Apparently, making a game about blocks makes you more important than most world leaders.
The TIME 100 poll is the world’s High Scores chart. Anyone can cast their vote for world leaders, artists, and other iconic individuals to determine the most influential people around the globe. Amid the politicians and music stars is a name that’s very familiar to gamers: Markus Persson, creator of craft-em-up indie success Minecraft and better known by his alias Notch, is ranked pretty high on the 2013 poll. Incredibly high, actually – with the poll coming to a close, Notch has been voted as the 2nd most influential person in the world.
The only person with more votes than Notch is Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, who holds the #1 spot. Notch is ranked higher than many, many notable individuals, including Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom (ranked 3rd), North Korea’s aggressive “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong Un (ranked 6th), K-pop sensation Psy (ranked 7th), US president Barack Obama (ranked 12th), and the newly elected Pope Francis (ranked 22nd). Notably, Kim Dotcom is encouraging followers to vote for Notch over himself, tweeting that Notch “deserves to win.” No other game developers are on the list.
Notch is certainly deserving of recognition, as far as game developers go. Minecraft recently broke 10 million sales between PC and Mac, plus more sales from the Xbox Live version and the mobile Pocket Edition. The game has been used as an educational device in classrooms, as part of UN projects, and as an artistic medium for countless recreations of iconic locations. Notch himself received a Special Award at last year’s BAFTAs for his contribution to the games industry. I don’t know how to rate him against the leader of a country, but he’s definitely an accomplished game designer.
The poll officially closes later today, so you can still jump in and throw a few votes his way if you like. The final list will be chosen by the TIME editors and revealed on April 18.
Source: TIME 100
