DOI: 10.7910/dvn/eejdzg
title: Digital Games in Gaming History: a Comprehensive Analysis

description: This data-based effort documents and categorizes the relevant digital games in gaming history by analyzing two types of documental sources: (A) the most playable games (based on reports on sales) and (B) the most acclaimed Digital games by the specialized Critic. 
(A) The approach to ascertain the most played Digital games was thought by the analysis of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) (ESA, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013,2014, 2016, 2018). Regarding (B), six specialized critics' opinions on the most acclaimed digital games were selected for document analysis. From specialized Digital game journalism, the list of best games on the websites Euro Gamer, GamesRadar, IGN, and Polygon. Two Generalist News Media fonts were added: the British newspaper The Guardian and the American news magazine Time. The last source selected was Metacritic, a specialized entertainment evaluation and criticism website.
(A) is justified considering that ESA is a nonprofit association with goals to observe, analyze, and unify the gaming industry, helping in terms of justice support by creating expansion opportunities for associates. ESA has several associates such as ElectronicArts, Konami, Microsoft, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, Warner Bros, and other companies with a less economic impact on the digital games business. Since 2008, ESA has published its annual report with data illustrating the industry's state in the corresponding year by reporting data as its total revenue.
With the digital games selected in (B), it is possible to construct a broader sample and bridge the gaps in the ESA reports. The sources chosen in (B) are based on geographical representation covering both digital and printed press: Eurogamer is a British digital game journalism website publishing in-depth analyses and criticism of digital games and gaming culture. The top 10 games of the generation is a list published in September 2020 by the editor-in-chief. The author invited 19 persons from the game business: game developers, critics, and journalists. They were asked to submit a list of their five favorite games, any kind or platform. "Games Radar", or "GamesRadar+" in its original denomination brand, is an entertainment website dedicated to digital game-related news, previews, and reviews and is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation. In its list of The 100 best games ever, the editorial team (50 specialized journalists) picked the most-critical digital games, privileging fun and enjoyment for the Player before the historical significance of the Digital game. "Polygon" is an American Digital game specialized website that publishes reviews, guides, videos, and news on popular culture and entertainment-related. For their list, the editorial staff asked everyone (including the audience) to vote for the best Digital game based on innovation, polish, and durability rather than personal taste. They excluded games released in 2017 to eliminate recency bias (the year before the list was published). They left out sequels and were too similar to the games before them. In addition to gathering votes from the "Polygon" team, the editorial staff worked with a group of external and freelance writers to pull in their input. Collecting all those votes, they combined the data and the final list.
"The Guardian" and "TIME" are generalistic press companies from the United Kingdom and the United States of America, respectively. The Guardian's list reflects the authors' vision.
(journalists specializing in digital games) on the best 50 video games of the 21st century. TIME's list reports the tech's team of multiple generations of gamers, resulting in a list of 50 digital games. The last documentary source analyzed, "Metacritic," is a specialized critic website on entertainment (digital games, television, cinema, and music). To evaluate media content, "Metacritic" attributes a "Metascore." Any content featured on "Metacritic" gets a "Metascore" when had collected at least four critics' reviews. It was picked from the website the top 100 meta-scores from Metacritic's top-ranked digital games. In addition, the Digital games were selected by their titles, meaning that repeated games (different platforms) were disregarded. 
The list culminated in 393 different digital games; on the data based, it is possible to check: the documental sources where the digital games were cited; the year in which digital games were published for the first time; the series or franchise were each gama belongs; the Playability mode of each game; the Spatial Dimensionality; The number of platforms louched; the name of Digital Game Protagonist (if applicable); the name of the main playable Character (if applicable); the taxonomy of the playable Character; the perspective of the playable Character; check if there is a Narrative and the digital game genre.
description: SPSS, 26
description: The data were reviewed by two independent researchers from human-computer-interaction-related fields and one gamer.