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Forums - General - Most powerful and influential celebrity of the past 30 years?

reask on 22 April 2009
megaman.2. said:

Who would you consider the most influential and powerful celebrity of the past 30 years and why?

Thank you.

I am  going to go with a Irish take on it.

Bob geldof because of this.

 

And of course Bono.



 

 

 

 

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rocketpig on 24 April 2009
The Ghost of RubangB said:
rocketpig said:
The Ghost of RubangB said:
Then I'll go with Gunpei Yokoi for creating the D-Pad, which has been on every single gaming system since he invented it, changing the world of gaming forever. And he made the Game Boy, which changed the world of gaming forever. His Beam Gun games helped start the light-gun-carnival game craze, and inspired the Nintendo Zapper. And he created Metroid, which still inspires every Castlevania and and many other games, as well as giving us the first great female protagonist of gaming. And his "Lateral Thinking of Withered Technology" philosophy was not only responsible for the success of the Game Boy (choosing battery life over color), but is now responsible for the success of the DS and the Wii. He is still an inspiration for Miyamoto and Iwata, and as far as I'm concerned his ghost still runs Nintendo.

I'd let Miyamoto, Michael Jorden, Spielberg, Bowie, and Oprah round out the top 6, but I won't put them in order. That's 2 game-related people, 1 athlete, 1 filmmaker, Bowie for helping to create several genres and influencing music, fashion, music videos, music business, and PR, and 1 Oprah to rule them all and in the darkness bind them.

Still, every single thing he did involved gaming. Do you honestly think a gamer influenced the world more than Jordan or Speilberg? On top of that, do you really think any of them even come close to Oprah?

Let's not be silly. Take a step back an realize that while gaming has impacted all of our lives heavily, it's not anywhere near the level (or at least it wasn't pre-Playstation) of many other celebs who drastically changed the way we think about our world.

Within the last 30 years gaming has become a bigger industry than music or movies and has inspired both music and movies and now they're on watches, phones, computers, PDAs, and dedicated gaming systems that are built into airplanes and cars.  In the 70's and 80's all these new tech-savvy college kids were offered jobs at the military where they could make tons of money programming missiles, and they chose to take a huge chance on a fledgling game industry where they might not make any money, but they'd get to use their skill sets to program toys for kids, so I think they're all heroes!  And now video games are being used in physical rehabilitation, curing of phobias, curing of drug addictions, military and police training, army recruitment, racist propaganda, convalescent homes, cruise ships, and the White House.  So I do honestly think it's a big deal.

While gaming is significant, it's still far below the movie industry. If you look at box office numbers, they nearly rival gaming numbers. Add in DVD sales, TV rights, marketing, and it's not even close. I'm not discounting Yokoi, he was a genius. His influence also waned before gaming went massive. I could probably make an argument that Kuturagi is more influential than he. I don't care to, because I think it's a moot point.

To me, it comes down to Speilberg or Oprah, with that bitch probably winning out because of her massive empire. If we went back 35 years instead of 30, Lucas wins hands-down. Pixar, LucasArts, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ILM, Skywalker Sound... The list is just breathtaking.




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madman25 on 24 April 2009

Oprah and her evil empire probably.
Ahnold Schwazenegger I guess(who only got the political gig because of his acting).

LOL @ Michael Jackson. MJ fanboys make my flesh crawl.



Playing: Borderlands(great co-op,HUGE amount of content),Too Human(better late than never lol),Saints Row 3(Penetrator ftw),Minecraft 360,Harry Potter Lego. 

Patiently waiting for:  Tomb Raider, Borderlands 2