To be influential, something has to be popular or at least known about amongst creators. From my experience in game development, almost everyone I worked with k

To be influential, something has to be popular or at least known about amongst creators. From my experience in game development, almost everyone I worked with knew about Dwarf Fortress, and a good chunk of them had played it at least once. Similarly, musicians like Frank Zappa and Swans exert a larger influence (because musicians like them) than their popularity would suggest.