Title: Guitar Hero
Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: RedOctane
Developer: Harmonix
Release Date: November 2005

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Every now and again a game comes along with grand ambitions to carve a place for itself in the history books; a game that, on paper, should fall flat on its face because it's a ridiculous concept with ridiculous gameplay and equally ridiculous controls.

But then, every now and again, such a game successfully needles an untapped consumer vein and creates a whole new genre, the world gets flipped upside down and inside out, and videogame historians suddenly find themselves powerless to prevent inclusion.

Case in point, pressing coloured note buttons on the neck of a cheap plastic Gibson Les Paul guitar replica, while rhythmically 'strumming' a hinged bar across non-existent strings, really should have seen sink without trace amid echoing peels of raucous consumer laughter.

Yet the application of such gloriously idiotic gameplay, coupled with a deep selection of wail-worthy covers of iconic songs from the likes of Metallica, Nirvana, Deep Purple and David Bowie meant Guitar Hero enabled gamers everywhere to realise their repressed dreams of headlining a massive stadium venue before an adoring audience. How could it be anything other than a rip-roaring success?

Of course, initial unit of around 1.5 million (approximately 45 million USD), meant Guitar Hero would not be a strictly one-time experience for either budding rockers or alcohol-fuelled party gamers, and the inevitable sequel followed soon thereafter - which went on to sell a further 1.3 million copies.

Factor in a series presently spread across 12 home console and portable offerings, fresh spin-offs in Band Hero and DJ Hero, and the spread of downloadable packs through services Live and the PlayStation Network, and what ought to have been a shallow gimmick has now become a hulking videogame behemoth.

Title: World of Warcraft
Platform: Games for Windows
Publisher: Entertainment
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Release Date: November 2004

In five short years, Blizzard's massively online role-playing game (MMORPG) has steamrollered the persistent online gaming sector, spawned a multitude of wildly popular expansions, and redefined the meaning of 'geek' in the process.

With 2007's Wrath of the Lich King, and 2008's The Burning Crusade supporting the initial 2004 release and extending World of Warcraft's reach, the seemingly unending sprawl associated with WoW's cartoon fantasy world has seen it amass well in excess of 11 million registered subscribers globally and a dominant market share of some 62 percent.

While there are plenty of other persistent adventures offering similar access to vast online exploration, dungeon crawling, NPC interaction, core questing, and interesting side missions, World of Warcraft rises above most due to its sheer scale, polished battle system, forgiving respawn mechanics, and... in no small point... its attraction as a community-based social platform that predates the Facebooks and MySpaces of the world.

Beyond hosting marriages that see real people - sometimes on different continents - tying the knot through their in-game World of Warcraft avatars, Blizzard's MMORPG has also entered popular culture through spin-off board games, a comic book series published by DC's Wildstorm, and even the Emmy Award-winning 'Make Love, Not Warcraft' episode of animated show South Park.