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Most Influential: Dani Bunten Berry and Sid Meier

Who are the Top 10 Most Influential People in Gaming History? Who gets to pick? (I do)

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#3 Dani Bunten Berry - M.U.L.E., Command HQ, Global Conquest

1949 - 1998, Dani was born as Daniel Paul Bunten.   Dani was an American game designer and programmer, known for the 1983 game M.U.L.E. (one of the first successful multiplayer games), and 1984's The Seven Cities of Gold. Bunten was a transsexual woman, having undergone sex reassignment surgery in November 1992. Bunten acquired a degree in industrial engineering in 1974 and started programming text-based computer games as a hobby.

After developing several titles for SSI, Dani started her own software company named Ozark Softscape.  Dani Bunten developed M.U.L.E. originally for the ATARI 8bit. 1988's Modem Wars, the first game played by two players over a dialup modem. Sales were poor because modems were not yet commonplace.  Although many of Bunten's titles were not commercially successful, they were widely recognized by the industry as being ahead of their time.

Quotes: "No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had spent more time alone with my computer.'"
Weird Facts: In 2000, Will Wright dedicated his blockbuster hit The Sims to her memory.
The author of this article was a contributor to "General Lee’s" later version of the Dani Bunten Berry game, Command HQ (CHQ).  Contributing code for the networking component as well as being a web-master for several years for the community,  CHQ continued its life well after its non-commercial success.  It still resides on my hard drive!



#4 Sid Meier - Notables: Fireaxis+Civilization+Pirates+Railroad Tycoon

1952 - Still Alive and making my favorite games
Sid is one of the best known game designer and programmers in the world.  Sid Meier founded MicroProse together with Bill Stealey in 1982. At MicroProse, Meier developed the game series for which he is most widely recognized, Civilization. In 1996, he founded Fireaxis and has continued making strategy follow up such as Civilization 4.

Weird facts: Sid Meier's likeness is used in Sid Meier's Civilization and Sid Meier's Civilization III for the game's science advisor.
In Civilization IV, Sid Meier is "leader" of the barbarians.
The author of this article is playing Sid Meier’s Railroads as he writes this article!