See poll here. Feel free to post if you haven't, because I can really do with some more to work with

I'll admit the poll was for my own personal satisfaction. I've been having trouble accepting how some believe that Wind Waker is the best Zelda ever, so I figured it had something to do with the order in which they played the Zelda series. Is it because they started off with the 3D Zeldas? Is is because WW is the first they played, so everything after that seems like a step back? This is why I asked for the order in which it was played/finished, and where you would rank WW in terms of favorite Zelda.

Results so far:

1. Started with 2D Zeldas, WW low on fav list:                                                  18 = 37.5%

2. Started with 2D Zeldas, WW high on fav list:                                                 7 = 14.58%

3. Started with 3D Zeldas, WW high on fav list:                                                 3 = 6.25%

4. Started with 3D Zeldas, WW average/middle on fav list:                               6 = 12.5%

5. Started with 3D Zeldas, WW low on fav list:                                                  5 = 10.42%

6. Started with WW, played 3D Zeldas immediately after, WW high on fav list: 5 = 10.42%

7. Started with WW, played 2D Zeldas immediately after, WW high on fav list: 1 = 2.08%

8. Started with WW, WW low on fav list: 0 = 0%


Total participation so far 48


For those who are wondering what I consider to be high, low, middle, I basically took a percentage of your entire list. I use about 30%.
So if you list 10 games, and you say WW is your 2nd favorite Zelda, I'll consider the first 3 slots to be fav (from the 30%), hence falling in the 'high' region.

There were no lists smaller than 3.

Conclusion
The majority of those who start off playing WW as their first Zelda game seem to class it as their best ever Zelda. I guess one can say it's their first experience that nothing else can come close to. However interestingly enough, looking at stat #7, only one person favours WW high on their list when playing 2D Zeldas immediately afterwards. This should state that the 2D Zeldas are quite overpowering. It's evident from stat #8 though, that once it's your first Zelda it will probably never end up on the lower end of your fav list. If you started out with 3D Zeldas (OoT, MM, TP), the poll leans more to the direction of WW not being as favorable, with the majority falling in the middle/low region. What's painfully obvious here is that the vast majority of those who started off playing 2D Zeldas have WW low on their fav list. This includes me, and this is actually the trend I was trying validate.

So generally If you start off playing WW earlier than other Zeldas you will find it's the best or close to it. If you start off with 3D Zeldas it'll still be pretty good but not majority favorable. If you start of with 2D Zeldas, WW being a favourite will be in the minority.

Of course I'm basing this on a small number participation number, so if you have a problem with this and have not posted in the poll, don't complain.
This poll is not perfect and I'm sure some of you will say I left out factors and such, but hey this is good enough for me and I'm not getting paid to do some total outright analysis here. Feel free to bring up things and maybe we can make it better.

But at the end of the day the price of oil isn't really affected by this so umm....yea, life goes on.

P.S. WW is a good game, just low on my list. The best thing about it was actually the graphics, and probably the story.

The problem with ranking Zelda is that all of them are so damn good. I had problem placing WW actually

So generally If you start off playing WW earlier than other Zeldas you will find it's the best or close to it. If you start off with 3D Zeldas it'll still be pretty good but not majority favorable. If you start of with 2D Zeldas, WW being a favorite will be in the minority.
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that sounds about right to me

At the time of posting this I missed out 2 more new entries, it would have fallen it stat #1 & #5. I would have to recalculate percentages and whatnot so I'll wait a bit :)

Yea I remember you saying that in the poll and it's generally true, but we need to dig deep here

Sounds fair and well reasoned, but you'd probably get similar results with any of the Zelda games.

^ yup, but like I said, I needed some closure

Interesting.

I think a better way to give the percentages would be like this:

1. Started with 2D Zeldas, WW low on fav list: [# of people where WW was low on the list and who started with 2D Zeldas]/[# of people who started with 2D Zeldas] = %

If I interpreted your data right, it would be 18/25 = 72%

3. Started with 3D Zeldas, WW high on fav list: [# of people who had WW high on list and started with 3D Zeldas]/[# of people who started with 3D Zelda] = %

If I interpreted your data right, it would be 3/14 = 21.4%

For me, doing the statistics this way gives more weight to the WindWaker data. The way you have it now it seems more broken up by what game the player started with.

I somewhat puzzled as to why you singled out WW. You did mention that it's low on your list so I'm assuming this endevour was to give you some sort of justification of your opinion and to give you as you say; 'closure'. Nothing wrong with this but I am genuinely curious as to why all this over Wind Waker. There are many critacally aclaimed games that fall low on my list *coughFFVIIIcough*, but I'd like to to why all the fuss over this perticular one of yours.

Same. I'd probably put it near the bottom, but looking back at the Zelda games, I can't help but think the first two Zelda games are simultaneously awesome but the worst of the set.  The first Zelda allowed you to do anything, go anywhere right at the onset.  Amazing.

I was probably 6 or so when I played Zelda, just after it came out.  I got Zelda 2 just after that came out.  I beat them both myself at quite a young age, and I replayed the original Zelda a lot.  I remember pouring over the map, just enjoying the way it was made.

Zelda 3 was on another level entirely.  It's just a far, far better game.  With Zelda 64 and Wind Waker, things changed -- dungeons got much more complcated, puzzle based, and world interaction with NPCs became more important.  I don't think I really like those changes, but I still feel Twilight Princess is the best of the 3D Zeldas, Zelda 3 the best of the 2D Zeldas.