If you've been following DL discussing lately, you know that the next ranking season will be taking place towards the middle of January of next year.
You may also know that, despite current rankings only placing 2 games up for consideration, we really only have one game that's looking better than anemic at that time.
On the whole this is not a desirable situation. Given the current lack of good ranking ideas, we're probably looking at a ranking freeze afterwards, but this also means that whatever game does end up in that second slot will be much more likely to be shoved through, though by no means is it guaranteed.
But I was thinking, wouldn't it be better if we put in a little effort and made sure we had an actual, viable idea we liked for slot #2? The DL has long had a tradition of making sure games people want to play are spread around, but given the divergance of playstyles in later years, this hasn't done much to help ranking cases, and was always a disorganized, case by case affair.
Given all this, what I'm doing here is taking a handful of the games 'on the cusp', as it were, and finding out from you all which ones you would be willing to, ASAP, go out and play to help out the DL.
So, I'm asking you to make two lists. One will simply be the games listed here you have already played, and whether you would be willing/able to help spread the game around. The second will be, In order of your willingness to play the game, the ones you have not. On this second list, please make note of whether you can play it or not (eg if it is a PSP game, do you have a PSP to play it on?).
Additionally, since this is for ranking hype, if you would be unwilling to rank a game regardless of playership, please add a DNR note after it. Please use this cautiously; if, for example, you think FE10 is a terrible game you'd never want to play, that doesn't mean it's unrankable. However, if you think Mana Khemia 2 is a ranking nightmare that causes your head to explode when you consider it in matches, that's a good place to toss a DNR tag. (these are purposely terrible examples so as not to express my opinon on them!)
Preamble done. And now, The Games!
Kingdom Hearts (Playstation 2, 10/17 writers)
Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum (Nintendo DS, 6/17 writers)
Xenosaga: Also Sprach Zarathustra (Playstation 2, 7/17 writers)
Wild ARMs XF (Playstation Portable, 9/17 writers)
Radiata Stories (Playstation 2, 7/17 writers)
Suikoden Tactics (Playstation 2, 8/17 writers)
Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy (Playstation 2, 5/17 writers)
Phantom Brave (Playstation 2, 10/17 writers)
Dragon Quest V/Hand of the Heavenly Bride (Super Famicom/Nintendo DS, 6/17 writers total)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii, 6/17 writers)
Soul Nomad & The World Eaters (Playstation 2, 10/17 writers)
Star Ocean/First Departure (Super Famicom/Playstation Portable, 8/17 writers total)
La Pucelle: Tactics (Playstation 2, 10-11/17 writers)
Happy listing. Since this is trying to be an interactive topic, if you have questions please voice them! Preemptively, these numbers come from the games super has been tracking for these purposes; if you are curious about another game, we can probably get those numbers too, although don't expect much on 2009 releases at this point. I probably could add more to this list, but it'd have to be a pretty compelling player base/willingness to play so don't expect it.
PS: please number your willingness to play lists.
Needs MK2- super, Meeple, djinn, Tonfa, CT, Sage, OK, Yoshi, Soppy, dude, Monkey, Snowfire, Gate (except not), Nitori, Magetastic, Lance
Needs XF- CT, Yoshi, Bard, Monkey, Andy, Snowfire, Snow, Lance