Gamers That Became Pioneers

1up has a feature up looking at videogamers that have become pioneers. They profile several folks who have made an impact on gaming as a hobby, and the view of gaming in the world at large. The piece includes people like Patrick Wildenborg (the Hot Coffee whistleblower), Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess Cliffe (makers of Counter-Strike), Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade, and (most infamously) Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. From a more upbeat part of the piece, on Counter-Strike: "[CS] is one of the most ubiquitous and popular games ever made, period -- Valve's Steam distribution service calculates that nearly 120 million man hours are lost to various versions of Counter-Strike monthly. Such a statistic is even more mind-boggling considering the humble roots of the game -- both Cliffe and Gooseman were college students at the time of the project's inception. They had some amateur experience in the disciplines they brought to the mod; Cliffe had previously mastered several gaming websites, and Gooseman had done programming and modeling work on other fairly popular mods like Navy SEALs and Action Quake 2."

Comments

Oregon Trail?

[gEvil (beta)]

Yeah, I was a big fan of Oregon Trail back in the day, too...

The most dubious recognition you can get

[elrous0]

And now, let us pay tribute to Tim Johnson, the obsessive Halo 2 player who first discovered the giant soccer ball on the rooftop. Tim was born in Des Moines Iowa in 1980. Little did his parents, Bob and Sheila, know then the greatness that lie within him...

-Eric

Re:Grammar Nazi mode: engaged!

[cptgrudge]

I'm pretty partial to their, there, and they're myself.

You, of course, assume that gamers actually are people. 24 hour Starcraft sessions? Playing games until all energy is depleted and the host shuts down? I present you with this. Halo 2 Legendary in an afternoon?! Humans do not do this. Call them meat bags, if you must, but I doubt that they are people.