Ayman ‘Allen’ Adham is an American businessman, who along with Michael Morhaime and Frank Pearce, was one of three co-founders of Silicon & Synapse, which changed its name to Blizzard Entertainment. He led the creation of The Lost Vikings, RPM Racing, Rock N’ Roll Racing, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, among others.
Mike Morhaime is the president and a co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, a video game developer located in Irvine, California and currently owned by Activision Blizzard. He is also an alumnus of Triangle Fraternity and received his bachelor’s degree in 1990 from UCLA.
Morhaime appears in animated form in the South Park episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft,” which deals with the World of Warcraft MMORPG.
Frank Pearce was Co-founder of Silicon & Synapse (later named Blizzard) in 1991 with Allen Adham and Michael Morhaime.
As Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.’s executive vice president of product development, Frank Pearce plays a critical role in the development of all Blizzard Entertainment® titles. This involves coordinating the work of multiple teams in order to ensure that every project maintains the same polish and quality that mark all Blizzard games.
Richard Allen Garriott (born July 4, 1961), also known as Lord British in Ultima and General British in Tabula Rasa, is a significant figure in the video game industry. He was originally a game designer and programmer, but now engages in various aspects of computer game development. On October 12, 2008, Garriott launched aboard Soyuz TMA-13 to the International Space Station as a self-funded tourist, returning safely 12 days later aboard Soyuz TMA-12.
William Wright (born January 20, 1960 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American computer game designer and co-founder of the game development company Maxis, now part of Electronic Arts.
The first computer game Wright designed was Raid on Bungeling Bay in 1984 but it was SimCity that brought him to prominence. The game was released by Maxis, a company Wright formed with Jeff Braun, and he built upon the game’s theme of computer simulation with numerous other titles including SimEarth and SimAnt.
Wright’s greatest success to date came as the original designer for The Sims games series which, as of 2008, is the best-selling PC game in history. The game spawned multiple sequels and expansions and Wright earned many awards for his work. His latest work, Spore, was released in September 2008 and features gameplay based upon the model of evolution.
Sidney K. Meier (born February 24, 1954, in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada) is an American programmer and designer of several popular computer strategy games. Meier has won accolades for his contributions to the computer games industry. Meier is a Director of Creative Development for computer game developer Firaxis Games, which he co-founded with Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds in 1996.
Career
Sid Meier founded MicroProse together with Bill Stealey in 1982. At MicroProse, Meier developed the game series for which he is most widely recognized, Civilization, although he designed only the first installment. Meier eventually left MicroProse and in 1996 founded Firaxis Games along with veteran designer and gaming executive Jeff Briggs. Today Firaxis makes strategy games, many of which are follow-ups to Meier titles, such as Civilization IV and Pirates!.
