Has Microsoft released the 20 finalists in order of rank? xona.com claims to have such a list. It places Duality ZF as number 7 and raves about its percentile ranking. The problem is I've scoured the net and haven't found this data from any official source...

We don't know for sure. I've asked Microsoft if an order is implied by the list but they have chosen not to respond.

Xona are assuming becuase the 6 above them in the list happen to be the 6 known finalists... so it could be in order, it could be in random order.

http://creators.xna.com/en-US/news/pax09wrapup

Here is a listing of the top 6 ordering, from the 'PAX 2009 Wrap-up' posted on 9/11/2009 by Microsoft:

1st Place: Dust: An Elysian Tail
2nd Place: Max Blastronaut
3rd Place: Rotor’scope – The Secret of the Endless Energy
4th Place: HurricaneX2 Evolution
5th Place: Sol Survivor
6th Place: Kaleidoscope

It gotta wonder why it matters what the order is if your game isn't one of the ones in the top 20?

Jim Perry:

It gotta wonder why it matters what the order is if your game isn't one of the ones in the top 20?

maybe i am getting your comment wrong but it sounds rather rude? to me..

analogously one could say: "i wonder why it matters who won the competition if you are not in the final six?"

of course it matters for everyone who competed in DBP (and probably even everyone who is interested in XNA) because people want to know how the judges judge different approaches to make a "good game"...

I'm not being rude at all. I'm just wondering why people are interested in such trivial things as why a game they didn't work on was in a certain position in a list. How does it benefit them knowing if a game was #8 or #18? It doesn't. Knowing the order isn't going to help with knowing "how the judges judge different approaches to make a "good game"". "good game" is subjective. The percentage of each area that was judged is available. Without seeing actual scores (which no one will ever see) it's pretty useless to talk about the order of the games.

Gooni:

and probably even everyone who is interested in XNA

Nope. I'm interested in XNA (obviously ;) ) and couldn't care less about the order.

Gooni:

Jim Perry:

It gotta wonder why it matters what the order is if your game isn't one of the ones in the top 20?

maybe i am getting your comment wrong but it sounds rather rude? to me..

analogously one could say: "i wonder why it matters who won the competition if you are not in the final six?"

I have to admit I found it a little rude too. Mostly because you just assumed my game wasn't in the top 20  (which, incidentally it is).

Jim Perry:

The percentage of each area that was judged is available.

Ahem, no. The percentage that was aimed for before the contest of each area that was judged is available. There's a difference.

(I am not saying that the percentages were secretly changed nor that the judges didn't 'apply them correctly' but of course people are going to discuss to what extent their opinion coincides with the judges' opinion.)

Jim Perry:

It's pretty useless to talk about the order of the games.

It's even more useless to talk about talking about the order of the games, so I think we should stop. :)

reedake2:

All I was thinking is that it would be nice to be able to say "Creed Arena was number 8", or "Creed Arena was number 18", or whatever. For blogs, interviews, marketing, etc. I wouldn't call it useless.

I do agree, but in retrospect I think being able to say we "were in the DBP Top 20" is pretty much as good as we "were placed at 15th in DBP". After all, the average placings of the top 20 entries was 10th which is better than 15th!   ;)

Also, the final ordering of the top 6 (as mentioned above) doesn't match the order initially announced, which implies the rest of the top 20 could be reorderd.

By the way reedake congratulations on an awesome looking game - hats off to a fellow top 20 aussie. Any way I can get my mits on a ccgame (other than moving to a supported purchasing region)?

Roonda:

By the way reedake congratulations on an awesome looking game - hats off to a fellow top 20 aussie. Any way I can get my mits on a ccgame (other than moving to a supported purchasing region)?

Thanks Roonda! I would love to discuss this and other things! I don't give my email out on the forums, but if you hop onto XNAchat we can chat. Where abouts in aus are you?

You're welcome. I'm from Perth. I popped on to XNAChat tonight but missed you since you're 2 hours in front!. Nice website - and cool people on there too. Anyway, off topic. Speak soon.

Jim Perry:

Nope. I'm interested in XNA (obviously ;) ) and couldn't care less about the order.

I did not send a game this year, but I do care a lot about finalist. I think that having a top 20 instead of the previous year top 10 was a good decission, made by somebody that knows that there are people like me and and Gooni that do care about all games, no just the top 4 or top 6, and that we are gratefull about the ranking information they provide. I would love to see a top 25 or top 30 list next year!

One more thing, I also care about which country sent which game, its kind of cool reading that info, specially when small countries made it into the top 20.