Assuming the equipment was also saved so you could still play the games, and every game in existence you don’t mention gets permanently destroyed, and no new games are ever to be made.
Inspired by a video by OutsideXbox from a few years ago, I thought it would be a fun idea to see what this community would choose. You can choose to be selfish and pick games you personally want to always play, or try to figure out what games would be best chosen for humanity to save for whatever reason. I’d also love to hear why you chose your games. Do they have a special meaning to you? I want to hear your stories.
Well, I think games that have the greatest possibility between them make the best choices. So…
Stellaris. - I want a 4x and grand strategy and this one is a bit of both. Also considering how much it’s changed since 1.0, the various versions of it provide a lot of variety in themselves. Also it’s got great mod support. Its core systems have also been rebuilt a couple times, so I know it has a good deal of potential and isn’t locked too hard into certain mechanics.
Conan Exiles. - This is a really weird choice cause the game isn’t amazing in and of itself, or even all that good, and it’s pretty buggy, but it’s one of the most customizable, mod supported multiplayer games I know of. Maybe there’s a better choice and if I had time to research it I’d pick that one. I know there’s a multiplayer mod for Skyrim, for example, but I’m not technical enough to know if that has better possibilities than Conan. Hell, maybe Minecraft has potential here? I have never liked it much. It would be absolutely necessary to me that it can be updated to decent (not blocky) graphics though.
Elite: Dangerous. - This is another choice I’d like to research a better option for. The thing is I want a flight/space game, but I don’t know enough about the genre, and this is the only one that immediately comes to mind. Its kind of my one mostly unselfish pick cause I haven’t played this type of game in a long time.
Baldur’s Gate 3. - It’s not actually my favorite rpg or even my favorite Baldur’s Gate, but Larian designed it with good mod support and tools. Also it can support multiplayer very easily. Like the others on this list, it’s here for future adaptability; if we’re never getting new games, mods of these 5 have to be as much like new games as possible.
An MMO. - This is the toughest one to answer myself cause I don’t know enough about the back end of them. The trick is choosing the one with the most broadly applicable technical side. I want as much possibility in future development as I can get, and I’d really like one that isn’t inextricably linked to the target based gameplay we currently know from most of them. If required to pick without research, I would reluctantly choose Guild Wars 2, cause it at least isn’t tied to tab targeting, but I have no idea if it’s good with my other criteria.
Now, you’ll notice I didn’t pick any games without multiplayer, and that’s cause if these are going to be the only 5 games left until the end of time they should all support multiplayer. No single player only need apply.