QUOTE(thekohser @ Fri 17th July 2009, 9:02pm)
I don't think that LONG-TERM "view pages" stats would be easily gamed, except by someone who is really intent over a long period of time to game the system for his one or two articles he's trying to get loaded into Wikipedia. As long as the "view pages" stats are only a PART of the notability considerations, then it's not a problem.
Notability is one of those wiki-redefined terms, so I'm going to try to avoid using it. But in my opinion
Google Trends offers the best indication of how many people are searching for information on a topic, and something which more people are searching for is generally more useful for fulfilling the mission of Wikipedia. That said, there are other considerations that need to be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to have an article. And in a perfect world popularity wouldn't even be one of them.
In conclusion, what should Wikipedia do? Make a full history backup, delete everything and shut itself down.