New Massive Online Gamer
highlights the Top 20 Most Influential People in
MMOs
The newest issue of Beckett
Massive Online Gamer (#25 Jul/Aug 2010) contains
the magazine’s annual list of the top 20 most
influential people in massively multiplayer
online games for 2009. This year, a new face
sits atop the list, replacing Blizzard
Entertainment’s Rob Pardo, who topped the
rankings for two straight years.
John Smedley, president of Sony Online
Entertainment, and Laralyn McWilliams, lead
designer of Free Realms, co-occupy the #1 spot
in this year’s rankings, owing to Free Realms’
highly visible debut and SOE’s overall corporate
direction and success. Smedley ranked #3 on last
year’s list, and McWilliams made MOG’s list of
the 10 Most Influential Women in MMOs in 2009.
Owing to the nation’s explosive growth in the
MMO sector, five of the top 20 slots went to
Chinese executives. According to article writer
Richard Aihoshi, China “became the world’s
largest online game market in dollar value last
year after taking the lead in number of Internet
users in 2008.”
The complete list is:
1. John Smedley and Laralyn McWilliams (Sony
Online Entertainment)
2. Huateng Ma (Tencent)
3. Mike Morhaime (Blizzard)
4. John Riccitiello (Electronic Arts)
5. Jack Emmert and John Needham (Cryptic
Studios)
6. Tianqaio Chen (Shanda Entertainment)
7. Taek Jin Kim and Yongchan Jee (NCSoft)
8. Jim Crowley (Turbine)
9. Andreas Weidenhaupt (Frogster Online Gaming)
10. James Ohlen (BioWare)
11. Gordon Walton and Rich Vogel (BioWare)
12. Yoichi Wada (Square Enix)
13. Hilmar Petursson and Noah Ward (CCP Games)
14. Min Kim (Nexon America)
15. J. Todd Coleman (KingsIsle Entertainment)
16. William Lei Ding (NetEase)
17. Steve Wadsworth (Disney Interactive Media
Group)
18. Sergey Orlovskiy (Nival)
19. Klaas Kersting (Gameforge)
20. Mark Pincus (Zynga)
You can learn more about these top
decision-makers, as well as check out our
choices for honorable mentions and people to
watch in 2010, in the newest issue of Beckett
Massive Online Gamer #25, in stores now.
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