In the last weeks of December 2002, you had the opportunity to vote for the best RPGs released in 2002. Nobody knows better what these are then you the player and as such The RPGDot 2002 Awards will look good on any game receiving one.
We thank all those who entered their votes and helped us in making it possible to select the best games.

Most Disappointing RPG
There it is the game you have been waiting for. It's looking at you and you immediately take out your money and buy it. Quickly you go home and install and play it..... only to find out after a while that this game really wasn't worth your money.

The winner (or should it be loser): Might & Magic 9
Although there is beauty hidden below the surface, Might & Magic 9 is a worthy winner of the "Biggest RPG Disappointment 2002". The game was rushed, unfinished, and you noticed this right from the beginning. When you compare the screenshots that were released early during development and the scenes you saw onscreen, you couldnt’t help but feeling betrayed: might & Magic 9 was ugly. And it neglected many of the strong points of the series: the magic system was crippled, the advancement scheme was – well – strange, and the story seemed to be inconsistent.

It’s highly unlikely that we see a Might & Magic 10 – and given the game NWC and 3DO bothered us with, noone will cry because of that.

(Rendelius)

Runner Up: Neverwinter Nights
I'm not sure if I should be the one to be writing this... I didn't find Neverwinter Nights a dissappointment. However, I can see how some people would. The game had a lot of hype... a LOT of hype. No game could live up to the kind of expectations leveled against Neverwinter Nights.

The single player campaign was good at best... anyone who bought it just for the single player game likely walked away dissappointed. I had no real drive to finish the single player; I did just because I was writing the review for RPGDot. There are user modules out that are just as good... perhaps even better, if shorter.

Could Bioware have made a better single player game if they tried? Something to justify the incredible price when it was first released? I believe they could have. I also believe that if they had NWN would never have ended up in this category. Additionally, I know a lot of people who are dissappointed in the unusual amount of patching needed for this game, including myself.

So... if you're reading Bioware... less patches, more story. It's a shame a title as potentially great as Neverwinter Nights ended up on so many people's dissappointed list.

(EverythingXen)

Second Runner Up: Dungeon Siege
While Dungeon Siege offered great graphics, awesome sound effects and an interface with little to no room for improvement, it was lacking pretty much everything else that role-players need for a satisfying gaming experience.
All the technical fancy could not distract from the fact that there was basically no plot in Dungeon Siege. Almost all missions could be accomplished by advancing to the next area in the game. Advancing to the next region was achieved by following the linear path that led through the entire game.
You had no options, no interesting conversations nor any other interactivity except for mindless, repetitive hack’n’slash combat on your way to the finishing line.

All in all, Dungeon Siege was a good action game for the casual gamer and an interesting tech demo for hardcore gamers but a boring RPG…

(Moriendor)

The Numbers
To make it complete we now give you the top 10 as voted by our visitors:

And 15,5% of those who participated were unable to select one of the games.

We, the RPGDot team also voted to create our own top 5:

A different result between the team and the visitors. There are some teammembers who think Morrowind isn't that great, but Dungeon Siege is the team's clear winner (or loser). It was awarded points by almost everyone in the team. I guess we like a story ;-)

Note that percentages are rounded to the nearest number.