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The Open-Source Software Saving the Internet From AI Bot Scrapers

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The Open-Source Software Saving the Internet From AI Bot Scrapers

For someone who says she is fighting AI bot scrapers just in her free time, Xe Iaso seems to be putting up an impressive fight. Since she launched it in January, Anubis, a “program is designed to help protect the small internet from the endless storm of requests that flood in from AI companies,” has been downloaded nearly 200,000 times, and is being used by notable organizations including GNOME, the popular open-source desktop environment for Linux, FFmpeg, the open-source software project for handling video and other media, and UNESCO, the United Nations organization for educations, science, and culture. 

Iaso decided to develop Anubis after discovering that her own Git server was struggling with AI scrapers, bots that crawl the web hoovering up anything that can be used for the training data that power AI models. Like many libraries, archives, and other small organizations, Iaso discovered her Git server was getting slammed only when it stopped working.  

“I wasn't able to load it in my browser. I thought, huh, that's strange,” Iaso told me on a call. “So I looked at the logs and I figured out that it's restarted about 500 times in the last two days. So I looked in the access logs and I saw that [an] Amazon [bot] was clicking on every single link.”

Iaso knew it was an Amazon bot because it self identified as such. She said she considered withdrawing the Git server from the open web but that because she wants to keep some of the source code hosted there open to the public, she tried to stop the Amazon bot instead. 

“I tried some things that I can’t admit in a recorded environment. None of them worked. So I had a bad idea,” she said. “I implemented some code. I put it up on GitHub in an experimental project dumping ground, and then the GNOME desktop environment started using it as a Hail Mary. And that's about when I knew that I had something on my hands.”

There are several ways people and organizations are trying to stop bots at the moment. Historically, robots.txt, a file sites could use to tell automated tools not to scrape, was a respected and sufficient norm for this purpose, but since the generative AI boom, major AI companies as well as less established companies and even individuals, often ignored it. CAPTCHAs, the little tests users take to prove they’re not a robot, aren’t great, Iaso said, because some AI bot scrapers have CAPTCHA solvers built in. Some developers have created “infinite mazes” that send AI bot scrapers from useless link to useless link, diverting them from the actual sites humans use and wasting their time. Cloudflare, the ubiquitous internet infrastructure company, has created a similar “AI labyrinth” feature to trap bots. 

Iaso, who said she deals with some generative AI at her day job, told me that “from what I have learned, poisoning datasets doesn't work. It makes you feel good, but it ends up using more compute than you end up saving. I don't know the polite way to say this, but if you piss in an ocean, the ocean does not turn into piss.”

In other words, Iaso thinks that it might be fun to mess with the AI bots that are trying to mess with the internet, but in many cases it’s not practical to send them on these wild goose chases because it requires resources Cloudflare might have, but small organizations and individuals don’t. 

“Anubis is an uncaptcha,” Iaso explains on her site. “It uses features of your browser to automate a lot of the work that a CAPTCHA would, and right now the main implementation is by having it run a bunch of cryptographic math with JavaScript to prove that you can run JavaScript in a way that can be validated on the server.”

Essentially, Anubis verifies that any visitor to a site is a human using a browser as opposed to a bot. One of the ways it does this is by making the browser do a type of cryptographic math with JavaScript or other subtle checks that browsers do by default but bots have to be explicitly programmed to do. This check is invisible to the user, and most browsers since 2022 are able to complete this test. In theory, bot scrapers could pretend to be users with browsers as well, but the additional computational cost of doing so on the scale of scraping the entire internet would be huge. This way, Anubis creates a computational cost that is prohibitively expensive for AI scrapers that are hitting millions and millions of sites, but marginal for an individual user who is just using the internet like a human. 

Anubis is free, open source, lightweight, can be self-hosted, and can be implemented almost anywhere. It also appears to be a pretty good solution for what we’ve repeatedly reported is a widespread problem across the internet, which helps explain its popularity. But Iaso is still putting a lot of work into improving it and adding features. She told me she’s working on a non cryptographic challenge so it taxes users’ CPUs less, and also thinking about a version that doesn’t require JavaScript, which some privacy-minded disable in their browsers. 

The biggest challenge in developing Anubis, Iaso said, is finding the balance. 

“The balance between figuring out how to block things without people being blocked, without affecting too many people with false positives,” she said. “And also making sure that the people running the bots can't figure out what pattern they're hitting, while also letting people that are caught in the web be able to figure out what pattern they're hitting, so that they can contact the organization and get help. So that's like, you know, the standard, impossible scenario.”

Iaso has a Patreon and is also supported by sponsors on Github who use Anubis, but she said she still doesn’t have enough financial support to develop it full time. She said that if she had the funding, she’d also hire one of the main contributors to the project. Ultimately, Anubis will always need more work because it is a never ending cat and mouse game between AI bot scrapers and the people trying to stop them. 

Iaso said she thinks AI companies follow her work, and that if they really want to stop her and Anubis they just need to distract her. 

“If you are working at an AI company, here's how you can sabotage Anubis development as easily and quickly as possible,” she wrote on her site. “So first is quit your job, second is work for Square Enix, and third is make absolute banger stuff for Final Fantasy XIV. That’s how you can sabotage this the best.”

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InShaneee
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Watch Jack Black and heavy metal royalty cover "Mr. Crowley" for final Ozzy Osbourne performance

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Yesterday, the metal world sent a fond farewell to its Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne. Retiring after 50 years on the job, Ozzy has long struggled with worsening Parkinson’s Disease, causing him to step back from live performance. Held in Villa Park, Birmingham, England, where Black Sabbath first climbed from the primordial ooze to reinvent rock music, the Back to the Beginning concert was a day-long celebration of all things Ozzy. Osbourne welcomed many metal luminaries on stage to perform tributes to his incredibly influential career. Guns N’ Roses, Tool, and three quarters of the Big Four (Metallica, Anthrax, and Slayer) played; Chad Smith, Travis Barker, and Danny Carey staged a drum battle; English fans opened up their hate and let it flow into Disturbed singer David Draiman over his support of Israel, which includes signing warheads destined for Gazan hospitals; and Jason Momoa started a circle pit during Pantera. Most importantly, seated upon his throne, Ozzy performed four solo songs, and Sabbath performed four as well, marking the final time the original members would play together.

One famed rocker that couldn’t make it across the pond for the gig was Jack Black, but he wasn’t waiting on Satan’s call to participate. In honor of the occasion and joined by a band of young rockers, including Tom Morello’s son Roman, Scott Ian’s son Revel, and drumming prodigy Yoyoka Soma, Black sang lead in a music video for “Mr. Crowley,” Osbourne’s ode to his confused relationship with occultist Aleister Crowely from his seminal Blizzard Of Ozz album. Needless to say, Black and his teenage headbangers rock the hell out of the song, asking the eternal question, what the hell was Aleister Crowley on about?

Check out the video below:



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InShaneee
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R.I.P. Julian McMahon, Nip/Tuck and Fantastic Four star

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Julian McMahon has died. An Australian actor noted for his ability to project a particularly icy and callous (but undeniable) flavor of charm, McMahon broke into the American mainstream with starring roles on Charmed and then especially Nip/Tuck, before going on to play Doctor Doom in 20th Century Fox’s 2000s-era Fantastic Four films. Per Variety, McMahon died of cancer on Wednesday. He was 56.

McMahon was born in the 1960s, into the highest portions of the Australian upper crust: His father, Sir Billy McMahon, served as the country’s Prime Minister from 1971 to 1972, and his mother, Lady Sonia McMahon was a prominent (and infamously intimidating) socialite and philanthropist. Raised, in part, by nannies and in boarding schools, McMahon embarked early in his life on a career as a model, only returning to Australia for his father’s funeral in 1988—at which point, a Levi’s commercials he filmed while back in the country caught the attention of the producers of Australian soap operas The Power, The Passion and Home And Away, leading him to embark on a career as an actor. He made the jump to American soaps with a role on Another World in 1993, and from then onward was a regular fixture in American TV.

Early roles in Hollywood included a four-season stint on NBC’s Profiler, and a well-loved turn as literal ex-husband from hell Cole Turner on The WB’s Charmed. (Alyssa Milano, who played Cole’s wife/frequent adversary Phoebe Halliwell on the series, was one of many former co-stars to effuse in their remembrances of McMahon after news of his death became public, praising his “charisma” and “kindness” and writing that “He made me feel safe as an actor.”)

In 2003, McMahon secured the role that would help solidify his position in the television landscape of the 2000s: Professional plastic surgeon/lothario Christian Troy, on early Ryan Murphy success story Nip/Tuck. As Christian, McMahon was able to play to his strengths, delivering withering sarcasm and heartless behavior with a mixture of comedic timing and irresistible charm. McMahon spent six years on the series, making his way through an absolutely enormous number of sex scenes and surgical moments that often sought to out-do each other in their graphic nature, and sketching, in the aggregate, a portrait of a guy who was kind of, sort of trying to be a good person (when it didn’t get in the way of his numerous appetites). During this same period, McMahon was also cast as Victor Von Doom in the first really serious effort to bring Marvel’s “First Family” to the screen; the role, which he reprised for sequel Rise Of The Silver Surfer, was largely thankless, with McMahon forced to spout generic villain dialogue and spend much of his time with his face in a mask. But he did manage to capture Doom’s all-important arrogance, with a capacity to talk down to any and every scene partner that was drawn directly from his considerable skills as a performer.

After Nip/Tuck ended in 2010, McMahon continued to work steadily, if with slightly less ubiquity, for the rest of his life: In 2017, he returned to the Marvel brand with a regular role on Runaways, where he played one of the villainous parents of the titular super-team. In 2020, he became part of the Dick Wolf-Industrial Complex, starring in the first three seasons of spin-off series FBI: Most Wanted. He departed the franchise (and his role as team leader Jess LaCroix, a rare heroic turn for an actor who delighted in playing villains and cads) after its third season, leaving the series in 2022. His final role was in Netflix’s recent murder mystery The Residence, where he played a part surprisingly close to home, as a close associate of the show’s fictionalized version of the role his father once held: Australian Prime Minister.



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The 100 Best Games of the 21st Century

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Game Of The Quarter Century!
Game Of The Quarter Century!

Wow! Y'all really showed up for this fun little vote. A total of 3171 people submitted ballots containing 2164 different games for their Top 10 Games of the 21st Century. To put that in perspective, that's SEVEN TIMES the amount of entries we received for the Giant Bomb Game of the Year 2024 community vote.

The scoring system is based on a weighted system where your #1 is worth more than your #2 and so on. I don't actually know what the math is on that because this "Community List" feature is built into the site. When the deadline hits, it just spits out a report, which I transcribed here and try to make look somewhat pretty.

The tie breaker on weighted scores is the total number of votes received.

Before I give you a big ol' list and some stats, let's slow roll the Top 50.

50. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

No Caption Provided

49. Persona 4 Golden

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 41
  • Total Votes: 149 (5%)
  • Developer: Atlus
  • Publisher: Atlus
  • Release: November 20, 2012
  • Metacritic: 93

48. Celeste

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 42
  • Total Votes: 140 (4%)
  • Developer: Extremely OK Games
  • Publisher: Extremely OK Games
  • Release: January 25, 2018
  • Metacritic: 92

47. God of War

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46. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

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45. The Last of Us Part II

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44. Shadow of the Colossus

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43. BioShock

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  • Weighted Score: 45
  • Total Votes: 188 (6%)
  • Developer: Irrational Games
  • Publisher: 2K Games
  • Release: August 21, 2007
  • Metacritic: 96

42. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 48
  • Total Votes: 115 (4%)
  • Developer: Nintendo EAD
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Release: October 26, 2000
  • Metacritic: 95

41. Mass Effect

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  • Weighted Score: 49
  • Total Votes: 148 (5%)
  • Developer: BioWare
  • Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
  • Release: November 20, 2007
  • Metacritic: 91

40. Balatro

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  • Weighted Score: 49
  • Total Votes: 204 (6%)
  • Developer: LocalThunk
  • Publisher: PlayStack
  • Release: February 20, 2024
  • Metacritic: 90

39. Deus Ex

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38. Portal

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  • Weighted Score: 50
  • Total Votes: 184 (6%)
  • Developer: Valve Corporation
  • Publisher: Valve Corporation
  • Release: October 10, 2007
  • Metacritic: 90

37. Super Mario Galaxy

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  • Weighted Score: 50
  • Total Votes: 186 (6%)
  • Developer: Nintendo EAD
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Release: November 12, 2007
  • Metacritic: 97

36. Undertale

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  • Weighted Score: 52
  • Total Votes: 180 (6%)
  • Developer: tobyfox
  • Publisher: tobyfox
  • Release: September 15, 2015
  • Metacritic: 92

35. Hollow Knight

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  • Weighted Score: 53
  • Total Votes: 205 (6%)
  • Developer: Team Cherry
  • Publisher: Team Cherry
  • Release: February 24, 2017
  • Metacritic: 90

34. Yakuza 0

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  • Weighted Score: 60
  • Total Votes: 198 (6%)
  • Developer: Ryu ga Gotoku Studio
  • Publisher: Sega
  • Release: January 24, 2017
  • Metacritic: 85

33. Persona 5 Royal

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 61
  • Total Votes: 187 (6%)
  • Developer: P Studio
  • Publisher: Atlus
  • Release: March 31, 2020
  • Metacritic: 95

32. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 62
  • Total Votes: 194 (6%)
  • Developer: Nintendo EAD
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Release: March 24, 2003
  • Metacritic: 96

31. Halo: Combat Evolved

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 63
  • Total Votes: 193 (6%)
  • Developer: Bungie
  • Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
  • Release: November 15, 2001
  • Metacritic: 97

30. Stardew Valley

No Caption Provided

29. Minecraft

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 65
  • Total Votes: 228 (7%)
  • Developer: Mojang AB
  • Publisher: Mojang AB
  • Release: August 16, 2011
  • Metacritic: 93

28. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

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27. Final Fantasy X

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 71
  • Total Votes: 224 (7%)
  • Developer: Squaresoft
  • Publisher: Squaresoft
  • Release: December 18, 2001
  • Metacritic: 92

26. The Last of Us

No Caption Provided

25. Halo 3

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 73
  • Votes: 249 (8%)
  • Developer: Bungie
  • Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
  • Release Date: September 25, 2007
  • Metacritic: 94

24. Portal 2

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 74
  • Total Votes: 298 (9%)
  • Developer: Valve Corporation
  • Publisher: Valve Corporation
  • Release: April 19, 2011
  • Metacritic: 95

23. Metroid Prime

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 77
  • Total Votes: 268 (8%)
  • Developer: Retro Studios
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Release: November 18, 2002
  • Metacritic: 97

22. Fallout: New Vegas

No Caption Provided

21. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

No Caption Provided

20. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

No Caption Provided

19. NieR:Automata

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 84
  • Total Votes: 254 (8%)
  • Developer: PlatinumGames
  • Publisher: Square Enix
  • Release: March 7, 2017
  • Metacritic: 88

18. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

No Caption Provided

17. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

No Caption Provided

16. Resident Evil 4

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 108
  • Total Votes: 328 (10%)
  • Developer: Capcom
  • Publisher: Capcom
  • Release: January 11, 2005
  • Metacritic: 96

15. World of Warcraft

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 109
  • Total Votes: 283 (9%)
  • Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
  • Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
  • Release: November 23, 2004
  • Metacritic: 93

14. Red Dead Redemption II

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  • Weighted Score: 117
  • Total Votes: 354 (11%)
  • Developer: Rockstar Games
  • Publisher: Rockstar Games
  • Release: October 26, 2018
  • Metacritic: 97

13. Hades

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 121
  • Total Votes: 448 (14%)
  • Developer: Supergiant Games
  • Publisher: Supergiant Games
  • Release: September 17, 2020
  • Metacritic: 93

12. Disco Elysium

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  • Weighted Score: 129
  • Total Votes: 342 (11%)
  • Developer: ZA/UM Studio
  • Publisher: ZA/UM Studio
  • Release: October 15, 2019
  • Metacritic: 91

11. Super Mario Odyssey

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 130
  • Total Votes: 495 (16%)
  • Developer: Nintendo EPD
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Release: October 27, 2017
  • Metacritic: 97

10. Half-Life 2

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 142
  • Total Votes: 382 (12%)
  • Developer: Valve Corporation
  • Publisher: Valve Corporation
  • Release: November 16, 2004
  • Metacritic: 96

9. Dark Souls

No Caption Provided

8. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 152
  • Total Votes: 454 (14%)
  • Developer: CD Projekt Red
  • Publisher: WB Games
  • Release: May 19, 2015
  • Metacritic: 92

7. Bloodborne

No Caption Provided

6. Baldur's Gate 3

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 177
  • Total Votes: 539 (17%)
  • Developer: Larian Studios
  • Publisher: Larian Studios
  • Release Date: August 3, 2023
  • Metacritic: 96

5. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 200
  • Total Votes: 446 (14%)
  • Developer: Nintendo EPD
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Release: May 12, 2023
  • Metacritic: 96

4. Mass Effect 2

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 211
  • Total Votes: 623 (20%)
  • Developer: BioWare
  • Publisher: Electronic Arts
  • Release: January 26, 2010
  • Metacritic: 96

3. Outer Wilds

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2. Elden Ring

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1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

No Caption Provided
  • Weighted Score: 481
  • Total Votes: 980 (31%)
  • Developer: Nintendo EPD
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Release: March 3, 2017
  • Metacritic: 97

Top 25 Recap

No Caption Provided

Breath of the Wild taking the top spot probably isn't too surprising, but the margin by which it won is at least a little bit. Getting over 200 votes more than 2nd place is big.

The real shocker is Outer Wilds taking 3rd place. It had fewer votes than almost anything in the Top 10, but that means that the people who like Outer Wilds REALLY LIKE Outer Wilds and put at the top of their list.

Conversely, Super Mario Odyssey had the 5th-most raw votes, but didn't make the Top 10. That means a ton of people like it, but not enough to put it high on their list.

I think it's funny how NieR is sandwiched between two Metal Gears.

Let's take a look at the details of the Top 100 games y'all chose.

The Top 100

#GameScoreVotesDeveloperPublisherYearMC
1The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild481980Nintendo EPDNintendo201797
2Elden Ring304763FromSoftwareBandai Namco 202296
3Outer Wilds219412Mobius GamesAnnapurna201985
4Mass Effect 2211623BioWareElectronic Arts201096
5The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom200446Nintendo EPDNintendo202396
6Baldur's Gate 3177539Larian StudiosLarian Studios202396
7Bloodborne154413FromSoftwareSony201592
8The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt152454CD Projekt RedWB Games201592
9Dark Souls152411FromSoftwareBandai Namco201189
10Half-Life 2142382ValveValve200496
11Super Mario Odyssey130495Nintendo EPDNintendo201797
12Disco Elysium129342ZA/UM ZA/UM201991
13Hades121448SupergiantSupergiant202093
14Red Dead Redemption II117354RockstarRockstar201897
15World of Warcraft109283BlizzardBlizzard200493
16Resident Evil 4108328CapcomCapcom200596
17Clair Obscur: Expedition 3391262SandfallKepler202593
18Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater86247KCEJKonami200491
19NieR:Automata84254PlatinumGamesSquare Enix201788
20Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty84221KCEJKonami200196
21The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim82312BethesdaBethesda201196
22Fallout: New Vegas82287ObsidianBethesda201084
23Metroid Prime77268RetroNintendo200297
24Portal 274298ValveValve201195
25Halo 373249BungieMicrosoft200794
26The Last of Us71273Naughty DogSony201395
27Final Fantasy X71224SquaresoftSquaresoft200192
28Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice66198FromSoftwareActivision201990
29Minecraft65228MojangMojang201193
30Stardew Valley63233ConcernedApeChucklefish201689
31Halo: Combat Evolved63193BungieMicrosoft200197
32The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker62194Nintendo EADNintendo200396
33Persona 5 Royal61187P StudioAtlus202095
34Yakuza 060198RGGSega201785
35Hollow Knight53205Team CherryTeam Cherry201790
36Undertale52180tobyfoxtobyfox201592
37Super Mario Galaxy50186Nintendo EADNintendo200797
38Portal50184ValveValve200790
39Deus Ex50111Ion StormEidos200090
40Balatro49204LocalThunkPlayStack202490
41Mass Effect49148BioWareMicrosoft200791
42The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask48115Nintendo EADNintendo200095
43BioShock45188Irrational2K Games200796
44Shadow of the Colossus44139Team IcoSony200591
45The Last of Us Part II44138Naughty DogSony202093
46The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind44115BethesdaBethesda200287
47God of War42169Santa MonicaSony201894
48Celeste42140Extremely OKExtremely OK201892
49Persona 4 Golden41149AtlusAtlus201293
50Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers4193CBU IIISquare Enix201990
51Slay the Spire39140Mega CritMega Crit201789
52Mass Effect Legendary Edition3887BioWareElectronic Arts202187
53Resident Evil 437141CapcomCapcom202393
54Hitman 337133IO InteractiveIO Interactive202187
55Kingdom Hearts II37100Square EnixSquare Enix200687
56Halo 236121BungieMicrosoft200495
57Cyberpunk 207736115CD Projekt RedCD Projekt202086
58Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic35128BioWareLucasArts200394
59Titanfall 234147RespawnElectronic Arts201689
60Red Dead Redemption34135Rockstar SDRockstar201095
61Silent Hill 234115KCETKonami200189
62Rocket League34100PsyonixPsyonix201585
63Team Fortress 233116ValveValve200792
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 333116NeversoftActivision200197
65Super Mario Galaxy 232112Nintendo EADNintendo201097
66Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence32102Kojima ProKonami200694
67Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain31123Kojima ProKonami201593
68Control30114Remedy505 Games201982
69Batman: Arkham Asylum29132RocksteadyWB Games200992
70Final Fantasy IX2977SquaresoftSquaresoft200094
71Resident Evil 228118CapcomCapcom201991
72Grand Theft Auto V28116RockstarRockstar201397
73Super Smash Bros. Melee28107HALNintendo200192
74Katamari Damacy2885NamcoNamco200486
75Doom26122id SoftwareBethesda201685
76Fallout 326110BethesdaBethesda200893
77Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare26106Infinity WardActivision200794
78Alan Wake II26105RemedyEpic202389
79Return of the Obra Dinn2694Lucas PopeLucas Pope201889
80Diablo II2681BlizzardBlizzard200088
81Dragon Age: Origins2599BioWareElectronic Arts200986
82The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion2589Bethesda2K200694
83Spelunky2582MossmouthMossmouth200987
84Rock Band 32566HarmonixElectronic Arts201093
85Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas23102RockstarRockstar200495
86XCOM 22384Firaxis2K201688
87Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 42364AtlusAtlus200890
88Uncharted 2: Among Thieves22110Naughty DogSony200996
89Hitman2295IO InteractiveSquare Enix201684
90Persona 52280P StudioAtlus201793
91Super Smash Bros. Ultimate21103SoraNintendo201893
92Tetris Effect2179MonstarsEnhance201889
93Journey2176thatgamecompanySony201292
94Dota 22159ValveValve201390
95Shadow of the Colossus2072Bluepoint GamesSony201891
96Astro Bot1994Team AsobiSony202494
97Burnout Paradise1973CriterionElectronic Arts200888
98Batman: Arkham City1876RocksteadyWB Games201194
99Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver1872Game FreakNintendo200987
100Death Stranding1872Kojima ProdSony201990

Stats

No Caption Provided

Here are some random observations about the list we all made together.

  • Total Ballots Submitted: 3171
  • Total Votes: 31,527 (not everyone put 10 games on their ballot)
  • Total Games: 2164
  • Total Games with Only One Vote: 953 (44%)
  • Games from 2014 in the Top 100: 0
  • Fighting Games in the Top 100: 0 (Science™ says Smash doesn't count)
  • Top 100's Average Metacritic: 91.74
  • Top 100's Lowest Metacritic: 82 - Control
  • N64 Games in the Top 100: 1 - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
  • PS1 Games in the Top 100: 1 - Final Fantasy IX
  • Newest Game in the Top 100: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
  • Oldest Game in the Top 100: Deus Ex
  • Lowest Rated Giant Bomb GOTY: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (508th)
  • Games from Before 2000 in the Top 100: 0

Top 100 Games by Year

You know how everyone says 2014 was a "down year"? Looks like they're right. It's a pretty even spread here. No real recency bias.

No Caption Provided

Top 100's Top Developers

Nothing too surprising here. I did combine Kojima-led studios into one column and the same for the Persona team. The love people still have for BioWare games makes it even sadder to see how much EA has squandered that love.

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Top 100's Top Publishers

Again, nothing too surprising. All the stars are here...mostly. The one standout to me is the complete absence of Ubisoft.

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Franchises

Sixteen franchises had multiple entries in the Top 100.

We definitely have several instances of votes being split due to compilations. The biggest example of this is the 87 people who voted for Mass Effect Legendary Edition. If they had just voted for Mass Effect 2, it would've easily been #3 instead of Outer Wilds.

We also had some discussions about how Hitman's most recent trilogy is now viewed as one product. Whether all the people who voted for Hitman 3 intended for that to cover the whole trilogy, we cannot say. But, if we combine Hitman 3's score with Hitman World of Assassination's score, it would've bumped up a little bit into the Top 50. If we combine all four, it would've been Top 30. But, it's not exactly fair to assume people's intent. Maybe they only loved one of them.

There's also the cases of Persona 5 vs Persona 5 Royal and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 vs Persona 4 Golden.

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Giant Bomb's Games of the Year

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The seventeen years of GOTY winners have an average score of 140th best game of the century.

The Full List

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If you'd like to see the full list of all 2164 games that received votes, their total votes, and weighted scores, you can see all the raw ass data with the link below. It's way too long to post here in the article itself.

Thanks to whoever else made it so I wasn't the only person to vote for EverQuest games. We even had a few votes for the Champions of Norrath games. Hell yeah!

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Thanks to everyone who participated in this project. The turnout was incredible. Let's meet back here in 2050!



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InShaneee
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Electronic Arts Leadership Are Out Of Their Goddamned Minds

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The delusion is absolute

The post Electronic Arts Leadership Are Out Of Their Goddamned Minds appeared first on Aftermath.



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R.I.P. Michael Madsen, prolific character actor and frequent Tarantino collaborator

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Michael Madsen, a prolific character actor best known for his frequent appearances in Quentin Tarantino films, died Thursday morning. The cause of death, his manager said  (per NBC News), was cardiac arrest. He was 67.

Madsen’s acting career began with a chance run-in. In 1980, his friend took him to see a production of Of Mice And Men at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, starring a young John Malkovich. In an interview with The Independent, Madsen recalls wandering into the wings where he found Malkovich taking off his makeup. Malkovich promised to send the young Madsen a brochure for acting classes and then actually followed up. A couple months later, Madsen himself was on stage in a different Steppenwolf production of the same play.

From there, he moved to Los Angeles, where he secured some bit roles in TV shows and films throughout the ’80s like WarGames (which he told The A.V. Club brought him to L.A. in the first place in a 2015 interview), as well as St. Elsewhere, Miami Vice, Cagney & Lacey, Quantum Leap, The Doors, and more. 

In 1991, he landed one of his first major parts, as Susan Sarandon’s boyfriend in Thelma & Louise. “There’s a nice little part for anytime that people think that I’ve been put in the corner as the guy with the cigarette and the gun,” he told The A.V. Club. “I can say, ‘Well, what about Thelma & Louise? I got to play a nice guy, a romantic guy, and a gentleman.’ I rarely get asked to do stuff like that, so I was happy.”

He was the guy with the cigarette and the gun in Reservoir Dogs, which followed in 1992. He had the chance to be an A-list star in the years following—a scheduling conflict kept him from playing Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, a role that eventually netted John Travolta an Oscar nomination—but he mostly stayed on the sidelines. “I’m not a publicity hound,” he told The Independent. “I don’t care about being on the cover of GQ or Vanity Fair. There was a time when I could have done that, but I didn’t have a publicist. And I think the studios decided I was some sort of renegade or malcontent.”

That doesn’t mean he didn’t have an incredibly fruitful career, however. Madsen went on to appear in three other Tarantino films—Kill Bill: Volume 2, The Hateful Eight, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, as well as Free Willy, Wyatt Earp, Donnie Brasco, Die Another Day, and many, many, others. “If a time machine existed, I would’ve liked to have played Doc Holliday. But it was fun. I just like to live in the present. Hey, I’m in The Hateful Eight. I’m a happy man!” he told The A.V. Club.

In a joint statement shared with USA Today, Madsen’s managers wrote, “In the last two years Michael Madsen has been doing some incredible work with independent film including upcoming feature films Resurrection Road, Concessions and Cookbook For Southern Housewives, and was really looking forward to this next chapter in his life.”

“Michael was also preparing to release a new book called Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts And Poems,” they added. “Michael Madsen was one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, who will be missed by many.”

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