True Gaming Hall of Fame

[PorkyThePaladin]

The thread in the RPG subforum about Todd Howard getting action figures on account of him going into the Hall of Fame or something made me think. No, not about suicide (well maybe at first). Video games have been around for around 40 years or so now. While it's still a fairly young medium, a lot of things have happened, and looking from something like Pong to say Witcher 3, much progress has been achieved. So if there was a real Hall of Fame for gaming, that was oriented toward the art of gaming and not sales figures, which people would make it in, in your opinion, and for what exact achievement?

 

[Soulcucker]

Some easy ones: Richard Garriott, Warren Spector, John Carmack, Doug Church, Will Wright, Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto

 

[Siel]

Ken Levine just because of his major role on SS2.
Also, Fréderick Raynal for creating survival horror with Alone in the Dark.

 

[Nuclear Explosion]

Yoshio Sakamoto for Super Metroid, Zero Mission, and Fusion.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

You'd have to start with the founders of the video game industry.

Ralph Baer comes first. Forget every other name you can think of, he comes first.

Next would be Steve Wozniak and Nolan Bushnell, for their parts in creating the home computer and video game console platforms, respectively.

Only then could you start bringing in the developers.

Some easy ones: Richard Garriott, Warren Spector, John Carmack, Doug Church, Will Wright, Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto

Garriott, Carmack and Miyamoto I agree perfectly with. The others also have their place, but IMO they'll have to wait while the aforementioned (plus a few others) get inducted first. Hall of Fame-thingies tend to start with the biggest one and work their way down.

 

[pippin]

Julian Gollop

 

[Astral Rag]

Bullfrog era Peter Molyneux.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Neal Hallford.

 

[tormund]

Warren Spector and Ken Levine, true KODEXian visionaries!

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

The thing is, it would be nicer if people put down the exact reasons for their candidates' worthiness. This would be more educational to the rest of us. It would also make the case for or against that person clearer. For example, I love Betrayal at Krondor, but if that's the only thing to support Neal Hallford's induction, doesn't seem right. It has to be either more than one game, or a game so important and influential that it significantly changed things.

 

[Wayward Son]

Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky as a duo for their role in remaking the RPG genre with Fallout 1/2.

Garriott for Ultima IV-VI's different take on morality in games.

Greenberg and Woodhead for inventing CRPG blobbers with Wizardry.

Jon van Canneghem for the earliest (afaik) implementation of first person open-world games with Might and Magic Secrets of the Inner Sanctum.

Julian LeFay for inadvertently creating one of the most influential series of all time, which it is, whether you like it or not.

Sid Meiers for Civilization.

 

[markec]

John Carmack

 

[Delterius]

Who should we blame for weaponizing videogames and creating Sonic the Hedgehog?

 

[Declinator]

GTA 3 designers Craig Filshie, William Mills, Chris Rothwell, and James Worrall. Opened the Pandora's box of open world in 3D or rather showed a great many new ways to use the open world which are now constantly used for better or worse.

One of the three Ocarina of Time designers Yoshiaki Koizumi who is, as I understand it, responsible for Z targeting system.

 

[Menckenstein]

Romero