London Game Conference survey result on top gaming contributors

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?

 

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.

 

Even then it'd be trailing far behind Flash as an influence.

 

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.

 

John Carmack should be in the top 5 and Yu Suzuki.

 

So he "fixed" it by introducing a new platform that doesn't support anything else. Seriously?