Welcome to the new Push Square community megapoll! The topic was voted on and selected by the community and is now open to all who are interested. Don’t worry if you weren’t involved in the topic selection. Even if you haven’t been following, everything starts anew now and the actual poll begins and all are welcome to participate!
In this Megapoll we will be choosing the best Video game box art / cover art.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Allow me to explain the plan for the poll. I beg your patience as I outline it in the next couple posts —
Rules for inclusion:
1) Any official cover art is fair game. No fan art or promotional art. The cover art needs to have actually appeared on the box or as the title’s image on the digital storefront. All country regions are eligible. Alternate covers are also eligible (like the boxes that have a reversible cover insert), as are special edition, deluxe edition, and greatest hits box art.
Although the title of the game need not be present on the image, since some cover art may not have the title on it, submissions are subject to investigation and disqualification if we can’t confirm they were actual official cover art.
2) We will be considering all generations and all consoles eventually. See below.
Criteria on which to judge:
Judge the entries based primarily on your subjective amusement or impression of the art. Ask yourself:
Does the art move you emotionally? Does it motivate you to buy the game? Is it aesthetically pleasing? Is it unique or novel in some way? Does it have good use of color, contrast, or detail? Is it too busy or too simple, and does it stand out? Would I use this image for wallpaper on my desktop or as a poster to hang in my room? Does it make me laugh? Does it bring back memories of the game?
Although note that you need not have played or bought the game to hold an opinion and vote on it. In fact, try to initially critique the art as an entity separate from the game, but use your judgement to determine if the game itself enhances it detracts from the quality (or lack thereof) of the box art.
How it will run:
The poll will consist of 4 basic rounds, with each having sub rounds in a tournament style.
Round 1: Retro and PC exclusive. Any cover art from a PC game or a console during generations 1-6 (in other words, before PS3/360/Wii generation).
Round 2: Recent console games, generations 7 & 8. Any cover art from the last console gen (PS3/360/Wii) or the current generation (PS4, XB1, WiiU/Switch). You may include official box art from a game not yet released (ie. The Last of Us 2, Cyberpunk 2077 etc)
Round 3: A battle between the winners of the first two rounds. To determine the overall champion.
Round 4: Supplemental Round of new submissions to determine the “Worst Box Art of All Time”
-Each round may have sub-rounds where we may vote on sub categories, (depending on the volume of submissions), for winners of various categories such as genre, console, and/or franchise.
Nomination submissions:
Each round will consist of an open nomination and submission for the space of several days. Once we have all the nominees, I will determine if we need to divide them into sub groups and determine the best voting approach depending on how many entries we have.
-Submit your entries in groups of up to a max of 15 entries per user per day, preferably all in one post, for ease of my organizing them. The mechanics of posting a submission is going to be explained below. You can submit as little as 1 entry (or none at all) and as many as 15 per day. If we aren’t getting enough entries, or are getting too many, then I will modify the submission cap. I just don’t want, for example, the same 3 people submitting 100 entries and then no one else does. I’d like to see a nice variety amongst the user base. I am not putting a limit on number of total nominations at this time but I may cut off the nominees at my own discretion.
Pay attention to the thread for announcements about when the deadline for a round will be. I’m guessing likely we will have open nominations for about 3-5 days.
Title and Labeling your entries:
When you submit entries, please give us the title of the game and if desired a distinguishing label for voting and identification purposes. It can be a simple identifier such as:
“Persona 3. Japanese version” Or “CoD Modern Warfare. Xbox 360 alternate cover” Or if you don’t know what version the cover is, even something personal like “Ico. Sol’s favorite from the PS2”;
In fact, it can also be something creative like: “NieR Automata - if only 2B was facing the other way it would be even better” or “Valkyria Revolution: Why you don’t judge a game by its cover” or “Origin Journey of the Legend Chronicles. Have no idea what this game is but I just put it on my wishlist”, etc, etc.
I might give an award for the “best user title / description”. We have so many creative quipsters here that I think it would be fun to have you all do that. Just keep the title / description to less than 15 words or so and not a whole paragraph. 😅
But again, if you want your label to just be a simple descriptor or just the name of the game, then that’s fine too.
Voting:
After the allotted days for submissions, and all entries are capped, then the voting will begin.
You do not have to submit nominations to vote, much like the screenshot competition we did.
Voting will be comprised initially of selecting your favorites to trim the nominees and then more elaborate point assignments in the latter rounds, which will all be described later.
— — — — —
Although this plan is a dynamic and flexible process over coming weeks, I have put quite a bit of time into coming up with these basics, so please just please roll with it. We can modify things slightly if/when needed, but let’s get started and let it flow and have some fun.
The next post will describe the mechanics of the process.
I want to make the barrier to participate as low as possible so all can enjoy. So I will run and administer putting the entries into albums on imgbb.com for ease of viewing.
When we get toward the end of a round with just the final candidates, then I will post them in this thread, but until then, I will post a link to my album(s) on imgbb where all entries will be put in one place.
You do not need to have an imgbb account if you don’t want one. The site will allow you to view my albums without having to sign up. If you do have an account then you can do a few extra things such as “like” the photos by clicking the little heart button, and follow my account, but that will be unnecessary since the actual voting will occur here on the forum. I will leave the album open to view for those with the link (which is toward the bottom of this post)
— — — —
How to submit your nominations:
So when you want to enter a box art, then simply post the link to the art in this thread, and I will transfer it over to my album. Users will also be able to view the art by simply clicking your link of course too.
Imgbb seems to handle various links and formats pretty well, so you can pull them from Wikipedia, GameStop, a major gaming website, or other reliable source like another image storing site like imgur or Flickr. But a good and preferred way is just google and you hit the share button and copy the google image link. Imgbb seems to handle google image links just fine.
So here would be an example of a post for submission:
Then I will take care of porting the links into my imgbb album along with the label / title.
I’m not very computer savvy so bear with me if things glitch out. Also if imgbb starts being unreliable, then we may make modifications and move it to another site. But that shouldn’t affect you all since you just click my link to go to the album.
Speaking of ....
Here is the link to the album for the first round.
I will repost it every so often as I update it for ease of reference, but if I understand how the site works, the link should remain the same. There will be a new album for subsequent rounds as we get to them.
I think that’s everything. Have fun finding and submitting your favorite box art. Let’s get started. You’ll have no less than 3 days from now to submit your nominations for this round which is:
Round 1: PC exclusive games and Retro (console generations 1-6, ie. pre-PS3/360/Wii) games
Thanks for your patience. I’m going to tag the participants in the selection process and some other forum regulars who have participated in previous polls and contests. I apologize if I miss anyone, but certainly all are invited.
TL:DR Version for new people.
We'll be voting on the best cover art, that we submit and advocate for, in four rounds.
Round 1: Retro and PC exclusive. Any cover art from a PC game or a console during generations 1-6 (in other words, before PS3/360/Wii U generation).
Round 2: Recent console games, generations 7 & 8. Any cover art from the last console gen (PS3/360/Wii U) or the current generation (PS4, XB1, Switch). You may include official box art from a game not yet released (ie. The Last of Us 2, Cyberpunk 2077 etc)
Round 3: A battle between the winners of the first two rounds. To determine the overall champion.
Round 4: Supplemental Round of new submissions to determine the “Worst Box Art of All Time”
@Th3solution Might I suggest at least 5 (may be more) five days for submissions so we can really go at it and do so a little more leisurely.
I also made a condensed version of the rules as you probably saw in case anyone is wrongly intimidated by how long the rules were (You did a great job explaining by the way, it needed the length.) Does that look right?
@Jaz007 Thanks Jaz! And yes - that’s a good summary there in your post of the basics. I hope the long description of rules and procedures I gave is not too intimidating. I just wanted to start off with a solid understanding so we didn’t end up with chaos from the beginning.
5 days for submissions is probably about what we’ll do. I want people to have plenty of time, but also keep things moving. So that would be about Thursday that we lock the first round and start the voting.
@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, I think the retro games relied on good art more. We’ll see what ends up being voted best!
@BearsEatBeets Yeah, I love that cover, albeit fake. Glad to have you participate!
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Thanks for the detailed post! Well done! I think I understand the rules and am looking forward to participating. Might take a few days to gather some pics!
i do have more but i can't find good quality pics of them right now as my laptops wi-fi adapter is on the fritz and most of the time it won't even load up pages so i'll have to leave it at that but if anyone can find them for me they would be
Blood Omen 2 UK version, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty UK version, Super Metroid*, Dragon Ball GT Final Bout U.S Version,
@Th3solution on a side note and as much as people say other wise the Wii U is part of the same gen as PS4 and XB1, the Wii was the same gen as PS3 and 360 so they should not be counted either (the Switch being a hybrid system is a bit harder to classify, is it a home system or a handheld?)
remember a gen has nothing to do with power, it's whatever is next in line regardless of when it's released for example if the PS1 and N64 are the same gen then their follow ups, the PS2 and Gamecube are the same gen meaning that as the follow ups to those the PS3 and Wii are the same gen, sorry to be a bit anal about it but if we are separating them by Generation then it has to be correct so the right art is in the right section
"I pity you. You just don't get it at all...there's not a thing I don't cherish!"
"Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!
@WanderingBullet it's not that i can't find them it's that my laptop won't load in the images so if i try to copy a link it's a low quality image barley bigger than a postage stamp
it's been doing it ever since i updated Windows last month
"I pity you. You just don't get it at all...there's not a thing I don't cherish!"
"Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!
"I pity you. You just don't get it at all...there's not a thing I don't cherish!"
"Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!
This was also the original Japanese cover. The typeface is classy and simple, but it's Amano's beautiful artwork depicting Yuna performing the "Sending" in Kilika that elevates it for me. The colouring is interesting and brings to mind the tropical Okinawa themed portions of the game as well as the importance of the sea to the citizens of Spira.
Iconic. This was my childhood. I spent many hours copying the cover art and drawing pictures of Sonic. I love how simple it is, with cute outlines in the background.
Almost picked the Japanese boxart, which is quite busy but very creepy. The green of the PAL version really makes it stand out and seem otherworldly - apt given the game takes place in the alternate reality of Termina. Outlines of various characters are in the background. Bold and classy, I love how the iconic Zelda logo stands out.
The covers are the same for all tertitories aside from the background... I think the yellowed paper just makes the artwork stand out a bit more and suits the setting of a creepy pyscholgical horror set around a children's orphanage.
I couldn't find a nice clear picture/scan of Klonoa's japan boxart by itself so I had to get that picture instead... Hope it's ok! Again a rather nice piece of artwork!
There's also some really good artwork on the discs too I've seen while looking about... Potential bonus round?
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Topic: Push Square Forum Megapoll: Best Video Game Box Art
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