And Then I Was Mistakenly Declared “Influential”

Say Media yesterday opened up their Say 100 page which is, well… I guess I will let them describe it, from the top of their About The Say 100 page:

The SAY 100 is a collection of authentic and knowledgeable online voices that create engaging content, drive conversation and shape opinion. At SAY Media we believe the power to shape opinion is shifting from the faceless editorial voice of mainstream media to individuals, many of whom are taking advantage of simple technology to create their own properties and build their own media brands. And the best way to highlight that change is to show you who we’re talking about.

They went to 10 different experts, each in a different field and had them pick 10 influential voices in those areas.

The Say 100 Home Page

The areas listed and experts picked were:

• Technology – Stuart Miles, founder and editor of the gadget site Pocket-Lint
• Style – Jane Pratt, founder of Sassy magazine
• Parenting – Dana Wood of Momover.net
• Business – Seth Godin of, well, a lot of stuff
• Food – Amanda Hesser, former food editor for the New York Times Magazine
• Design – Tina Roth Eisenberg of the design blog Swiss Miss
• Thought Leaders – Clay Shirky
• Travel – Nick Clarke of Hg2 – A Hedonist’s Guide
• Entertainment – Rich Juzwiak, of many things including the pop culture blog fourfour
• Games – Jeff Katz, a driving force behind Geekweek and producer of such films as Snakes on a Plane

Of course, I am bringing this up for a (selfish) reason.  This site, and my Wilhelm Arcturus persona, was one of those picked by the luminaries listed above.

And as much as I wish it was for Thought Leadership, or maybe Parenting, it was, of course for the Games category.

My daughter was looking over my shoulder when I first opened up the site and her first words were, “You’re no expert!”

No, but I am old.  I know how escrow works!

And they even grabbed a picture with my biggest mustache ever, appropriately taken at just a couple of years after the dawn of my online gaming career.  Full disclosure with the full picture.

Wilhelm, circa 1988

Geek Cred points of interest: Time-Con T-Shirt (complete with Face on Mars graphic), G-1 US Naval aviator’s jacket (which I still have, though it seems to have shrunk over the years), a name patch from the 1988 Air Warrior convention in Dayton, Ohio where I got to meet, among others, Kelton Flinn and Bill Louden (the big man at GEnie), and a freakin’ real, live baby kangaroo.  Good times.

Anyway, Jeff Katz has apparently been here and read stuff and still wrote these very kind (and charitable) words:

Don’t take the name too seriously, Wilhelm Arcturus is no noob. With 20+ years of experience in online gaming, Wilhelm publishes one of the most thorough MMO websites online. He is the definition of hardcore and has been playing since before the world “massive” could even apply. A fun mix of gaming news and updates on his own online adventures.

Hardcore, for specific definitions of the word I suppose.  The time expended on playing and writing keeps me out of the casual category I guess, but many of my posts should demonstrate how I approach gaming, often blithely ignorant of basic facts and depending on my intrepid readers to point me in the right direction when I am blundering about.  Sort of the Jerry Pournelle/Chaos Manor methodology. (Is anybody here old enough to get that reference?)

Also honored with a place on the list were Keen & Graev (Yay!) who were described thus:

Two brothers and hardcore gamers who mix industry analysis, gaming reviews and their personal exploits to enjoyable effect. Their site offers a really deep experience and covers both consoles and computer gaming with equal skill. These guys are literally all-consuming gamers and it shows. A fun and informative site with a breezy feel. I highly recommend it.

Then there was Jim Rossignol of hella impressive Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

Rossignol’s site is PC gaming obsessed and PC gaming only and the staff own it to an almost amusingly militant level. He’s also smart and insightful and knows the space inside and out. While you’re at it check out his book, “This Gaming Life,” a look at the cultural impact and evolution of gaming.

And the much esteemed Tony Rice of Button Mashing was also among the bloggers on the list:

I actually stumbled onto Tony’s site when I was searching for available URL’s in the gaming space and now go back often. They always have clean and concise release schedules for new games, which is a plus in my book these days. A good site for gamers that tend to lean towards XBOX360, which is generally my go-to console. I like the site enough to forgive Tony his Ohio State fandom. ;)

For the sake of posterity, I took a screen grab of the list as it stands now.

The Say 100 Games List

I have to imagine that it will change over time, especially when somebody reads my stuff and realizes how rather introverted it all is. But for now, there I am!

Anyway, a big thank you to Jeff Katz for the recognition and to Michael Sippey of Say Media who is a driving force behind the whole thing.

I encourage you to go take a look at who else is in the other categories.  The site is all hooked up into RSS, Twitter, and Facebook so you can follow your favorites from the list (or whole segments) with relative digital ease.

Anyway, now to get back to work on my own media brand.