London Game Conference survey result on top gaming contributors

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patsu

Legend
Don't know where to stick this. Didn't want to start a new thread because it's just a point survey:
Mod: It's still a topic in its own right, even if no-one replies.

http://bastion.gamespress.com/link.asp?i=2097&r=7899&r2=5750

The top five people and products from the survey, which was carried out by the London Games Conference (10 November, central London), are below:

Top five people to have shaped video games
(First figures are percentage of overall vote; second are percentage of top five votes)

· Steve Jobs 26% 46%
· Gabe Newell (co-founder and managing director of Valve) 16% 29%
· Shigeru Miyamoto (developer of Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda) 7% 12%
· Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the world wide web) 4% 8%
· Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) 3% 5%

Top five products to have shaped video games

· Apple’s iPhone 17% 53%
· Nintendo Wii console 7% 22%
· Xbox Live 3% 9%
· The original PlayStation console 3% 9%
· Steam (digital distribution) 2% 7%

“In just over three years the iPhone and the App Store have transformed what consumers expect of games, and how the industry makes and sells them – today, download games have come to the fore. Steve Jobs, the iPhone’s driving force, was the ultimate independent developer – uncompromising in his vision, with unquestionable influence, and hugely artistic and commercial results,” commented Michael French, editor in chief, MCV, the leading trade magazine of the video games industry.

“Apple thrived by linking ultra-desirable mobile devices to compelling online services. Likewise, the web and connected services like Facebook and Steam have transformed how humans behave and interact, so it’s little wonder to see all of these products and their progenitors Tim Berners-Lee, Gabe Newell and Mark Zuckerberg rank highly in our London Games Conference survey.
Click to expand...
 
Shigeru Miyamoto 3rd ? Really ? He's a clear no. 1.

WTF is Steve Jobs doing on the list ?

And iPhone most important game device ? Sorry, but that's insane.

PS 1 narrowly beats SNES for no. 1. spot of devices.

All IMO.

Cheers
 
yes the only thing that list shows, is the ppl that voted for them know very little about the history of video games
 
Saw this on Eurogramer. The comments there are equally gobsmacked. How can Ken Kutaragi not even make the list, where Tim Berner's-Lee is a name almost no gamers will know of? Clearly a slanted sample base. There should be reference to Atari and maybe Nolan Bushnell. Nintendo obviously for being there the whole way in every form. PlayStation and Ken Kutaragi for taking gaming from kids' pasttime to cool pop culture.

Whatever, it's quite apparent that the respondents were only looking at the last 5-10 years or so. Was the question weighted that way? The internet and iPhone have only changed how people access games. The development of games stretches way back and in terms of what has shaped video games, these upstarts have no contributions. Well, maybe iOS can claim to change gaming back to simple games, which is a significant change. Shaped video gaming overall though? No way. They've done squat. It's been the game developers and console companies. That's why at GDC and the like, it's the names we recognise that gain recognition, and not internet celebrities.

Having said all that, such surveys are oftenweighted in terms of people's most recent knowledge or experiences. I remember that an American survey of the greatest president of all time gave the accolade to Kennedy. How can it not be Washington or Lincoln, who struggled to create the country in the first place?! Because Kennedy was in living memory so afforded more importance. Similarly Lady Diana featured strongly in the 'Greatest Briton of All Time' poll despite doing very little. So public polls can only really give a sense of the current trends IMO, and not a well considered view of the whole topic.
 
People seem to respond based on current "popularity" and "fashionability" than what the actual facts are!
When you ask this question to ignorant people they will respond with ignorance.
And the mass is generally myopic too. They remember mostly the most current events and forget the old.
Apple????Steve Jobs?????? Not only they arent 100% associated to gaming, I will even go as far as say that they even took gaming many years back!
 
This is just based on current mindshare of the losers who attend these things. If you ask industry people and veterans who number the one most influential person would obviously be Miyamoto, then Kutaragi second. Even J Allard should be in there somewhere.

PS2 and SNES are easily the most important hardware, iPhone doesn't even enter the top 10!
 
A lot of managers at that conference I see ... a lot of managers who haven't played games in their life.
 
What a horrible list, obviously pretty blind to history. I don't get how the iPhone (which is having market percent sucked away at a rapid pace) is the "clear number 1" whereas the PC isn't even mentioned (heck, even limit it to an OS, DX version, or to GPU accelerated games). Meh.
 
So what would people's personal choices be? Atari started mainstream gaming but fazed out. PC and DX have been fundamental in the development of 3D hardware. Nintendo have been pushing gaming in every way. Sony blew gaming wide open for the masses. Phil Harrison pioneered 'casual gaming' with the likes of EyeToy and SingStar. Miyamoto created the icons of gaming. Steve Jobs probably played 'Angry birds' at least once. 'Most influential'? It's a tough one!
 
I think you would have to do a top 5 "in no specific order". And like all things I think you have to remember there are massive teams behind people and so it should really be seen as a collective nod for a specific initiative or contribution.

I don't know how you avoid putting Shigi (Nintendo) in the list ... and considering all the titles & franchises he has touched and all the hardware he has directed is there anyone who has touched more consumers of all stripes?
 
There are other less-known contributors too. The old 8 bit computers were essential in creating the modern-day developer, giving kids the chance to learn programming at home and create their own games and get interested in game development - somethign the consoles never allowed. If not for the BBC Micro, Spectrum, C64, and a host of others, gaing may well have remained more niche. And then one can point to the Z80 or 6502 CPUs as fundamental in creating this early digital-primodial-soup.
 
How can Myiamoto NOT be in that list for all the innovative ideas and iconic franchises?
How can Nintendo NOT be in there in general for recovering the industry back to its glory after the video game crisis?
How can Sega NOT be in there for bringing its arcade business to the consoles? Or for moving the arcades steps forward with 3D?
Yu Suzuki anyone? The iconic arcade titles (and not only) he brought?
Newsweek named Hideo Kojima as one of the top ten people of 2002. His storytelling and the themes he covered in his games are deep. He influenced (along with Yu Suzuki in Shenmue probably) the industry in the way they express story telling and the feel of Hollywood movies in games!
Ken Kutaragi moved the consoles faster into 3D and into their first successful entry into 3D when other efforts before him failed to do so successfully. The Playstation made gaming to be looked from a more mature point of view and the market grew unbelievably large in one generation.
PS2 retained the legacy of the brand and grew it even bigger.
The consoles today moved the consoles even further with other entertainment and online services which is Ken's vision since the PS1.

WTF did Steve and the iPhone do to the gaming industry other than cannibalize the quality with cheap quantity which made developers wonder if its worth it to continue supporting high quality titles in the portable gaming and instead make cheap games that are as simple often as the games we were getting when technology and creativity were still infant?
 
Nesh said:
WTF did Steve and the iPhone do to the gaming industry other than cannibalize the quality with cheap quantity which made developers wonder if its worth it to continue supporting high quality titles in the portable gaming and instead make cheap games that are as simple often as the games we were getting when technology and creativity were still infant?
Click to expand...
To be fair, it said top five people who shaped the industry, rather than contributed positively to it. And iPhone has had a huge influence in creating masses of crap. ;)
 
Still...it's a good indicator of how quickly things can change in games and how the old kings can be totally forgotten or left behind. Say what you want about Steve Jobs but he created two standardized platforms (phone + tablet) that have had a huge effect on casual gamers effectively making them more important than core gamers in a relatively short period of time.
 
Yeah, Jobs is up there probably because the attendees see that:
* phone is the most prevalent computing device that can entertain folks
* Jobs rewrote the cellphones economics and created a uniform platform for gaming and other apps
* the cellphone market is still changing rapidly and growing.

Before him, the cellphone market was extremely fragmented. It was very difficult to write complex cellphones software that behaves correctly across model, carrier, country. Often time, things would break halfway on the same network after the operator changes something behind the scene.

.. and then there is iPad. It's going into schools and like Wii, usable by everyone. I handed one to a 7 years old Italian girl on a train. She played Angry Bird, Cut the Rope, and other games with my son right away.

Most importantly, Google, MS and everyone else followed. Without this part, I would scoff at him appearing on the list too.
 
patsu said:
Before him, the cellphone market was extremely fragmented. It was very difficult to write complex cellphones software that behaves correctly across model, carrier, country.
Click to expand...
So he "fixed" it by introducing a new platform that doesn't support anything else. Seriously?
 
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