'Greatest influences on gaming' survey - WTF?

G

GeezerButler

n00b
Joined
Oct 6, 2004
Messages
44
Top five people to have shaped video games:

Steve Jobs
Gabe Newell (cofounder and managing director of Valve)
Shigeru Miyamoto (developer of Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda)
Tim Berners-Lee
Mark Zuckerberg

Top five products to have shaped video games:

Apple iPhone
Nintendo Wii
Microsoft Xbox Live
The original Sony PlayStation
Valve's Steam

This is apparently based on a survey of 1000 'gaming industry executives' - doesn't that just say everything that needs to be said about the games industry today? :rolleyes:

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/02/steve_jobs_most_influential_gamer/
 
I don't particularly see how you can argue against these choices at least being worthy of being up there.

  • Berners-Lee - The internet, duh.
  • Steve Jobs and the iPhone have created a multi-billion dollar entry point to the industry that didn't previously exist.
  • Zuckerberg and Facebook have again created a multi-billion dollar entry point to the industry that didn't previously exist, as well as basically been at the front of creating the entire casual games market.
  • Gabe Newell and Steam, besides steering the industry with a lot of their own internal projects, have basically been at the front of the influence of digital distribution.
  • Xbox Live has set the standard for a coordinated online multiplayer package, which has been particularly important for bringing multiplayer on consoles to a relatively stable point.
  • The PlayStation (large storage optical formats) and the Wii (motion controls, casual appeal) have brought previously unused technologies to the mass market.
  • Miyamoto probably has the most unit sales associated with a single designer in the industry.

Whether or not the platforms that the people were involved had any appeal to you is besides the fact. All the things mentioned there though have had a large factor in shaping the industry into the business it currently is today.
 
I don't argue against all of them at all - but putting Jobs and Apple at the top of both lists? I doubt the lists would have looked the same if Jobs was still alive.
 
It's possible, but what the results tell me is that they simply surveyed the game companies they could find, where "game industry exec" probably means the studio director. Going by the amount of companies up there in the results that could very well be involved in casual-leaning product, I'd be willing to bet they nailed surveying companies involved in making casual-leaning products themselves, hence the high results for platforms like iOS, Steam, and the Wii.
 
Bobby Kotick has had the greatest influence on gaming, as Kotickization of gaming franchises is what has turned gaming down into the shitter lately instead of being a golden age of gaming.

We have all the technology, but not the games maximizing the potential of it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top