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Most Infuential: John Carmack and Will Wright

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

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#5 John Carmack - Notables:ID+Wolfenstein+Quake+every FPS you’ve played since thanks to him.

1970 - Still Kicking.
John Carmack is known throughout the gaming industry. A prolific American programmer, Carmack co-founded id Software. Carmack was the lead programmer of the highly successful id computer games Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and subsequent sequels to Doom and Quake.

Carmack is a well-known advocate of open source software, and has repeatedly voiced his opposition to software patents, which he equates to "mugging someone".

Quotes: "I have no belief in luck, fate, karma, or god(s)"
Weird facts: Carmack met his wife Katherine Anna Kang at QuakeCon 1997 when she visited id's offices. As a bet, Kang challenged Carmack to sponsor the first All Female Quake Tournament if she was able to produce a significant number of participants.
In 1999, Carmack appeared as number 10 in TIME's list of the 50 most influential people in technology.
In 2005, the film Doom featured a character named Dr. Carmack, in recognition of Carmack who co-created the original game.
#6 Will Wright - Notables: Maxis+SimCity+Sims+Spore

1960 - Still Alive
Will Wright is an American computer game designer and co-founder of the game development company, Maxis. He is best known as the original designer of computer games such as SimCity, The Sims and Spore.
In 1986, he met Jeff Braun, an investor interested in entering the computer game industry, at what Wright calls "the world's most important pizza party." Together they formed Maxis the next year in Orinda, California. SimCity (1989) was a hit and has been credited as one of the most influential computer games ever made.

Following on the success of SimCity, Wright designed SimEarth (1990) and SimAnt (1991). He co-designed SimCity 2000 (1993) with Fred Haslam and in the meantime Maxis produced other "Sim" games. Wright's next game was SimCopter (1996). Although none of these games were as successful as SimCity, they further cemented Wright's reputation as a designer of "software toys" games that cannot be won or lost. In 1992, Wright and his family moved to Orinda, California near the San Pablo Reservoir, off Miner road. EA published The Sims in February 2000 and it became Wright's biggest success yet.

Quote: "Montessori taught me the joy of discovery...It showed you can become interested in pretty complex theories, like Pythagorean theory, say, by playing with blocks. It’s all about learning on your terms, rather than a teacher explaining stuff to you. SimCity comes right out of Montessori—if you give people this model for building cities, they will abstract from it principles of urban design"

Weird Facts: He has built competitive robots with his daughter for BattleBots. He owns a 100 pound hatch from a space shuttle, a seat from the Soyuz space capsule, and control panels from Mir.