Time Magazine opened up a public vote today to help them decide who would make their list of this year's "100 most influential people" in the world. Among the many, many candidates, (there are almost 200.) there are two, and only two, very different personalities representing the gaming industry - Zynga CEO Mark Pincus and Bioshock Infinite creator Ken Levine.
There are, of course, other figures on the list tied to the world of gaming - Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerburg, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos are all on there, for example - but only Pincus and Levine are there solely because of their contribution to the gaming industry and gaming culture.
Where Pincus seems like a traditional choice for the list - The CEO of one of the largest, fast-growing tech companies in recent history - Levine's appearance is novel, if not monumental, because his power stems from the culture of gaming, not financial power.
With last summer's supreme court decision and the recent opening of a video game exhibit at the Smithsonian, it wouldn't be unfair to say that the world (or at least the country) is looking at the medium as a cultural force:
"It [Bioshock] was a masterpiece that helped spark the 'games as art' debate," reads Levine's description in Time. "His propensity to elevate the conversation makes the designer one of gaming's luminaries."
If you could choose one person to represent the creative and cultural authority of video games, would you have chosen Ken Levine? If so, you should vote for him here. If not, tell us who you would've picked in the comments.
[Via Time]
