The BAFTAs dares to ask the internet: ‘What is the most influential videogame of all time?’

The best thing about awards shows is that they give us an opportunity to get mad and argue when the winners are announced. PC Gamer’s Ted Litchfield, for instance, goes blind with fury every time Astro Bot wins another Game of the Year award. But in a nice change of pace, the BAFTAs are giving us an opportunity to get mad and argue before the awards by putting a very big and essentially impossible question to the internet at large: What is the most influential videogame of all time?

BAFTA—the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, but it does videogames now too—doesn’t make the question any easier by nailing down what exactly it’s looking for, but rather leaves it open to individual interpretation.

“‘Most influential game’ can mean different things to different people,” the inquiry states. “Perhaps it’s a game that birthed a genre, one that defined an era, or one that set the standards for storytelling and interactivity. Perhaps it’s a game whose influence crosses into films, TV and music, which we still see today. It could even be a game that’s had a big influence on you, personally, changing the way you look at the world.”

In other words, it could be pretty much anything as long as you’re able to justify it, even if only to yourself. Which is what makes this sort of exercise so much fun: There is obviously no right answer but that doesn’t mean a whole bunch of other people can’t be objectively wrong with their selections, and when you open the door to that kind of debate to the entire internet, it’s good times ahoy!

I’m tempted to submit Gamey McGameface—it’s a write-in poll, so you can do that—but without putting too much thought into it, I think my real answer would have to be Pong, a game that carried the medium over the hump from science nerd esoterica to mainstream entertainment. It’s not the most sophisticated videogame ever—a jar of ionized goop can play it—but it has proven remarkably durable: 50 years down the road, the ol’ “bounce the ball back and forth” mechanic is still underpinning new games.

Neil Newbon, best known (to us, at least) for his work as the voice of Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3, took the easy way out by refusing to commit to any single game.

Come on Neil, plant a flag and stand by it! Jane Douglas did, even though her choice is, sorry to say, objectively wrong.

We’re obviously not going to reach any kind of consensus here, although it will be interesting to see how the results reflect the current mindset around videogame history. But that’s fine, because that’s not the point: The point is to have a little fun (and yes, it is possible to argue and trash-talk without getting mad about it, so let’s all do that), and also to draw attention to the upcoming BAFTA award nominations, which will be announced on March 4. The awards ceremony itself, which I assume is when the most influential videogame of all time (as chosen by you!) will be revealed, takes place on April 11.