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[A_Dang]

Lorne Lanning is not getting enough love here!

The man has some really good insight and perspective into the future of gaming, and is really interesting to listen to.

(Fairly recent interview from the Game Informer Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcqKAKpuyjw)

 

[Rick Dangerous]

David cage : Heavy rains + the nomad soul
Eric Cahi

 

[Krejlooc]

Carmack did not create the first FPS

People shouldn't (and aren't) claiming John Carmack invented the FPS. They are mentioning him because he did invent a number of techniques, like adaptive tile refresh.

 

[JordanN]

Don Mattrick

Consumers failed to understand his vision.

At some point in the future we will look back at this time in history, with a sorrowful tear in our eyes and reminisce at the opportunity we wasted and think if only. If only we were more intelligent.

If your Xbox didn't connect to the internet in 24 hours, your games were screwed.

His vision sucked.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

People shouldn't (and aren't) claiming John Carmack invented the FPS. They are mentioning him because he did invent a number of techniques, like adaptive tile refresh.

I'm willing to bet that >40% of people who would name Carmack as a visionary have never heard of Commander Keen. And think Wolf3D was the first FPS

But you're right, Doom isn't the primary reason he's named as such, but it's definitely a reason. And I don't think it'd be fair to dismiss that because Maze War was a thing.

 

[celsowmbr]

Yu Suzuki The Thread

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Has anybody said Richard Garriott yet? Not only did he create Ultima, probably the single most influential game ever, but he created the first computer RPG.

 

[Krejlooc]

Has anybody said Richard Garriott yet? Not only did he create Ultima, probably the single most influential game ever, but he created the first computer RPG.

I think Richard Garriot, aka Lord British needs a mention. Without him and the pioneer work he did on the Ultima series in the 80s, the landscape of the RPG genre would be very different.

Richard Garriot

Richard Garriott

Oh yeah, [Richard Garriot]. He deserves it.

I was going to say Richard Garriott.

Lord British

Richard Garriot - The Ultima series is the prototype for almost every RPG that came after. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest are direct derivatives of its design.

nope, don't think he's been mentioned yet...

 

[ChryZ]

Ken Kutaragi
Shuhei Yoshida
Andrew Braybrook
Dylan Cuthbert
Tim Sweeney
John Carmack
John Romero

 

[SugarDave]

Hideo Kojima.

I know there are many people who scoff at the notion that Kojima is anything special but his games are really unlike anything else. For all the jokes about Metal Gear Solid basically being a film, it's actually one of the very few products to take advantage of the gaming medium to enhance the story. MGS2 might be the only game where I can say the experience of playing it genuinely enriched my life. Add to that the attention to detail and experimentation within the series and it's truly unique.

 

[wenaldy]

Warren Spector
Kojima
Ueda-san
Keiichiro Toyama
Sean Fucking Murray

 

[niahbvgpq]

Ralph Baer
Chris Crawford
Tomohiro Nishikado
Fumito Ueda
Kenji Eno
Shigeru Miyamoto

Druckmann and Straley don't belong to the group of visionary people in gaming.

 

[HPX]

Michael Abrash was the other guy who built the Quake engine, along with Carmack, but stays much more out of the spotlight. His enormous black book on engine/graphics programming was THE book for a very long time and still has a lot of useful information today.

Iirc he did some of the assembly wizardry to speed id engine up. Wasnt both Abrash and gaben somehow involved with DX? My searching turned up nothing. But I recall reading about Abrash and DX in masters of doom. Since Im on my phone I cant do a decent search.

Did Garriot really create the first RPG?

Abrash / Carmack / Romero for me.

 

[Kalopsia]

Ian Hetherington. Under his direction, Psygnosis single-handedly sold the graphical potential of the Amiga, published early games from developers who would go onto greatness like DMA Design, Bizarre Creations, and DICE; became one of the earliest adopters of the CD-ROM as a format for games, wrote the development kit for the PlayStation 1, and was invaluable in pushing the PlayStation brand during the early years with games like WipEout.

 

[Mr. Nice_Guy]

I was about to go on a rant about how Druckmann's name had come up multiple times but Kamiya's hadn't yet, and how silly that was. Turns out I misspelled Kamiya without noticing.

 

[Zombine]

Corrinne Yu

Really amazing programmer who has performed programming miracles. Super brilliant mind.

Jason Jones

Dude is a legend. He really guided Bungie to their success and deserves a ton of credit for his work with the company (thanks for the OP pistol).

 

[Krejlooc]

Did Garriot really create the first RPG?

He basically created the template for console and computer RPGs, both WRPG and JRPG. Ultima was his attempt at translating D&D rules to a computer game. But it's not the very first RPG in that sense, however. One could argue that Adventure on the 2600 is the very first computer RPG, although it doesn't resemble the classical computer WRPG or JRPG very much anymore.

Ultima also wasn't the only computer RPG of it's type - Wizardry released the same year, but after.

But yeah, Ultima's contribution to gaming cannot be understated. Both Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy explicitly claim their roots to Ultima, as does virtually all of the WRPG market.

Keep in mind that RPG, the genre itself, predates home computer gaming entirely.

Then, over a decade later, Lord British did it all again and basically created the modern MMO with Ultima Online.

Fun Fact: Lord British went to my Highschool.

 

[N.A]

Yu Suzuki is the only person who comes anywhere close to Miyamoto. If it wasn't for him practically disappearing from the industry for over a decade I think his legacy would be able to compare.

 

[ThatEuroGuy]

Gotta menton Shinji Mikami

Post nr. #9
Not bad at all

 

[Mung]

Ken kuturagi for sure. Changed the game. History will judge him very highly.

 

[True Fire]

Not sure if Taro Yoko is a visionary or just straight up insane

 

[RK9039]

Yoshinori Ono for installing rootkits on people's machines in order to mine bitcoins.

It really is Tuesday.

 

[Sn4ke_911]

Kojima, without question.

I'm glad this is the first post.

 

[peakish]

Carmack isn't just graphics tech but also online multiplayer and lately helping to spearhead VR. The original plans for QuakeWorld multiplayer included persistent user accounts logging frags and wins, with global leaderboards and all that hoopla which I don't think turned up in multiplayer FPS's until a decade later (correct me if I'm wrong). The plan even mentions an incarnation of freemium gaming, where anyone could download and play the game but would have to pay for premium aspects like rankings and being prioritized for connecting to servers (of course this isn't a large step from what shareware was back then). http://fabiensanglard.net/quakeSource/johnc-log.aug.htm


Jordan Mechner deserves more mentions, he always had ambitions about how video games can be used to tell stories and confer emotions. His signature is on two of the best examples of storytelling in games, The Last Express and Prince of Persia: SoT.

 

[GCX]

Will Wright.

SimCity and The Sims. Two genre-defining games.

 

[strafer]

Vandal Savage at Naughty Dog

 

[Cirerus]

Tim Cain, Chris Taylor, Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert

 

[TheRedSnifit]

He basically created the template for console and computer RPGs, both WRPG and JRPG. Ultima was his attempt at translating D&D rules to a computer game. But it's not the very first RPG in that sense, however. One could argue that Adventure on the 2600 is the very first computer RPG, although it doesn't resemble the classical computer WRPG or JRPG very much anymore.

Ultima also wasn't the only computer RPG of it's type - Wizardry released the same year, but after.

But yeah, Ultima's contribution to gaming cannot be understated. Both Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy explicitly claim their roots to Ultima, as does virtually all of the WRPG market.

Keep in mind that RPG, the genre itself, predates home computer gaming entirely.

Then, over a decade later, Lord British did it all again and basically created the modern MMO with Ultima Online.

Fun Fact: Lord British went to my Highschool.

Iirc he did some of the assembly wizardry to speed id engine up. Wasnt both Abrash and gaben somehow involved with DX? My searching turned up nothing. But I recall reading about Abrash and DX in masters of doom. Since Im on my phone I cant do a decent search.

Did Garriot really create the first RPG?

Abrash / Carmack / Romero for me.

He created Akalabeth in 1979, three years before Wizardry came out and the same year as Adventure.

Incidentally, Miyamoto named Ultima as one of his biggest inspirations (which is pretty clear when you look at Zelda). System Shock was the spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld. Pretty sure Carmack mentioned Ultima Underworld as an inspiration for Doom somewhere.

 

[theWB27]

Does Itagaki not deserve to be there with what he did for that genre of action or???

 

[Heaven Shard]

And he is still by far the best director in gaming

I am more amazed by this than of people voting for Drumpf. You liking the 'directing' of cutscenes in MGS5 is your opinion. All I'll say is the little kid that dreamed to be a director is still that little kid trying. Maybe if he actually learned how to, but that's Kojima for you.
He should thank his lucky stars he worked with real talents like Shinkawa or he would still be scraping- whatever he is good at scraping because it ain't no code or art- at Konami's lower levels.

As for influential to the industry? That isn't funny enough to be a joke and is disrespectful to the real industry veterans and visionaries. But hey, it's your room; you can hang up whoever's poster you want on any pedestal you desire.

 

[benzy]

Yu Suzuki is the goat.

 

[Krejlooc]

I am more amazed by this than of people voting for Drumpf. You liking the 'directing' of cutscenes in MGS5 is your opinion. All I'll say is the little kid that dreamed to be a director is still that little kid trying. Maybe if he actually learned how to, but that's Kojima for you.
He should thank his lucky stars he worked with real talents like Shinkawa or he would still be scraping- whatever he is good at scraping because it ain't no code or art- at Konami's lower levels.

As for influential to the industry? That isn't funny enough to be a joke and is disrespectful to the real industry veterans and visionaries. But hey, it's your room; you can hang up whoever's poster you want on any pedestal you desire.

All this post is telling me is that you don't understand the role of a director when talking about games. You seem to be judging Hideo Kojima as a film director. As a games auteur, the systems he has to have his hands on as the director are top notch. Kojima is a terrific director, and has influenced many game directors.

 

[H.Cornerstone]

I'm going to throw in Todd Howard. His work made WRPG a mainstay in video games.

 

[Dead End Irony]

First one I thought of was Yu Suzuki. He's the GOAT in my eyes.

 

[Ratrat]

I am more amazed by this than of people voting for Drumpf. You liking the 'directing' of cutscenes in MGS5 is your opinion. All I'll say is the little kid that dreamed to be a director is still that little kid trying. Maybe if he actually learned how to, but that's Kojima for you.
He should thank his lucky stars he worked with real talents like Shinkawa or he would still be scraping- whatever he is good at scraping because it ain't no code or art- at Konami's lower levels.

As for influential to the industry? That isn't funny enough to be a joke and is disrespectful to the real industry veterans and visionaries. But hey, it's your room; you can hang up whoever's poster you want on any pedestal you desire.

Snatcher/Policenauts. Go to sleep kid. The rest of the post is too dumb to address.

 

[ichtyander]

Eric Cahi

Was gonna post this. Éric Chahi has worked on some games as an artist and programmer, but has only 3 major titles as a game designer: Another World (Out of This World), Heart of Darkness and From Dust. Even so, Another World turned out to be a remarkably influential game, with prominent names like Hideo Kojima, Fumito Ueda and Suda51 all citing it as leaving a great impact on them. I'd say that most modern action adventures have been influenced by Another World in one way or another, or have at least directly or indirectly come to the same conclusions, which only strengthens the notion that the game was very much ahead of its time.

 

[Wireframe]

Not so subtle Kojima: The thread

 

[7threst]

I'd say Steve Wozniak (and to a lesser extent Steve Jobs) and his Breakout circuit-design.

 

[ActWan]

I am more amazed by this than of people voting for Drumpf. You liking the 'directing' of cutscenes in MGS5 is your opinion. All I'll say is the little kid that dreamed to be a director is still that little kid trying. Maybe if he actually learned how to, but that's Kojima for you.
He should thank his lucky stars he worked with real talents like Shinkawa or he would still be scraping- whatever he is good at scraping because it ain't no code or art- at Konami's lower levels.

As for influential to the industry? That isn't funny enough to be a joke and is disrespectful to the real industry veterans and visionaries. But hey, it's your room; you can hang up whoever's poster you want on any pedestal you desire.

The hate is real. It's bad enough that you don't acknowledge his influence, you get the Shinkawa buzzword out. Classic "Kojima haters" stuff right here.
And on the director stuff, I present to you this quote: “Watching the trailers for MGSV makes you wonder if the spirits of Dostoyevsky, Stanley Kubrick, and Caravaggio entered Hideo Kojima’s body because, using the art of gaming as his canvas, he boldly goes where no one has gone before” by Nicolas Winding Refn.
I'm sure every "little kid that dreamed to be a director" would have loved to hear that

 

[kromeo]

The hate is real. It's bad enough that you don't acknowledge his influence, you get the Shinkawa buzzword out. Classic "Kojima haters" stuff right here.
And on the director stuff, I present to you this quote: “Watching the trailers for MGSV makes you wonder if the spirits of Dostoyevsky, Stanley Kubrick, and Caravaggio entered Hideo Kojima’s body because, using the art of gaming as his canvas, he boldly goes where no one has gone before” by Nicolas Winding Refn.
I'm sure every "little kid that dreamed to be a director" would have loved to hear that

If someone dislikes Kojima then ridiculous quotes like that are hardly going to change their opinion

 

[gafneo]

Gabe Newell.

Imagine if Steam didn't exist.

Then GoG and Origion

 

[HeisenbergWW62]

???
MG and MGS where revolutionairy in stealth gameplay, and MGS in cinematics and story. Those games are certainly an important landmark in gaming.
He is constantley pushing the boundries with new things in every game, just look at MGS2 that was so ahead of it's time.
And he is still by far the best director in gaming. The one shots in MGSV are insane and all the cutscenes in MGS4 trumps most of the industry, while games like Witcher 3 for example are really jarring in comparison to that aspect.
And just take a look at what he achieved with P.T, a fucking demo, that became a lot of people's scariest horror game and heavily influenced RE7.
I'd say if anyone is really a "visionary", it's him. Even movie directors praise him for god's sake.
Making a game you don't like doesn't mean one of the people behind it isn't infulential to the industry.

All of this

 

[HPX]

He basically created the template for console and computer RPGs, both WRPG and JRPG. Ultima was his attempt at translating D&D rules to a computer game. But it's not the very first RPG in that sense, however. One could argue that Adventure on the 2600 is the very first computer RPG, although it doesn't resemble the classical computer WRPG or JRPG very much anymore.

Ultima also wasn't the only computer RPG of it's type - Wizardry released the same year, but after.

But yeah, Ultima's contribution to gaming cannot be understated. Both Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy explicitly claim their roots to Ultima, as does virtually all of the WRPG market.

Keep in mind that RPG, the genre itself, predates home computer gaming entirely.

Then, over a decade later, Lord British did it all again and basically created the modern MMO with Ultima Online.

Fun Fact: Lord British went to my Highschool.

Interesting. Is there any book on the history of Garriot and / or Ultima. I was more thinking if there were terminal based games predating Ultima. Zork and the likes. But then them early games aint my area of expertise

 

[TDLink]

Sakaguchi. Kojima. Mikami. Kamiya.

Uematsu for music.

 

[SmartBase]

Chris Roberts, he's essentially a Hideo Kojima or David Cage except his schlock was good enough to get to Hollywood.

 

[Insane Metal]

Denis Dyack

Spoiler

I'm sorry

 

[gfxtwin]

Anyone mention Cliffy B yet? His work with Unreal Tournament and Gears helped shape the modern gaming landscape, especially with multiplayer.

Does Itagaki not deserve to be there with what he did for that genre of action or???

I'm gonna weigh in and say his talent isn't with creativity and innovation as it is making a game in a certain genre and kinda perfecting it. The DOA series is arguably up there with Tekken, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc, and his take on Ninja Gaiden took the Devil May Cry/Onimusha/God of War etc style action game and tuned-up the gameplay with his until it were way deeper and arguably more stylish than any action game at the time. Of course that was when he was with Team Ninja, his recent stuff is not as good IMO.

 

[Andrin]

There are so many great contributions in this thread already, but I'd like to add Akira Yamaoka. I've never seen anyone else come even close to his level of redefining the role of music and sound design in games.

 

[DevilDog]

Gabe newell probably. I mean who else has done more than him?

I always wondered if people existed who took these things seriously.
Like all Kojima dialogue, its 80% absolute madness and 20% obvious stuff.

It was my favorite MGS2 moment though, it did quite some good worldbuilding.

 

[Synth]

Shuhei Yoshida

OK, explain...