PopTen's Top 10 Geek Gods Includes Gygax, Salvatore, and Livingstone

PopTen posted a list of the Top 10 Geek Gods, and with entries like Gary Gygax, Ian Livingstone, and R.A. Salvatore, the tabletop gaming industry is well represented, joining literary luminaries like Tolkien, LeGuin, and Howard, or cinematic creators like George Lucas. It's a fun list, but who would you have included in a tabletop gaming list?

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The PopTen list:

• H.G. Wells (War of the Worlds, etc.)
• J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings)
• Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian)
• Ralph Baer (first home video game console)
• Ursula K. LeGuin (Earthsea)
• Gary Gygax (Dungeons & Dragons)
• George Lucas (Star Wars)
• Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson*, John Peake (PopTen calls them "anonymous", but by name)
• R.A. Salvatore (a Drizzt)
• Richard Garfield (Magic: the Gathering)

*No, the other Steve Jackson

 

[Shasarak]

You haven't given a top 10. You've just knocked others. Knocking others is easy.

Post your top 10. Let's have at it.

It would be pretty close to the OP, maybe with a few additions as per other mentions already like adding Arneson together with Gygax.

Personally I am not convinced that Wells and LeGuin deserve to be there so at least I have a couple of slots to play around with.

Edit:

OK, so my changes to the Popten list:

-Wells
-LeGuin
-Howard

+ Bob Kane and Bill Finger (as creators of Batman)
+ Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
+ Arnold Schwarzenegger

Change Gygax to Gygax and Arneson

 

[jmucchiello]

I would worship none of them. And most of them would not want to be worshiped. (And those that would like it would be least deserving.)

Far too many book authors. And for true book geeks, Shakespeare blows all the other authors listed away.
Where's Monty Python? You can't have a successful RPG session without a Monty Python incantation.
Where's Jack Kirby/Stan Lee? and why not Alan Moore, Frank Miller, etc.?
Where's board gamer guys like Reiner Knizia? Alan Moon? Wolfgang Kramer? (among many others)
Computers? Tim Berners Lee? Jon Postel (look him up)? Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak?
Depending on your definition of geek, why not Lin-Manuel Miranda?
And given the way people gush about to Critical Role, Matt Mercer?

 

[Morrus]

I would worship none of them. And most of them would not want to be worshiped. (And those that would like it would be least deserving.)

Far too many book authors. And for true book geeks, Shakespeare blows all the other authors listed away.
Where's Monty Python? You can't have a successful RPG session without a Monty Python incantation.
Where's Jack Kirby/Stan Lee? and why not Alan Moore, Frank Miller, etc.?
Where's board gamer guys like Reiner Knizia? Alan Moon? Wolfgang Kramer? (among many others)
Computers? Tim Berners Lee? Jon Postel (look him up)? Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak?
Depending on your definition of geek, why not Lin-Manuel Miranda?
And given the way people gush about to Critical Role, Matt Mercer?

You just picked 15 people for your top 10 list. You gotta settle on 10!

 

[jmucchiello]

You just picked 15 people for your top 10 list. You gotta settle on 10!

I refuse to be bound by your definition of 10.

 

[Morrus]

I refuse to be bound by your definition of 10.

Well that’s no fun!

 

[jmucchiello]

I prefer a wide pantheon of deities. The all deserve reverence for different reasons.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Salvatore? Salvatore??? Really? Well... no. Not at all.

Agreed, unless you turn this into the Top 10 Mary Sue deities.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Vic Ster1]

Edgar Rice Burroughs Big time!

 

[Manchu2]

How could you rank Martin? Has he even finished a series?

I'd love to vote this up multiple times; this is a tough list. All-time greats? Influencers of the modern influencers and drivers? What left and right limits? I enjoy Bob Salvatore's books for what they are, but they are not in the class of Tolkien and others on the proposed lists; Dead right on Martin. Not only has he not finished a series, he basically "stole" (like many before him, no dig), the War of the Roses and English history and created a fantasy world around it. No small feat, and a lot of talent, but again, incomplete, and not in line with the other proposed luminaries on this or the proposed lists.