt each other. I really don't know who to support. Bethesda makes some of the best games I have ever played, but Valve supports PC gamers so much. I'm undecided. But, I hope whoever wins destroys Zynga.

I say the top 4 will be Blizzard, Zynga, Bioware, and Valve (Sorry Beth, )

I'm confident that once Bethesda releases TESV, they'll have a really good shot at winning this. Even better when they release Fallout 4. But as it stands, the only games that the average gamer knows they've developed is Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3, and I don't think that's enough to beat the likes of Valve and Bioware. Someday...

Wow looking at the forums, it may be a closer one between Valve and Bethesda than we thought. But that's only a few people so you never know...

The polls up. Valve is currently beating us 2:1 but all things considered that's still a strong showing from us.

Of course you know what would be an even strong showing? If we won this

I'[ve been trying to vote for a while and keep getting "webpage not available" I'll just keep trying.

The site isn't loading for me at the moment either. :shrug:

I think it's fine now. I voted. Tweeted. But Valve is pulling way out ahead. We need voters.

Yeah. We went from 33.3 down to 33.0 and are now up at 33.6 but we're a long way from even making this competative.

Having a third of the vote means we aren't being slaughtered, particularly when you consider that Valve is one of the powerhouses of MM, but I thought we could put up more of a fight.

At least the thread over there is remaining pretty civil. Even though most of the Capcom crowd was nice there were a number of pretty rude individuals and that hasn't seemed to crop up this round. Maybe their mods took care of it.

It's too bad we're losing but Valve is one of my favorite developers.

Also Square Enix is beating Zynga by a hair. Awesome.

Most of the people in the newest thread seem to like Bethesda but like Valve more, which is nice to see. There are only a handful of people who actually don't like Bethesda.

I had hoped we'd put up more of a fight too, but Bethesda doesn't really have enough popular IPs to beat the likes of Valve imo. Though I'm glad we're losing to Valve, my second favorite dev. Better than losing to Zynga.



Square was beating them by 1000 votes before, but a little while ago a flood of Zynga posters came and voted. They always seem to come in waves a few hours apart, that's what happened in the last thread at least. It will be hard to tell who will win until the last few hours of the round because a wave could come at any time and eliminate any lead Square has.

Yeah, Zynga is only losing by 150 or so votes. I can see another wave hitting soon.

It's a shame that Bethesda is losing, but Valve is just so awesome. I can definitely see why they have a lot of support.

Yeah, I'm not sure if I mentioned it over there or earlier in this thread but if Bethesda looses to anyone I'd want it to be Valve.


Yeah for most of the morning Square Enix had between 90%-80% of the vote although I think everyone knew it wouldn't last.

Sorry to come off as a Heretic, but Half-Life 1 is still the definitive shooter for me, and I still am madly in love with its mods and the remaining mappers. Valve has far more consistent Q&A and has yet to disappoint me in any way. Their more recent tamperings in the TF2 fanbase have only further improved their public image. I really wish Bethesda were more open towards its fans, like Valve - sure, it's nice to hear some guy on the Bethesda Blog post more about cosplayers and published Bethesda titles than actual happenings at the office or production hints on a new TES game, but overall I think Bethesda should take a page from Valve and find ways to become closer to its community and modder fanbase.

I also want to see that elusive Daggerfall letter-opener that Todd keeps hidden somewhere in the deepest reaches of the office, too. :stare;

Modders seem to be featured pretty frequently on the Blog :shrug:

Valve is certainly a great developer but they have their own faults. How about the nine years that Team Fortress 2 was delayed. In fact on top of an almost offensively long developement time TF2 shares more than a few things with Duke Nukem Forever: multiple restarts of fairly different looking games (does anyone remember when TF2 had a gritty, realistic atmosphere?), multiple game engines, multiple unveilings with little or no follow up (in the media or on their forums), and vast periods of silence where Valve was unwilling to confirm that the game had been re-shelved.

Then there was the Half Life 2 delay blamed on teh haxors except it appears they simply needed more time. And the initial requirement for Half Life 2 single player to repeatedly connect to Steam for authentication. Heck, the grandiose claims Valve initially made for Steam, which would magically let people on dialups play games at super speeds with no lag.

If you look at any developer you'll find blemishes, and overall Valve is a wonderful developer with a lot of really good positives. However Valve's good image is partially because people are willing to look the other way when these problems come up and partially because they're given more leeway than practically any other developer on the planet. Yes they've largely earned this through solid developement, but I'm sure if Bethesda spent nine extra years working on a title it would be pretty awesome too.

Wow, I knew Zynga would get a huge wave of voters. I'm just hoping Valve can take care of them.

As much as I enjoy Valve games, Bethesda gets my vote for Morrowind.

I'll just be in a moral dilemma if it gets to Bethesda-v-Blizzard. :whistling:

When it comes to Zynga vs. Valve, I have a feeling that enough anti-Zynga sentiment will be built up for them to be defeated. Hopefully.