30 most influencial people

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/march02/top30



#30. Chris Taylor, Gas Powered Games
#29. Ron Gilbert, Hulabee Entertainment
#28. Ed Fries, Microsoft
#27. Tim Sweeney, Epic Games
#26. Gumpei Yokoi, (1941-1997)
#25. Doug Church, Ion Storm
#24. Will Crowther & Don Woods
#23. Roberta Williams, Sierra Entertainment
#22. Ken Kutaragi, Sega Computer Entertainment
#21. Ralph Baer, R.H. Baer Consultants
#20. Alexey Pajitnov, Microsoft
#19. Chris Roberts, Point of No Return Studios
#18. Gary Gygax and J.R.R. Tolkien
#17. George Lucas, LucasFilms/LucasArts
#16. Hironobu Sakaguchi, SquareSoft
#15. Gabe Newell, Valve Software
#14. John Romero, MonkeyStone
#13. Hideo Kojima, Konami
#12. Nolan Bushnell, uWink
#11. Dani Bunten Berry, (1949-1998)
#10. Yu Suzuki, Sega Computer Entertainment
#9. Allen Adham, Blizzard Entertainment
#8. Bruce Shelley, Ensemble Studios
#7. Richard Garriott, NCSoft/Destination Games
#6. Warren Spector, Ion Storm
#5. Peter Molyneux, Lionhead Studios
#4. Will Wright, Maxis
#3. John Carmack, id Software
#2. Sid Meier, Firaxis Games
#1. Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo

 

dang... Yu's #10, while Shigeru's #1. oh well, but i do remember Nintendo being pretty popular when i was a kid... Double Dragon 3 memories...

 

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

That elitist asshole Kutaragi is SONY, not Sega.

And where the hell is Yuji Naka? He only got an ISDA lifetime achievement award, for chrissakes...

 

I think it's funny that there's only a handful of Japanese guys on there. While I do think Yuji & Yuu have done much more innovative things for gaming, Shigeru is responsible for most of Nintendo's Franchises, which have done great for the gaming industry.

The US companies, IMHO, have done more screwing up than making it better. There were no M-Rated games when I was growing up on it, and about 95% of the M-rated JPN games (on consoles, not PC) are for a few panty shots.

While I like playing Halo, I think some of the gore gets a bit out of control.

 

hmmm.... How the heck does Ron Gilbert beat Chris Taylor? Ron worked under Chris on TA, and Ron's own project (TAK) was a horrible failure. I guess you could call that influential, but... /versus/images/icons/smile.gif

 

I think Hideo Kojima is an interesting choice. I love Metal Gear Solid but I wouldn't necessarily call him influencial. I think he is more of an innovator than someone that infulences the industry. When Doom came out it influenced the computer game industry and there was a huge amount of Doom clones (there stiil are if you look at how many FPS are coming out). Doom set a standard for how FPS should be made (at least back then it did) but Metal Gear Solid hasn't had anyone trying to make a game of the same genre. The only other game that I can think of that might be a clone of Metal Gear is Splinter Cell and from what I've heard it won't have as many of the cutscenes and will be more on gameplay rather than telling a story as well.

 

I think he made the tactical espionage genre very popular. Using your brains instead of running and gunning. But some would argue that Goldeneye and Rare did that. So who knows. It would be nice if the list included an explanation.

 

I must be drunk, none of those guys are listed as Capcom, and Capcom's SF2 is directly responsible for 2D fighting games. I don't have any figures but a wild guess is that 2D fighters have grossed more worldwide than 3D, and even some of the momentum of 3D head-to-head fighting owes something to SF2.
Maybe it's just that no single person can be called the main brain behind SF2.

 

I would assume you're right CreeD. I think by sheer numbers, there are many times more 2D fighters than there are 3D. Capcom alone has probably put out as many Street Fighter upgrades & clones as there are 3D Fighting games, and out on several platforms.

I would assume they wouldn't make so many unless they made money. It's definitely impacted the gaming industry. Always caused me to go out and buy many non-2D fighting games. /versus/images/icons/smile.gif

 

How the fuck did Ron Gilbert get on that list? I mean, who the fuck cares about Secret of monkey Island!

 

I do /versus/images/icons/smile.gif!!! All of the games in the Monkey Island series were original, thoughtfull, and very entertaining. It's one of the few game series I adore on the PC (Next to some other Lucas gems like Full Throttle, Grim Fandango...etc).

I also agree on Miyamoto being the most influential. Most of his games were/are unique and fun; always likes to venture into new ideas. /versus/images/icons/grin.gif

 

I agree I think the Monkey Island series sets a standard for how adventure games should be made, and spawned some great adventure games from it. I don't think that adventure games are as popular as they used to be (or as they should be) but I've never laughed so hard while playing a game as when I've played a Monkey Island game. The humour is almost the reward for solving the puzzles /versus/images/icons/smile.gif .

 

"Ken Kutaragi, Sega Computer Entertainment" - LOL