Actually, nowadays, you know game designers, more than actual programmers, at least for the big industry. You know the programmers for most indie games, though

Actually, nowadays, you know game designers, more than actual programmers, at least for the big industry. You know the programmers for most indie games, though (but there they are often designers themselves). Besides, true that you don't really know the "big shot programmer" in games anymore, mostly because there is not anymore one programmer, you see a full team creating an engine. so they blend in the product. About Carmack and Romero, I guess it also helped that Romero made a fool of himself after the "breakup".