Rolling Stone magazine have taken a little side-trip away from rock n' roll, and done a more Time magazine-like list of the "100 People Who Are Changing America". Four (well, five) are developers.
First up is Will Wright, at #84. Sure, The Sims and Spore are big sellers, but they're seen by Rolling Stone as more important for their efforts in creating popular forms of artificial intelligence as they are for making EA millions of Simoleons.
According to the magazine, Gears of War's Clifford Bleszinski is the 73rd most-changingest man in America. Yes, Dude Huge ranks higher than Will Wright. Why? "Because video games need Michael Bay-style blockbusters too". Oh, and because he is rich in nickels.
At #44, it's Harmonix founders Alex Rigopulos & Eran Egozy, who were picked as much for inventing Guitar Hero & Rock Band as they were for helping change the way the music industry does business through Rock Band's extensive downloadable content offerings.
And all the way up at #13 is someone who is not even American. And no, it's not Peter Molyneux. Or Dennis Dyack. Or Itagaki, or Brown Man, or Jeff Minter. It's Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, who Rolling Stone anoint as "the Bob Dylan of video games".
Can't he just be the Shigeru Miyamoto of video games?
The 100 People Who Are Changing America [Rolling Stone]