Miyamoto Slips Down Time Website's Influential List

Time.com users have named Shigeru Miyamoto the 42nd most influential person in the world in the new yearly update of the Time magazine list. Miyamoto follows pop star Miley Cyrus, who ranked 41st. While still recognized as one of the most influential people in the world, the gaming icon's ranking slipped from last year's top spot, when he garnered 1.76 million user votes, easily beating second place Stephen Colbert 921,161 votes. This year, the most the most influential person of the last 12 months according to Time.com users was “moot” – the founder of image board website 4chan. The anonymous moot gained 16.8 million votes, compared to just 2.3 million for the second placed Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim. Barack Obama appears only at number 37, with 725,776 votes, with Miyamoto this year gaining 614,641 votes. Miyamoto’s description by Time magazine lists his creation of Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda and Wii Fit as pros, but claims "The Wii needs better games" in its list of cons. [UPDATE: Although it was not acknowledged by Time.com, the list's top 21 nominees make up a text string engineered by some of the internet pseudo-collective "Anonymous." Taken as an acrostic using the first letter of each nominee's name, the message reads, "MARBLECAKE ALSO THE GAME," a reference in part to an IRC channel where those behind the hack communicated. The impressive methods behind the successful initiative are detailed in two blog posts on Paul Lamere's Music Machinery blog.]