I was thinking just now about my top 10 games list. not the games themselves as much as their release dates and the dates that I first played them. On average, how often do I play a new game where I feel it deserves a place in my top 10? (and you can think about this for your own top 10). Firstly, remember that my top 10 isnt fully defined at this stage, so I may reference games that linger around the 11-15 mark too.
Dates Released
I think that in general there should be a relatively wide range of dates of when your top 10 games were released. Not that is HAS to be that way, there are many factors that can prevent that. Looking at my own, the dates of mine, they are rather scattered: a chunk from 1992-2000, a chunk from 2000-2010 and even one from 2014.
Dates Played
I think it would make sense that somebody's top 10 would be something they played for the first time not too far in the past. Reason being that when you are young you are less aware of what you are missing out on, and any of the games you don't game may be fantastic but you would have no way of knowing. These days you can get at least a vague idea by looking up Youtube videos and through this you also have a higher chance of stumbling across something you never heard of before (I had no idea what Mega Man, Metroid or Castlevania were before I had internet access, and those are big franchises). Also there is the fact that when you are young there is much less buying potential, you'd have to hope that your parents get you a game or you'd have to just get one randomly and hope it's good. For myself, most of these games I played from 2000 onwards. 2000-2003 was a solid set of years for these games. there were a couple before, one being around 1999 and one possible being around 1995 but the bulk I would say linger in the 2000-2003 era. Now more recently there are games I first played in 2007(ish), 2010 and 2014 that all lie in this top 10. Does this mean that on average, the next game that jumps up into my top 10 should be around 2017 or 2018? Of course we also have to consider that as games enter the top 10, something else has to leave, meaning the gaps can get bigger.
I think the experience of getting a new game and saying "this is going in my top 10" is fantastic and I'd love to get it more often. But also consider that as more games add to the list, the "fantastic" range grows too. How far back on my list would i have to go before saying "this game is fantastic"? it's a good question and not one i'm really sure of. I would take a guess at 30 but that's just wild speculation at this point. Do I think I will ever get that same surge of greatness that I did in 2000-2003? no, it was a big moment of discovery that I don't think could be replicated at this point (though I'd love to be wrong on that). If I can just add games to the list that are high enough to fit in (or even close to) by top 10 that would be fantastic (though I'd like some more non-Final Fantasy games to get there to be honest, just for the sake of reducing the risk of not being taken seriously, but such is the way of things).
I'm interested to know how this is for other people. Is it common to have a sudden burst of games you rate so highly all at once or is it more common to be introduced to them bit by bit over time?
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