Forgive me if this has been done before. But I thought I would start a "GOG Game of the year" thread. I put together a preliminary list, but I would like some feedback. To create the rough draft I just used which games were highest on the best sellers per year on GOG (No completely accurate as some games have been on GOG a lot longer than others). But there are a lot of other factors to consider and I would appreciate feedback on which games were best each year. Some years are hard to say (1999 was a good year for gaming). Any recommendations for changes to the list? (To earn the title of GOG Game of the year it needs two criteria: 1 be on GOG, and 2 to be ,in your opinion, the best game released that year).

Edit/update: Thanks for the feedback. I have revised this list based on what people have recommended. After some thought I have come up with "rules" for the list. I will replace any entry from the rough draft based on a recommendation from someone on the forum (being a rough draft in all). Forum recommendations will have a * next to them. After that I will only change it if someone else provides some kind of convincing evidence, for example sales data showing the game was the best selling title the year it was release or that it won a bunch of awards when it came out or other kind of citable evidence like that. Evidence based entries will be bolded.

2013 Sword or the Stars: The Pit*
2012 The Cat Lady
2011 Unepic
2010 Back the Future: The Game
2009 Torchlight
2008 Witcher: Enhanced Edition*
2007 The Witcher
2006 Neverwinter Nights 2
2005 Indigo Prophecy*
2004 Thief: Deadly Shadows*
2003 The Temple of Elemental Evil
2002 Icewind Dale II
2001 Icewind Dale
2000 Sacrifice*
1999 Planescape: Torment
1998 Fallout 2
1997 Total Annihilation*
1996 Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares*
1995 SimCity 2000 Special Edition*
1994 Master of Magic*
1993 Quest for Glory 3*
1992 Ultima Underworld*
1991 Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi
1990 Wing Commander
1989 Hero's Quest (Quest for Glory I)
1988 Might and Magic 2*
1987 Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel
1986 Might and Magic 1*
1985 Ultima IV*
1984 King's Quest: Quest for the Crown
1983 Ultima III: Exodus
1982 Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress
1981 Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness
1980 Zork I: The Great Underground Empire

Nice and absolute useless idea.
There are so many of "what do you think is the best game" threads around.
Tastes are different. And if we can't find one game for the *Best* throne this thread will overflow with different lists.
Not to forget the *this game wasn't released that year* posts.

I don't see it as pointless. True tastes are different and there is no such thing as a true "best" game because it is always an matter of opinion. But we do this all the time. Awards are given for the best movies, the best books, the best music all the time and by all sorts of groups and it generally done on a annual basis. Why not by the conscious of the GOG forum? Plus this is a gaming forum what else are we to talking about but games and what we like or do not like about them? Why not compare the games released 7n a give year and discuss them?

It also might lead to some interesting discussions, like why did so many amazing games come out in 1999. It seems like a lot of titles that have really made a mark on PC gaming came out that year.

Oh and am sure I got some of the release dates wrong (and since I just used GOGs info and wiki ) just let me know and I will fix them. It's no big deal.

It's a little tricky. GOG carries the "special edition" which came out in 1995 so I went with 95

lol
you earned a cookie Its not a bad idea per se. But consider that some like RPG's others are more into RTS or FPS.
If you want to make a (imo) better list maybe you should let them post ....3 entries for each year
if they are for different game styles.

if it's that, why not state that it's Simcity 200 SE?

Done I wanted to do that but the list gets a little long :) and some years only have 1 or 2 games (easy to be the best I suppose) But I could build it up to top three as a get I recommendations)

It's kind of useless to have exactly one per year, because there could be good games in the same year, must better than the year before.

However we could have the three bestselling games in each genre and for each decade maybe as a hall of fame.

Not really. It's just makes it harder to decide if a year had a lot of good games or a lot of bad games, either way it's just a locally voted game for that year that makes the throne.

I find the idea both useless and fun, like most lists we have here but at least this one the OP will have a list that we could all ship in or vote instead of yet another "name your X favourite for Y reason" and then everyone just post random titles.

I'm curious, are we just going to write some short story about a motive for a game to arrive on the list or put it to a vote because I think a vote makes more sense, might be tough to organize it without a survey-like tool though.

I also think it would be a good idea to have a list of all the nominees per year in the OP's post so everyone can easily find out the potential per-year winner. :)

UnEpic has too much cursing! :P

So are these the best selling games per year that also happen to be on gog. Or the best selling games on gog based on their release year?

OK, I'll take a little bite:

1985: Ultima IV
1986: Might and Magic 1
1988: Might and Magic 2
1989: Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula
1990: Wizardry: Bane of the Cosmic Forge
1991: Might and Magic 3
1992: Ultima Underworld
1993: Master of Orion

I can't find my personal favourite either :)