Poll: Most important man in gaming?

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

In my opinion, Von Neumann is the most important person. Without him and his architecture model (althought somewhat flawed) the likes of consoles and modern PC's wouldn't exist.

I see what you did there. If anyone needs me, I'll be playing games on my difference engine.

 

[Booze Zombie]

Sure, he is important... but there are plenty of important people in the industry.

Don't place the weight of being "the best" on someone, no one deserves that burden on their work.

 

[voetballeeuw]

Umm, how about Peter Molyneux. Ha.

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

Nolan Bushnell didn't do anything but steal Ralph Baer's idea.

An idea that failed. Bushnell saw the potential in that idea and was able make it a successful one.

You're forgetting the most important thing that Bushnell did, though. He was the first person to see that the games that were being played by computer hobbyists on university mainframes were something that were commercially viable, that they were something you could sell, something that people who didn't even know that you could play a game on a computer would pay to play, and by creating Computer Space, he gave birth to an industry.

Baer may have had the idea for machines that play games a decade earlier, but Bushnell is the why the games industry exists, since he was responsible for the first videogame ever to be produced in quantity, marketed and sold to customers. He is the man responsible for the videogame's entry into the public consciousness.

A fair point. I would say that it could be argued that both Baer and Bushnell are the "fathers" of gaming - without Baer's design and Bushnell's economic smarts, who knows if there'd even be a video games industry?

 

[vance32]

The man who invented bethesda i wouldnt be here without you

 

[Jorias]

Without Nolan Bushnell there would never have been games you play at home in the first place, so I'd put him above Shiggy. Miyamoto's games may have saved the industry, but Bushnell got everything started.

Agreed, also Allan Alcorn...the guy who actually made Pong.

 

[Nwabudike Morgan]

A fair point. I would say that it could be argued that both Baer and Bushnell are the "fathers" of gaming - without Baer's design and Bushnell's economic smarts, who knows if there'd even be a video games industry?

Baer is most definitely one of the people who made everything possible, and his contributions to the development of the videogame are considerable, and a lot of what Bushnell did would not have been possible without Baer. What Bushnell did was take everything that people like Baer and the other pioneers of games played within a computer did, and introduce it to the rest of the world, planting the seeds for a multi-billion dollar industry that is now just as much a part of the entertainment industry as music, television and film and making games part of people's daily lives.

Baer is the Karl Benz of gaming, Bushnell is the Henry Ford.

 

[jamesworkshop]

Gabe Newell is more important. Should I start at Half-Life, Steam or Source?

Half life was created by quake modders not gabe he just gave them a job, same with portal even the gels added to portal 2 is from anther puzzle game

 

[jamesworkshop]

Gabe Newell is more important. Should I start at Half-Life, Steam or Source?

Half life was created by quake modders not gabe he just gave them a job, same with portal even the gels added to portal 2 is from anther puzzle game

You think he had no other involvement? Also, what about Steam?

He had involvment but he didn't do all the work himself and Steam is only notable for being a head of its time I'm still going to put him lower than Shiggy in terms of importance in fact I would even have to put him under Carmack because it was Carmack who personally convinced Gabe to stop making windows O/S and start making games.

 

[Nwabudike Morgan]

Shiggy gets docked of all his points by being at Nintendo.

You do realize that Nintendo and the games Shiggy was making for for the NES when it first hit the market in the US are why both the industry and the hobby survived in the US past 1985, right?

 

[Nwabudike Morgan]

Shiggy gets docked of all his points by being at Nintendo.

You do realize that Nintendo and the games Shiggy was making for for the NES when it first hit the market in the US are why both the industry and the hobby survived in the US past 1985, right?

That, my fellow poster, was a joke.

It's an internet forum about games. You can never be sure.

 

[squid5580]

i'm sry i'm an actual gamer, if nintendo had died out at snes, you have no idea how happy i'd have been, that's where it should have ended, all nintendo is doing is catering to children, grandmas, and people who don't game, and right well shouldn't, casual gamers are the one thing i can't stand...at all.

Why? How do they affect you in any way?

the motion controls are becoming too popular among casual gamers, making real consoles want to do it, now all the games will be motion control, which sucks, like i do everything else, i don't wanna jump around, i just wanna sit down and play an rpg or shooter

Yes, because all conventional controllers are going to be discontinued once the motion controllers hit the market and all games currently in development that will be released from that point on are being modified so they only use them.

not saying that, but most games will try and use this cheap gimmick to try and attract more customers, which will be casual gamers, and the industry will slowly try to adapt to them to make more money, making hardcore gaming obsolete in later years to come

I'd be laughing quite loudly at this if I wasn't in public. I mean, it's like a really nerdy conspiracy theory.

ya, less of a theory, more of a prediction of the eventual course of things to come, already beginning by the introduction of Kinect and Move, at least xbox tried to hide that they were copying wii, playstation just outright stole the idea, the process has already begun

I am sure all developers are extremely pleased with the attatchment rate of the Wii. Why they must have piles of money just like Nintendo from putting all those mini game collections on the Wii. And that pile will be doubled when they get those same games on the PS3 and 360.

 

[migo]

Gunpei Yokoi is more important. He's Miyamoto's mentor and his Mario games were way better than any of Miyamoto's. He's also the guy who conceived of the GameBoy, made sure it was paired with Tetris and made the other hit GameBoy title Super Mario Land. It's the GameBoy and handheld business that kept Nintendo going as they were losing market share in the home arena for each generation.

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

Baer is most definitely one of the people who made everything possible, and his contributions to the development of the videogame are considerable, and a lot of what Bushnell did would not have been possible without Baer. What Bushnell did was take everything that people like Baer and the other pioneers of games played within a computer did, and introduce it to the rest of the world, planting the seeds for a multi-billion dollar industry that is now just as much a part of the entertainment industry as music, television and film and making games part of people's daily lives.

Baer is the Karl Benz of gaming, Bushnell is the Henry Ford.

That's a good analogy. Neither Benz nor Baer really get the credit they deserve, but then again it's not enough just to have a good idea - you have to be able to sell it. And that's exactly what Ford and Bushnell could do.

 

[oppp7]

i'm sry i'm an actual gamer, if nintendo had died out at snes, you have no idea how happy i'd have been, that's where it should have ended, all nintendo is doing is catering to children, grandmas, and people who don't game, and right well shouldn't, casual gamers are the one thing i can't stand...at all.

Why? How do they affect you in any way?

the motion controls are becoming too popular among casual gamers, making real consoles want to do it, now all the games will be motion control, which sucks, like i do everything else, i don't wanna jump around, i just wanna sit down and play an rpg or shooter

Yes, because all conventional controllers are going to be discontinued once the motion controllers hit the market and all games currently in development that will be released from that point on are being modified so they only use them.

not saying that, but most games will try and use this cheap gimmick to try and attract more customers, which will be casual gamers, and the industry will slowly try to adapt to them to make more money, making hardcore gaming obsolete in later years to come

It sounds like you have an issue with the greedy companies themselves, not the people trying to have fun with their families...
Edit: OT: I'd say Shiggy is one of the top guys, but not the main one.